Bike maintenance

David Lenton

Jul 2, 2024 — 4 min read

So this is a tire, right?

I've always been hesitant to take things apart. I am not a natural born tinkerer. I want things to work for as long as possible and my assumption has been that the best way of ensuring that is for me to intervene as little as possible in the operation of said thing. The exception to that has been computers - perhaps because I was brought up on Sinclair devices, which traditionally have required some intervention just to keep working. Even then though, my interventions were born primarily out of necessity rather than curiosity.

I'm trying to change that though, which is one of the reasons why I've started my bike maintenance project as part of my #52in52.

On Saturday, I thought I'd start simple and remove the back wheel from my test bike and check the inner tube. So I set up a temporary stand for the bike, so that I could work on it easily, and removed the nuts holding the wheel in place. I also worked out how to loosen the brake pads enough to pull the wheel out. I then used the tire grips that I'd optimistically purchased with my own bike to remove the tire from the rim. Not too difficult once I got the hang of the hooking motion required to lever the tire off.

Perhaps more surprisingly, I was also able to put everything back together again. But although the wheel still spun, I quickly realised the gears weren't working. It didn't take me too long to notice that in fact the gear wire had frayed and snapped, so hadn’t been working before I took the wheel apart. So now I have something for part two of my bike maintenance project.

In other news, I’ve been back to the archery range. Chrissy joined in this time, and was - like Sophie - considerably more elegant and accurate than me. I tried out a new grip on the bow string and managed to be less accurate than last time and to end up with bruising on my fingers. But we’re going back again in a couple of weeks, so I still have the chance to improve!

Chrissy hitting the target under Lily's careful direction

The Lords of Midnight adventure continues. So far, I’ve managed to avoid any confrontations. Luxor is recruiting more troops to the cause and I’ve sent Morkin far into the deep north. Rorthron the Wise and Corleth the Fey at this point are just wandering around aimlessly. They need to show some focus. A new recruit, The Lord of Gard is on his way to reinforce the Citadel of Shimeril.

I hope Doomdark isn’t reading this blog.

I used to live in a village in England that had a Bengali restaurant. For a while I was a regular visitor to the restaurant. Frequent enough that when I walked in the staff would start pouring me a Cobra beer. Usually I would sit and chat and then take the food home to eat. Sometimes, less often, I would eat in. It was the closest I’ve come to that place where everybody knows your name.

Finding places like that is definitely part of the #52in52 intent, even if it doesn't relate to anything specific on the list. I think we might have found a restaurant that will make that list near us in Waterloo:

It’s part of a franchise chain I think, but this is a new location. The welcome was excellent, including the co-owner coming over to speak to us; and the food was superb. We’re looking to go back as soon as possible.

I think I spotted a Cedar Waxwing the other day. And I bookmarked this page: How to Observe and Appreciate Birds - Atlas Obscura. Is this how birdwatching starts?

Speaking of advice, Dawn posted some good tips for getting back in to running on Instagram, but AFTER I’d decided to go out and just run 5K. Short version, that’s probably not the best way to start.