Quite relaxed and very sunny.... Freya has been pottering about in the garden pushing her pink pushchair around and generally pestering me to take her for a bike ride on her bike... which of course she can't actually ride yet, but she likes to sit on the seat and she thinks she's riding it.... so that's all that matters really.....she is such a sweet well natured little girl..... but we are starting to see some naughtiness surfacing.....As for me....well I've managed to repair a touring bike that was left in one of the sheds... it had become overgrown by the ivy since before we moved into our house and when we were shown around our house before we moved in...... the previous people mentioned there were bikes in one of the sheds.... well I say shed... it's huge and at the moment contains all our junk... anyway I was considering getting another bike as my old one was left up in St Asaph because the front fork bearing had gone and I simply didn't have the money to repair it then... and as I was wishing I had brought it back, I remembered what the guy had said about there being a bike in the shed.... so off I went and ripped it out of the death like grip of throttling ivy, honestly not expecting much for my exertion and it turns out it's a hand made Carrera Italian 24 speed touring bike with an original price tag of well over £450 possibly more !!!
On first inspection it looked like it only needed an alloy back wheel and replacement tyre after the previous owner had very obviously curbed the wheel and put a kink in the wheel you wouldn't believe.... I tried to re-align the wheel by spoke tensioning but it was too far gone for minor adjustments......so I contacted the Italian makers via their website and email and they wanted £125 for a new alloy back wheel alone !!! I couldn't swear in Italian neither could I breath very well after hyperventilating at the price..... it didn't take me long to realise though that I could very probably get a very "similar" non Carrera wheel at a fraction of the price.... I ended up going to a local bike shop in Carmarthen and paying considerably less for my alloy wheel and new tyre.... I've got to be honest it doesn't look any different from the original.
I have to say you can tell it's a quality touring bike and after tuning up both the front and rear dérailleur gears so that they changed up and down all 24 gears..... and making sure the brakes were good...... it's a fantastic bike so smooth to ride and FAST !!! I think it will give me many years of service..... the saddle is a bit vicious though.... that may have to be changed.....
Shadow boy has learned to ride his bike as well..... although he is a bit dangerous at the moment, he thinks he can ride it like a pro AND without using his brakes.... either that or he simply forgets he has them.... he crashed into Freya today she's ok although he knocked her flying.... she's a bruiser though and a tough little cookie.... it wasn't long before she was up and playing again with no serious damage.... Shadow boy who was visibly upset for having knocked his little sister for six immediately blamed his brakes saying they were too stiff for him to operate..... I pointed out that he was incorrect in his assessment of his braking system... but even so checked them over and found no fault with them...... pilot error methinks !!!
Hopefully we are off to the beach tomorrow either Telpyn point or Morfa Bychan not sure yet and that is of course if the weather holds.... no doubt the teenagers will want to stay at home and either MSN or Xbox themselves to death..... whateva innit.....
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