Bike Week turned stressful for me on Thursday when the exertion of riding the extra miles, in wind and rain, finally took its toll and the dreaded “death rattle” set in! Every turn of the wheel hurt more than the last and the “death rattle” became louder and more frequent - I needed some intensive care, and quickly!
My faithful old bike and I managed a slow ride into work on Friday morning but, by the time I arrived, things were even worse than the previous evening. By lunchtime the patient was on the way to the ICU - my poor old bike had a totally wrecked rear gear cassette! Luckily, The Bike Shop in Derby had the parts needed to cure the problem and were able to fit them for me. Today, I was reunited with the now healthy bike and was able to ride back from the shop to home without any nasty noises.
The new Hyper Glide gear set.
My total mileage for the week was just under 54 miles - a little over double the 25-mile target for Bike Week 2008.
Birding
This morning I had planned on having a few hours birding at Willington Gravel Pits before I needed to fetch the bike back from the shop. As it turned out the wind was blowing with such force when I woke up that I couldn’t be bothered! Staying at home was the better choice in the end as I received a text message whilst having breakfast to tell me that a Black-necked Grebe had turned up on a small lake just a few miles down the road.
As soon as I had finished my breakfast I set off for the grebe - 10 minutes later I had yet another new species for my “10-Mile List”. I had hoped to be able to get a few photos of the bird but the wind was blowing so hard that I would have had no chance of holding the ‘scope and camera steady enough, I didn’t even attempt it.
Back in safe hands!
My “10-Mile List” now stands at 126 species.
Glad to see your bike is safe and sound again. Poor little thing. What a horrible ordeal for it to go through :-)
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