3.2808399 feet

I was feeling quite pleased with my bike building. The lad’s bike is coming on well and looks good and yesterday I swapped the forks on my commuting bike so I could fit the front road disk that’s been kicking around .

I needed some odds and sods to finish my commuter off so I wrote a nice long list of all the bits I needed to finish both bikes ready to head off to my LBS. Now I had an hour long window to work in as I knew the Sheffield football team that loses lots of games were playing near my LBS this afternoon. It was looking like a nip down in the car before the better half needed it later. Besides If I cycled Id only have one brake on my daily rider, the back brake and it’s all downhill. My other bike has got two flats so no time to pump tyres and the folder is buried somewhere under the stairs.

Car it is then, but I’ll be back in 20 mins.

Things started badly with a quick call at the hardware shop to get a new strip light for the bathroom as the continued disco strobe it’s been doing over Xmas and New Year is getting tiresome now the drugs are wearing off.

“How long is it?” he said,

“1.2m and 36W “I replied.

“Is that 3 footer” he asks,

” no” I said “its 1.2m exactly, I’ve measured it”.

” Sound like a 3 footer to me but they only come in 30w”.

” No its 1.2m and 36W”.

Now I’m rapidly approaching 50 years old, I started school in the 1960s (that’s the nineteen sixties, not the one thousand nine hundred and sixties for those who don’t think it’s now twenty ten) I was taught to measure things in m and cm. In the 1980s I went on to become a graduate engineer, we measured things in m, cm and mm. Even the crusty old draughtsmen at work did mm as long as they were paid a decent salary per mm.

Anyway after a round of negotiations it turns out what I have is a 4 foot tube, not 1.2m at all, despite the best intentions of my tape measure.

So now I’m running late, got 30 mins to get the car back to the OH. I’m stuck in the side streets of Hillsborough because it’s all double parked and somebody is unloading and has parked in the middle of the road. I can’t go back because the police are starting to block side streets at the other end.
Have to wait

Another 5 mins lost but now I’ve reached the street where I usually park, only its full all the way to the end and by now its filling up with coppers in Day-Glo for the game in 3 ½ hours. I find the last spot and stagger along the icy pavements with some urgency now. I’ve parked about 400m (sorry 1312
feet) away and I’m wearing MTB cycling shoes for reason I can’t now remember which doesn’t help matters. It’s now snowing

I’m now brandishing my shopping list, pretending to study it intently so I don’t catch any of the coppers eyes as I’m from a generation that still fear policeman , customs officers and deputy head teachers.

Worried that I’ll get spotted for the Leicester city fan I am, I’m even ready to disguise my east midlands drawl with a fake Irish accent picked up from ” 3 men in a boat” last night despite the fact that the away team today are from London and managed by a man called Colin who used to be a Neil.

20 minutes till I need to get back now but it will be well worth it, work bike fixed, lads bike nearly done, a nice end to the xmas and new year hols and the great feeling of knowing Id used my LBS for at least some of the bits.

So I’ve made it through the police lines and round the corner past the chippy, a glance in the shop window at the shiny new bikes and I’m up to the front door.

I’m stunned

Closed for New Year holidays.

What?

It Saturday January 2nd

I need to get my bike fixed for work on Monday and the LBS is shut. I don’t even have time to call in at the other LBS, the one by the tram stop as I need to get back so the OH can pick up youngest from gym club over the other side of town.

So it looks like it’s time to open up the web browser and buy this little lot from Wiggle, and hopefully fix up the commuter with some kind of cable to get me to work on Monday.

Anyway this was the full list of stuff on the list which I guess would have been about 150 quid but if anyone can help with some cable outer before Monday Id be grateful

I’ll need about 3.2808399 feet



1 x Full set of road brake cables

1 x front brake cable long enough to reach a disk brake

2 x cyclocross tyres

1 x ISIS crank puller

2 x basic brake levers (road bars)

1 x 9 speed campag block

1 x chain for above