Flat tyres, be gone!

A very exciting delivery was waiting for me when I got home from Easter in Edinburgh…

Marathon Schwalbe Plus puncture proof tyres, which demonstrations have shown to be impervious to deliberate drawing pin attacks, and thus ought to be a bit more resistant to the treacherous East End roads than the standard tyres which came with Cecily. See previous post for flat tyre mayhem.

New inner tubes (the last flat back tyre included a shredded inner tube, and it’s time I had some spares lying about the place anyway…)

And a tiny tube of chain lube because I’m not very good at looking after the messy parts of a bike (well, any parts of the bike actually), and it’s Time That Changed.

I’m hoping that with this little investment, I will have bribed Cecily out of her rebellious teenage years and into her sensible, high-exercise, low-fat twenties.

Apart from a minor mishap when I could not shift the bolts holding the back wheel on (with brute force, hammers or heat) and I had to take the bike to Canary Wharf in a cab to the nearest bike shop where the nice strong men with nice strong tools were able to loosen them for me… the transition was fairly painless, I’m proud of myself for being able to get the wheels off and back on, tyres changed etc, and I’m hoping that’s an end to the bike maintenance for about 6 months…