Monday 22 February 2010

How many bike shops would mend a child's scooter?


There was something faintly ridiculous about going into a bike shop with a little blue scooter meant for a 3 year-old. But the steering mechanism had gone wrong and I couldn't for the life of me get the main bolt off to have a good look at it. So I found myself rather sheepishly entering an establishment just off Broadway Market to ask if they would mind having a look at it.

I am fairly convinced that if I had gone to Evans, or Cycle Surgery, or any of the big ones, I would have been laughed out of court (though I'm willing to be swayed if anyone has contrary evidence). But I went to a rather unusual place called Lock 7. They took me seriously. I had coffee and a pain-au-chocolat (it's a rather odd mixture of being a bike shop and a cafe). The friendly mechanic duely took it apart, consulted me, tried a few things, fiddled, unscrewed, tightened. He spent a good 20 minutes on it. In the end he could get no further than me, but that's not the point. He gave it a go. And they charged me a tiny £1 for their time! You can imagine that I left a nice tip. And the coffee was generous and excellent.

While I was there, I overheard a couple of people chatting. I gathered that the most heinous crime in cycling is this: a family of four, all on seperate bikes, rode through red "at that junction on Chancery Lane - you know, that REALLY dangerous one". I can't say I know that junction, but I'll now look out for it. Apparently it's ... the worst in London.

2 comments:

Paul said...

Is it a little blue scooter, with a plastic deck and chrome upright, two wheels at the front and one at the back?
If so I may have had a similar problem. The steering went a bit floopy so I took it apart, inside the design was absolutely baffling. I did improve things marginally, but had to undo an improbably large number of screws.
I should probably add that this was not my scooter.

KarmaCycle said...

Yup, that sounds like the one! I'm glad to hear that you did manage to do some good - my big problem is that I can't seem to undo the main screws which seem to hold everything in place. Nor could the nice guy in the bike shop. I fear there's something rather deeply wrong. We'll see. And yes, good point - it's not my scooter either!