I do still exist, just been away

Sorry about the radio silence folks. I thought I'd done a clever update from my travels on my new phone - but clearly it's not quite as clever as I thought.

Status update: my increasingly frustrations with my old Specialised hybrid have led me (see previous posts) to take a radical step and I've now ordered ... a new bike on Cyclescheme.

With these things, I always worry that you guys out there will immediately go "ha ha, the fool, he's ordered the one bike which we know is useless - why on earth, etc etc". So please be nice, when I say I've ordered a Giant Seek Zero. Does that mean anything to anyone?

The main things I like about it are: it's got disk brakes (they're kind of new to me, but it seems they are much better in the wet and last much longer than the usual V brakes). And - it's got a kind of enclosed gear hub - so again all your gears are covered rather than exposed to the elements.

I cycled in this morning on my old Specialised and it's a nightmare - whenever I pedal hard the chain slips. I fiddled around with all sorts of screws and suchlike last night and made it a bit better, but I fear the fundamental problem is ... my teeth. They're worn down and the chain can't take it. Here's photographic evidence. Give me advice if you can tell me straight away I need to replace it all. Though with the new bike coming in a couple of weeks, I'm not sure it's worth it ...

I turned my 24-gear bike into a fixie for a morning ...

My chain is slipping. Whenever I accelerate hard, it slips, rattles, crashes, crunches. It's driving me nuts. I've fiddled about with all the settings, and relucantly realised it's because the spikey bits are so worn. But I also realised that on the lower two sets, and especially the lowest one of all, the wearing is less pronounced. So I decided this morning to stick to one gear the whole way - the lowest of the three, and the highest of the 8. And it became a "fixie". Without fancy pink tyres or those strange narrow handle bars. And it seems to be holding up.

Cyclescheme and a new bike?

I feel a certain amount of disloyalty saying this, but I'm thinking of buying a new bike. The problem is that my current one needs:
- new wheels & tyres
- a new chain and set
- a new seat
- possibly new brakes and gears

The time comes when you think - well, that will probably cost about the same as a new bike. But inevitably I'm looking at spending a bit more than just the cost of repairing my current one.

My requirements are:
- needs to be tough as some weeks I do 100 miles over London's pot-holes and along the fairly rough canals
- needs to be light and fast
- needs to be strong as I'll be carrying a child on the back sometimes and normally I have paniers
- I don't want to do too much maintenance as I'm a lazy fool
- I think I may be prepared to spend about £600 - with the Cyclescheme through work you can get the bike for about half that price

Doing a bit of research and consulting my ever-obliging and highly knowledgeable bro-in-law, I was thinking of a Chris Boardman hybrid. I got quite excited. But imagine my horror when I discovered that the sole supplier of Chris Boardman bikes seems to be Halfords. And wait for it - the Cyclescheme does not have Halford's as one of the preferred partners.

So I'm back to square one and the deadline is in about 5 days. Any ideas?

Helmets now compulsory for under 18s in Jersey

Interesting development in Jersey - they've changed the law to get young people to wear helmets. Here's a report on the BBC website:

I had an accident this morning - and it's on helmet cam. I'm OK, by the way

I had a miserable commute in this morning. I was told by a van driver that I needed to learn how to ride a bike within 3 minutes of leaving home. Then this happened. I was riding along the very busy Bayswater Road quite happily. Suddenly, as I tried to accelerate after a light, my chain completely slipped and I was peddling on air. I completely lost my balance and knew I would crash. By some miracle, I managed to fall right on to the pavement and not the road (there was a taxi very close behind me) and I got away with a few grazes. It was shocking more than anything else and seems to prove to me that you should always have a well-maintained bike if you're messing around on the big roads. I suspect my chain is getting old and it's certainly making a lot of creaking.

Anyway - see what you think as I had my helmet camera on at the time.

An example of poor indicating

I feel like a bit of a grumpy old man since I've been using my helmet cam - perhaps I should stop it. Anyway - I can't help showing you this van. It wasn't really that dangerous but it shows how important it is to indicate. I had no clue what he was doing or when and he kind of drifted into the middle of the road. It's on that really fast bit of road going down Theobold's Road towards Farringdon Road in London EC1.

Oyster card - tip

I know this is nothing to do with cycling. I took the bus at the weekend and tried to swipe my Oyster Card. It didn't work. After holding up the bus for about 3 minutes and getting a bit flustered, I used real money. The bus driver looked at my card and pointed out that there was a small cut in the card, which made it impossible to swipe. God only knows how it got cut, but it did, and now it won't work. Beware of cutting your card. If you're abroad and have no idea what I'm on about - the Oyster card let's you travel by bus and underground train - you can put money in it.