Topic: ah misery - nicked bike (again)

[campanula]

Feeling all virtuous after a good 4 hours of hard stuff - flattening, digging, humping pallets, I was mortified to see that my bike had been pinched - from right under my nose. Not having brought my lock, I hauled it onto the allotments, locked the gate behind me and parked by next plot's shed. Some stealthy sod climbed over the gate and made off with my bike- hauling it over the 6 foot gate!! I shouldn't even be slightly surprised since bike theft is a way of life in Cambridge. I have had dozens nicked, had a picnic table legs sawn off, a water pipe bust and even my washing line pole was broken so that my bike could be lifted over the top. I really must have had my head in the clouds (weeds) not to have noticed this time though. Still every cloud.....this is the excuse I need to justify the enormous sum of £120 for a gorgeous black 1940's Sunbeam loop frame I have had my eye on. Will have to work harder than my usual three/four day week tho'.

[Hugh_Jones]

You`ll have to work a bit harder when you ride it as well. Sturdy solid steel frame, Sturmey Archer 3 speed (if you`re lucky), probably got an old Lucas Dynamo as well - you`ll think you`re towing a trailer!

[campanula]

3 speed - behave - that's like..high technology.
Also, I can pretend to be in a Thomas Hardy novel- all flowing tresses and rural bliss (with a dark and disreputable secret).

[Hugh_Jones]

But then you`d have to ride side saddle - besides, you`d get your long flowing dress caught in the chain.

[campanula]

Tsk...minor details! anyway, there is one of those welded solid, practically unbreakable chain guards.

[Hugh_Jones]

And I`ll bet it`s got a wicker basket on the handlebars as well. (Visions of Margaret Rutherford as
Madame Arcarte in Blythe Spirit - sorry, I forgot, you`re FAR too young to have seen that - or the Vicar`s wife in any Agatha Christe`s Miss Marple series)

[campanula]

awwww! what a sweetie......but no spring chickens here, I'm afraid.
Yeh, there is a wicker basket....and one on the back too. I have a really old bike lamp in brass which is meant to hold a candle! Oh the temptation (style god)but I know I would end up as road jam. There is an ongoing guerilla war between cyclists and drivers in Cambridge - not to mention a gazillion students who last rode bikes when they were six!

[Hugh_Jones]

Are you sure the big brass lamp is meant to hold a candle?  It`s more likely an Acetylene lamp - little chamber underneath which you fill with Calcium Carbide and Water - I used to have one during the recent hostilites with dear old Adolf because the dynamo only worked when cycling flat out and it was cheaper than batteries.