My friend rang yesterday, all excited. I’m a bit surprised, because I’d only just been on the phone to her that morning arranging our next ride. But she’s found a bike! She came off the phone to me and drove up the road to where a young lad has opened up a business selling bikes and found herself a great second hand bike for 45 quid. ‘What kind of bike is it?’ I ask. ‘Purple,’ she replies. ‘I’ve got some ankle boots with four inch heels that will really go with it.’
Naturally I had to go up and have a look for myself, while my friend was getting her mudguards fitted. He’s getting bikes from police auctions and car boot sales and the like and doing them up for a modest profit. They’re mostly the sort of bikes you see around here, hybrids and mountain bikes, but there’s a few real gems and nothing at more than 90 pounds. Fortunately, I’d left my money and my cards behind so I couldn’t buy anything myself, but I think there will need to be a better equipped expedition up there shortly for a real poke around. After all, we’ll need a couple of bikes for any guests we have to ride, and maybe a winter bike for me to ride, and the other half could do with something faster than his current bike. And a folder would come in handy, maybe for a trip to London or beyond. And, who knows, I may revise my opinion of mountain biking or even take up cyclocross. And did I mention he had a unicycle? Yes, there’s always a reason why one could buy another bike.
Meanwhile my friend is looking at her new bike with a glint in her eye and planning some improvements in the way of bike bling. ‘What this bike needs…
I think the local economy is about to get a bit of a boost.
Town Mouse 
The council in Oxford have started collecting bikes and giving them to charity so they can do them up and sell them on.
Meanwhile my friend is looking at her new bike with a glint in her eye and planning some improvements in the way of bike bling.
This takes me back. when I was young we were always putting stuff on the handle bars so it would flow backwards as we went downhill, and came to think of it we would experiment riding with them in different positions.
John
I laughed out loud at the last bit of the first paragraph from ‘Purple,’she replies…!
I’ve always fancied trying to ride a unicycle but just know that I wouldn’t be on it for long! xx
Well done you, I think you’ve got her hooked. Well done that man for doing bikes up again as well, an excellent idea: but then I would say that, I’m a bike squirrel…
John – come to think of it, handlebar streamers were mentioned…
Flighty – it looks far too much like hard work to me. I can’t even take both hands off the handlebars
Andy – partly, I think it’s the chance to go shopping that got her really hooked. I must remember that next time
If you get a unicycle as well as the ukele, you will be too excentric for even rural Scotland!
How does one cycle in ankle boots with four inch heels?
ermmm
Do you often get guests you have to ride?
sorrrrrry
Holly – true, but this chap is half way there…
Dom – it’s a lot easier than walking in them
Mr Goat – yes, all right, all right. Just assume that what I meant to say made sense.
[…] to really get much benefit from it. But it’s been taken over by the same lad who’s been selling secondhand bikes from his parents’ farm and he seems to be making a go of it. And besides, not only did he […]