The Bikes

   For the ride we chose to use our normal mountain bikes rather than spend some money and get some decent ones. The bikes that we hope will make the journey are:

   Martin’s Bike is an orange and yellow Raleigh something or other. It was once involved in a hit-and-run incident, where Martin cycled into some small kids. They ran away whilst Martin sustained a broken arm. Fortunately the bike was unharmed. Despite only being a year old, severe lack of any attention meant that the wheels ground so much they barely turned at all, so we took it apart into every conceivable part and put it back together with Lister’s heavy duty JCB grease. We couldn’t do much about the brakes though, on the front the disk was about to fall off so we tightened it up. Unfortunately because it had been loose so long the brake pads had worn wonky as well, so they didn’t work with hardly any contact on the disk. Next came one of our geatest achievements yet - we wanted to stiffen the suspension so that Martin wasn’t any more comfortable than any of us (and also to help him go faster), this we did just by looking at it and frowning.

   Lister owns a really smart mountain bike which has considerable road going experience. Experience of the Nevendon road bypass actually, where a slight disagreement with a car led to it undergoing extensive repairs. Anyway unfortunately the bike was not suitable for our trip because we could not get our luggage pannier bags on it’s full suspension chassis so we had to turn to a selection of rusty specimens stored in Rich’s shed. The one we chose initially ran on the practice run where it got a puncture after about 100yards, then another, then another. It was found that both the inner tube and the front tyre were completely beyond repair, and also that the gears stopped working at about lunchtime. That bike had to be walked home on the train, and so it is to a different green bike from Rich’s shed that we turn for the main ride. This one looks even older and we initially rejected it because the chain didn’t fit, which we have now changed. We also changed the wheels, the gears, and the brakes, just for fun mainly. We have no plans, however, to remove the think layer of mud which Lister has lovingly collected over the years.

   My bike sadly came to an end before Christmas last year. Having bought it for £obviously-not-enough, I then spent more time repairing it and getting cross with it than riding it. I kept having to spend more and more money on it when one thing broke after another. I was having no luck at all, even the brand name parts like the shinamo gears broke (twice, in the case of the back one). 3 new axles (Back, 1 Front) 3 new gear mechanisms, 1 buckled wheel, 2 snapped chains and one which went orange overnight regardless of whether or not it was raining, and lots of useless brakes later, after I spent all the money on parts and got it all working, with new mudguards, lights and pump, it was stolen from outside Somefields. By this time we had already started our planning so at Christmas we went out and bought me a new bike. We took the interesting step of buying the cheapest new bike we could find, which at £40 came from a mail-order returns shop in Southend. We reasoned that it only has to last 2 weeks and after that who cares. So we brought it home with Martin next to it in the boot and took it out on the practice ride. It survived and the other major thing we’ve found is that to change gear involves mashing your hands up on the solid spiky plastic twisting gearchangers, which actually tore a hole in my glove during the practice. The only other downside was that in Southend we were ‘served’ by a kid of about 10 with a lolly in his mouth.

   So, the bikes are staying as they are but we have had to buy some racks (from Argos) and panniers (from France). We also bought new road tyres for them all, which means that not only will we not get any punctures at all but our maximum speed is increased to approaching the speed of light.