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lprovenI have got SPD pedals on my Birdy now and it's like having a new bike! My splendid local bike shop fitted my cheapo eBay pedals for me, adjusted them and told me how to use them and I walked to the local park feeling like someone had just taken off my stabilisers for the first time. But actually, they're fine. It's not so different to having toeclips, so long as you remember to rotate out your heel to free your foot. But the difference!
A good bike feels like part of you. Now, it feels like I'm part of the bike - we're a single connected whole. It's remarkable. Look out for me, sweaty and grinning, at the Ton tomorrow night!
(If you're free, it's downstairs at the Melton Mowbray on Holborn.)
So after dumping my stuff at the house, I went off for a quick ride of ¾hr or so, a lap of Mitcham Common by the surrounding roads - down through Pollards Hill to near Thornton Heath, across the bottom on the edge of Croydon, then back up the A236. Coming up there, I was following some large chav bloke, no shirt, wobbling around on a mountain bike while swigging soft drink from a bottle. When he'd finished it, he lobbed it into the grass of the common. As I accelerated past him, I shouted over my shoulder FIND A BIN NEXT TIME!
Of course, I then get stopped at the next lights, and he comes charging up, drops his bike in my path and starts shouting abuse in my face. Who the fsck am I to tell him how to behave? He can throw what he wants wherever he wants. It's his countryside too. I stay calm, don't swear, tell him to act responsibly and grow up, but he gets more and more agitated - clearly psyching himself up to attack me. So I remounted and pedalled off at speed.
Gah.
A good bike feels like part of you. Now, it feels like I'm part of the bike - we're a single connected whole. It's remarkable. Look out for me, sweaty and grinning, at the Ton tomorrow night!
(If you're free, it's downstairs at the Melton Mowbray on Holborn.)
So after dumping my stuff at the house, I went off for a quick ride of ¾hr or so, a lap of Mitcham Common by the surrounding roads - down through Pollards Hill to near Thornton Heath, across the bottom on the edge of Croydon, then back up the A236. Coming up there, I was following some large chav bloke, no shirt, wobbling around on a mountain bike while swigging soft drink from a bottle. When he'd finished it, he lobbed it into the grass of the common. As I accelerated past him, I shouted over my shoulder FIND A BIN NEXT TIME!
Of course, I then get stopped at the next lights, and he comes charging up, drops his bike in my path and starts shouting abuse in my face. Who the fsck am I to tell him how to behave? He can throw what he wants wherever he wants. It's his countryside too. I stay calm, don't swear, tell him to act responsibly and grow up, but he gets more and more agitated - clearly psyching himself up to attack me. So I remounted and pedalled off at speed.
Gah.
