The winter has finally arrived after weeks and weeks of spring type weather which has had nature all confused. Wasps in January?
Wasps? January??
I have my bike back on the road. Bike #1, my ‘daily’, the Africa Bike. I love all the other bikes, but they aren’t everyday bikes. The Bakfiets weighs a frickin’ ton for a start off.
If you’ve been following this blog (Thanks for reading my drivel by the way, I appreciate it) you’ll know that my Africa bike has been tweaked and tuned in an effort to turn a good tough little workaday bike into the ideal – my ideal – everyday utility bike. It’s an 18″ step-thru chro-moly three-speed with a rear pannier rack, front (frame mounted) cargo rack, puncture resistant tyres and a front mounted kid’s seat for my little Rufus. It’s a tank. It can carry a straw bale, a small boy, a teenage girl, and me. And tow a trailer. All at the same time.
Anyway. Being without it for so long has really brought home to me just how much I missed it. The novelty of the Bakfiets and the more recently acquired Taurus postponed the pain but in the end I was pulling my hair out.
It’s no super model. It’s just a bloody bicycle. But without it I felt bereft. Without it I resorted to the car more often than I should.
The really useful bike. It was only when it was unavailable that I became truly aware of just how useful it is.
It’s back (thanks Ashley at Cycle Heaven!), it has an ice tyre on the front rim all ready for anything the winter can throw at it.
Bring it on.
Tags: africa bike, bakfiets, ice, taurus