The Pushbike

Being very much aware that whilst I may still be 18 years old on the inside, I am certainly showing some signs of age on the outside. I recently had a go at running - well, a mixture of jogging and walking really. This did not work well - my knees started to hurt, I was knackered after about a mile and worst of all, it was dead boring too. I take my hat off to those who run, but having given it a fairly good go for a few weeks, I realised that it was not for me.

 

After reading one of Guy Martin's books, in which he recounts his 3000 mile cycle ride across the USA, I remembered that I also had a bicycle. OK, its not an expensive, super-light, carbon fibre machine but it is a worthy old thing. I have had this Raleigh Cyclone for many, many years and it has been parked down the side of the house under a tarpaulin for at least 15 years and not ridden for at least the last five of those. I used to really enjoy cycling - perhaps this is my route to getting some decent exercise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This machine had everything - rust, tarnish, flat tyres, mould, dirt, cobwebs and shot front cones - the full set of mankiness.

 

I felt a gentle restoration project coming on...

 So, I started with a good wash and scrub (the bike, not me), then after everything was dry I used Brasso on the chrome, ArmourAll on the plastic parts and saddle and WD40 on everything else.

 

I touched up some missing black paint and at the same time, painted some brackets which had too much surface rust to clean up.

 

A simple wall bracket on the garage wall and the job is done

Dear Visitor,

 

Thanks for taking a look at my little blog.

 

I started this in 2014 when there was a lot of conversation about blogs and I wondered how hard it could be to knock one up.

 

It was originally intended just to keep pictures in some kind of structure and to stay in touch with a few pals who live around the UK and wider but it has become useful in other ways too. I rotate content from time to time to keep it looking fairly fresh or to make some space (which is limited all the time this is a free website).

 

Apologies for not having a contact page but I did have one previously and could actually not keep up with emails. Because some of these related to car and building safety, I felt I should probably leave these questions to the experts as H&S is not always high enough on my agenda and I didn't want anybody getting hurt trying to copy any of my daft antics.