RIP Rusty

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It’s a sad day in any bike owner’s life when your bike breaks. It’s not the same feeling of anger you get when you return to find it missing but it’s still pretty sad. Not to mention potentially expensive! And so last week it happened to me.

We went out to Deptford to check out this brilliant new bike location and charity Union Cycle Works (more on which soon) and on the way back my front wheel and handlebars stopped communicating somewhere around London Bridge. This proved to be dangerous, expensive and embarrassing. Dangerous because it’s not a good idea if you’re turning left for your wheel to go right and expensive / embarrassing as had to get a taxi back home from a very smug driver!

The fault turned out to be somewhere in the steerer tube with the wonderfully named star-fangled nut as one of the main culprits. Have been meaning to upgrade for a while so rather than spend any money repairing decided to take the plunge and retire Rusty after 15 years of intermittent service.

There’s a lot to decide on when buying a bike – what type to go for and what to look out for, making sure you get the right size frame and obviously the correct colour! So after looking through our site at the buying and sizing guides, the bikes up for auction and checking out the webstores decided to simplify my life.

This means switching from a seriously old and heavy mountain bike to a light and fast single speed. Gone will be the days of getting smoked by everybody at traffic lights. Perfect for commuting and getting around town (although probably less useful if make the mistake of going via Herne Hill again).

So stay tuned for an update next week on my new ride and where it came from. The King is dead, long live the King!