Awww Crack!

I could have given you a pretty Long Tailed Tit today. Or the comical sight of Spiderman feeding the ducks (seriously, how good would it be to be a kid again and get to dress up like this to go out in public? I can only imagine at the controversy if I turned up for work with my pants on outside my trousers...). And I really liked this Manky Mallard (female Mallards are remarkably promiscuous and this can lead to mating with other ducks which gives odd hybrids - on the Figgy just now a Shoveler drake seems to be competing with the Mallards for the 'attention' of the females, so there could be a weird offspring from that collaboration).

Anyway. I could have given you any of those shots. Instead you get a rusty cracked chainstay... I had a feeling this was going to happen before long. I've been impotently watching a rusted line gradually increase in size over the last couple of months, checking every now and then to make sure it wasn't about to fall apart on me (or under me). Today the crack was revealed to be the Grand Canyon. Ah well, riding home gingerly will be the order of the day (steel has a certain strength to it, and 'warning' of failure that means it should get home in one piece (and consequently so should I). And then the frame will be retired. Two and a half years of Edinburgh's cobbles and potholes appear to have done for it - I'm not terribly impressed.

Anyway, I'd been scouting about for a replacement frame anyway, so this will increase that effort. In the meantime I get to prove the utility in having more than one bike and will get the geared Kaffenback straightened out for commuting duty until the new frame is obtained (or the 30s Sunbeam is finished - I've given myself a tentative deadline of the end of next week).