The banana

Ru picked up his new bike yesterday. I say new but it's probably more in the vintage retro category. It may be older than he is, and from the generation of bikes that had downtube shifters and logos of long gone teams but it's been a case of love at first pedal.

There had been mutterings of new bikes as birthday/xmas combos and trying out his Dad's road bike, bikes being discussed and catalogues prowled over. Then a conversation with our local bike shop led to a rummage around their 'bikes that we might find a home for' cupboard and 'this one might suit you for starters, we'll give it a service and you can try it out'.

It might be elderly, steel framed, low spec and with a paint job that brings a puzzled look to most eyes but as far as he's concerned it's the best bike he's ever seen and no carbon forked glamour model can hold a candle to it. Especially after he took over 2 minutes off his time at the club time trial this evening.

However he may draw a line at the matching jersey.