new bike - new helmet

The old one has bounced along the floor too many times now.  Not while I was wearing it thankfully.

We head out on one of Anniemay’s little training routes this morning - 20km around the two big lakes in MK.  (I’m sticking to metric distances from now on - it makes the ride seem further.  A trick I learnt from herself.)  It’s not a big ride in the grand scheme of things, but quite ambitious for me right now.  

We decide to go out this morning because (i) the sun is shining and (ii) I want to give the bike a bit more of a test.  I’d forgotten - as I tend to do these days - that it’s a saturday.  

It’s not long before we share the redway (MK cyclepath) with a couple of hundred park runners coming in the opposite direction.  They’re not going to move for us, so I just bounce the bike across a field to get past them.  I haven’t bounced a bike across a field since I was a kid.  And that’s just how it feels.

Anniemay, on the otherhand, who never had a bike as a child, gingerly weaves her way along the very edge of the redway, avoiding the mass coming towards her.

We stop for coffee and almond croissants at Caffe Nero, which by good fortune, just happens to be the halfway point on this circuit.  While she goes inside to order, I sit back and admire my bike.  And take a blip of my new helmet.

There are more people about as we set off again and this time we have to negotiate dogs off leads (numerous), people on phones oblivious to their surroundings (numerous) and children suddenly crossing the redways without looking.

I stop about a foot away from one boy - the disc brakes are just fantastic - he stares at me while I do a track-stand as I wait for him to (i) recover from the shock and (ii) decide whether to continue crossing to get to his granny or go back to his mum.  Granny wins. 

I haven’t done a track-stand since I was a kid.  I love my bike.  But you know that.

I check the battery when I get home and do a few sums.  And give myself a shock.  And Anniemay.  The battery is good for 1000 charges.  Assuming I charge it once a week - a reasonable assumption - it will last 20 years.  Will I?  

And then it hits me; “I’m in my 8th decade” I say to Anniemay.  “Noooooo” she shouts  across the garage “I’m in my 7th.  When did that happen?”