Push Bike

THURSDAY

I spent the morning out in the sunshine, weeding, watering and tidying in the garden.

This afternoon, I took one of the cars over to the garage in the nearby village of Lloc. My old mountain bike has a quick-release front wheel, so I popped it into the back of the car with the plan to cycle the 7 km home.

Once I was off the main road, I started to really enjoy the ride back in warm sunshine and quiet country lanes. But  then disaster struck. A sound like gunshot, meant a blown front tyre. My dad always called them “push bikes” and I could hear his voice in my head as I was pushing it back.

It was totally my own fault: in my haste to refit the wheel, I hadn’t aligned the caliper brakes properly. One of the brake blocks had been rubbing away at the sidewall the whole time and eventually went right through both tyre and inner tube.

I was on a tight schedule, so I abandoned the bike and ran the remaining 4 km through the Clwydian Hills (see main blip) to get home, grab my own car, and head back to retrieve the bike. 

After a quick shower and a late lunch, I headed off to Prestatyn to pick up my friend John, and then we drove over to Rhyl for an away bowls match at the Botanical Gardens—home of “Sunny Rhyl” (see extra).

A tough evening for the team overall (see extra). We  came away with just 4 points. But I won my own game 21–7.

John, who’s a keen cyclist himself, kindly gave me a couple of tyres when we got back to Prestatyn and at 10:00 pm I ordered a couple of inner tubes on Amazon - they will arrive tomorrow!

One last stop at the supermarket for tinned tomatoes, then home for supper.

18,391 steps.