Bikes

I'm not having much luck with bikes at the moment. On Wednesday the pedal fell off my 8 month old exercise bike and the threads were so worn that it could not go back on. I took it back to Argos only to find that not only was it out of stock but it had been discontinued. I ended up paying an extra £20 for another one that was almost identical to the one I had. Then one of the kids came home with her bike which had a flat tyre. After 3 attempts I finally managed to fix three separate punctures. Last night I went for a run to Roslin on my bike and ended up walking home when my back tyre went flat. I fixed that this morning but decided that I needed a new tyre which I fitted earlier on this evening.

I then went for a run along the old railway. As I was passing Rosewell I saw a woman walking in front of me. I was just wondering if she was pushing a push chair or a wheel chair when she suddenly turned right and blocked my way with a wheel chair. I pulled on my brakes but pulled too hard on the front one. The bike abruptly came to a halt , the handlebars dropped down and I went flying. The next thing I felt was my left foot hitting what I thought was the wheel chair and I came down and hit the road with my left shoulder. Luckily I only have some scrapes and bruises and my bike was not damaged. The only other damage was to a rubber tyre on one of the small wheels on the wheel chair which had become detached, but I was able to fix it.

Talk about a lucky escape

What a crappy day. get some tyres with beltguard kevlar - they're brilliant.
I was provided with a teeny wee bell when I bought my last bike and have found that others, particularly horse riders, appreciate the wee ding, as bikes just sneak up on folk.

One thing I neglected to mention about the accident was that not long afterwards I discovered that the middle finger on my right hand was crooked and did not seem to be healing. A visit to the doctor confirmed that there was a problem and I was sent to a consultant at St John's hospital. He told me that I would have to wear a plastic splint for the next 6 weeks It's been a long haul and I couldn't wait until today when I had to go back to have it checked over.

My appointment was for 9.40am and I arrived 10 minutes early, luckily finding a car parking space My joy was short lived as after an hour waiting and watching people who came after me come and go I was finally called. The consultant (not the orignal one) took me to a room and asked me how the repair to my thumb was coming along She then mumbled something about her colleague having put completely the wrong notes into my file. After asking me to remove the splint she said something about water on my finger and asked if I had been told about massaging the finger. I hadn't realised how swollen it had become and told her that nobody had mentioned it

After about 3 or 4 minutes I was told to go and wait for a physiotherapist. Twenty minutes later I finally saw one, who was very nice and told me that it was looking good but that I would have to wear the splint for another two weeks, but only at night. It's great to be able to type properly again though

Cripes, a wee tumble can have such an ongoing effect.
Over 30 years ago I was cycling back home to Penicuik from Edinburgh at about three in the morning, in a somewhat altered state of mind, when I decided to change my riding position onto my aero bars going around Potterrow - bad idea. I hit the kerb with my left shoulder and it was a bit of a struggle back to Penicuik thereafter. Went to the doctor when the swelling went down a week later, leaving a lump where there shouldn't have been one. Turned out that it was partially dislocated and a bit too late to reset without surgery, so I just lived with it. Still have the weird lump which aches sometimes, but it is well deserved. I used to think that getting wasted and cycling was relatively harmless, but what if I'd fallen to the right, causing a car to swerve - anything could have happened. Idiot.