Folder!

Yes indeed! I got myself a folder. It belonged to a friend, who had it for a number of years, though only ever used it for a few short rides. She wanted to get rid of it, so for a small payment I gained a folding bike.

The brand name is Airwalk – I’ve never heard of it before – but it’s essentially an exact copy of a Dahon.

Overall, the bike’s in nearly-new condition and I was very, very lucky indeed to have laid my grubby paws on it.

The photo shows the bike with my two normal panniers hooked onto the rack. My panniers aren’t huge, so they work perfectly well with this bike.

When I got the bike, my friend said the left pedal was “a bit funny”. I took it for a 30-second ride, but the pedals seemed fine. The next morning, I was planning on riding it to the train station, to catch a train to Liskeard.

As it’s a new (to me) bike, I opted for the quiet back route, and a good thing that was, too. After a little while, the left pedal did indeed start feeling a bit funny. And then funnier still, as I continued pedalling. Eventually, this culminated with the left crank falling off the bike!

The nut that was meant to be holding the crank in place had become loose and was prevented from falling off only by the plastic blocking cap. I didn’t have a socket set with, and as the nut is recessed, I could only hand-tighten it so much.

With the crank back on the bike, I set off again, but I had to stop every half a mile or so, to re-tighten

the nut. Obviously, this meant I made slow progress. Near the Plymouth train station, I asked a car mechanic for help, and in a few seconds he’d tightened the offending nut, and the bike was good to go.

See also  Idle ramblings

As expected, cycling in Liskeard and again back to the office from the Plymouth train station was no trouble after the crank issue was fixed.

The plan is for the folder to permanently live at work. When I need to take it on the train, I can simply cycle to work on my commuter, swap bikes, and no longer have to worry about GWR’s stupid, draconian anti-cycling attitude.

 

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