Have you ever sold a bike and wondered what happened to it?
We acquired a bike as a Christmas present from my brother-in-law at Christmas 2007, I think it was sent to us from the Manchester area, and there was a note in it, saying how much the person who owned it had enjoyed it and wishing us well with it.
LG hasn't ridden it much because it's slightly too big for her, but it's had a varied life all the same.
In 2008 we lent it to our vicar who used it as his training bike as he prepared for a fund-raising bike ride around Stokesley Deanery, to raise money for a new church organ. It was featured in all the publicity shots in the local paper and on the local news websites etc. So far so good, except on the actual ride he managed to go over the handlebars 10 miles into the 78 mile ride in a crash which was so spectacular that people still talk about it till this day, although I totally missed it, as I was the cyclist in front who turned unexpectedly and caused him to slam the brakes on. I still maintain it was his bad cycling rather than mine that caused the crash but hey ho!
After the crash, the back wheel was completely bent out of shape and the bike had to be retired. He had to finish the ride on another bike he borrowed off LG, and she went home and got another one.
A few weeks later I took it to get fixed and although the bike shop said a new wheel would be better I just got them to straighten it out as best they could.
It didn't get ridden much after that until last year when it was lent out again to another friend of ours to help him train for a Coast to Coast ride we were doing, raising money for the Great North Air Ambulance. We were possibly the most over-prepared people in history of Coast to Coast bike rides. We had backup plans for the backup plans and an actual support vehicle following us round. At the last minute, someone thought we weren't quite prepared enough and decided we needed a complete spare bike and hey presto! The Green Dawes was hitched up to the back of a van and off we went.
One of our group (not a regular cyclist) was riding a mountain bike whose tyres hadn't been pumped up for about 3 years and whose chain was so orange with rust it was too squeaky to ride next to him for more than about 30 seconds. Towards the end of day one his inner tubes pretty much disintegrated and the spare bike, our good old second hand bike was unloaded and used for a few miles until we got to the Youth Hostel in Kendal (where two of our team were hospitalised in non-cycling related accidents before day 2, nothing to do with me).
Anyhoo, we gave it the rest of last year off but then this year I've put a rack on it and I've been using it as my commuter bike. I've enjoyed riding it so much I think I'm going to use it for my Royal Wedding Weekend ride from York to Durham and then our touring holiday in Scotland. It's about time it took up its place on centre stage instead of waiting in the wings all the time.
I sometimes catch myself wondering about its previous owner and whether it had as varied a time when they had it, as its had since it came our way.....maybe it used to belong to one of you.....
