J's trike decided to have an off-docile day last week. We'd pottered out to have a close look at the Anderton Boat Lift and a coffee & cake in the café. Riding the trike up the ascent onto higher ground the trike cast its chain. We gathered the bits and J motored back to the car. (Throttles rule OK!) No problem. Buy chain, measure length, replace old chain with new chain. Three days later I gave up. For some reason which escapes me the trike builder had incorporated a chain tensioner a couple of cm in front of the rear hub. It has/had a strong spring. Every time I tried to join the ends of the chain this blighted device snatched the chain from my hands and hurled them across the room (I'd moved the operation from the shed after day one. Working in the living room was much warmer and I could borrow J from her studies to 'hold this springy thing out of the way, please' . Gravity didn't help either. I used old shoe laces, bits of string and parcel tape to hold everything in place but the blighted tensor overcame all. I gave up. We bundled the trike onto the back of the car and shamefacedly begged help from our local cycle dealer. Not our very local local cycle dealer - he'd refused to have anything to do with vehicles with more than two wheels. We tried the chap in Sankey, near the old canal. I remember the barges ferrying sugar to the Sankey Sugar factory as I paddled my first canoe along, and it seemed that if the trike really did have a fatal affliction I could bury her there ...
The man in the shop didn't laugh as J and I wheeled Trike up the steps and parked her on one of his feet. 'Give me a couple of hours' was all he said. We had coffee and cake at Ikea, bought a bright yellow rug for the floor of my writing shed (also bright yellow) and returned to the cycle shop.
'I've removed that bl*ght*d tension device - it serves no purpose but it's in the wicker basket if you do want it. No charge - I sold you the chain, didn't I?' J bought a very bright front lamp to sooth her conscience, and a strong young gentleman, a fellow customer, carried Trike down the steps and lifted her gently onto the carrier at the back of the car. I didn't protest too loudly - he was at least 60 years younger than me ...
Sorry for the ramble - I think the point is that with a joint* age of 155 we still enjoy cycling and meeting lovely people! I think that was the point!
* All the joints share this joint age, with the exception of one of J's hips which is only 10 years old.
The man in the shop didn't laugh as J and I wheeled Trike up the steps and parked her on one of his feet. 'Give me a couple of hours' was all he said. We had coffee and cake at Ikea, bought a bright yellow rug for the floor of my writing shed (also bright yellow) and returned to the cycle shop.
'I've removed that bl*ght*d tension device - it serves no purpose but it's in the wicker basket if you do want it. No charge - I sold you the chain, didn't I?' J bought a very bright front lamp to sooth her conscience, and a strong young gentleman, a fellow customer, carried Trike down the steps and lifted her gently onto the carrier at the back of the car. I didn't protest too loudly - he was at least 60 years younger than me ...
Sorry for the ramble - I think the point is that with a joint* age of 155 we still enjoy cycling and meeting lovely people! I think that was the point!
* All the joints share this joint age, with the exception of one of J's hips which is only 10 years old.
