Rucksack packed. Weekly season ticket bought, ghastly hi-viz tabard on over day clothes. Fortunately every day is dress-down-Friday in our office. In two minds about taking/wearing a helmet but timidity prevails, so I have to find a cap as I removed the foam liner from my helmet many moons ago because of the pong. Muxu Ride Cap, a lovely piece of kit from Barcelona, found and it will be worn backwards; not sure my trail helmet doesn't look weird on a folder and a cap under it worn roadie style will border on ridiculous.
Walking to the station reveals a need for some form of elastic band to keep the handlebars tucked in. They keep swinging out and catching me on the leg. Not unconvinced that some form of strap to keep it all folded up would not go amiss as I have eight flights of station/office stairs to negotiate between A and B. No point riding to the station, it is a one minute walk, if that, door-to-door becuase we bought our house when I had to commute daily to the City of London. Actually we bought a house about 100 yards down the street oriignially so I could walk to work at the software house I was working at; this subsequently went bust and I got a job in London. When we bought our current house we told people we were moving what, eighht doors up the street, as the first house was too far from the station!
On boarding the train I discover that if I sit in one of the disabled priority seats (by the toilet and the cycle storage area - NB non-folders are banned on the peak time services I need to use so this space is wasted and I've never seen a disabled person use them during the peak) I can put the wheels against the partition and have the stem resting on the front of the seat between my legs. I read a book, 'The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest' if you are interested and change trains at my intermediate point Three Bridges Station. Luckily I have only a minute to waite as a late running southbound connection arrives.
At our destination I'm sat right by the station 'rear' exit stairs when the train pulls in a few minutes later. I unfold the bars as I exit the station and then unfold the frame once outside. Now the real fun begins. The run to the office involves a climb of 35m over 1.6km and the steepest section is at the station end. On I get and off I push, I start pedalling and dang! My feet shoot straight of the pedals. Note to self: don't wear leather soled shoes on this puppy. This won't be a problem tomorrow as I have lots of rubber/plastic soled street shoes at home I can wear and change out of when I get to work. I am one of the probably few married men who more choice of footwear than their wives!
Feet back on pedals and.... you've guessed it.... DAK! dak! DAK!. Hmmm.... "that's an annoying feature" I think as the steepest section starts to bite "and I spent ages carefully adjusting the snubber yesterday." I think perhaps we may have a worn drivetrain possibly requiring a new belt and or rear 'sprocket'. Does that require replacing the entire wheel? Eek! Either that or the tension still isn't right (certainly doesn't take 4+kg of force to move the belt to touch the frame like the handbook says it should) and/or I didn't set the snubber properly after all.
Once the slope eases off the DAK! disappears and we spin our merry way towards work. Certainly gets the heart rate up and on a relatively warm morning makes one 'glow' a little. Once I turn right into the office driveway it's "Weeeeeeeeeee!" all the way to the office backdoor as a good portion of the height gained on the last third of the journey is lost on site. DAK! or no DAK! you just can't help smiling when you ride this thing. Bike folded, stairs climbed. Java on to brew.
If the trains run on time I can leave home at 08:30 and be at my desk at 09:20. In the car I'd be 10 mins or so quicker at this time of day, and on a normal bike it takes between 40 - 50 mins depending on how hard I push it, but then I need to shower and change on arrival. The rest of this week I'm going to juggle departure times to see if I can get in earlier but avoid the huge crush on the first London bound leg of my journey, ultimately I'd like to leav ehome around 07:30, at the same time as my wife sets off, by car, to the college on the coast, where she teaches.
Already looking forward to the journey home...... and a date with a .25mm feeler gauge. Going to take the snubber apart, figure out how it works, I'm hoping some sort of eccentic, and reset it.
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Thanks for taking an interest. Keep it clean legal decent honest and truthful and who knows I may even post it.