Well my two-wheeled beastie boy is safe at home.

Sheldon’s repairs included: new brake lever, new steering spring and new front and back brake pads. He’s not all shiny and new, but he did have a full service including a ‘lube and clean chain’ (whatever that means!), pumped up tires, gear adjustment, electrical test and a battery test.

I cycled him from the Gabba to my humble Moorooka abode along footpaths, bike ways and on the road on the quieter back streets.

Round-a-bout #1

A car cut me off at a round-a-bout on Tarragindi Rd. I was the first at the round-a-bout. One car passed me (which is fine), but another car zipped passed me as I was approaching the exit curb and cut me short which REALLY ANNOYS ME.

It bugs me when drivers see a bicycle and think ‘Oooh I can avoid having them in front of me for very long if I just go around them really really quickly!’. All I actually want drivers to do is slow down a bit, take it easy and give me the space on the road I deserve. Grrr.

Round-a-bout #2

If you want to survive on a bicycle, don’t trust cars to a/see you or b/expect a change in their daily commute. There’s a really quiet round-a-bout down the road from me that I know is mostly used in one direction. It was in that direction that a car was speeding along when I was going around the round-a-bout toward home.

It was going REALLY fast and I didn’t think it was going to stop, so I slowed down as I was going around which was the right call because it had to skid to a grinding halt when it saw me. I didn’t have to completely stop, but if the driver had kept going I would’ve been going very slow – slow enough to stop with plenty of time for the driver not to kill me.

The driver should’ve approached the round-a-bout with more caution even if no-one is rarely on it. But that’s some kind of parallel universe fantasy stuff.

My injured shoulder held up OK. My uninjured leg cramped up a bit from underuse. Aside from that, it was thoroughly enjoyable and I’m so happy to have my freedom back. Yay!