bum's eye view

When my bike was in the shop getting its crank replaced I eventually noticed that the type of mudguard being recalled was the same type as I had fitted. Despite being a thin, low-clearance-friendly narrow-tyre sort of mudguard generally more suited to road-type bikes the means of fastening to the front fork was slightly unsuitable for tapered forks, and whilst the rear set hadn't shifted a millimetre along the seat stays since they were first fastened after a week of carefully watching the front set they loosened sufficiently to suddenly slide down and lock my front wheel on a rattly bit of the West Approach Road one morning, luckily just as I was slowing down for a light. The occasional re-tighten and tweaking them upwards before each journey prevented this happening again but it must have evidently bothered sufficient people to complain to either the manufacturer or the shop sufficiently to cause the recall. I can clearly remember the journey back from the shop with the mudguards poking out of the top of my bag but it didn't show up in their system, meaning they would only refund the front guard even though they almost certainly never sold them as anything other than a front and rear set. I was quite happy with the rear guard (apart from the occasional rattle) but one of the stays decided to snap going along W. Harbour Road on Monday evening, though the timing couldn't have been better seeing as I still hadn't got round to taking the front guard in for refund or replacement. I've almost certainly got the receipt for the original purchase somewhere in the house but shall be unable to hassle the shop until it can be found. Replacement parts have been ordered from the internet and it had been fortunately dry for the past couple of days but the reason why I bother with them was illustrated on the way back from the shop this evening when it started raining reasonably heavily quite quickly, limiting me to ten miles an hour to avoid spraying too much crap onto the back of my only-recently-washed rucksack, though my shorts and T-shirt were doomed even at that speed.

Although I thought I'd taken it off yesterday evening the sad little plastic clattering noise I heard this morning going around the roundabout on Holyrood Park Road must have been my front flashing LED light finally deciding that the amplified shaking it receives due to being on the end of one of them was enough to make it slip off the mount. Unfortunate that it was my be-seen light rather than the narrow-beam see-by and that its loss doesn't make the mega-bargain light set Joe pointed out something I now need. Unfortunate that it took a pair of high-capacity NiMH rechargeable AAAs with it, though I shall wander past on the way home to see if there's anything sitting on the island of the roundabout which is salvageable. I would have gone last night on the way back from the shop but it would have taken me too long with no mudguard.