Its that time of the year when the MOT is due. I am fairly certain that with the amount of goodies and new parts Rhonda will fly through the examination. A new battery was purchased just a couple of days ago from the local chariot repair shop. What should have been a fairly simple job was not. I rang Ram Riotts to ask if they had a battery for my model of bike and they said yes. I went down and picked it up and brought the said battery home. I must admit I did have my reservations when I saw the size of the box but I felt certain the qualified mechanics and salesmen at the shop knew what they were talking about. How wrong can you be? The battery was far too big and would not physically fit into the battery bay on the bike. I returned with both the new for comparison and the old battery and although it was replaced they refused to take the old battery away. I decided there and then I would not use that shop any longer.
I then started thinking about waterproof clothing. The jacket I have has a waterproof membrane inside the coat. All well and good you would think but it means that the exterior of the jacket will be completely sodden before the membrane stops the water from getting to me. Plus the amount of time it will take to dry out a heavy jacket will be be completely useless for a camping expedition or any touring. Now you would think that any waterproof clothing would be high visibility and brightly coloured to say the least or so I thought. A trawl through internet returned only dark clothing in black or dark blue. You would think in a time of low visibility ie bad weather at the time you would need to be most visible that protective clothing would be at their most vivid and eye catching colours but apparently not. Peter Storm and Regatta offer weather proof clothes but again all dark, it makes you wonder about hikers and fell walkers wondering about in mist. Surely I cant be the only person to think about this can I?
A sheep skin arrived and BC has been sewing straps onto it to make it fit the seat. It does feel comfortable and I am looking forward to taking the bike out for a long trip to test out the padding abilities of the new seat cover. God alone knows how long that will take to dry out if it rains heavily. Then again I could plastic bin bags over it. How slippy that would be is any ones guess. Roll on the camping season!