Shiny new bike bit

I'm very happy indeed with my shiny new bike gear cable. As I blogged before I have spent a week or so stuck with use only of one front cog on my bike so I've been dong a lot of leg "spinning". But action needed to be taken and with the sun shining I decided to cycle over to my favourite bike shop, Solid Rock, at Balmore. (They will have a new website up and running in the next few days.)

Once more these guys proved that they offer fantastic service. Within a few minutes of arriving at the shop my bike was up on the work stand and the cable was being stripped out and replaced with a new one. I was admonished a little for cycling so much on dirty winter roads on such a nice racer bike but I don't have much choice as this is my only bike. (People in bike shops talk about winter bikes and summer bikes. I don't have that much money!)

Anyway, just 10 mins later – and at a very fair price of £5 – I had a shiny new gear cable, as well as smooth, working brakes again. Thanks Dave.

Ah, and the cycle home felt so good. Having the full range of gears to choose from is a delight after the limitations of the past six days.

Super speedy service

How about this for a great service from my local bike shop. On Saturday at 11am I discovered that there was something majorly wrong with my bike's back gear cogs. Mr Outdoors kindly dropped the bike into Solid Rock Cycles at Balmore at 1pm en route to visiting his kids in Edinburgh. 

At 3pm I received a call from Dave at the bike shop to tell me what was wrong with my bike, how much it was likely to cost - and that it would be ready by close of play that day. I actually picked it up the next day. How fantastic is that for a bike fixit turn round?

Perhaps Solid Rock were having a quiet day but I think that's unlikely. It's a very popular shop and if you tell them you're a commuter then they try to aim to fix your bike that bit quicker.