Sooo Heavy

Why am I so heavy? Ok so a bit of as rhetorical question there. I'll give you the bones of the matter and then you'll be able to understand what I'm getting at. We ordered a lovely child seat for my bike (a Scott Sporster Hybrid, x-large) so that I could take Noah out for a burn and generally let both of us enjoy the outside world. On arrival we excitedly unwrapped it from the packaging and then promptly got thoroughly confused as to how to fit it to the bike. In this respect I'm a typical bloke. Unpack the damn thing and then tinker, instructions are for girls. However after a good few minutes (hours really) of messing and tinkering and then my better half throwing the instructions at me, we had a finished bike with 100% safe child seat.

Excitedly we got Noah ready, helmet clamped to his head (he was not amused), raincoat on (this is the UK in May after all) and clambered on to the bike. Whoosh we were off, flying down the road and very quickly on to the canal tow path to make sure we didn't have any random motorists screaming at us.

At first it was a little weird, the centre of gravity so far back on the bike that I felt like I was going to pull a wheelie every few seconds. However Noah was hooked, squeaking and laughing every few seconds, pointing at other cyclists and jabbering away happily. Three miles passed in a loud windy daze, other tow path users smiling as we flew past babbling at each other. A stop at the park, playing on the swings, trampoline and slide was in order. Unfortunately some pleasant soul had decided that a children’s playground was the ideal place to draw rude imagery on the various different play appliances and leave used condoms and take away packaging all over the place. So it was time to move on, using our nice new multiple person transportation mobile to take us away from this slightly tarnished place to one less abused. Clamber, wriggle struggle and we were set to go. Pedal, pedal, pedal but oh no, were weren't really going anywhere.

What's this? Flat back tyre again. Let me clarify. I haven't really used my bike much due to the rubbish UK winter yet on the three occasions that I have used it I have had flat tyres. This was the third one in as many uses. What the heck is going on. Why is it that I manage to burst my tyres all the time.

So there we were, stranded miles from home (three in total.....), hungry (we'd had breakfast over 60 minutes ago), thirsty (no water for over eighteen hundred seconds) and with no hope of rescue (other than ringing the better half to come pick us up).

Disaster.

The moral of the story. Advance planning, be prepared and always have a contingency.