All went well for the first mile or so until I noticed that the back wheel was catching. When I got off to investigate I thought that the brakes were rubbing. On closer inspection, I realised that the wheel had actually come loose and was resting on the frame! I'm guessing that Halfords, who supplied the bike, are not as thorough in their bike builds as their adverts might suggest! Luckily, I was staionary and not flying down a hill when the wheel decided to shift.
A very nice man was cycling past and obviously noticed my damsel in distress routine and stopped to help. He, being a sensible biker unlike myself, had a tool kit handy and was able to tighten up the nuts and bolts and send me off on my merry way - but not before bestowing some cycling wisdom on me. 1. High vis vests are not trendy but definitely necessary. 2. You're own tool kit is a must (the shame of looking like an idiot girl who cannot fix her own bike pretty much made this a given anyway). 3. Changing both sets of gears at once stops your legs from spinning around like crazy. 4. If you buy a bike from Halfords, make sure you get it checked over by someone who is not a cowboy!
With a safely bolted together bike, with two wheels firmly attached, I managed to do 19 miles. The difference between the new bike to the old one is amazing! I honestly cannot express how much easier it is having a bike with fully working gears. I don't think I could really appreciate how rough the old bike was until I'd been out on the new one. Simple things like being able to peddle when I'm going fast, and keep up with the momentum of the bike, made life so much easier.
I still realise that it is not going to be an easy task and that training is going to get tougher as the week's go on but with my new bike I know it is definitely an achievable task and much less of an uphill struggle.
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