Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'Well I don't know if I have got anything suitable at the moment,' he said, 'but we can
havealook.'Rogersteppeddownfromhishousewithamammothstruggle.Heswaggered
across the driveway and unlocked the door to the adjacent barn.
The building was packed full of bike parts. There were whole bikes, half bikes, bike
wheels,chains,innertubes,saddlesofallshapesandsizes;theyhungfromtheceiling,they
were piled against the wall and they were strewn across the floor. We followed Roger into
the barn and Ben turned to me, clenched his fist and mouthed the words: 'Oh. My. God.'
We were in bike heaven.
'How come you've got so many bikes?' I asked.
'It'sjustahobbyofminereally.Ican'tworkbecauseofillness,soIrepairbikes.Idon't
really make any money from them but it keeps me busy.'
'So what sort of bike are you after?' he panted, clearly worn out by the 20-metre walk
from his house.
'Whatever you can spare,' said Ben. 'We're looking for anything that's better than the
scooter and BMX that we have.'
He patrolled the barn like a General, grabbing hold of the occasional bike and weighing
up in his mind whether he could part with it, and whether it was suitable for our needs.
On his second lap of the barn he paused at a small, lurid pink girls' mountain bike.
'You can have this,' he said, 'but it's probably not the kind of thing you're... '
'It's perfect,' I said, before he had finished his sentence.
Despite its appearance, it seemed like a decent bike. All the various bits looked to be in
place and it appeared to have several gears. It was slightly on the small size, but it was a
huge upgrade from either of our other bikes.
'That'sprobablyallIcanofferyou,'saidRoger.'Alltheotheronesareeitherunfinished
or I don't want to part with them.'
'You've been extremely generous to give us this one,' I said.
I looked up to see that Ben was over on the far side of the barn, tentatively stroking a
very small racing bike.
'Ben!'Icalled over,'Rogerisgoingtokindlygiveusthispinkmountain bike.Isn'tthat
great?'
'Yeah, that's wicked. Thanks so much,' said Ben not taking his eyes off the racer.
'I guess we had better head off now, and try and find somewhere to stay,' I said.
'Yep, I guess we should,' said Ben, who had now straddled the racer and was leaning
forward pretending to be on a downhill.
Rogerwalkedovertothebikeandstartedfiddlingaroundwiththebrakecables.Itwasa
1970sjuniorSiroccoFalcon.Ithad5gearsandthehandlebarswerecoveredupwithmulti-
coloured tape. It was basically a racing bike for a child, but it had a certain retro charm.
'Oh, go on,' he said. 'You can take that one, too.'
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