Day 4 - A new hero - Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain - page 57

'It must be here somewhere,' said Ben after we had taken every possible exit from the
roundabout and still not found it.
'Doyoureallythinkthetipislikelytohavebikesbetterthantheoneswealreadyhave?'
'They might. It's worth a try.'
'Are you hoping that Lance Armstrong might have been holidaying in Cornwall and
neededtogetridofacoupleofhisracingbikes?It's3pmalreadyandwewanttodoanother
30 miles today.'
'You do. I don't,' snapped Ben.
We eventually found the tip. They had an exercise bike, half a Raleigh Chopper and a
fold-in-half shopper bikes with no wheels.
'It doesn't look like they have anything,' accepted Ben.
'That's surprising.'
'What did you say?'
'Nothing.'
'What's your problem with upgrading our bikes?'
'My problem is that we've got bikes, and we've just spent the last TWO HOURS trying
to get bikes, and we've covered about a mile.'
'Butifwecangetbetterbikes,thenwe'llbeabletocyclemoremileseachdayandwe'll
get there quicker.'
'Why do we need to get there quicker? It's not a race.'
'No,butthesebikesaren'tevencomfortabletoride.Youseemtoliketosuffer.Theyare
not even adult bikes, they were made for children. I don't understand you!'
And so it went on.
Icould see Ben'spoint. Ifwehadgotbetter bikes, wewouldhave made better progress,
and the cycling would have felt less painful. The truth was, I was secretly falling in love
with The Falcon. Yes, it was far too small for me. Yes, its handlebars were hacking my
palms to pieces. Yes, it had the hardest saddle ever invented, and because of the position
of the handlebars I was swiftly becoming a hunchback. Riding a stegosaurus to Scotland
would have been more comfortable. But there was something about The Falcon that was
winning me over. It was partly the added challenge of completing the trip on an inadequate
bike; I imagined that it would perhaps make me feel more of a man.
I was also intensely aware that our trip was all about stripping things back to basics.
People have been cycling the length of the country for years, on far crapper bikes, and just
because we were living in the 21 st century did not mean I needed a 21 st century bike.