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cycling. Fortunately, I was moving relatively slowly at the time, trying to avoid a pothole,
but when I pulled at the handlebars to attempt to hop over it, the front wheel stayed in con-
tact with the ground and continued rolling. The bike's front forks then hit the ground and
scraped along the road surface as I tried to regain my footing.
'I don't believe it,' said Ben. 'Is there anything else that can go wrong with the bloody
bike?'
'Calm down. It's only a wheel. I'll get it sorted.'
'ONLY a wheel? Because it's not like wheels are important on bikes or anything.'
I flipped the bike upside down and reattached the wheel, tightening the bolts as best I
couldwithmyhands.Itneededtobefastenedwithaspanner,though,oritwasgoingtobe-
come a regular event. We were in the middle of the countryside and miles from anywhere.
'I'll just take it easy until we pass a house or garage or something, and we'll borrow a
spanner there,' I said.
'But you might be dead before we get there.'
'At least you won't have to keep stopping for me then.'
'That's true.'
Just as I was climbing back on my bike, I saw Ben running off down the road, waving
his arms at a passing campervan.
'Excuse me! Excuse me! Can you stop for a second?' he shouted. The van pulled over,
and I immediately saw what Ben had spotted. The campervan - a badly converted transit
van - had three BMX bikes on the back, and another two on the roof.
'Hello. I'm really sorry to bother you,' said Ben, 'but I saw your bikes and thought you
might have a spanner that we could borrow. The wheel has just fallen off one of ours.'
Max was a very cool, dreadlocked man in his early thirties. He happened to be a profes-
sional BMX stunt performer, who was on his way to do a show in Cornwall. The back of
his van was like a bike repair shop. He had tools and parts of all descriptions, and he set to
work immediately. After securing the front wheel, he tightened a few other bolts, and gave
both bikes a spray of oil.
'There we go. As good as new,' he laughed.
'Thanks so much. I don't suppose you want to swap this bike for one of yours?' Ben
joked.
'Unfortunately not. Mine are all specially designed stunt bikes.'
'So is mine,' I said. 'I can do this great trick where I detach the front wheel whilst I'm
cycling along.'
'Ha! I'll have to try and put that one in my repertoire. Good luck with the rest of your
trip, guys.'
We arrived in the village of Thorverton shortly before midday, having covered about 20
miles that morning. After our long breakfast, the ketchup incident, and Glyn's inspection,
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