Story 6: Being a danger to the public on Boris's bike

I've only managed one wee cycle this week, partly because I've been suffering from an aching back but mainly because we were down in London over the weekend. For various reasons, it was an emotional few days so our lovely little nine mile pedal round the park, before we headed for home yesterday, was a nice way to finish our stay off. 

We set off on one of Boris's Bikes for a leisurely trek round Hyde Park. The 'Barclays Bikes' is a great scheme (and I'm sure the idea didn't come from Boris Johnson, but his name will forever be associated with it following his launch of the initiative in 2010) that allows you to hire a bike from, then return it to, one of the many docking stations that are dotted around London. It's especially great if you're only going to be on the bike for 30 minutes as you don't pay a penny for the privilege. You are, of course, a free-wheeling advert for Barclays but I guess that's a small price to pay...

Once we'd figured out the system we were off and running:

Now, as you can see, I'm not wearing very sensible cycling attire. We hadn't been planning on cycling during our visit, so I had a choice of flip-flops or court shoes to wear on my feet. The flip-flops won the toss. We also didn't have helmets, but neither did anyone else cycling around the park and it did feel strangely liberating to ride our bikes just as we did when we were kids. We didn't venture anywhere near the main roads and didn't go anywhere near fast enough to sustain a major injury! Which was just as well...

The bikes only have three gears, but I couldn't quite master them! Every time I changed up or down, I had to fiddle about with the wee twirly bit on the handlebar till the chain stopped making a clicky noise (yup, this not-so-serious cyclist hasn't quite got to grips with the lingo yet...) My incompetence with the very simple gears also meant that sometimes I'd accidentally slip from third to first, but still be peddling hard, as if I was in third. The result of this, as an innocent young couple who were out for a leisurely morning stroll discovered, was that my feet - and hence my flip-flops - were liable to fly off the pedals. Said couple not only had to dodge roller-bladers, groups of joggers and Scottish cycling plodders in the park on Sunday morning; they also had a very near miss from a flying flip-flop! I'm happy to report that they escaped unharmed and that nothing was damaged except my own not-so-serious pride. 

Apart from nearly decapitating a pedestrian, it was a really lovely wee cycle. Maybe next time I'll even venture out onto the roads on one of Boris's bikes - but very definitely only if I've remembered to pack my trainers and helmet...!