can she fix it?

My bike is a bit of a joke at the best of times. With only 3 speeds (slow, very slow, and a middle speed which doesnt actually change the gear) and a metal frame and that clatters at the tiniest bump in road, it's not the meanest machine. So when I came off a curb (at the edge of London Fields) with a loud bang (at 9pm on thursday, after an evening on call), I thought nothing of it and cycled on. It seemed a particularly gruelling ride, and the hypochondriac in me started to wonder if I should perhaps register with a GP afterall, if only to get an FBC, thyroid function tests, and maybe an LDH and a Mantoux as well. Imagine my relief(!) to discover, panting from carrying the green beast up a flight of stairs, that the back tyre was almost entirely flat. I'd been amazed to that point that I'd not had a puncture before, given the number of broken bottles I've cycled over since acquiring the bike (the road to bethnal green seems perpetually lined with broken beer bottles and it's often a choice between going over the broken glass and getting run over by an oncoming bus).

So I had the cheerful task today of figuring out how to change a rear bicycle tyre - the guy at the bike shop had regarded me suspiciously when I had asked for a 26x1 3/8 inner tube and "those plastic things you pry the tyre off with" (I still don't know what they're called) and when I didn't know what kind of valves I had. "Bring the bike in if you can't manage," he'd said. It was oddly satisfying to prove I could do it without help, and having cleaned the chain as well, the bike's as good as (probably better than!) new. It did take me more than an hour though.