The local bike shop comes good

The curse of the Strathpuffer struck again today as Baz's rear XT Shadow derailleur lost all its tension just over halfway up the black route at Glentress. Obviously something untoward had happened to the spring to add to Baz's woes, he's already had to renew all the chain rings, chain and cassette after his stint at Strathpeffer. Anyway he had to turn for base while much to his disgust I decided to carry on up to the top of the black, returning to the bottom via the red trail. As I'd had a late night and a few shandies as well as a streaming nose I was able to set my own pace which suited me fine! There was only a light covering of snow at Glentress today but on the way back home to Edinburgh in the car we suddenly ran into about two inches of the white stuff,with the road like an ice rink.

Back in Edinburgh, Baz decided a quick visit to the Edinburgh Bike Coop was required as he needed a new helmet. After the helmet had been bought we went for a look at the new bikes, or to be honest I wanted a look at the Giant Anthem, one of the bikes I fancied. While we were speaking to the young guy who lifted the Anthem down Baz mentioned his problem with the derailleur and he suggested talking to the bike mechanics in the workshop. The upshot was the bike was brought in, the derailleur dismantled and the problem discovered, the spring was not broken but somehow had jumped out of the retaining hole at one end. A quick clean up, a re grease and then reassembled and it was as good as new at a cost of a fiver, saving Baz over fifty five quid on the cost of a new one! The mechanic was happy as well as it was the first time he'd dismantled this part and been able to repair it. Ten out of ten for the local bike shop, that's something you cant do on the Internet!