We have had our bikes sat in our shed for a good number of months now complete with rust and punctures. So this weekend we decided to go and get our bikes repaired. We phoned up a shop in Congleton that does bike repairs, but the guy was rude on the phone and not really all that helpful so we took them to Halfords. I can't fault Halfords for their service. We had originally booked the bikes in for the 29th, but we got a call yesterday saying that things had been quiet there so the girl had done them herself.
We had to walk in order to pick them up, which is about 4 miles, but we needed to take Matthew with us. He enjoyed riding on my bike (although he is a little small for it). After getting home we put them back in the shed with the plan to go for a bike ride today.
However, when I got the bike out of the shed I found it had a puncture in the front tyre. After getting quite angry, but still being able to repair it I then attached a bike seat so that Matthew could ride on the back of my bike.
Our little trip nearly started out as a disaster as as soon as I picked my bike off of the wall (with Matthew attached) it fell sideways and I had to struggle to bring the bike back up again from a funny angle. I'm not certain that the seat is entirely safe as it makes the bike very top heavy and when I slowed down (for the hills) I ended up falling sideways.
Still, it was a plesant bike ride. We went up to the cannal at the end of a lane near our house. I didn' remember, the last time I took that lane, just how hilly it was. Plus, I am quite out of shape and so I wasn't able to peddle all the way up in one go. I just need to get more practice in!