In my last bike related rant I said that I was restricted to riding at 70mph. This was due to some severe maintenance issues which included:
- A dodgy chain which were it to snap would have posed some interesting problems on a motorway (hence why I resisted unnecessary speed and staying in the left lanes) and
- a broken rear suspension which feels like a hefty kick in the brussel sprouts every time I ride over a pot hole.
To get to work, I have had to get a bus into town, the timing and regularity of which I think must be ordained by the national lottery. A train journey from Winchester to Farnborough isn't that much more reassuring in reliability, but at least I can pay up the nose for the privilege, and then at Farnborough I wait 20 minutes for a bus to take me to Camberley. The journey takes me just under two hours and over a week I have spent £75 in travel....
Have I missed something here? In a world where carbon emissions is being spouted by every politician on every idealogical divide, doesn't it figure that if you want to cut polution and encourage people to drive less then there has to be an alternative. I certainly don't have any compulsion to volutarily take public transport, though I might want to do my bit for the environment, the facts are quite simple. I spend less and get places much quicker and with far less hassle if I just rode my bike.
It is an absolute disgrace that in an economy that we live in that basic services are so poor and so expensive. When I visited India a few years ago, I traveled a transport system that technologically would not have been out of place in the 30's and yet the punctuality of service embarrasses the shambling unhappy experience we put up with in this country.
I just hope it doesn't take too much longer to fix my bike, I really need a lie in...
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