Clicked

I bought a 65 year-old bicycle last weekend. It's the ladies' version above. It's in outstanding condition, perfectly rideable - the only signs of the age are some very minor rust speckles on the steel finishings and a very tactile patina on the rest.

I haven't posted in months. Excuses include starting a new job and starting my first ever business on the side and also sunshine. 

Quick update: I have a new interest in white wines, home refurbishment, and the PS4. I still love tea, bicycles, and old, mechanical things like typewriters and film cameras. I've been to Paris recently, there may well be a few Tumblr posts in the making just from that. 

New tool. A friend of mine gave me a whole bag of expired 35mm and medium format films when I recently left my previous job. I only had a Diana F+ medium format camera, so I thought I'd get something a bit more interesting and ended up with this TLR. 

Today was the perfect day to fix up my bike. Life threw up some setbacks for me today, but when I got home and found my new rear wheel and drop bar handles waiting for me, I knew things were looking up.

After mantling my dismantled  bike (look up 'mantling', my usage just then could not make any less sense), I took it outside into the late afternoon sun and gave it a wash and an oiling. I've never used drop bar handles before, but they allow you to get your body much, much lower than normal riser handles do, so I thought I'd go for a quick ride to check everything was in whack. 

It was glorious. I could feel myself putting far more power into the bike and I could tell there was less drag. Of course, I have absolutely no control over the brakes in that position, but you don't get something for nothing. I don't think anything could have cheered me up more than that brief, dangerous ride.