bikelight, streetlight, starlight

[devi]

I just bought a bike. It was 25 quid. I wondered on the way over to see it whether a) it was a piece of shit, b) the owner was clueless, c) the owner just couldn't be arsed to charge more. It turned out a bit more complicated than that. The bike is lovely, but it's been stripped of anything that isn't actually bike. It has no light and no lock and no pump and no rack. I mentioned the lack of light and the owner said "Um, well, I've never cycled it at night." Hmm.

I rode it all the way back from Kidlington, four or five miles. The streets were quiet. Everyone seemed to be staying in out of the cold. Cycling past the cop shop with no light was a bit worrying, but no one noticed. It was perishingly cold, and I've barely moved a muscle this last week, and before long my legs were throbbing and my eyes were streaming and my cheeks were blaring heat, but I knew I was alive. Alive and mobile and not dependent on eccentric buses, and it was good.

Coming through the town centre I found a short cut down past Keble College, between building after building of fabulous prettiness. It felt funny cycling along the stone-flagged streets in my flappy black coat, in the dim yellow light - as if I wasn't there as myself but was acting in some sort of period drama. When I stopped at some lights to peer at my city map a white-haired man on a bike pulled up to ask if I was lost. I said no, I was figuring it out, but thanks. A tweedy young man with glasses who could have been Son Of Giles gave me a grin from where he was waiting to cross the road. The Radcliffe Camera - that round building which I think is part of the Bodleian Library? - was all lit up inside like a temple to books.

As I cycled past the floodlit dog-racing track, just before the house, a trumpet fanfare rang out through the speakers, out across the estate houses and up towards the icy stars.

I might spray-paint the bike a stupid colour. It needs a name too.

I'm playing at being a student, I know. But while it lasts it's a fun game to play.

Comments

[taimatsu]

The Rad Cam is indeed part of the Bodleian - it has Theology reference and bits of English in it among other subjects.

[tackline.livejournal.com]

I took the canal path when I cycled to Kidlington and back a couple of years ago. Perhaps wouldn't recommend it in the dark.

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

Not bad - I recently bought a new tyre for my bike, and it set me back 25 quid (though in this case it was Euros rather than pounds, but the fiver for the inner tube would bring it up to about the same). It is Kevlar, though, so I'm hoping that means it's bullet proof.

[smorgasbord.livejournal.com]

What sort of bike is it?

[caescarna.livejournal.com]

"The Radcliffe Camera - that round building which I think is part of the Bodleian Library? - was all lit up inside like a temple to books."

From my coach seat, on Sunday's journey home, I couldn't help but notice the lit-up rooms of the houses lining each side of the road, and how many had bookshelves and cabinets lined with volume upon volume, and it made me think that perhaps Oxford is a place where books come home to roost. That Oxford attracts books perhaps?

[juliet]

FWIW, bikes if you buy 'em brand new don't come with lights, lock, or pump either (& most not with a rack, unless you get a hybrid city-bike like mine, which I bought partly *because* it came with a rack).

You might want to get the brakes & gears checked over. ISTR that the shop up in Jericho has a decent enough rep; unless you know someone who could do it for you or have bike mechanical knowledge yourself (I have been doing bike classes & could check it but am not in Ox!).

I am assuming that you are planning to *get* lights & a lock... LED lights seem to have longer battery life but are less good for actually illuminating the road (not a problem if you're cycling in streetlit areas). *Do not* get a lock with a circular key - these are vulnerable to the Bic pen trick (i.e. breakable with a Bic in under 30 secs). And never leave it just locked to itself. Of course, for a 25quid bike you're going to wind up spending about double that on kit, but even a 25quid bike will vanish sharpish if it's left unlocked/not locked to anything solid, especially in Oxford :-( (though mind you, I only had one bike nicked in Oxford, & have lost 3 in London).

Hurrah for bikes!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Someone once threw a sandwich at me from a moving car as I was cycling up Banbury Road.

Be careful out there.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I hate the Rad Cam because, despite being self-evidently the best library building in Oxford, as a classicist I only had cause to enter it once in my entire undergraduate career! Highly unfair.

And I too have been thinking about buying a bike, not for using to get around London as I think I'd die (though, hmm, cycling to where I work from where I live is by no means an absurd proposition), but because whizzing around Battersea Park on it might make a good exercise regime. You are allowed to ride bikes at high speed through crowded parks, right?

[caescarna.livejournal.com]

Get yourself a couple of tyre-levers as well, they're inexpensive and essential for getting your tyre off should you suffer a flat and want to fix it yourself.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Yay cycling around Oxford! -- I do miss that. It's great fun discovering all the secret paths...

[the-elyan.livejournal.com]

Re Keble - I like Keble College, but you have to be mentally prepared for it, or it can be a bit much for the eyes. Certainly, it doesn't hide its light under a bushel. Nice Chapel too, if very, VERY Victorian.