ego.istic.org

Oh, wow.

I just got back from riding a 6mi trip around central Cambridge on my new bike. The route is from das Sonnensystem, all the way along Milton Road to Mitchum’s corner, along Chesterton Road and what’s-it-called Street to the Queen’s Road roundabout, down Queen’s Road, left onto the Fen Causeway, round the mini-roundabouts of doom on Trumpington Street onto Lensfield Road, from there straight along to Elizabeth Way at full tilt, back onto Milton Road at the roundabout, and thence back home.

Except, this time, there was a difference. This time, as I was coming downhill along the Elizabeth Way, I took my new bike all the way up to top gear. It was an exciting experience. Hell, does that piece of aluminium move. It was like going into warp. To give a little more flavour, let’s just say that when I was in third-from-top gear by the Grafton Centre, I was moving the same speed as the motor traffic. When I was in second-from-top gear on the flat bit of Elizabeth Way, I was moving the same speed as the motor traffic. When I went into top, I was all on my own.

The nice man in Townsend’s who sold me the bike told me I would have a lot of fun riding it. He was right.