Today was mundane, up until it got to the complete opposite. It started with a very bad nights sleep due to a stuffy cold, people leaving the house at unearthly hours, and a tiny bladder. I decided, for two reasons, to stay at home today. The first was that I had a stuffy cold and couldn't face having to engage my brain in anything, and second, I had a bike on deliver! So I had to wait around for the delivery man.
This led to me reading notes, watching videos and generally being a bum. Some may say no change there then... I eventually did go into uni for a course induction, almost two weeks after the course started, to listen to a Chinese guy waffle on about stuff that I was pretty much already aware of.
Upon arrival back home, much to my disdain, my bike STILL hadn't arrived, and it was pushing half five. When at pretty much bang on half five there was a loud banging on the door, and my bike, all in many boxes, sitting, waiting for me! My excitement was almost tangible. I rushed to the living room and started to unbox and piece together my new piece of kit. It was a slow process, and was just opening the boxes, whoever packed them must have use at least five rolls of gaffa tape, on each box.
Once everything was unpacked, assembly began. This is where my day really started. This is where I became really frustrated. This is where I almost broke the bike. Somehow, the chain had formed a double loop. I knew I must be able to fix it, because it got into that position, it surely must be able to be undone. But it had me stumped. Literally. I was sat for nearly three hours trying to figure this out. I looked at all the forums I could find, all the blogs, journals, vlogs, anything I could find that mentioned it. There was very little, and what I could find wasn't all that helpful. Most of them told the reader to talk a chill pill, or failing that, a really stiff drink, so taking their advice, I got a glass of water and made a pizza.
The pizza was a bit of a disaster, but that's another story. After my pizza, I stumbled across a gem; it was hidden deep in a forum, a tiny man calling out amongst giants throwing their weight around, all of whom were saying it "couldn't be fixed", or "you need to break the loop". This wizard said, "this happened to me, I made a website for it, and here it is http://baltimorefivefinger.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/un-knotting-or-unlooping-bike-chain.html". I am not even joking when I say this guy saved my life, well, the life of my bike. It still had me confounded, but his reassuring manner allowed me to be cool calm and collected, and figure it. Like a boss.
The rest, as they say, is history. Everything else went on/in without fuss or bother, and I now have a fully functional road bike!
Yippy-Ky-Yay.
Joe out
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