46. LOOKING LIKE AN ACTUAL BIKE.

In large part for my own benefit...

Behold the no speed, chainless, seatless, air in tyreless Thomas Slackline (2013).

Morale was getting low, so last week I put all the bits I have so far collected together, to form a shape that is, apart from being entirely unrideable, not entirely dissimilar to an actual rideable bike. Very attractive I think.

Missing from this picture are the chain, cassette, inner tubes (hence the rather flat appearance of both tyres), brakes and rear shifter (don't need a front shifter as I plan to have nothing to shift up the front - a decision I might live to regret were I not a finely tuned athlete with legs of steel and no need of the lower end gears that are merely a crutch for the weak and powerless), plus of course anything to sit on. Though all the hip and crazy youth don't seem that committed to having usable seats on their hip and crazy bikes anyway so maybe I just don't worry about that.

It's no co-incidence that all the missing bits are the most complicated bits to attach, as these are the parts most likely to expose me as a complete fraud in the bike building stakes. 

You will know when I have ordered and attempted the installation of these mechanisms when this Blog goes offline for about 3 weeks and then returns as a cutting edge political comment Blog (with a slight lean to the left of centre) that doesn't mention cycling at all except to trumpet the professionalism and service of whatever bike mechanic I end up paying to put it all together (once I regather the bits I throw off my balcony and into the surrounding bushland).

An alternative to that option is almost identical, except the break will be 6 weeks and the new Blog will be focused on the shortcomings of the health system of which I will have been a client after horrendously crashing what I THOUGHT was a fully assembled bike when everything I have attached to it becomes DEtached the first time I ride it in anger.

Fingers crossed for option 1.