Sound advice pt I...The safety pin

Hmmn, I've not cycled today.

This makes me partially sad. I need my bike, it's my form of Release. It helps me clear my mind and set the pieces straight in my head. I had allocated lunch time for a short spin, I like to ride 25 miles on each commute. I can ride a shorter route but 50 for the day is a nice number. If I ride 4 days, I want to hit 200, 3 days its 150 you get the picture. I've ridden 3 days this week, 145.7 miles. Not happy about the dropped miles. In the grand scheme of things, it means nothing but it gets on my tits all the same.

...instead I went to Sainsburys and spent too much money on the kids in the half price toy sale. Priorities right.

I wasted my entire lunch break doing this, I didn't even have time for buying food. The wife had to go back for that....

Anyway, so advice. ALWAYS carry a safety pin in your saddle bag.

A friend asked me the other day if I check my tyres before every ride. I said ' I do but it's pointless if you don't because i'll be waiting for you anyway', We were riding together and I was commenting on his lack of checking and potentially avoidable puncture. Neither happened thankfully.

So I thought 'screw it' and didn't bother checking mine. Got to the cross roads about 5 minutes into my commute, stopped for the train and noticed a flint in my tyre. Leant the bike against a wall and out comes the safety pin. Lesson learnt.

I've picked a good number of flints from my tyres before setting off for a ride and always think to myself 'wear that you little bugger' before flicking the flint at a mates parked bike....nah that would be silly. Cause you know he'd be fine, I'd park in his space the following day and, yeah you guessed it, I puncture.

But seriously, very worthy addition to the saddle bag that safety pin, nothing gets flint out quite like it. Just make sure you have a steady hand.