Clarity

Of course, it stands to reason that when my Noble Steed and porch carpet and shoes and panniers are liberally covered in mud and leaves and squished slugs that I discover that instead of purchasing a can of cleaning stuff and a can of lube, I did, in fact, buy two cans of lube.

Fat lot of good that is!!!

So, instead of trying to clean my bike indoors and in the dark, which I now know would have been monumental folly, I settled down with a fleece blanket, a sleepy cat, a cup of Horlicks and a Jane Austin and waited for the LBS to open at 10am on Saturday morning. Shame. (Heh heh heh.)

I did actually manage to leave the shop with no more having been purchased than what I actually went there for - no mean feat! The Gore-Tex jackets are looking very good to me at the moment though.... I treated myself to something quite sensible - a Muc-Off pack with brushes and sprays and everything I reasonably needed, other than lube. I have enough of that already on board.



The instructions specified that the cleaning agent must not be left on for more than one minute, and it should be rinsed thoroughly with cold water. Good job I hadn't tried to do this on my kitchen carpet!

So, out to the front path we went, in the cold sunshine with a mug of Horlicks. Scrub scrub, splash splash, spray spray, slurp slurp.... before long I had gathered a small audience of appreciative cats, wanting to see what the funny human was doing. My old fella sensibly stayed indoors and watched me from a sunny windowsill.

Once everything was clean, quality lube was applied in the recommended places, excess wiped off, and a spin around the road taken to work it all in nicely. I must say, I was proud of my handiwork - Jackdaw looked fresh off the assembly line, shining and glinting, and if I had smooth tyres I swear this bike would be absolutely silent.

*sigh* Lovely.