It is dark, cold, nothing fits, every other nut or washer seems to scurry off to live a new life under the bench or behind that dusty box. And then the doubts come, descending upon you, all this effort to achieve what, I could be sitting comfortably watching the telly or having a beer, like other folk.

Many years ago, back in the 1980s, I had a garage full of tools, including angle grinder, arc welder + brazing attachment and MIG welder, all the high technology of the decade, and I spent a lot of time making rat bikes out of small motorcycles, including my favourite trail bike based on a Honda C70 Cub step-thru, on which I rode around Europe. I cut bits off stolen and burnt out bikes I came across in the woods, bought cheap stuff from bike breakers and incorporated parts made from old tyres, legs of ironing boards and plywood found in a local building site skip. I can hardly remember what telly I must have watched.



So sleek, so stylish, like an interior decorator's dream - but it keeps everything I like nice and tidy. Somewhere in there is a box concealing biscuits and formerly a bar of chocolate. I intercepted wifie on the way back home the other day, and because she looked tired carrying the shopping I brought her here and fed her the chocolate. It must be love!

Today I still make stuff out of waste, including a lot from cardboard, but doing major welding jobs is a thing of the past; so if I cannot cut, drill and file it to fit, it doesn't go on. The principle is that the more you restrict your reliance on workshop tools and fresh materials, the harder you have to think about how to achieve your goals. My riding routes, therefore, take me past as many household and factory dumpsters as possible. Even my bench is made from some furniture a neighbour kindly abandoned in the basement before moving on. At least I hope he has.

I did buy a thin bicycle wrench to help adjust the rather sloppy wheel bearings on Blue, as at the time I had no way of clamping down a spanner to file it suitably thin, and no spare spanner to file. In a fit of madness I decided to buy a massive 100 mm G-clamp at the same time. Romet have had some nice bicycle designs, but sometimes(!) their assembly of components could be less than optimal, and in fine PRL style I have had to fix wheel bearings, re-tension spokes, figure out how to tighten a lose sprocket cup on the coaster hub, and deal with bolts pulling through the mudguards and a massive screw driven through a rear light because the plastic clip had not been formed properly.



One hub spanner, and for no particular reason a motorcycle/car toolkit spanner, probably from the 1950s and made in Radom, central Poland, in a gun factory. It was wifie's dad's, and I like to use things owned by other family members.

And then there are the plastic brake levers. I dream of finding even a kiddies bicycle thrown out with better levers. It is like a punishment sent down from the leaders of the PRL onto a wavering proletariat: if thou shalt be so bourgeois as to require a handbrake, ye shalt be punished by the fear you deserve each time you haul on it. I did see a suitable donor bike advertised on Allegro.pl, with 20" aluminium wheels, three speed Shimano hub... all for 100 złoties...