The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2698 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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It’s actually harder work riding at a slower speed than you’re used to than it is to be pushed by someone faster, unless they’re very much faster. If you’ve ever tried walking with a small child or an elderly person, it’s so difficult—it’s like your balance is adjusted to the speed you usually go and it feels really strange to be going so slow. Balance on a bike is easier when moving fast enough to keep the centre of gravity through the centre of the bike, if you go very slow the slightest body movement can cause you to lean to left or right and overbalance, so how these trackies stop at the top of the banking and play chicken with each other. If it goes on for more than thirty seconds, they have to restart the race. Me, I can manage it for a couple of seconds before I start to wobble, though it might be easier on a fixed wheel than a free one.

Danni and Trish shot off as soon as we hit the bike path but I held my pace to allow Hannah to find her way round the gears. If you’re a regular cyclist one bike works much the same as another in terms of using the gears to control your speed, except where the gear levers are. On old bikes, they’re often friction change which are usually positioned on the down tubes and you move the lever until you feel the chain move to the next cog. On modern road bikes the changers are incorporated into the brake levers and it makes life so much easier to use especially as most are index linked and move just with a click. It was this latter manifestation that Hannah was trying to master. Apparently before when she’d ridden Trish’s bike, she’d done so in the gear it was in—we all assumed she knew how to do it—she didn’t like to say she didn’t and consequently suffered accordingly.

At one point we stopped and I held up the back wheel and turned the pedal allowing her to see which way the levers moved things, then it’s about learning to change to meet the needs of your body, so going down when pedalling is hard or changing up when it’s easy depending upon circumstances. If you’re just moseying along, then you may wish to stay in a low gear; if racing, then in as high a gear as is comfortable to sustain. If you’re in bed, I always think a nightdress or pyjamas is the best gear to be in.

After a mile or two Hannah got a bit more confidence until she changed too abruptly and her chain jumped off and she nearly fell off. I put it back on for her and off we went again. Ten minutes later Trish and Danni were racing each other back to find us, Danni braking suddenly and swerving her back wheel round—the equivalent of a handbrake turn, I suppose. I’d have fallen off, she didn’t. I did caution her that she could buy her next back tyre if it wore out quicker than mine did.

Finally Hannah and the gear changing clicked and she shot off ahead of us laughing to herself and accelerating as she went. Trish flew off after her which threw down the gauntlet to us old timers and as I was in too high a gear to spin off after them, I was left standing on the pedals chasing Danielle who found it very amusing. It didn’t occur to her that once I got some momentum, my acceleration would be quicker and in less than a hundred yards I’d passed her and was still increasing my velocity on my velocipede.

Ahead of me the two girls were racing each other and zigzagging all over the path, so I slipped out onto the road and went into a racing tuck. They were probably doing ten or fifteen miles an hour, I was now hitting high twenties and just shouted as I rushed past. I stopped half a mile further on and waited for them. By this time Danni had caught them and they were all staying together, for which I was going to reward them with an ice cream—at least that was what I’d tell them, but I was going to buy them one anyway and I stopped because there in the lay-by was an ice cream van.

Needless to say, the ices went down a treat and even I had one, a ninety-nine, which is a cone with a flake added—no a chocolate flake, not me. The others had various things with all sorts of fruit or chocolate sauce squirted all over. I know the bill was over twelve pounds—for four ices, diabolical especially as the ice cream costs mere pennies to make. Oh well it was part of our holiday.

“Are we going up to the castle, Mummy?” asked Trish as we waited to finish our ice creams and get back to pedalling.

“Wow, I’ve never been to a castle,” said Hannah.

“Cold draughty places,” I said dismissively.

“She’s only saying that because she doesn’t like spiders,” said Trish.

“Ugh, it doesn’t have spiders, does it?” Hannah looked as if she might share my dislike of eight legged things.

“Nah, I was just joking,” Trish looked at me while blushing hoping I wouldn’t shoot her down. I didn’t—this time.

“C’mon, let’s head for home,” shouted and started to mount my bike.

“I thought we were going further than this...” complained Trish, while Danielle simply mounted her bike and asked if she could ride back as quickly as she could. I called to her to be careful, but I suspect she wouldn’t have heard me. The three of us made reasonable progress after her but by the time we reached the drive, she was finishing wiping down her bike. As we did that, she had a shower and we seemed to stay a step behind her for the rest of the afternoon.

She’d finished her drink when I made myself a cuppa and Trish got herself and Hannah a drink and a biscuit. “Can Cindy come over, Mummy?”

“Ask David if he’s got enough for another hungry mouth.”

“David, have you...?”

“Yes, I’m doing steak and ale pie.”

“With chips or mash?”

“What d’you fancy?”

“Chips.”

“Bad luck, it’s mash.”

I chuckled at this. I’d much rather have new potatoes. David winked at me and held up the bag of new spuds. I nodded and knew dinner would be most enjoyable.