I wake up on Saturday mornings with optimism and feeling the day stretched out before me. Since my old unlocked mountain bike was stolen before Christmas everything has taken so much longer on foot. My pedometer told me that Saturdays usually clocked up well over the 10000 paces that our intrusive government commands that we all walk per day (when we are not eating our 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables preferably different colours). The idea of buying or building a new bicycle has been in my mind for a while and this morning I bought from The Bike Man 3/4 of a 2nd hand bike, an old racing frame in 531 Reynolds tubing plus a beautiful black rimmed front wheel, a mavic (I think) on a nice Campagnolo hub – believing that I’d be able to pick up a matching rear. Of course it isn’t that easy and Mr Grumpy in our local bike shop says – or rather just implies that I’ll need luck to get a new wheel to fit an old frame. I hate this gloomy ‘can’t do’ stuff you get from some shopkeepers who maybe years ago could get enthusiastic about a project that someone brings into the shop. And when I burble away ‘oh yes I’ve come a bit unstuck in the past building bicycles with that kind of thing etc.’, the reply is – nothing. However, a new rear is being built for me while the rest of it sits in the back garden looking not exactly promising (now covered in penetrating oil). I am determined to make it work though. And with some luck for under £200. That’s cheaper than the beautiful Genesis fixed gear bike I was admiring outside Birkbeck College the other day. Pictures to follow.