The people? Let them strip walls!

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It seems I should start going by a new moniker. Apparently my two business names aren’t enough, and neither is @ratracegirl. Oh no. From now on, you shall know me as Madame Guillotine.

An embarrassing number of people passed by the shop windows today, only to see me sat amid the debris of renovation, nonchalantly knitting another pair of wristies for my Folksy site.

Had they looked long enough, they may have seen Pete popping up from beneath the floor, stooped and covered in cobwebs and dust, muttering something incomprehensible about circuits, tugging at a length of grey cabling protruding from holes in the wall, and then disappearing once again into the crawl space. And all the while, I knitted. Knit. Purl. K2tog. YO. etc. knit, knit, knit.

So, why the sudden flurry of needles? Have I received a bulk order of wristies from some platoon craving colour and about to ship off to Siberia?

No. Because apparently what I ‘did’ yesterday should have been described with the help of the prefix ‘over-’. Thus, against my will, I was forced to sit out the first hour or so of the day, and ‘take it easy’. Yessir.

I did get on with it eventually, though, and worked like a Trojan. A Trojan who has to sit down for a rest every 20 mins, that is. Obviously.

Today, we have (read: Pete has) completed 5 of the 9 circuits to be installed in the shop. And I have removed a LOT of anaglypta. And then removed the woodchip that the anaglypta was covering up.

Special mention must go to Lizzy and Alan – the former of whom did excellent work on a stretch of stubbornly black wall, and the latter of whom got his destruction on and removed a load of unwanted light fittings, about 17,000 staples, and one particularly persistent plank (not a metaphor).

Thank you! And thank you (and thanks Huey from Bambuni – @BambuniNunhead) for the delicious lunchy snacks (spinach quiche and scotch eggs), afternoon decaf latte, and excellent ‘Kipling Ale’ P and I shared when we eventually made it home. Yum.

Onwards and upwards.

X

On Your Marks…

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Up with the lark this morning – well, not really. 8am. I suspect when the baby arrives, this will be considered a lie in. For now, though, for us childless, Monday-to-Friday-ers, 8am on a Saturday is pretty early.

But we have good reason for our not-so-early early start. For today, work begins on Rat Race Cycles, Nunhead.

We’ve had the keys since Monday 15 October (coincidentally, also our 7th wedding anniversary!) and have been to-ing and fro-ing about electrics (there aren’t any), shutters (ditto) and grills on the windows (again, nix). Today, though, we start ripping, tearing, washing, sweeping, and rewiring. Armed with tea, coffee and gluten-free blueberry muffins, it’s time to get cracking on the hard graft.

It wasn’t the most auspicious of starts; our printer stubbornly refused to print any of our ‘coming soon’ signs,no we’ve had to go a bit ghetto with a big black marker and some plain A4. But it’s only temporary.

P is getting stuck into the rewiring (clever boy) which our lovely electrician will check and sign-off when he’s done. For me, the first job is to get rid of the delightful black-and-huge-pink-blooms wallpaper covering the biggest wall in the shop. Great for a florists’, I’m sure, but not quite right for a bike shop. So if you want a giggle at a woman with a rather large bump struggling with 15 years of caked-on wall coverings, do come by and say hi.

I’m not sure how advisable it is to do DIY when you’re 7 months pregnant, hence the ‘resting chair’ we brought from home, and the copious tea and muffins. But needs must. And hey, as Starship said in the first song that came on our obligatory box o’ cheesy choons this morning “we can build this dream together / standing strong forever / nothing’s gonna stop us now”.

Lots of wallpaper ... GONE!! :)

X

Today’s hard graft brought to you by the lovely Catriona, Steve, and Alex. Thanks guys!!

Coming soon to a high street near you…

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…if you live in Nunhead, that is: we’re opening a shop!

We’ve been doing mobile servicing and repairs since 2008 and over the last couple of years we’ve got more and more requests for new bikes, parts, helmets, lights, locks, etc. – all the things it’s not that easy to sell from a mobile workshop.

So over the last year we’ve been making plans to open a shop. We found a great location, in the middle of quite a lot of our current residential customers, and we’ve been working on all the legal and technical logistics.

We’ll be opening soon on Evelina Road, Nunhead SE15 and we’ll post LOTS more news about that in due course – after that we’ll still be looking after our workplace servicing clients, but those of you who live nearby will be able to actually turn up at our shop for services and everything else, and you’ll be more than welcome!

A neat solution

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Nina's bars

Nina had flat bars and bar ends on her hybrid road bike, with integrated brake levers and gear shifters, and she was a bit fed up with them. She liked riding with her hands on the bar ends but couldn’t reach the brakes or gears easily from there. When one shifter packed up, she asked our advice: she wanted a neater alternative that allowed her to ride with her hands in a forward position, but she didn’t want drop bars and combined road levers.

Nina's bars, 2

I came up with this solution, and I’m rather pleased with how tidy and effective it is. Nitto bullhorn bars are superb and put her hands in just the position she wanted. Cane Creek “cross-top” levers allowed clamping around the bar (instead of clamping in the ends of the bar like many TT brake levers) and Shimano 9-speed thumb shifters slotted neatly into the bar ends. All the cables are neatly concealed under the bar tape and not only does it look tidy, it works very smoothly and feels very natural to ride.

Nina promptly took her bike on a several hundred mile journey across Italy, and was very happy with how it felt and handled.

“Can you come out and fix my puncture?”

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We’ve had quite a few calls like this… unfortunately the answer is usually “sorry, no.” It’s not because we can’t repair punctures (watch out for a video, coming soon!) and it’s certainly not because we want to offend anyone. It’s mainly because we tend to specialise in planned services and repairs and it’s rarely economical to send someone out across London to a beleaguered cyclist just to repair a puncture.

However, we’ll always try and help you. There are a lot of bike shops scattered around London and most of them are on the big map on the wall of the Rat Race Cycles workshop. We’ll try and let you know where your nearest bike shop is, it’s almost always going to work out cheaper (for us and you) and more convenient for you to get to the nearest bike shop; most decent shops will try and find a way to fix your puncture while you wait.

If you’re out on the road and can’t get through to us, we recommend the excellent BikeHub iPhone app – and their website – as a swift and handy way of finding your nearest bike shop. It’s also got a great cycle journey planner, allowing you to choose between quieter, safer or faster routes.