Addition to the bike family

Hello Everyone,

Enough of the diet stuff - here is something really exciting - I added to my bike family!!

The new arrival is a folding bike, so all sorts of new horizons beckon. I can fold it up and put it in the boot of my car and take it onto the public transport network (very unenlightened about bikes on trains here in London).

Now this folding bike is by no means a replacement for my beloved Batavus - the Batavus has a level of comfort and strength that the new one cannot hope to match, but the folding bike saves me having to fight with the bicycle rack on the back of my car and also saves me doing myself a mischief heaving a 22 kilo bike onto said rack! The new one weighs in at a svelte 15 kilos, which is a lot more manageable.

The new one has a few problems...i.e. a saddle that pains my prodigious backside and brakes that bind rather - they will get sorted out over the next few days before I depart off to the land of the windmills on my holidays.

This is a major trip for me. I am going to the Harwich with bike in the boot of my car, unloading the bike at Harwich, parking the car in a secure parking spot and then embarking on the ferry for the six hour crossing over to Hook of Holland. Once I get to the NL, I am using purely bike or train power to get about.

Should be interesting, now the big question is...how on earth do I pack all my stuff onto a little chinese bike?

Keetje