Day 4

21/08/2011 – Day 4

Hebelhof to NOWHERE!

The day started slowly, breakfast with the usual bread, cheese and meat (which is the norm in Germany) and lots of coffee. M had some work to do and we had decided to take the day off for him to work. It also gave me time to have a look at the bike. The wobbling from yesterday told me something was wrong but I had no idea how bad it would be.

The first thing I noticed was that the front of the bike was loose, the forks were rattling in the frame. Now my knowledge of bikes is not that great, changing tubes, tyres and changing brake pads is about my limit but this was definitely not right.

Taking the forks off to reset them, I wondered if I had not put them back on properly when I rebuilt the bike at Basel. But, try as I might they would not sit properly in the frame. Taking them off again I took a long hard look at them against the light and discovered they were bent! Not the forks themselves but the steering tube itself. They must have crushed my bike up against a wall or something to cause that much damage.

Time to stop being diplomatic here; Easyjet had damaged my bike beyond the visual damage I had found at the airport.

As today is Sunday there is nothing I can do about it!

The rest of the day is spent in a red mist fuming about their incompetence and the problems that this will cause.