Bleak week in little bike land

Indeed it has been a bleak week or two in the little bike spotting world. I have spotted four, but three of them were in transit and not snappable, and the only stationary one I spied is part of a sad story of a soured enthusiasm.

I had two encounters in one day last week: the first a charming exchange of smiles between me and a woman riding in the opposite direction on a fetching pink shopper. The second, a very uncharming remark by a bloke on a folding Peugeot. I was riding  on a short errand in the back streets on a balmy evening,  bare-headed as I am sometimes wont to be in these warm-night low-risk situations ( I’m a rebel, me!) when I scooted up next to the man on the  Peugoet and complimented his bike. He mumbled something incomprehensible, I asked him to repeat and received the command “get a helmet”. Well that certainly took the wind out of my sails. I gave him an exaggerated salute and a ‘YES SIR’ and zoomed off, but my bravado was only a cover.  I tried to put it behind me but when I came across the same model bike neatly parked on the street a while later I didn’t even have the heart to photograph it. I was so gloomy I had to go to Marios and eat a delicious seafood risotto that I couldn’t really afford. That fixed me up.

So in the theme of broken dreams,but on a cheerier note, here’s a little bit of art that makes me smile. It’s called Broke Bike Mountain,it was an installation at The Village Festival late last year ( I have been saving it up).

Hard to get an idea of it here, but believe me – it was inspired. I found a few little bikes amongst the carnage…

a bit of a Northern Star peeping through…

a Vega…

and if you look closely you can see an upside down Stowaway deep in the pile …serendipitiously (if that’s a word) a Stowaway was thefourth bike I spotted,the same style and colour as this one, but intact and in good care, gliding up my street just this morning. So it all comes good in the end… Sigh.