Life as a commuter cyclist can be fraught with complications. Some are based on human error (forgetting your bike lock) others relate to happenstance.

 

My bike story is a tale of coincidence and a chance conversation on a day when my husband had to abandon his bike en route to work due to a puncture.

 

He locked it up at the local Co-op shop and caught the bus to work, texting me to tell me his bike was still in the vivinty of our house. The day passed, I collected the kids and their friend from school. Made them tea, sorted washing, the usual mundane tasks.

 

Around teatime he sent a text: “I’ve lost my keys”. This is not an unusual happening and I am particularly prone to intolerance and irritation upon hearing this news. As he texted, there was a knock at the door. Unexpectedly a friend had popped round to drop off a birthday present for one of the children. Having just received the text, I was ranting about Mr Z and his lost keys again. She listened politely and the conversation moved on.

 

As she was leaving, she happened to say “You know, I saw something really strange today. I went to Co-op on my bike and I noticed that there was a Ridgeback (type of bike) on the bike stand all locked up but with the keys still in the bike lock.”

 

Everything started to fall into place….
He hadn’t lost his keys….
He’d left them in his bike lock….
Which was securing his bike on a busy street in an inner city part of Leeds.

 

Minutes later, children in the back of the car, I was driving to the said location to see if his bike and keys were still there.

 

They were. All was well. Until the time he left his passport on a train 2 days before our holiday to Spain. But that’s another story involving a different form of transport!

 

JaneZan