EVERY DAY HAS BEEN A CLOSE CALL

...and in more ways than one!

But on this occasion I will refer you to the pictures below of the state that the AXLE on my rear wheel has been in and since 2012 likely most of that summer too?!

The skewer, thank the stars, was bent but managed to hold together for the last year and yet I am at a loss to kow how it did this with little more than a bend in its length.

The locking nut, washer, spacer and cone nut on the part of the axle that has broken off are all SEIZED onto the metal and each other well and truly as if welded in place?!

This has been a real pain in the arse and really I should have my bike serviced once a year, but have not done this in 8 years and probably 20,000 miles.

Now remember I have several disabilities I get no bloody help or support with from anywhere whatsoever?!

This could have ended up an extremely SERIOUS accident that could have killed me and doi not think for one moment that this is being dramatic, its facts. I know because I have BEEN THERE and not only that you would not want an axle in a car snapping while speeding along a motorway as any mechanic would tell you of the outcome of the little incident?!

By the way also remember a car has four wheels and encases its occupants in metal and safety features...

..am Marin Bolina Ridge Mountain Bike DOES NOT!!!

A bit freaky it was seeing this axle and realising and I did the equivalent of a double take and thought 'eh? nahhhh...... oooh wait .... OH SHIT!!'

Also I have had to REPAIR this myself and have never done anything like thigs and normally leave it to a store. But they wanted 20 quid just to tighten the nuts in Halfords and the spanners were a stupidly expensive £10 but STILL cheaper. Only I then realised the axle was aplit so had to buy that and replace that too along with the wheel bearings on both sides and the grease.

Twelve hours of soreness, pain, cursing and spitting fire and it is finally done!! Panic stations averted for now and it seems OK and fingers crossed it stays that way?!

Despite the aches and pains I always wanted to do stuff like this with bikes but the proper equipment and in all honesty something to hold the bike upright and the wheels, on or off the bike, is an absolute necessity I can tell you that much!!

Most people I know who have had a bike all their lives cannot even stand getting a puncture on the rear wheel?! Let alone them doing anything like I just did and the wheel was on and off the bike 200 times MINIMUM before I finally figured it out!!!

Grrr...

LMAO.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN?!

Oh my word, today is one of those days where I would like to take Ian Duncan Smiths and chums and go at the with a flame thrower!!

I already have yet another screw up buy public office who has made the wrong decision based on a wrong decision by someone else and they should not have access to this information anyway and should be guarded against be the Data Protection Act who are now appearing to me to be as defunct as all other bodies that get paid large salaries while doing sweet fuck all!

After being two years overdue I bought some tyres for my bike and as someone who has SEVERAL DISABILITIES and not just one I depend on the bike for getting around and doing jobs like those that get fucked up by fat, stupid incompetent lazy bastards who take 5 times more than I do to just get it wrong most of the day.

No I noticed after fitting tyres some wheel play in my rear wheel. Then I noticed that the wheel was having difficulty turning and became stiff at times. I started to wonder if this was why I have had so much pain lately?!?!

I thought it was the wheel bearing but then read a load of people, umm well idiots like the one who left a comment about one of MY Ubuntu videos, they said oh you just need these spanners and tighten up these cones, NUTS.

Spanners are effing ten quid but to tighten them in Halfords they want £20?! Double that buys me a new wheel!

Come home after doing favour for a mate take wheel off take everything apart, cannot understand why I cannot undo the locking nuts nor get the thing back on?! AN hour I am at this cursing, sweating, blaspheming and thinking for fuck sake why do I have to take on things I know nothing about just to try and save money and cause myself a load of pain and stress?!?!

I then think that there is a rubber cup missing and think that figuring it out will be a waste of time anyway as the grease will just come out, what is left of it!

I then realise why I cannot put it back in place and why there is a lot of play in the wheel...the damned AXLE IS BROKE IN HALF?!

I realise that this must have been like this from last year and think it a miracle I have not had an bad accident on the bike. This freaked me out and made me fucking angry because I have had an accident on a bike involving a car and despite it being 30 years ago I do not wish to repeat it and it is probably the cause of most of my pains today?!

SO now I am panicking as a nightmare has come up out of nowhere to bite me in the arse.

I dread winters because I struggle to get through them because I have no bike due to the weather. Now I have no bike!!

I decide to go to Halfords and buy an axle for the bike thinking I could just blunder my way through it. Uh-Uh!!

After two hours of fucking about and with a painful back sore hands, cuts and god knows what else I cannot for the life of me sort it out and those SPANNERS?!?! Well the spanners that sell them, Halfords, should be bloody shot for their design!!

Don't ever, EVER think you can change an axle and wheel bearings on a mountain bike rear wheel and especially do not do it to save money!

You have to work out where the nuts and cones should be on the axle and the quick release would push a rubber cup, or gator, up against the wheel hub on one side. On the side with the gearing, or cassette, when the cone is in place and up against the bearings both nuts are then right inside the cassette housing, so you cannot get to them with the Halfords spanners so effing useless.

So you have to take the whole axle OUT of the wheel and then GUESS where the cone should go...tighten it all up do the opposing side, put the wheel back on and hope for the best...WRONG!!

Now consider my old cycling buddy did not even like getting punctures on rear wheels due to the pain in the arse of getting the wheel off and then on again due to the derailleur and so much so he was looking at bikes with gears houses inside the hubs, like those by Roloff and the Shimano Alfine, and I can see why. Unfortunately these geared hubs are stupid amounts of money and I do not know why when 35 years ago my Raleigh Chopper had gears housed in the hub!

No imagine what the afternoon has been like for me, my fingers are sore, my hands are sore, I have cuts, my skin is stained with grease, my shoulder, back and groin now hurt and I am wound up as this is a prime example of first of all not getting help, not getting support and the pitfalls of working for FREE?!

Yes good job I am nowhere near Ian Duncan-Smith with a flame thrower.

Oh and as of right now and after all that I have no BIKE! SO that is no help getting shopping, going to council because they are evil bastards, no shopping ooh typed that. Hmm no nature trails to get content for my blogs, no pictures and no videos either so that will now stagnate for god knows how long!

Jesus Christ how can life be so bloody frustrating and miserable and with so many things going wrong in such a short space of time?!

This keyboard I bought is crap, the Ubuntu operating system would not boot up and god knows how many other items I own that play up have done so today.

Ohh yeah the Blogger Android app refuses half the time to publish and a couple hours ago after a took some pictures on the phone of the axle that is split in two the damn BLOOGER APP refused POINT BLANK to publish around thirty times?!

I am uninstalling if off my phone, it really is utter garbage and is a complete waste of my time and energy. I do not want to take pictures for a post and then type it all out only to have ot fail time after time. Such a waste of time, energy and money, lol.

I need a vacation!!

Sheesh I am going to take several pain killers to take the edge off....um lots of edges off..