If it walks like a duck...

It looks like a duck, it sounds like a duck, it's a...

Du'h!

Which is what I felt like this afternoon. I spent a couple of hours with my neighbour today, chatting, drinking coffee and messing around with the bike. We were testing the gears trying to work out what the best combination was for going uphill. I then went up the hill to see if the practice matched the theory.

The problem is that I've still got problems with changing gears, I often forget that it needs a couple of revs before the gear clicks, so it was a bit tricky 'cos I kept switching without giving it time to adjust. Which also meant I kept losing my balance and bumping into bits of road, pavement, parked cars and the likes. At some point I got the hang of it just enough to cycle a few hundred yards without toppling over, and this is when I heard "the noise". I could hear it coming from the front wheel and I could feel it vibrate through the handle bars. I kept getting on and off the bike, pushing it back and forth trying to look at the wheel but I couldn't see anything. And yet every time I picked up a bit of speed, there it was: "wrack, wrack, wrack". So I started worrying that maybe something had gotten loose and if I kept cycling the wheel would come off and I'd end up splattered all over the road, or under a bus, or head down in some nearby bush; I had this gory horror movie in my head of how my cycling exploits were going to be cut short due to a loose screw or something. So I went to the shop and explained the problem to the guy, telling him I was worried blah blah blah. He lifted the front of the bike from the handle bars, simply gave the wheel a spin with his other hand and said: oh, it's the mudguard touching the tyre.

Ooopsie! You mean my horror movie star career is not going to happen???

I thanked him and walked out with Ginevra, trying not to look like the prat I felt like!