It's all lies!

We were at Sheldon School in Chippenham this week where we did a Dr Bike.  The weather was cold sunny and dry which brought out Sheldon's cyclist and we had a full day of brakes and gear fixing.

Nick servicing a Bike a Sheldon School

No sign of Josh's wooden bike which he is keeping under wraps.

With this event came the news that our tenure at the Community Centre will be terminated on the 14th May.  To be comfortable we need to be out two weeks prior to that date at the start of May giving us 6 weeks to find a new place and move.
There is not much to go on however, we have made some more connections and the word is getting out.  We have embarked on bike selling programme hoping to clear the decks before the deadline.  There are three on ebay at the moment.  We seen to sell at least 5 a week to clear all bikes.  We will keep the best frames and all the components however most of the wheels will have to go.

Saturday was a good day with a steady throughput of customers.  At and end Ken came in to show us his latest build, a Reynolds 931 stainless steel bike which he has just built.  It oozes quality fitted with main Campag, Planet X and SRAM kit having given up on the dream of it being all British.  Hay even the Hope bearings are made in Japan.  Ken will be riding it up Mt Ventoux on it this year so lookout for him.

Ken's latest Build - Reynolds 931 Stainless

The was also a chap from Trowbridge to told us that Campag 9 STis work with 8 speed shimano cassette and he was riding a bike that had the arrangement to prove it.  He has been in the trade and he knew what he was talking about.  We will try this soon.

I went to see 'The Armstrong Lie' at the Pound on Saturday along with most of Chippenham Wheelers.  It was a sell out.  It's a documentary about Lance Armstrong who won and then was stripped of 7 Tour De France wins.  It reminded me of 'Breaking Bad' series where a Chemistry teacher who is hitting 50, has to supplement his lack lustre career by working at a car wash, is then diagnosed with incurable cancer and so decides to 'cook' Crystal Meth to supplement his income without telling his family including his brother-in-law policemen.
The story becomes tail of control, power and manipulation, not about money, where 'Walt' the main character, takes on a new persona as a driven gangster prepared to kill and control people in order to keep the truth from getting out.  This is also Lance's story, albeit without the guns, where in order to keep the performance enhancing drug taking a secret, he manipulates, bullies, threatens and does everything in his considerable power to exert control.  Old Friends and colleagues become the victims as it gets increasing more difficult to control events.
The film is compelling and well worth seeing,  I'll certainly see it again.