Bicycles
About 2 or 3 years ago I bought the first bicycle I have owned for 20 years. It was a cheap pseudo mountain bike thing from Carrefour and cost 100 Euros. It was OK, a little small for me but it worked. I used it that year, enjoyed it and lost a lot of weight. I got even more handsome, if you can imagine such a thing. Then the old bike fell in to disuse, as due to the stress involved in opening my bar and dealing with the tosser of a business partner I have, didn't leave me with enough will-power to ride it in to work in the morning.

So earlier this year I decided I needed more inspiration and I bought a new one. It is basically a European spec Dahon Matrix by any other name. Bought from www.rabbit.de but via e-bay rather than the Rabbit site, where they for some reason sell the things for an awful lots less money. Anyway it is a folding aluminium hardtail mountain bike with an assortment of average bits and bobs, gear mechanism and controls from Shimano's leisure bike range. Truvativ crankset, average wheels etc. But basically an excellent frame that folds with usable stuff on it.

Initially I changed the twistgrip gear shifters as I'm not a fan of them. A couple more bits and I went upgrade crazy. Now it has 2005 Deore LX front and rear mechs, dual control levers, Deore bottom bracket and crankset and some ĂƒÂźber cool WH-M540 wheels which don't appear to have enough spokes to hold the rims away from the hubs.

I have gone through a bunch of different pedals trying to find the ones I like best and currently fitted are a pair of Time ATAC carbons that a friend lent me. They take a while getting used to and unlike Shimano clipless pedals there is no tension adjustment. It is very easy to fall off with them as you fail to unclip. I'll give them a little longer before switching back to either flat pedals or Speedplay Frogs.

My local bike shop in Spain is great, if I see something on e-bay in Hong Kong for a great price, I tell them, they beat the price and will fit the bits no charge if I don't want to get my hands dirty.

Of course, all the parts liberated have gone to upgrade my old bike, which as it is so much less stealable and has had so many upgrades, is now rather nice to ride and my new bike sees a lot less action than it should.