The settling in saga continues

So last night I discovered that the ‘electrics’ on my bike weren’t working. I have electronic gears with a small battery in the seatpost. Magic when it works. Disaster when it doesn’t – no gears.

I thought it looked a fairly simple fix – reinsert the plug into the battery (which a few weeks ago got pushed further up the into the tube so I can’t reach it). Checked out the bike shops. The nearest one has good reviews so I was there at 10am opening. Hmm. He’s never seen electric gears, has negligible English, and i suspect his reviewers all own old clunkers. His verdict: my transformer thing is kaput. But it’s got shimano on it so why  don’t I try this other shop (which was next on my list).

A much more professional looking outfit. Nice young man got it working almost immediately and confirmed nothing wrong with my charger. then we thought it might make things simpler in the future if  the battery could be moved down a bit. Big mistake. Not only couldn’t they move the battery but now the current only comes through  when everything is not done up. Sorry but there is nothing more he can do. Beyond his pay scale. But his whizz colleague will be in at 8 on Monday.

Ok. Off to Oringen to see if I can change my start time for Monday.

Mrs Sat nav is pretty good if you can give her a street. All we had for O-Ringen was the Sports Park. I tried one street. Before we got there, there are O-Ringen campers. Getting warm. Parked but this turned out to be the town swimming pool. Need to go further. Walked a while. Asked someone. Got the impression that it was a way to go. Ok, maybe I’ll move the car to where I thought it might be initially. Does that symbol mean a one way street? (Apparently no, but I didn’t risk it.) reckon I walked 2 km. And it was hot! It shouldn’t be this hard! Maybe I could just go home now!

their equivalent of the Final Bulletin is the size and shape of the local paper. 100 pages (incl adverts) and all in Swedish. Last time I was here there was an English version. Now all the English  is online but not in this detail.

The nice man in the office wasn’t busy. He went though the travel and parking arrangements with me. And they said they’d ring back if they could do a later start time. Which they did (and all times have changed. ) So I came home to study the Swedish. Feeling happier about all that. Now I just need a bike to ride. And the only warm up I’ll get will be on the way to the start!