Check Your Nuts
No, not the testicular cancer campaign, although do check those too, if applicable.
Seeing as the strange noise my bike was making as I cycled to work turned out to be my pannier rack tipping bouncily sideways because the right-hand bolt had fallen out altogether, I thought I'd remind those of my flist who cycle that this might be a good point to make sure that all of their nuts and bolts are still holding on. If I hadn't checked, the next thing to fall off would have been the bracket holding my back light on. Oops.
I was quite grateful for the fact that I carry a cycling multi-tool - just a small one, with three hex keys, three sockets and a couple of screwdrivers - as that meant I could take a couple of minutes at work to fix my pannier rack (stealing a bolt from where my bottle cage would be if I had one) and tighten anything else that had worked loose. I'm pretty sure I could borrow a screwdriver at work if I had to but I'm less sure about a spanner or socket set.
Seeing as the strange noise my bike was making as I cycled to work turned out to be my pannier rack tipping bouncily sideways because the right-hand bolt had fallen out altogether, I thought I'd remind those of my flist who cycle that this might be a good point to make sure that all of their nuts and bolts are still holding on. If I hadn't checked, the next thing to fall off would have been the bracket holding my back light on. Oops.
I was quite grateful for the fact that I carry a cycling multi-tool - just a small one, with three hex keys, three sockets and a couple of screwdrivers - as that meant I could take a couple of minutes at work to fix my pannier rack (stealing a bolt from where my bottle cage would be if I had one) and tighten anything else that had worked loose. I'm pretty sure I could borrow a screwdriver at work if I had to but I'm less sure about a spanner or socket set.