Mark Szeliga Szolkowski's Blog

The A-bike group met up with Sir Clive Sinclair and Alex Kalogroulis at the weekend.

There are some pictures up on Flickr, or here as a slideshow.

Labels: Alex Kalogroulis, Sinclair A-bike, Sir Clive Sinclair

Garry Wright from A-Bike Central recently invited me to contribute to the blog, and I made my first post there tonight about my ride today accompanying Ruth & Lucy on Ruth's bike.

Labels: A-bike central, Sinclair A-bike

I spent most of the weekend either popping into Sale on my A-bike or playing Fun Park. For a 16k game it's great!

I think I've managed to get to the point though where there are no more developments to be made in terms of rides/attractions so I might have to start a new game..

Labels: Cronosoft, Jonathan Cauldwell, Sinclair A-bike, Sinclair ZX Spectrum

My Dad came over in his C5 tonight to watch the return leg of Man Utd v Lille in the Champions' League. Afterwards, I rode up to the top of my road with him on my A-bike. The original lights on his C5 look plenty bright enough. He'll probably get some LED bulbs from Mark at C5 Alive as spares, but with a leisure battery and the range he gets out of it I don't think he'll be in any major hurry to upgrade.

Labels: Man Utd, Manchester United, Sinclair A-bike, Sinclair C5

I had to come home from work at lunch time today so that I could take Lucy to the doctor's - she's had a high temperature for a few days and started coughing last night, but this morning she started developing white ulcers on her tongue so with it being the weekend, and how badly she came down with chicken pox, it was decided for me that I should get her in for a second opinion.

Anyway, while I haven't been able to go out on it due to looking after her, my A-bike has arrived and I've managed to put it up! I need a bit more practice with the folding procedure but it does seem fairly straight forward. I had a quick go in the garden and it felt a little wobbly at first but OK once you get a bit of speed up. The brakes seem to work fine, except there was a metallic rubbing sound from the back end. At first I thought it was the chain mechanism, but eventually traced it to the washer that helps hold the rear brake cable in place: it was rubbing against the rim of the rear wheel.

I loosened the nut and tried to get the brake band to move away a little but had no luck. I also tried undoing the two torque bolts (as also done here) but to no avail. I resorted to loosely putting a cable tie on to hold the cable slightly outwards and it's worked a treat. I might have another go sometime at doing it properly, but I really can't be bothered sending it back for somebody else to do. Pity though.

Labels: folding bicycle, Sinclair, Sinclair A-bike, Sir Clive Sinclair