Wind

As we’ve hinted before, its wind that can turn an otherwise great day for a ride to work and back into an absolute nightmare. It can look lovely and sunny from the safety of behind a window, but getting out onto the roads is suddenly a fight all the way. Granted, sometimes the wind gets behind you and you sail along as if powered by an electric engine, but in London it always seems like the wind swirls round to face you, making every flat road feel like a hill and every hill feel like a mountain. The entire world feels blustery and irritable, drivers seem more intent on killing you, and all politeness goes out of the window. Even standing at traffic lights, lining up flamingo-like with a foot in the pedals and the other stretched down to the road, you get buffeted and bashed, worn down while you’re standing still and paranoid about every motorbike and car around you. The wind turns a pleasant cruise into a war, and leaves you in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

In that sort of mood you become especially annoyed by small things. For example, today I found myself wondering if anyone would ever really buy a bike from this man. It rang many alarm bells so I decided to check it out in the only way I knew, at least while not leaving my desk. I ran a quick search at Companies House and was disappointed to find out that it really was a registered company, albeit one for whom no accounts had ever been posted. Still suspicious I moved on to my second line of enquiry. Like a good TV detective I wasn’t going to let it lie, and my instincts told me that someone selling a range of bikes on a forum, claiming to be a major distributor living in England and shipping to the States, but with a tenuous grasp of English and a Hotmail or Yahoo email address might not be 100% above board. Maybe he has a large shop, or showroom, or even a warehouse bulging with “bicycle designed primarily for off road use” and perhaps his helpful description of what a mountain bike is would be helpful for someone wishing to buy a $1000 plus road or mountain bike. I did the internet equivalent of paying him a visit for some undercover surveillance from a discrete car parked locally, I visited Google maps.

Following a subtle but reliable lead to his address (reading it from the forum) I homed in on the operation to find the “Best Selling Bike Distributor” based in a residential street in Worcester:



My final check was also with Google. A quick internet search threw up some bike shops in Worcester, but none at the address given, or even with the same name. Happy with myself for busting open a world-wide scam, although not about to take it further, I relaxed into the rest of my day and decided to monitor any progress this bike seller might make. Intrigued, I also emailed showing an interest in one of the bikes, picking the Orange P7 as a reasonable middle ground. I shall update you with any progress.

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