We only have room in the shed for one bike, and the space is taken by the touring bike that I got last year. My older hybrid used to live in the shed, but now it hangs on a rack round the side of the house. It's outside, but protected from the worst of the weather, and secured by a padlock and wire cable.
On Friday morning we discovered that overnight somebody had removed the cover, and lifted the bike off the rack. However, they must have been deterred by the lock, and the bike was still there, lying on the ground.
The bike wasn't visible from the street, and we are tucked away on a side road, out of the way of passing traffic. So it's a mystery what anyone was doing at the back of the house in the first place. Presumably they had come over the garden fence looking for a short-cut, seen the bike, and thought "I'll have that", before realising it was going to be more trouble than it was worth.
We keep the second bike for visitors, and I use it occasionally - such as when my main bike was in the shop for repairs. Most of the time it just hangs there gathering cobwebs. That seems a shame, so rather than just putting it straight back, I've cleaned it up today, checked it over, pumped up the tyres and taken it for a ride. It's the first time it's been out in months. After more than a year using a new bike the differences in the ride were obvious straight away, but it made a change, and I soon adapted. I'm probably kidding myself, but when I clean a bike I can usually convince myself that it is running particularly nicely.
I went a few miles out to Knowl Hill, looking for a few things that I knew need fixing on the OSM map, but more of that shortly. In the meantime I might not have made best use of both bikes over the last year, but I'm glad that I still have the option.
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