Guardian Angel

Was riding through Bristol's less than beautiful suburbs on my way to the Bristol Auto Italia event when snap goes the Darmah's clutch cable: we've all been there, with that sinking bugger-there-goes-my-day feeling, as I coasted down a busy hill (it's still the A420 after all)and into a side road. Where to my utter gobsmakedness there's a bunch of bikers hovering outside a small workshop.

My guardian angel was truly on form - the workshop was home to Jim Mclean and Neil O'Dowd's Bike Care, the sort of old school bike shop I thought long gone. Despite a punishing MoT schedule Jim tried to find a suitable cable, but drawing a short straw made me one up. Turns out he's a Gilera and Morini fan, and has an MV 350 just like mine awaiting restoration. The crowd were top fun too - I especially like the Advisory note issued to a turquoise Honda: "Change the colour."

I still can't believe my luck - if the cable had broken a few hundred yards either way I'd have missed this perfect spot, and although I was an hour behind schedule, I've still got a warm and fuzzy feeling about the whole thing 24 hours later.