The bicycle has been road tested.

I am not dead.

I do, however, remember why I stopped cycling as I got older. People who drive cars are self-absorbed and rude. I jammed on my brakes for an idiot who ran a stop sign because he didn’t see another car coming (I didn’t count, apparently); I jammed on my brakes because someone opened a car door in front of me; and I jammed on my brakes because someone pulled away from the curb in front of me. All this from going around the block after I filled the tyres with air. (Twenty-five cents! They charged me twenty-five cents to put air in my tyres!)

My back brakes are working. There are a few whirrs and clicks, and the gears change when they’ve given my gear shift a bit of consideration, and I have to secure the rear reflector properly, but I have a functional bicycle. Hurrah!