Vandalism

Day 264, Saturday 12 May 2018

I filled the Scottoilers on both my bikes a few days ago, and noticed that the breather tube on the adventure bike had been cut. The breather tube allows air into the Scottoiler to replace the oil as it is delivered to the chain. There’s an air filter on the end of the breather tube, but the tube will do its job so long as it is exposed to the atmosphere.

I can’t be sure when the tube was cut, as it’s been a couple of months since I filled the Scottoiler on that bike, but I probably would have noticed if it had been very long ago. My guess is that it would have been last Monday, when I parked the bike near a secondary school at a time when students were going home for the day. The cut is too clean to have been made by a flying stone or similar.

I cut a small length from a plastic straw and put the ends of the tube into it, then taped both ends with electrical tape, so the air filter is still part of the system. Today I popped in to see my mechanic, who confirmed that my makeshift repair was appropriate.

Distance travelled: 7 km. Total distance so far: 34,625 km