Farewell to the Rainbow Pig

A couple of weekends ago I went for a ride in the Cotswolds with an assorted group of internet-abusing cycling nerds. Surprisingly, I wasn't always left behind in spite of their impressive physiques and new shiny bikes. Instead of the semi-defunct singlespeed, I took my ancient(ish) orange 1997 Norco Bomber.

But on one bouncy, twisty, rooty downhill section, I felt a spray of liquid on my calf. Looking down, I saw that they shock-absorber from my bike was spraying fluid from a leak, and I felt that the bike lost its rear suspension. The bike's eleven years old now; I bought the frame second-hand while on holiday in Whistler in 1998. In spite of emailing the manufacturers of the shock absorber and their agents in the UK, it seems like it's irreparable, so that's the end for the bike. It has a serious design fault, anyway, which splits the cup in which the blank end of the shock absorber fits. I've bodged it together with a Jubilee clip, but it's not ideal. Norco recognised that fault, and in 2003 they sent me a replacement free of charge, but I never got around to fitting it as I thought that the same would only happen again.

And why did I name it the Rainbow Pig?

It's because I fitted parts from my spares bin to the frame to get it up and running quickly, and I didn't worry about its appearance. Although it's not immediately apparent in this photo, at one time it had the orange frame, yellow forks, green mudguard, blue bottle, a red saddle and purple bars. The closest I could get to indigo was the peacock of the saddle-bag. Pretty, it wasn't, but it did the job. And now the bike's defunct. It's a shame, as it was a fun bicycle: probably the only one of its kind in the UK.


:o(