Showing posts with label logistics firms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label logistics firms. Show all posts

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Getting The Message But Not The Parcels...









Tuesday 2nd saw me meeting the CEO of a small scale bike brand outside Bermondsey tube station. Never one to waste a few minutes, armed with trusty workhorse Sony Alpha SLR, I snapped these working fixers/single speeds shackled obediently to nearby stands.

Moments later my host arrived and whisked me off to a classically authentic and highly hospitable Italian cafĂ©’ restaurant several streets away. Six hours hence, our meeting drew to a mutually favourable conclusion and I re-joined the sea of equally purposeful commuters, weaving through platforms and cramming themselves sardine fashion into a slowing procession of tube carriages.

Dark by 1500hrs, tis the season for day glow overshoes and potent dynamos. Those genuinely unique and capable Shower’s Pass covers fit in a flash and are one of the few readily compatible with broader street-styled shoes (although you’ll need to cut their sole to accommodate recessed cleats).

While belting along the back roads aboard the Univega, its rear wheel began an ominous “self-destruct” symphony some ten miles from home, announcing its oft maligned M475 freehub needed emergency strip and rebuild surgery.

Aside from regular cassette replacements, sporadic skewer greasing and generic polishing; mine has been fending for itself these past 5,000miles. New bearings, Teflon based grease and freehub body hence; we’re sorted for another year or so.

Despite my best efforts, one of the front hoop’s stainless spokes has succumbed badly to the salt monster’s slimy, caustic tongue, thus necessitates replacement sometime in the New Year-before it “twangs” unexpectedly.

I fully intend to upgrade the tubby tourer’s cheap but relatively cheerful Aheadset in favour of something better sealed and with higher quality cartridge/needle roller bearings.

These distribute loads much better than standard balls, thus wear slower and run buttery smooth. Sadly, Woodman’s Saturn (Fitted to Holdsworth and Teenage Dream) is no longer in production. A Tange needle roller and Stronglight annular unit, both giving change from £25 have caught my eye.

Decathlon opened its latest store in Harlow last week and I was lucky enough to get a press invite. More famous for its cycle museum and college of Journalism, I hadn’t been to the town for over twenty years, although the retail park was easily found.

Smaller than some, there was still plenty to see. I am particularly taken with their (in house) Btwin clothing range-especially their mid/upper end 500 and 700 series. Hopefully, I’ll have some samples and their junior series for testing early in 2015.

Christmas is one of the busiest periods for logistics companies with ever greater demands being met by a reserve army of seasonal labour. However, two, maybe three consignments of relatively valuable test kit have mysteriously “vanished” in the past six weeks.

One carrier had the cheek to record these as delivered (and signed for!) suggesting they’re helping themselves and/or running a lucrative side line-might  have a gander on the auction sites later..

Having served as a seasonal dobbin at various points, I have witnessed boxes containing flat screen plasma TVs, lightweight bicycle frames and other fragile items launched shot-putter fashion across warehouses and slammed into wire mesh cages.

A wonder we receive anything, let alone in serviceable condition. Interestingly and in keeping with other un/semi-skilled production/assembly line contexts, you’ll meet the nicest and nastiest ends of humanity.

I’ve noticed close parallels with the sentiments expressed by men working the line at Ford’s Halewood plant in Huw Beynon’s 1970s study “Working for Ford”.  “They’re all working here but they’re just really hanging around, waiting for something to turn up…” Hmm, haven’t seen a set of Tenn Gloves, Overshoes too by any chance folks?



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