![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/2021-11th-Sept-Raleigh-servicing-Leo-and-Richard-scaled-e1635172683881-1024x768.jpg\")
By Patricia Logullo<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I came to Oxford as a University employee in 2018 and fell in love with the city. I am from the biggest, most polluted Brazilian city, S\u00e3o Paulo. There, I needed to go everywhere by car \u2014 I was lucky enough to afford one \u2014 but I always wanted to walk and cycle more. However, safety is a huge problem in S\u00e3o Paulo: you can be robbed (at gunpoint), and the traffic is crazy. There is no infrastructure for cycling \u2014 there are some cycle lanes, but those are not segregated and only link the richest neighbourhoods, so workers still have to come from peripheral areas to work in the centre by bus. Commuting takes 2 to 4 hours every day for everyone in a car or bus. The car is just more comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Oxford, I was lucky enough to rent a room from someone who is herself a keen cyclist. She had two abandoned bikes in her shed \u2014 one old Raleigh and one mountain bike \u2014 and suggested I used them to go to work. The last time I had cycled regularly was when I was a teenager, but I decided to give it a try. My landlady, now my friend, guided me on how to cycle in Oxford, I had the mountain bike repaired and started cycling to work every day. I felt strong and free like never before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When my husband came to Oxford, we moved to another flat and I was allowed to take the beautiful old Raleigh with me too (for space in the shed it seems)! I am forever grateful to this friend for having re-introduced me to cycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I cycled a lot with the purple mountain bike, but I wanted something with room for groceries, so in 2019 I bought an urban female bike with a big pannier for groceries and my son bought another bike for himself. However, both new bikes were stolen, although double locked, from outside our house. It was the beginning of the pandemic, and bike prices had skyrocketed. So we decided to recycle the old bikes. I had both kindly serviced by a volunteer, who was helping to get more people on bikes during the pandemic (especially health workers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The old Raleigh, though, was difficult to put back into shape. Its Sturmey Archer hub gear was not working at all and it was not totally safe: the gears were still failing to change and disengaging completely sometimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n