Bloody transport companies, I've had email arguments with both National Express and Megabus about taking animals on board their coaches, I have (had one then) ferrets but they are a very strict NO because CAGED animals become stressed and dangerous and scare the other passengers. Uh huh. I even offered to buy him his own seat and sit at the back where nobody would have seen him, even if he musked it wouldn't have smelt worse than the toilets on those things. Lucky I'll rarely need a coach anymore. I smuggled him on once but it wasn't fair on him so I'd never do that again, I just had to get that coach and had only just found out about the no animal thing.
My ferret sleeps the whole journey on trains, I don't know what official train policy is but every member of staff I've come across has loved him and my cat years ago when I moved him from Preston to Essex.
Little rant there, back on topic, I think I know of a local area I can have a good ride around to get used to corners and things. I fell off a few times, once into a bush/tree but I've been having much worse injuries than that lately. The seller was giving me push starts at first I felt like a little kid riding without stabilisers for the first time, heh.
I've never met the downstairs neighbour(s), I think I was here first and I've only been here a month. Thing is though I put the bike at the bottom of the stairs where they have no reason to go since their door is immediately infront of the main door. Maybe they've kept the bike in the flat, saw mine and thought "well if someone else is going to do it then so will I" but it's going to make it difficult for me to get out now I'll have to move their bike out the way.
As for locks, I quickly bought a "spiral" lock from round the corner, it has a piece you bolt onto the bike and then stick an end through a hole in that and it has a key to unlock. That'll fit round the pipe I was going to attach to but I think I'd had to face the bike forwards to fit that piece on. The shop had some mega **** off chains but that wont go round the pipe but I suppose I could use it in other places. Anyone ever get their bike fiddled with when "parked" in towns or do people generally ignore bike racks? Especially round here where they out number the cars in town.
I'm hoping there's still some space going in the lockable areas at uni, I have no idea where some of them are but I don't really mind. I'll print out the application form and hand it in tomorrow, I'm not ready to ride to uni yet but if I have to be put on a waiting list then it's a good idea to get it in now. I'll ask them to point out on the map where the places are, there's about 5 different onces around campus.
If TW Bents is a make I'll take your word for it, nothing stopping me emailing him and asking anyway when I'm doing the insurance forms. I'm still waiting for my letting agency to get back to me about some other things I needed answering that make a difference. I haven't actually bothered with insurance for years but it's worth it for the bike alone and I was robbed (and beaten up in my house) last year in Sheffield so it's worth it. Plus I plan to stay in this flat for a while and stop moving around.
I'll have a look at motobike covers as well.
