Fare the well, my bottom bracket. You’ve carried me over 24,000 miles according to my speedometer. Up and down the mountains, across a muddy gully. You never failed, you never grumbled.

With a big spanner, an enormous lever made of a bike top tube, and stubborn groans, that old bracket came loose and finally departed the Golden Pegasus.

Actually, the old piece was still more than functional, it was a actually another piece of the bike that made this bracket redundant.

I photographed it because this humble bit of mechanics is a marvel of engineering. 24,000 miles is almost the circumference of Planet Earth. The bike was second hand when I got it, so may have done more. This sturdy bit of metal never failed once, and carried me on many adventures.