Don't let it put you off. What you have to understand is that this is general wear and tear caused by intensive use of the bike for commuting over a long period. I was resentful because I didn't have this kind of problem when I was commutnig in Edinburgh; it's only recently that it's sunk in that whereas in Edinburgh I did 4000 miles on two bikes, here I've done 6000 miles in the last five years on one single bike; totally 7500 miles since I was given the bike as a twelfth birthday present.

You wouldn't expect a car to be able to go on forever without needing servicing, and a bike's no different. But you have to use it a lot to cause it to wear out like this.

And it turns out my father misunderstood what I wanted of the bike shop in Newcastle, and merely got a general tightening of cables, etc, done, rather than a complete "MoT".