We joined a group of parents to help build a set of bike sheds for a primary school. Sounds easy but they are heavy, complicated, and require many hands to put together.

One unanticipated problem was the awful smell on the plexiglass sheets which had been left out in the rain (words cannot describe - but it smelt worse than the nearby Hackney City Farm).

Louise had helped disassemble the bike sheds from the previous location and was determined to see the task through. After many hours and lots of swearing the sheds were complete. We celebrated afterwards with bagels and bubble tea.

Five intrepid GoodGym regulars travelled across the dusty plains of London Town to meet this morning at St. Dominic’s School in Homerton.

The task was mammoth as was the double Broxap Shelter complete with four lockers, the heaviest sliding doors, the curviest Perspex, and two enormous Sheffield toast rack bicycle stands. We donned our trusty gloves and got to work, helping Bea and her team dismantle, label, and haul (with care) the 1tonne bike shed up the ramps, over the fences and eventually on to the 7.2 Daly truck.

Once the second truck-load was ready to depart Emma jumped back on her trusty steed and cycled home. With incredible will-power (fuelled by lemon drizzle cake, coffee and plenty of water) Audrey, Jack, Louise, and Md made their way to the afternoon task at Sebright Primary School in Haggerston to unload the rack and put it all back together.

Lending their hands for the second part of this Bike Shed thriller, Sooz and Matt should be commended for their diligent patience. They were left twiddling their thumbs for a good part of an hour as the dismantling overran. Maybe the timings were over-optimistic given the shed’s size…

Meanwhile, en route fast from the dismantling, Bike Shed originals Audrey, Louise and Md blitzed a sweaty scenic run through Victoria Park whilst Jack lazily took a lift in one of the vans - enjoying the A/C and eating cake whilst doing so, probably.

When the truck finally arrived at the school we carefully worked in teams to lift, manoeuvre and place down the heavy pieces in an organised fashion. Our work mirrored an Ikea instruction manual on the playground.

The trickiest part was moving the perspex roof covers, which bent and wobbled, teasing us that they might crack and make all our work in vain. It took all of us and some chuckle-brotheresque communication skills (to me, to you) to slide them off of the truck’s footbed and stack them daintily on top of each other.

By the time we had unloaded and organised the pieces it was sadly time up for the gang. With no time left to reassemble we vowed to fight another day should we get the call from the parents in need.

The Bike Shed saga, to be continued…