I was out on a ride Sunday afternoon and passed someone who had his bike turned upside-down in the grass with the front wheel removed. I asked if he had everything he needed for the repair, and the gesture I received in response was an extended flat hand, wiggled side to side to suggest "sort of".
I did a quick U-turn to help out, since I had tire levers, a patch kit and pump - I also had a spare tube, but it wouldn't have been any use with his tire size. He explained that he had all the required items but couldn't get the tire off of the rim. His first mistake was not letting out as much air as possible to relieve all tension from the wire bead, and after that I made pretty quick work of the removal with his levers.
He was very thankful, and I commented that the hundreds of times I had performed tire changes made stopping to help no trouble at all. Wouldn't you know it...just a few miles down the road - pssssssst, I get a flat of my own. You have to be kidding me!!
Makes me wonder what would have happened had I just waved at the guy and said, "You're on your own, dude!"
Not too much to report in the shop this week, except that the Prince frame arrived in great shape (although I have yet to work on building the bike) and that I was able to make a bike sale - yay! I also met a fella named Chris who was looking to upgrade some parts on his 2003 Lemond Alpe d'Huez.
I was amazed by the lightness of the steel bicycle, but I knew Reynolds 853 tubing was high-quality, race-worthy stuff! After some initial research on the bicycle, I was surprised, since it lacked any labels on the part, to find out the fork was carbon. I also found out the Lemond company had painted these bikes with an undercoat (in this case orange) that matches the decal set. Any scratch or chip to the frame will complement the color scheme!
I also finished application of the VeloCals to the Basso Gap frame. I think it looks pretty classy!
No comments :
Post a Comment