At a shop I used to work at, we had an old guy that worked in the back. He had been there for years, and knew a lot about old bikes, but drank a lot and was rude to customers, so eventually he was put out of sight. One day I heard him cursing something and went back to see what it was. He was assembling a piece of fitness equipment, and when I asked him what was wrong, he told me “the damn holes don’t line up”. Apparently, the 2 pieces were made in separate places or something and just didn’t quite line up, thus rendering the assembly process impossible. I still remember that quote today when I am working on something that doesn’t quite fit correctly (quite common in the bicycle industry) I think his quote can also apply to life- sometimes things just go smoothly and “the holes just line up”.
Work went pretty smoothly today. Repairs all got done in a reasonable amount of time and nothing gave me any hassles. Only one customer of note. I don’t know what his name is, but he had called us many times before about a tire for his recumbent. Finally, about 2 months ago, he bought one, and today he called again to tell me that it had a hole in it. I told him over the phone that he would need to bring in the tire for us to look at and while he was at it, to bring in the whole wheel so I could determine the cause of the flat or replace it if needed. About an hour later, a guy came in, wheel in hand and said “here”. I realized this was the guy who had called earlier, but I had to ask him what the problem was, since the tire was currently fully inflated. He told me that it had a hole in it. I checked the tire over, and found a few small cuts in the tread, but nothing abnormal, so I asked him if he wanted me to change the tube, to which he replied “what?” I repeated myself, thinking that he hadn’t heard me, but his response then told me he was just being difficult. After a few more exchanges of words, we were at a stalemate. He wanted to know why there was a hole in the tire that he bought 2 months ago, and I had already told him several times that he had run over something. The tire was not currently flat, and so there was obviously nothing wrong with the tires’ casing. He got angry and started to leave while I was in the middle of explaining that, so I stopped mid- sentence, waved to him, and said “OK, see you later”. It usually irritates me when people interrupt me while I’m explaining something to them, but I really didn’t mind this time. I found it rather humorous that he couldn’t stick around for what I had to say. Later on, he called and complained to Matt about the whole thing, but Matt told him pretty much the same thing- what could we do? The guy bought a tire, went out and rode it, ran over something and apparently developed a slow leak. This was something akin to the kid that came in a few weeks ago, bought a tube, installed it incorrectly, punctured the tube, then came back in and wanted his money back. I’m sorry, but we are not in the business of replacing items that you break through normal wear or just plain stupidity. If you take a car and back over the bike you just bought from us, we will not replace it either. Sorry! Soon it was 6, and the Monday mountain bike ride was great: nice weather, good trail conditions and lots of fun. I even managed to take a ridiculous header at the entrance of the North trail at a very slow speed. Everyone was behind me, and really enjoyed seeing me make an idiotic mistake and not get hurt. What I think happened was this: I was entering the trail, when someone yelled that they were stopping. I slowed down to a crawl, and looked back to see what was going on, couldn’t see, and when I looked back, I was on top of a couple of logs laying about a wheelbase length apart. I pulled up to clear the first log, lost most of my momentum and put the front wheel in the trough between the two logs. Next, my back wheel came up and continued to rise, until it was about even with my head, and then I fell over sideways. A little inattention at the wrong moment at slow speed. I guess it could be worse, since I only got a little scratch on my knee. Later on, I went to my Grandmothers house, since she was having a computer problem, and I told her I would look at it. She fed me dinner first, and within a few minutes of trying I had the problem apparently remedied. Not sure what all I did, but it was working again when I left, so you might call it luck, but I called it fixed. Also she gave me some really good peaches when I left. I didn’t even know peaches were in season yet, but they were really good. I ate them both within an hour of getting home. In all, a pretty damn good day. I guess the holes just happened to line up.
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