Impromptu Bike Surgery

[Twenty Inch]

Whizzing down Westmoreland Road yesterday, I saw a cove struggling up the hill on a ratty lookign Raleigh Banana. Now I have a soft spot for Bananas as that was my first racer and indeed I did my first triathlon on one.

Said cove was struggling painfully. He was wearing a suit, on the drops, with a rucksack in the back of his neck, and the handlebars so far down that he would have slipped off the brake hoods had he tried to rest on them. He couldn't look up, sideways or around.

So being a decent sort at heart, I swung around and caught up with. Asked whether he was in a hurry and did he want a bit of help setting his bike up. I gave him a few pointers as my little multi-tool wasn't up to undoing the bolt on his quill, and then we had a little chat about bikes in general.

Seem to be a lot of people - men, mostly - riding bikes that have obviously been at the back of the shed for 20 years or so. I hope some of them get into cycling enough to make their bikes comfortable and safe.

 

[Fnaar]

Nice one! Good deed for the day, and all that

 

[Twenty Inch]

You're not really Fnaar are you? Shouldn't you be making some sort of comment about "little multi-tool wasn't up to undoing the bolt on his quill" - that must have been painful/fun/difficult without lubrication or something?

 

[Fnaar]

Oh yeah, sorry! Erm... did you offer to tweak his nipples, or fiddle with his fixings?

 

[Twenty Inch]

That's better. Order has been restored. Carry on.

 

[Globalti]

I chased down a dolly bird on a MTB with the forks facing backwards and put them right for her. She told me her boyfriend had got the bike from ASDA and built it for her.

 

[Twenty Inch]

I chased down a dolly bird on a MTB with the forks facing backwards and put them right for her. She told me her boyfriend had got the bike from ASDA and built it for her.

Glad it's not just me handing out gratuitous bike maintenance at the side of the road.

 

[fossyant]

Well done -

I've sorted a couple of bikes recently - a few friend's kids bikes, which were down right dangerous (forks, brakes etc), and even stopped when flagged down by a poor guy on his rickety MTB (there is me in full kit, carbon shoes, looking like a right larry) - anyway - he's punctured, asked if I have a pump - I struggle to get any air into his tyre for a few minutes and say, this pump's not up to it for your bike's valve. Anyway he was grateful.

In my defence, I was in a rush to meet some other forumers, and as I've never used this pump with MTB valves before, the blooming plastic bit didn't drop out so I could get it to fit the valve - I'd flipped the rubber washer but..... oops....

PS learn how to fit and flip your pumps valves - got caught by this with my commuting pump - but MTB to road...... doh........