One man's lousy is another man's lofty goal.
Sometimes it takes an unexpected event to make you realize exactly where you stand in the line.
A neighbor who I've been dragging along with me once or so per week for my Sunday cool down ride was with me yesterday. He was on his new bike. He doesn't know much about cycling yet but he's having fun and he's pretty strong for a new cyclist. He flatted. We pulled over and he says to me ( of course ), "I bet you're a lot better at this than me! I've never changed a tire before." I'm thinking "it figures"...argh.
So I started yanking his wheel off and pulled out my tire levers and in just a few surprising seconds I was asking for the spare tube - he was still wiping his brow. I surprised myself at how quickly I had pulled the tube out - hadn't really needed to do it in a while. I put the spare in and pulled the tire over the rim in no time too, that was another surprise - experience has taught me I guess. I then look to him - and he's holding his frame pump. Damn, I hate frame pumps. I tell him "you're doing the pumping!" and then realize he has not bought spare tubes with long stem valves for his aero rims - its just barely poking out and the frame pump won't go on it.
So I dig out my CO2 inflator and it works fine, it actually grabs the little nib of a valve stem, whooosh! And the tire is full, I put it back on and we're off. Total time, less than 5 minutes for sure, not a record breaker, but it was nice for once to see that someone else had confidence in me and I didn't let them down, and surprised myself in the process.
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Elivis needs boats.
Sometimes it takes an unexpected event to make you realize exactly where you stand in the line.
A neighbor who I've been dragging along with me once or so per week for my Sunday cool down ride was with me yesterday. He was on his new bike. He doesn't know much about cycling yet but he's having fun and he's pretty strong for a new cyclist. He flatted. We pulled over and he says to me ( of course ), "I bet you're a lot better at this than me! I've never changed a tire before." I'm thinking "it figures"...argh.
So I started yanking his wheel off and pulled out my tire levers and in just a few surprising seconds I was asking for the spare tube - he was still wiping his brow. I surprised myself at how quickly I had pulled the tube out - hadn't really needed to do it in a while. I put the spare in and pulled the tire over the rim in no time too, that was another surprise - experience has taught me I guess. I then look to him - and he's holding his frame pump. Damn, I hate frame pumps. I tell him "you're doing the pumping!" and then realize he has not bought spare tubes with long stem valves for his aero rims - its just barely poking out and the frame pump won't go on it.
So I dig out my CO2 inflator and it works fine, it actually grabs the little nib of a valve stem, whooosh! And the tire is full, I put it back on and we're off. Total time, less than 5 minutes for sure, not a record breaker, but it was nice for once to see that someone else had confidence in me and I didn't let them down, and surprised myself in the process.
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Elivis needs boats.