Dear Ray et al,
Ray Homiski recently posted about finding an unusual large amount of steel shot-blasting powder, etc. inside his vintage Herse.
" . . . To my surprise I saw inside the BB shell between the two bearing cartridges a load of what I can only describe as tiny metal spheres the size of poppy seeds. I mean there was a bunch of them in there. It was packed with them. I carefully removed the one side cartridge and brushed them into a plastic bag. I then tapped out the other bearing and brushed out more. I then took a flashlight and saw even more packed in the chainstays, seat tube and downtube. I took a wooden dowel and pushed from the top of the seat tube and out came more spheres and a wad of brown crepe paper. My guess is that the paper was used to prevent them from going up the seat tube. I then explored the downtube from inside the BB and found another wad of the same paper that I also removed. Like the last one it was clean at the top but dirty as it prevented these spheres from traveling up the tube. . . "
Hmm . . . as a long-time bike mechanic I was struck by how none of youse guys on the list even thought to bring up the possibility that a disgruntled mechanic perhaps might have put the heavy greased-up shot blast material up inside the frame as a sort of "pay back" for a rude or arrogant customer's attitude. The way the stuff was purposely held in place behind greased up paper wadding also seems to be designed to keep the bike's owner from easily finding out just why their fine machine now feels so heavy. <G>
Now don't get me wrong, I truly do not think that this is a nice or rational way for a mechanic to act towards a customer, regardless of how nasty they might be. The more mature and proper way to respond is to simply ask the customer to please leave and take their business (and aggravation) elsewhere.
This is usually best done immediately after you have surreptitiously placed a few 1/8" ball bearings inside the top tube to act as a "ringer". <G>
Hmmm . . . I wonder how that got in there ????
Mike Fabian
San Francisco