My younger brother was a willing guinea pig in several bike experiments, including, of course, the plywood ramp at the bottom of a large hill. "You go first," I said, and he did. His knee was banged up quite badly and took the rest of the summer to heal.
Another time we were riding side-by-side through a parking lot where I figured there was plenty of room for me to steer his bike along with mine. "Let go," I said, and he did. Wham.
Lastly, I had given him the sage advice of avoiding the back brake to prevent skidding, thereby adding life to his rear tread. In that same parking lot he got himself up to a nice fast speed and slammed on the front brake. You don't believe a bike will flip over a rider until you see it.
Hey, we were young!
Best, Andrew Musselman Seattle, WA
On 7/2/07, Sarah Gibson <sadiejane9@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> ok how many pounds-collectively
> of knuckle tissue
> have we together left
> on chainwheels?
> peace
> sarah-loadsoftinyknuckelescars-gibson
> acmebicyclecompanykansascitymissourinofloodingthankfully
>
>
>
> ** __@
> ** = \<._
> *** (_)/ (_)
>
>
>
> "Dream like you'll live forever,
> live like you'll die today."
> James Dean
>
>
>
>
>
> From: "Charles Andrews" <chasds@mindspring.com>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Subject: [CR]re: rite of passage
> Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 11:22:05 -0700
>
> Man...there are so many.
>
> There's the time I adjusted that guy's bike when I was working at a shop
> to help pay my way through college.. I was sure I'd attended to
> everything. But the guy was back later that day. He'd shifted the rear
> derailleur right into his rear-wheel. My boss was apoplectic. With
> good reason. Although to this day I'm not convinced it was my fault.
> it was a Simplex Criterium after all, and those were notorious for going
> out of adjustment if you looked at them too long.
>
> then there was the time I slit a finger wide open on a wire bead...you
> know about that. Another job in the shop, working too fast, not being
> careful. I bled all over everything. The bead was exposed...Ugh.
>
> I think my favorite, though, was when I was assembing a bike for a
> friend, more recently, and trying to get what was absolutely marked as a
> swiss bb fixed cup into a Mondia bb shell. I spent over an hour trying
> to get the damned thing in, constantly screwing and unscrewing...it was
> really tight. Finally, exhausted, I gave up... next day I come to find
> out I had bought one of those rare bb cup sets for worn or stripped bb
> shells...campagnolo made these slightly oversized. A lovely product. I
> just wish I had understood the cryptic stamping on the cup that would
> have cued me to what it was.
>
> Charles Andrews
> Los Angeles