Everyone on that ride has adhered to the oath of secrecy, but I guess I'm free to describe my own stupidity, and the incredible good fortune that saved us at least 50 miles of extra riding on Day 1 of Riv Rally East 2012.
The stupidity part: 1. Knowing my son Hank, who was riding a long ride for the first time, didn't have anything approaching an appropriate bike, I built up a SimpleOne frame for him the night before the ride began. 2. As a result, we had no opportunity to test ride the bike. 3. On the GAP trail, at least 20 miles from any bike shop, Hank said, "My left pedal seems wobbly." 4. We stopped, I began to examine the pedal, and the left crank arm fell off in my hand... 5. ...because the crank bolt, which I had in my haste the night before apparently failed to tighten, had fallen out -- not in situ, but somewhere back along the 20 miles we had just covered. The "luck is not always the residue of design" part: 1. At Hank's suggestion, we started walking back down the trail in the direction we'd come from (with me muttering that it was a stupid idea), and actually found the crank bolt lying on the ground about 1/2 mile up the trail. Eureka! Except... 2. ...my tools did not include the necessary Allen wrench required to reinstall the crank bolt. 3. No problem! Just as we arrived back at the wounded bike, a convoy of Boy Scouts on bikes pedaled by, with their leader at the rear. Seeing our distress, he stopped, was told the problem, and volunteered that he had a "full toolkit", including a variety of crank-related wrenches. He found the right one, we used it on our miraculously recovered crank bolt, and -- voilà -- we were on our way. I still recall Steve P shaking his head that night at dinner at the dumb luck of some people. But I now (a) tighten every bolt on my bike(s) before leaving on a long ride, and (b) always have a crank bolt wrench in my toolkit. Live and learn. -----Original Message----- From: Steve Palincsar [mailto:palin...@his.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 4:53 PM To: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com Cc: Allingham II, Thomas J (WIL) Subject: Re: [RBW] Re: Dancing Around the Lugged Steel Maypole On 12/18/2013 04:22 PM, Bill Lindsay wrote: > Noted. Thank goodness spokes, 1/4" ball bearings and crank extractors > do grow on trees. At least Mother Nature provides for us some of what > we need. ROTFL! Apropos of Mother Nature providing, ask Thomas Allingham about crank bolts on the GAP. I'm not sure the story's been told here, and so, it certainly bears repetition. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **************************************************** To ensure compliance with Treasury Department regulations, we advise you that, unless otherwise expressly indicated, any federal tax advice contained in this message was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or applicable state or local tax law provisions or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related matters addressed herein. **************************************************** **************************************************** This email (and any attachments thereto) is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email (and any attachments thereto) is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error please immediately notify me at (212) 735-3000 and permanently delete the original email (and any copy of any email) and any printout thereof. Further information about the firm, a list of the Partners and their professional qualifications will be provided upon request. **************************************************** ============================================================================== -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
