Wednesday
evening sometime in spring, 1998
© Darrell Noakes
I was on my way to our weekly club ride and noticed that my rear wheel was wobbling a bit. The shop had only built it a few weeks earlier, so I decided to drop in to see if they could true it before the ride.
We get a lot of novice cyclists on our Wednesday evening club rides, so I make sure I pack a first aid kit, spare clothing for rain and cold, extra tools and chain lube, big U-lock and cable (for the coffee and muffin break after the ride).
Neil, the regular wheel builder at the shop wasn't in, but one of their other regulars was there and promised I'd be back on the road inside of five minutes.
I offered to remove the panniers, but the mechanic just shook his head.
"This'll just take a minute," he said.
As he began to lift my bike onto the workstand, he said, "This is heavy! Whatta ya got in those panniers?"
One of the other staff, a kid who hadn't yet figured out which end of his ball cap faces front, cast his eyes up and down and along the length of my touring bike. His upper lip curled and he let out a sniff.
The look on his face told me what he was thinking: old fart on a ten-speed oughta getta mountain bike.
"Prob'ly the bike," he muttered.
I'd have smacked him with my U-lock, except the mechanic shot him a look that was a hundred times worse than the one he was getting from me.
Borealis
Outdoor Adventure
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