What Else Don’t I Know About

I have to say that my ass is sure sore tonight. No Brian, I didn’t spend the night in the drunk tank or at the bus station, but thanks for the vote of confidence.

No, today I went out for a short test ride of the new bike and it turned into a 33 kilometre trip out of town. The bike performed really well, but I can’t say the same for the seat. In fact, I don’t mind saying that the seat was a pain in the ass. There is something to the idea of switching bicycle seats from bike to bike so that your ass has a friendly place to call home.

 

I was wondering why the changing of bike seats isn’t one of those things that everyone knows about. Part of the problem is that different manufacturers use different sized tubing for the seat posts. Some are canted a little more in one direction than the next post. Also, all seats don’t have the same method of attaching to the post. They are mostly the same, but higher end bikes have higher end parts and are made for swapping out. It just occurred to me that the reason this isn’t one of those bits of common knowledge; is that a good portion of the population only have one bike at a time.

WOW! That makes sense now. I guess what doesn’t make much sense is why most people only have one bike. Sometimes you feel like riding the mountain bike and other times the ten speed would be best. I have a ladies racing bike, but that is for parting out when I get around to it. You need a spare mountain bike just in case. The bike with the banana seat is actually Brendan’s, but I don’t think that he is ever going to want it again. There is one of those come along bikes that I picked up on spec a few years ago and I don’t think I will ever use it. Probably should sell it so that someone can get some use out of it. I bought a Rollfast Overland bike which is from the forties and one day I intend to get it back on the road, but for now it resides up in the rafters of the garage. Kind of like a mechanical Phantom of the garage, hanging over my head and ready to drop at any minute.

There was another thing that I learned today. I just don’t know everything! It’s true! No, really!

Quite a few years ago now I took a class on how to sharpen shop tools. Having sharp tools is really important and this is a class that I paid attention in. Since then, I have become proficient in the sharpening of chisels, planes blades and knives of every description. I try to get an edge that can shave the hairs off of my arms if it is at all possible. I sharpened an axe for Brendan and while he was cutting kindling for the fireplace he ended up cutting his finger instead. They say that a dull blade is more dangerous than a sharp one, but in this case I think not.

Enough about how wonderful I am. The problem with sharpening stones is that they tend to move around when they should be standing still. No matter how much you swear at them, they still will move. They other day in the thrift store I saw a stone in a wooden case. I always look at stones on the off chance it might be an Arkansas stone, but this one was crap. 

The case however had little brads sticking out of the bottom which would bite into the wooden workbench and hold the stone in one place. Brilliant! It was so simple and so perfect. I put brads in my cases tonight and look forward to the next time I sharpen something.

I’m going to have to wait for a while however until the hair grows back on my arms.