One point: Do not do anything involving bicycles and fasteners over grass. Usually if (WHEN!) you drop one it will become buried under all the grass and not findable. Then you're faced with replacing a usually unique bolt or washer (such as something on a Campy or Shimano part) that may or may not have a thread known to man or a known thread with a uniquely small bolt head. Either way getting a workable replacement can become a major Internet search (ordering a Campy bolt) or fabrication process (improvising a Shimano part) that is at least as challenging as riding that century you were planning for two days hence.
Chasing running bolts and washers across basement and garage floors is greatly preferable to replacing parts lost in the grass. Beyond that, Steve is right about keeping your yoga and meditation up to date and making bike work a meditative exercise. Shaking fronds of the correct mix of field grasses in the appropriate directions while mutterring incantations should help a lot, too. Make sure the spirits will help you. On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 6:27 PM, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > On Fri, 2011-09-16 at 15:07 -0700, Michael Hechmer wrote: > > Kelly, thank you, thank you, thank you for the honesty of your post. > > As both an amateur mechanic and amateur woodworker I have been > > repeatedly snookered by "expert" instructions that lulled me into > > thinking something would be straightforward and doable, only to be > > reduced to speaking anglo-saxon. Last night I installed a pair of the > > tektro canti brakes and discoverd that the instructions failed to > > mention that only a mutant with four hands would find this straight > > forward. > > > > I have bikes with plastic, aluminum, and steel fenders but I wouldn't > > ever again install fenders without both rereading the instructions and > > remembering that it will be a PIA. > > Actually, installing Honjo fenders is pretty straightforward - there's > nothing really 'clever' or 'complex' about it - but it's slow and can't > be hurried. Reading the instructions about 20 times for a week or two > ahead of time, and working on visualizing what goes on helps. > Understanding on a deep-down level that it simply cannot be hurried or > sped up helps the most. > > One. Step. At. A. Time. First install. Mark. Remove. Drill. > Reinstall. Mark the next. Remove. Drill. Reinstall. Mark. Remove. > Drill. Reinstall. Breathe. > > Once you get your mind wrapped around the pace - the process as a whole, > but especially the pace - it's not really much of a pain in the a$$. At > least, not until your hand cramps and you drop the parts to the draw > bolt in the grass and can't find them again. It helps a lot to spread > some cloth under where you're working, because your hand is almost > certainly going to cramp and you almost certainly are going to > drop /something/. > > The instructions on the VO and Jitensha web sites are pretty good. So, > too, are the articles published in BQ. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > -- Ken Freeman Ann Arbor, MI USA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
