16 April 2011

Mechanistic endevours

In no particular order:

  • the Brafasco at 31 Parliament, so far downtown that it isn't really downtown anymore (it was, once, but then downtown drifted west in the late 19th) carries copper anti-seize in a small, portable tube-of-paste format suitable for sticking in the rack bag with the rest of the implementia.
  • if you need bike fasteners, particularly metric sizes of socket head cap screws, you need to know you will require them about a week before you need them; nobody seems to carry them, but everybody can order them. (Which means knowing exactly what I want, in order terms, rather than being able to say "one like this" and hand it to somebody, getting it back with many of its fellows.)
  • Yay! torque wrench! (it's important to have an indication of "stop tightening" that comes before "when the wrench slipped, there were sparks".)
  • copper anti-seize gets everywhere, clings to everything, and is remarkably difficult to get off a smooth surface.  (It isn't coming off a porous surface whatsoever.)
  • following the instructions to upgrade the firmware can still brick your GPS device.
  • I need, someday,  a much taller repair stand.
  • Aoife is deeply paranoid that I am going to pet her head while my fingers are greasy.
  • one can pervert automobile electrical connectors to connect the dynamo hub to the tail light.
  • someone, somewhere, has to make hand de-greaser in a small, convenient size, but I haven't found out who just yet.
  • it is looking distressfully like there isn't any way to get the Arkel bar-bag mounts to play really nice with the cross top levers on this size of handlebar.  So once wee front platform rack gets here, I am going to need a different front bag.
  • Zingerella has the Bike Snob book, which means I have now read the definitions for the various types of cyclist to which the Snob regularly refers.  I am apparently almost a retro-grouch.
  • the Experiment looks really strange with no rear rack mounted.
  • having the Experiment in a condition where it's not immediately ready to ride makes me twitchy.

2 comments:

orc said...

1. 'El Duke' degreaser, if you can find it, is pretty close to perfect for stripping oily glop off your hands.

2. Another way of finding that you've overtorqued a bolt is when the head pops off. I originally used metric #3 bolts to attach my front rack to the fork, but gave up and redrilled the struts for #4 bolts when I popped the head off the third bolt in a row :-)

Graydon said...

Thank you! I generally use the Canadian Tire citrus stuff, which works, but comes in containers that start at "portability issues" and proceed to "two-man lift".

"Bolt head pops off" would lead to some distress, yes. Yeek. Buying the wee bolt extractor ahead of time feels a bit like tempting fate, but I should probably do it, just in case.

Also, #3? 3mm? something else?