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.
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2 comments:
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 :-)
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?
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