[Yak] I'm glad that YOU think it's funny.... :-(

[FIXER3 at aol.com]

Two years ago, I gave "The Object of My Affection"  an inexpensive  pewter 
pin (the type that presses through cloth to be secured on the reverse by  a 
clutch...not unlike military uniform devices). She installed it on the front  her 
handlebar bag.
 
Now, I told you THAT in order to tell you THIS:
 
 
This past weekend, and even dozen of us rode north up the Croton  Aqueduct 
Trail...a tens-of -miles-long, dirt single-track (read  continuously rugged and 
jarring)....in short: a real "loose equipment" test if  ever there was one. 
 
About two miles into the excursion a fellow rider flatted, and  I stayed back 
in order to expedite his repair while the balance of the  riders pressed on 
ahead (we had to make a train at the other end).  
 
This issue (he had another flat on his OTHER tire a few miles after we  
resumed riding) had us pushing hard, up the rutted trail in order to  close the 30 
minute gap between ourselves and the main body of the ride. 
 
Upon transitioning from forested singletrack to a macadamized surface as  the 
trail traversed a village, I detected a regular, syncopated  "tick-tick-tick" 
sound.  
 
"Must be a leaf or a twig stuck in the brakes...Maybe it'll just work  itself 
out.... Tires seem fine...brakes working OK....Everything FEELS  fine......".
 
Pausing to cross a street a minute later, I had a casual look at the  source 
of the sound...a silverish thing of some kind...looking  straight up at me 
(owing to the fact that it's fixing pin was sticking into my 3  hour-old 
puncture-resistant front tire).
 
Dismounting, I poked it with my grimy-from-two-time-tire-changing  index 
finger and was rewarded with a small hiss of air that immediately  stopped when I 
"un-poked".
 
::blink...blink::
 
"My brand new tire..." 
 
 ::make bad face::
 
::re-poke::
 
"HSSSS"
 
::make "resigned-to-ones-fate" face::
 
::pick pewter pin off with grimy-from-two-time-tire-changing  fingernail::
 
"HISSSSSSSSSSSssssssss"  
 
::blink...blink::
 
::sigh::
 
"Wait a minute...I know that pin..."
 
ugh.....
 
 
 
John
 
 
John T. Chiarella  (Fixer3 at aol.com)








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