Frugality overcome — after 5 decades, circumstances forced Old Dog Pete into buying a bike repair stand

© 2019 Peter Free

 

23 April 2019

 

Photograph of 2013 Trek Cobia in Park PCS-10.2 bike repair stand for article about frugality.

 

Sometimes some of us need a cosmic kick in the ass

 

I've been into bicycles all my life. But for reasons of cost and space, never bought a bike repair stand. I've always managed to come up with different ways of holding, hanging or propping bikes to fix them.

 

A few days ago, circumstances did this accustomed frugality in. I came across a recalcitrant 3 speed front derailleur and a shifter that refused to talk to each other.

 

Working in a cramped garage had me having to gyrate the bike around — so as to work the pedals and shift the gears with one hand, while doing adjustments in multiple places with the other — and (simultaneously) continually having to prevent the bike from banging into either parked car.

 

 

This combination of tasks rapidly became impossible

 

Idiot Me got the message.

 

I online-ordered a Park Tool bike repair stand.

 

 

Two days later, when it arrived

 

I saw how impossible the adjustment process (for these two unusually demanding components) would have been without it.

 

Even with the stand, it took me two hours to straighten the shifter-derailleur mess out. I had to reverse the most commonly accepted procedure for getting both into rough preliminary communication. That required both hands — frequent trips around to both sides of the bike — and a lot of prying — with temporary assistance from six carpenter's wood shims.

 

Photograph of wood shims about to be inserted behind Shimano Deore 3 speed front derailleur during cable tensioning process.

 

The above photo shows the shims about to be pushed behind the front derailleur cage, so as to prop it out over the largest chain ring against spring tension. This was the only way to get cable tension adjusted properly between the shifter and this particular derailleur.

 

 

The moral? — Stubbornly slow learners sometimes need a metaphorical kick from on high

 

My wife frequently points out that I will announce that I need something — but will only buy it 15 to 20 years later.

 

My retort, "That way I know I needed it."

 

Perhaps I occasionally take this philosophy too far.

 

In the case of the repair stand, I waited more than 50 years. Maybe overdoing fiscal conservatism and space conservation.

 

Will I learn from this?

 

Probably not. Old (arguably stupid) dogs and all that.

 

How the figurative Deity must sigh in exasperation.