When I got home
from the food bank on Thursday there was just enough time to put my groceries
away and sit for five minutes before I had to go out to stand in another
line-up. This one was for Bike Pirates. The only one ahead of me was a guy that
didn’t speak much English with a bike that was missing handgrips, a seat, crank
arms and brakes. After me came an attractive young woman in shorts with long
brown hair. When I looked at her she smiled at me but at my age I have to
accept that such smiles from young women may not be a sign of attraction. She
might be just a friendly person who was taught to be kind to old people.
Al least ten people were waiting
when Den opened the gate and only let the first two of us to the stands while
the rest had to wait in the lounge area. I clamped my bike to stand 5 and then
waited for Den, since I didn’t know what to do. He put all the names on the
list and then came back to get the first guy started. When he got to me I told
him that my crank arm was wobbly. He said the first thing to do was to remove
it, which first meant knocking out the pin, which is technically called a crank
cotter, though he didn’t say that. He went to the front to get me their pin
press, which pushed the cotter part of the way out and for the rest of the way
I had to use a punch and a ball peen hammer. Den showed me how worn the cotter
was to explain why the crank arm had been wobbling. The crank arms that I have
are the ones that came with the frame before I built it into a bike. I don’t
recall but I assume or at least hope that I didn’t change the original cotters
when I built it and that it wasn’t a new one that got chewed up. If they were
old then it makes sense that they would be worn out.
Den got me a new cotter and I
reinstalled the crank arm, but it wouldn’t line up now with the right one. This
surprised Den because the cotter wouldn’t have gone in if the crank arm hadn’t
been in the right position. He concluded that the cotter holding the other
crank arm needed to be changed as well. I wondered why the arms were lined up
straight when I came in and not after changing the cotter. He explained that
they’d lined up because they’d both worn down in compliment to one another.
The right crank cotter was harder to
get out because it had gotten bent. The press didn’t work and neither did just
hammering a punch against it. Den got a 4X4 board and drilled a hole in the
end. He placed it under the hole where cotter would come out, lining that hole
up with the one in the wood, then he got a bigger hammer and I used it with the
punch. The cotter came out almost right away. With a new cotter I installed the
crank arm and it lined up fine with the left one.
I had noticed while working on the
right crank arm that my right pedal was broken. I had suspected as much over
the last few days when I heard it click while I was riding. I had several
pedals in a kitchen drawer that I’d found quite a few years ago discarded in a
box on the curb in front of a house along with many other small bike parts.
Leaving my bike on the stand I went home to see if I had a right pedal. There
were lots of left pedals but there was one set of black pedals that might be
metal but felt like they might be carbon, though I’m no expert at recognition.
They didn’t feel like metal that I’m used to. I took them both back to the shop
and changed both pedals, though I kept the not broken left one to take home as
a spare.
I took my bike for a test drive
around the block. The wobble was definitely gone form the crank arms. The new
pedals felt shorter than the old ones and my feet felt awkward pedaling but it
felt like it might just be a matter of getting used to them. I went back to
Bike Pirates and put my bike back on the stand. I took the old pedal, placed it
beside one of the new ones and saw that the old one was longer on the treading
surface by at least a millimetre. I figured I could live with it. I oiled my
chain and cashed out. Den told me that the cotters were only a dollar each, so
this time, because I am so poor this time of year, I kept my $10 bill and only
gave them a total of $5. I’ll give them more when I get work done in the fat
time of year.
It had rained earlier, so I decided
not to take a long bike ride, but in my head there was also the excuse that I’d
spent enough time on my velo earlier at Bike Pirates. It was so nice though in
the late afternoon that I decided to at least ride up to Lansdowne and Dundas.
That way I’d get a bit of exercise and I could use the $10 I had to get some
margarine and whatever fruit was on sale. They had a big tub of Imperial
margarine for $3 and a large bag of “Imperfect” apples for $5.
That night I watched an episode of
Maverick that guest starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. speaking in a British accent
and playing a sophisticated but conniving old rival of Maverick who teams up
with the hero to defeat an even bigger asshole but tries to sneak away with all
the money in the end.
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