Old Friend, New Rider

My house painter Joe, called yesterday to see if I could help with his bike seat. He was a triathlete way back when, but his thriving business kept him off his bikes. He had a problem removing his seat post. It was frozen in place. To keep this short, we had to overload it with lubricant, blowtorch the frame holding the seat post to soften the material. We decided to let it sit overnight and get back to it after today’s ride.

Hiram joined us about halfway through the ride and offered to come by Joe’s place to help out. Hiram was a diesel mechanic at Northrup Grumman in Barstow CA. He says a good mechanic can figure out how to fix anything. He got the seat post free in about 30 minutes of hammering, oiling, and blowtorching the thing to oblivion.

We took Joe on his first ride in a few years. Now that he is retired and had taken one ride, he is hooked. AND…….. I got to use my new video camera.