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Friday, April 5, 2013

I Need A Shim

I woke up before the sun and was eager to get out and ride. I was feeling strong and ready to roll. I really need to find where I put my lights and charge them up for times like this. It took the sun forever to rise today.
 I've been going around the same few blocks in my area forever making sure Lucy and I wasn't going to have a malfunction. It was time for something new.

I'm running out of neat thing to take pics of, but this is pretty neat!

After swooping around the neighborhood for a bit I decided to try the bike path. Its entrance is right by the park I like to stop at and has some nice tile murals. I hadn't been there in years, literally, and I remembered it was a little hilly and had a fun underpass. This would be great!
I snapped a pic and off we go.



One of the murals.

I was feeling fast so I put my weight on the bars to really try to pick up speed and wham!
The handlebars slipped and my soft bits slammed into the nose of my seat. My feet flew off the pedals as I choked back a yelp, swerving like a lunatic. I'm glad I wasn't on the road! I hit the brakes and danced around for a bit trying to calm things down. I'm glad no one was around to see it! That really hurt!
The bars had only moved an inch down but it was scary. So much for the bike path today.
 I remounted and rode home careful not to put weight on the bars. I tried to wrench them back into position  but they wouldn't move. Apparently they only do that when I don't want them to.




Saw this on the slooow ride home.

Once home they were still not budging again and I had to loosen the bolt to move them back into position. The bolt won't tighten any further, but I'm worried about a repeat performance so I need a shim. I have a ton of rubber ones, but will consult Husband to see if a metal one would be better.
Just when I think it's safe to leave the neighborhood! 

3 comments:

  1. Ouch! Hurt just to read about it. Yes, a shim might do you some good. Cool pics!

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  2. Husband came home and took a look at her. I didn't need a shim I needed a new bolt. The 20 year old one was stripped so it couldn't be tightened all the way. A quick trip to Ace Hardware and Lucy is all fixed. I put my full weight on them and they don't budge at all. Yay!

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  3. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. I am glad that you were not on the road, and were not worse hurt. Also glad that it was a relatively easy fix. And I loved that mural - thank you.

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