Soo I bought myself a new bike a few weeks ago. Partly because I’m lacking the health/exercise part of my ambitions but, mostly because I really just love biking. It’s almost spiritual just to haul ass down the road on a bicycle.
… at some point in the 2000’s they decided that everyone wanted suspension, quick change tires, disk brakes … on their fucking bicycles. Now, the suspension thing kinda pisses me off anyway because it’s not like we get the choice anymore. It’s built into all of them and adds weight that my lazy ass doesn’t want to carry around. Well, all the changes kinda piss me off but, that one’s worse.
However, definitely the worst of these “improvements” is the adoption of hex key tightening screws. Like, sure, I get it. Carrying wrenches around when you’re out on a 30 mile trek is probably an inconvenience but, who in their right mind carries around a full set of hex keys anyway?! Or even has a full set in their tool box. I’ll bet I have 3 mixed sets because every single time I need one, it’s the missing one.
Plus, it’s an issue of leverage. A person simply cannot muster the same amount of torque on a tiny hex screw as they can on a 9/16″ combination wrench.
So, I’m flying around the block quick after running out the trash and, halfway around my goddamn handlebars are all the way loose. If you know our block then it’s really like, 5 blocks around but, that’s not the point. I got slowed down in time to not crash and just walked back.
It’s not the first time that it’s happened either. I believe I was heading off on a 3 mile adventure from our old house. I go to round the corner on main across from Little Wonder, I turn my handlebars and my wheel doesn’t turn … and my dumb ass is splattered on the sidewalk for a minute while I try to figure out what in the hell happened.