Big Props to the Big Homie Will

[Shannon Menkveld]

I just wanted to give a thumb to Will, for being Will and hookin' a dude up.

I was headed to RWHQ from Orinda BART, (to get some felt grips to put under the tape on the road diameter V/O Porteur bars, which I like a lot, but I have sensitive palms,) zoomin' the long descent on El Nido Ranch Rd., when I started hearing the dreaded 'squeak, squeak. squeak' of a rear wheel rubbing on something. Pull over. That something turns out to be the non-drive-side chainstay. Analysis and profanity reveal a broken drive-side rear spoke. (Has anybody ever broken anything else except when crashing? I, myself, have not.) I think to myself, "Self... this sucks, but we have a spoke wrench on our multitool.

We do not have a spoke wrench on our multitool.

Nor do any of the three lovely velohumans who stop to help.

We also live alone and have no friends and do not drive.

Welp, nuthin' for it but to pop the rear brake, cockeye the rear wheel in the axle as much as possible, and ride the mile and a half to the Lafayette BART station. There turns out to be a speed range where the tire hitting the chainstay happens too fast to be felt, but I don't feel like I'm gonna die if the tire blows through the sidewall. (It didn't.) As I'm riding along Mt. Diablo Blvd, I figure out that RWHQ is like two blocks from Walnut Creek BART, I was going there anyway, and they'd probably have a spoke wrench.

Once I got there, Will, (you remember Will? This is a story about Will.) Will not only provided me with the spoke wrench, but even broke open a package of Newbaum's 22.3 mm felt pads to test fit. (They don't.) Undeterred, he kicked down a couple of pieces of the stuff they use in the shop. (I assume it comes in a big roll and gets cut as needed.)

Wheel tweaked enough to get me home, and with the felt pads that had been the point of the whole exercise, I headed back to BART and Oakland, my faith in humanity restored.

Thanks, Will! You rule.

--Shannon

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

I loved this. Great story, so entertaining. ❤️