Elsie, the friendly bovine Yamaha
This week’s act of simple, selfless, charity involves riding somebody else’s bike. You would be correct in assuming that an employee of a bike shop gets to ride many bikes, belonging to a great many people, all the time. Where I work, the Service writer, the mechanics (obviously), and sometimes even the Parts manager–due to his exalted status as an absolute loon on an ATV–all end up riding bikes that are not their own. As the ringleader–try as I may to avoid it–I get to ride the most. I don’t know why. I look responsible, probably, and people figure that if something goes awry, I will just get them another bike. Thank god we’ve yet to put that one to the test.
actual cow, for comparison.
So you might think that it all gets kind of old, and you might tire of such responsibility, right? Not a chance in hell. This week, it turns out that the owner of a bike we have been pushing around the service department for months now (and yes, it has been fixed all that time) finally popped up. In the hospital. A heart attack. “You should ride more” I told him, “it beats having heart attacks.” Anyhow. He INSISTED that I ride his beloved Roadstar for the week so the carbs don’t varnish up. The bike is 2 years old and has 119 miles on it. It was in the shop BECAUSE the carbs were plugged…he didn’t want it to happen again. So in the name of altruistic compassion for my fellow rider, I put 350 more miles on Elsie this week. My wife is horrified. She thinks I bought it and just won’t admit it. I am not a big cruiser kind of guy, but I have to admit that this could get a little habit forming!
projectil3 