The Aldrich Ave Daily

  Being a bike mechanic there’s nothing I hate more then that bike that rolls in and the customer says “my bikes creaking”. “Ok, where is it coming from?” “I dunno.” What follows are a series of questions directed at the customer to help pin point where it is coming from. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. The most common creaks are the ones that come from the bottom bracket area. I guess you could say its the most common for a number of reasons. That area is under a lot of load while riding. It can be exposed to a lot of crud. Water, dirt, energy drinks, other sugary substances.  I’m working on one in the shop right now that I can’t figure out. Both my bikes have one. The mountain bike has one coming from the bottom bracket area that I’ve yet to solve all summer. My road bike, recently equipped with Campagnolo Centaur 10-Speed developed one in the bottom bracket too! That one I also am yet to solve, although this post from The Rogue Mechanic might have helped me solve that one  #mce_temp_url#    The best way to eliminate these annoying sounds is by process of elimination. Start with the small things, then dig in deeper. It might be as simple as removing and re-greasing the pedals. Or it might be as in depth and time consuming as removing and cleaning chainring bolts, a bottom bracket overhaul, and a bottom bracket tapping and facing. The thing I hate though is the one you can’t get rid of. The one that you spend all day on. It laughs at you as you try everything you can think of, but he’s still there. You think you’ve got it solved, take the bike out for the umpteenth time and there he is. Creeeeeeeak. BALLS. Still there.  Free time does not exist in my shop in the summertime. And the last thing I want to do is spend an entire day trying to solve one silly sound.

     Its not like you can just say to the owner of the bike “just deal with it.” A creak can take away the sole purpose of that ride. The chance to get out on the country road away from all the chaos that is the city. Just you and the pavement. Cruising down the road with the wind in your ears. Nothing but thinking about what cold beer you are going to crack when you get home. Lager or Ale? Or what’s the post ride meal? Chicken or Steak? Do women think men in spandex are hot? Creeeeeeak. First it starts happening intermittently. You don’t think anything of it. Then it gets worse. Increasing with each pedal stroke. Now its constant. Non-stop. That single noise can drive a cyclist crazy. Your train of thought is gone. All you can think about is that wretched creak. The ride is now ruined. You curse the bastard who put the bike together(In my case I’m cursing myself) full well knowing that the problem is not mechanical error but your emotions are high, and thats the first thing that comes to mind. The last thing a person wants on his or her ride is a nagging noise. Thats where I come in. Its just sometimes those nagging noises that cause all that trouble on the ride, also can cause all sorts of trouble in the shop. If it was just as easy as the father in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” says. “Just put some windex on it”.

   Where’s the accountability? I love how our government is throwing out the term “too big to fail” more and more these days. The next industry in line to get a slap on the wrist from Uncle Sam is the auto industry. There’s talk going around of the possible merger of Ford, GM and Chrysler. The sole purpose of this is to get bailed out. There’s no denying these guys are posting huge massive quarterly losses in the billions of dollars. All those mortgage companies that have been bailed out. Those dirty rotten greedy bastards on Wall Street too.  Small businesses fail all the time and where is their help? Small business is the heart and soul of the American economy. If there’s going to be a bailout it should be for them, not the ones making millions of dollars. Ford, GM, and Chrysler had plenty of time to adjust and change their way of thinking. How long have companies from oversees making cars more fuel efficient. My old 89′ Honda Accord got better gas mileage then most brand new cars from our Big Three auto companies. Only now do we see the American auto industry joining in. They kept trying to push those gas guzzling SUV’s and pickup trucks that kept getting bigger and bigger each year. Did the American Dream get the best of us. So much consumerism that we are now paying for it? Creating more and more jobs each year. Think of all the crap we as Americans have the option at buying at these massive super stores. So much buying and using of products, that the slightest downturn in the market and it sends everything into a downward spiral? I think we got too greedy. Too many Exec’s making millions of dollars. Too many mortgage companies allowing people to buy homes they cannot afford while they make an extra buck. Now instead of holding them accountable for their actions, we are just going to bail them out. Where is the lesson learned? I think people are going to have to lose jobs for this thing to turn around. You can’t keep throwing money at the problem. What does that solve? The bailout was bullshit, but you can argue it needed to be done. The sad reality is that it could have been avoided. Why wasn’t somebody stopping these people? You could say its borderline criminal to convince someone to buy a home they can’t afford. On the other hand, they should know better right? Either way, this whole mess we find ourselves in should never have happened, and its frightening to think how bad some experts say it is going to get before it gets better.