Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Pure vision, baby

"I tell ya, Sundance, I've got vision
where the rest of the world wears bifocals."
—Butch Cassidy

(From "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,"
one of the greatest movies ever made)


Sometimes I just feel like a gol'darn genius.

Since building my Pugsley with disc brakes a month ago, I've been meaning to find a way to cover the threads of the canti-brake mounts on the frame. (I removed the brake bosses to shave that critical half-ounce off my fat-assed 35-pound bike, don'tcha know.)

So I'm tinkerin' around in the garage tonight, and as I'm getting a couple of other parts out of a little pastic organizer box, I see four rubber plugs that came with some carbon-fiber bottle cages I bought for my road bike over the winter. The manufacturer put the mounting bolts through the cages and then held them in place by putting the rubber plugs on the ends of the bolts.

I kept the little plugs because I figured they might be useful someday. That's just the kind of resourceful, forward-thinking dude I am.

I pulled a plug out of the box, stuck it in one of the Pugsley's brake mounts and, bang! Perfect fit. I even had to twist all the plugs a little bit to work them down in the mounts, so I'm not worry about them falling out.

The beloved Pugs now has that refined, no-detail-overlooked appearance that just screams "class." Plus, I recycled some odd rubber parts and didn't have to buy special threaded brake-mount plugs like I thought I would. The threads on my brake mounts are protected from moisture, and I'm sure to be the envy of all my fat-bike friends, who will be awed by my ingenuity.

I'm so impressed with myself, I need to go be alone for a while.

Talk amongst yourselves.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, this purgatory to which you referred a few posts ago is really that time of year where we actually get great satisfaction with the minute details of making our bikes juuust right while ignoring the riding, right?
Hmm, earlier today I was debating moving my rigid fork from my winter bike to the 29er & doing "musical tires" with the mountain bikes. Finally I got off my butt & did a ride. I'll work on my bikes later.
btw, your cold must be better to have remembered those little plugs; nothing like recovering that clear-headed thinking.
cheers!
rose
oh, did I say that was my first non-studded ride since before Halloween? I'll miss the ice, but not the weight.

Jerome said...

I revel in your genius.

Cheers

Dave said...

Brilliant!

SiouxGeonz said...

I must go get some myself. You've started a trend!

Tim said...

They should be named 'em after me, don't ya think?

I should market this idea! Hell, I could make ... well, nothing, because they're leftover parts. But you get my point. This could be the beginning of my own bankrupt company!

Eric said...

Tim,
Get a grip man...

Luke said...

This is what worries me:
"The beloved Pugs"...and then he writes about having to go be alone for a bit.
Not really the image I need to get through the day, thanks.

Tim said...

Get a grip? Eric, this is my moment, man!

Doug said...

I'm trembling with anticipation at what your next brainstorm could bring to this world!