Gang Bang
The bike shop sent me and my coworker to the Park Tools Tech Summit. The event was held at the Westin and featured a bunch of technical seminars on different bicycle products. Basically, it was me and about 400 white dudes from all over the South/Midwest together in some hotel rooms. Who signed me up for a gang bang?
The event was two days long and I had to wake up at 6 a.m. to get picked up by my pimp and driven to the hotel. Each day of the event consisted of three seminars, which were each three hours long. I was surprised at how draining the whole experience was. I typically wake up around 9 or 10. I thwarted my exhaustion by consuming copious amounts of coffee, which only lead to me crashing at the end of the whole deal. I slept for about 14 hours the night after it was all over. I guess a gang bang will do that to you.
I went to these 6 Classes: Mavic, Hayes/Manitou, Shimano, Campagnolo, Park Tools, and Rock Shox. I got schooled on all sorts of stuff that I will all most certainly never encounter at the shop where I work: how to bleed disc brakes, how to service shocks, what the inside of an STI/ Campy shifter looks like, etc. My two favorite classes were Campagnolo and the Park Tools.
Here’s a photo from the Park Tools seminar:
Me and the Campy guy:
Me and the Campy guys and Hayes guy:
Oh yeah, the funniest part of the whole thing was that during the Mavic class, I almost annihilated one of their axles. I was trying to bang the bearing cartridge out of the rim with a mallet. Well, it turns out I was hammering the axle instead of the little stick that they wanted me to bang on. Woops!
The grand finale was the Rock Shox class, where the guy in my group pulled apart the piston from the shock and it ejaculated mineral oil upward and hit the ceiling and splattered all over three of us. Some of it even landed in my eye and I had to go to the bathroom for an emergency eyewash. Guess that was the money shot. It was pretty hilarious and the whole class was laughing.
Next time I get sent to a gang bang, I am definitely going to be more prepared.
-L
I have a Mavic wheel. So If it’s dished I can bring it in to Robert’s now cool!
yeaaah….
Guys, I’m at chicago ORD right now for a layover flight. Your site is horrendous on a blackberry
our site is horrendous on just about anything, stevo. where ya flyin to?
Im in boca raton to visit my pops & looking forward to a bike ride without ice.
nice. be careful down there, though. florida drivers are the worst!
http://letustalk.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/driving-talking-eating.jpg
You probably acquired some valuable knowledge that makes you a more valuable human. The hassle and inconvenience of this thing will be a faded memory before long but you’ll still know better than to bash on an axle maybe for the rest of your life. Just think, when you’re an octogenarian all the neighborhood kids will bring their bikes over to the “crazy lady down the street” to repair. You’ll always be popular.
true…i probably should have known better from the outset, but those mavic axles are a bit weird looking. those wheels are pretty cool but piecing the hubs together reminds me more of LEGOS than your typical axle and hub setup.
Lauren your front page link is broken