I (not so) casually dropped in to my last post that I had collected a Turbo Trainer (TT) and done my first cycling session. Before I could use it, it had to be assembled. Joy!
At the shop where I collected the TT, I departed to the following words from the helpful assistant: “You’ll probably exhaust yourself just trying to put that together!” (chuckle, chuckle). Great! Marvellous!
I wouldn’t say I’m particularly good with my hands. I don’t get a lot of practice (out of choice). Most manual activities usually involve a disproportionate amount of bad language and sweat that is inconsistent with the physical effort expected.
Within that context, I would say there are two things that I’ve historically been particularly unsuccessful with:
- Following instructions
- Bikes
So I was clearly set up for success!
As far as instructions are concerned, I’m a bloke. Instructions are there to help you unpick problems, to confirm you’ve made a mistake, to compare your attempt to, or to retrospectively understand the criticality of the red writing on the label marked “IMPORTANT”.
I find bikes fiddly. My main experiences have been with brake adjustments, tweaks to gears and tyres / inner tubes. All of them have been disappointingly unsatisfying and much harder work than they should have been. I’m sure there’s a “knack”, but I don’t have it (in fact I had to check the dictionary to see how it’s spelt!).
Having got the TT home and unpacked it, I did the grown up thing… I sat down and read the instructions! Ten single sentence lines and some incomprehensible diagrams. Still, it appeared that as long as I could accurately measure the wheel of the bike (and didn’t drop / damage the “important bit”), nothing could go wrong.
And so, to the source of my pride… after less than 2 hours, and without having to take the whole thing apart to start again, I managed to build the TT. (To be honest, I did have to measure the wheel multiple times… I knew it was important, but couldn’t get the “fine tuning” to work for quite a while!)
I know it’s a small thing, sad even, but in my book assembling something without destroying it, even in a small way, should always be a cause for celebration.
Although I may be grimacing and cursing when I’m riding the bike, there will forever be a small smile (on the inside) because I managed to get this far in the first place!
Happy assembling!
Yet another career in the making Paul!so many choices! Keep up the good work! Love mx
Sent from my Windows Phone ________________________________
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Thanks for the encouragement! Fortunately I’m quite happy with the career I have! I think I’d struggle to makes the ends meet as a Handy Man! 🙂
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