Newly single after my first ever break-up, discussing boys and dating, my best friend asked a seemingly rhetorical question:
“Don’t you like to be taken care of?”
I remember giving some ambivalent answer. Never having been comfortable batting my eyelashes, I still find it hard to expect to be taken care of. It’s too lady-like. Too La Dama Bianca. And with a passion for drop bars and mostly horizontal top tubes, I’d like to think I look better in a kit than a white dress.
Besides, white is so not slimming.
And when you’re handling bikes – or even just one – nothing stays white for long. Which is why you won’t find a Dama Bianca dress in my closet, much less anything very lady-like; things like tensioning my chain, wiping down my bike, and scrubbing my rims bring me too much joy.
Well, when I can actually do them.
Skipping home last night with a newly purchased pedal wrench [yes, I didn’t own one until now], I gleefully flipped over my Bianchi to switch back to single-speed-ness. With the ghetto lack-of-bike-stand set-up, I fitted the equally ghetto 6” adjustable wrench on the axle nut. And pushed. And pulled. And leveraged. And gritted my teeth. And seethed. And threw a temper tantrum.
The thing wouldn’t move. I know the adjustable is probably at least half the problem, but nothing feels more lonely than helplessness. The worst part being that when I do bring it in to IBC today, the guys are going to loosen it with a quick flick of their wrist, oblivious to the sheer misery and pain it brought me hours earlier.
I love those guys, but today, I hate the idea of going back to the shop. I don’t ever want to be seen as “the girl that uses her lack of a package to get bike mechanics to do things and consequently doesn’t know how to work on her bike.” Because I’m not. I wanted to flip that wheel and switch out my pedals, by myself. I wanted to know that I could still do it, even if it was the most simple of bike maintenance tasks.
Maybe that’s why it was so disappointingly frustrating. I’m going to buy a new wrench today though, and insisting on tightening those axel nuts by myself.
But just for the record, I’m not breaking up with IBC. I just need some independence…and room to wrench.
Tags: axel nuts · bike maintenance · international bicycle center · lady-like · temper tantrum · wrench8 Comments
8 responses so far ↓
I bet if you got a 15mm socket + ratchet you’d have it off in a second. Adjustable wrenches can break the manliest of manly-men.
sometimes a little lubricant can make it easier to get your nut off
Leverage. Wrenches that have a longer handle allow you to remove difficult nuts easier. Chances are the mech at IBC used a longer wrench to install the nuts, so with your diminutive adjustable, you are at a disadvantage before you even begin. While there is some elbow grease in mechanics, you are better off just using tools that make the job easy.
If you’re going to go the “adjustable tool” route, get a pair of vise-grips. They’re lock-able, and you’ll get a better fit on whatever nut you’re trying to loosen. I use them for most of my bike wrench needs, and they work admirably. Also, +1 to RMM’s comment. Leverage is a big equalizer, and you can get a “breaker bar” that will fit on the end up vise-grips… you can step/stand on the end of the bar and use your weight, bike legs, and leverage to loosen most any nut.
chris p — thanks, that made me feel 1000x better. i was like why am i so weak?! gahhh!!!!
neal — ahaha
RMM — yeah i’m headed straight to the shop to buy the right tool. i’m flipping that wheel tonight no matter what.
matthew — use my bike legs. you know me too well.
PS:
Also, don’t be scared to venture outside of the bike shop to purchase tools. You local hardware store sells quality 15 mm wrenches at a fraction of the cost that you’ll pay at the bike shop.
Matthew: Vise Grips should only be used in emergencies, as their repeated use will round the nuts off, if not crush them altogether. If you have a nice set of vintage hubs, or even a quality contemporary bicycle part, the last thing that you want to do is unnecessarily mar it while performing routine maintenance. Better to spend $20 on a set of metric box wrenches than replace expensive bike parts every year.
There is something about a women with a wrench that really tickles my fancy.
“the girl that uses her lack of a package to get bike mechanics to do things and consequently doesn’t know how to work on her bike.”
A penis doesn’t make a mechanic. If I were to let someone else to ever touch my bike, it would be Mary at Cambridge. She is one of the most thorough mechanics I have ever met. I will miss working working with her terribly when she leaves for NYC… her choice in music was also spot on for the monotony of working in a bike shop.