Today was rather interesting. Showed off the home to more (rather nice) interested (and prospective house mate) people, and reached for work at some 11:30 or so. So far things were pretty normal. And then this shows up in the mail, at 11:42.
Hi all,
A former student in our lab has moved away and left his bike in Ann Arbor …
The bike will be offered on a first-come, first serve basis …
…
(Obviously clipped to the interesting bits because you must be the busy sorts.)
11:44, I have a new (old) bike. Which was pretty good, considering it is a rather decent 18 speed mountain terrain thing. You know, because I am the rough and tough sorts who’ll use it on his next expedition. Anyway, it must be in 20s outside. (Real world units -6 C). Why is that important? Get to that in a bit. So here I am, new bike and all, so the obvious impulse is to check it out. So, wheel it down to the nearest gas station (gasp, I didn’t even think petrol bunk), and filled up the tires (and yes, I didn’t think tyres either). Now the interesting thing here is our friend compressor doesn’t have a pressure gauge, and I have no way of knowing necessary details. Fearing not, I take it out for a spin. It was well balanced (meaning 23 or not, risk breaking teeth or not, you tend to not hold the handle bar as much) and generally fun. An hour or so later I get home and realize I have no way of chaining it to anything. So I wheel it in to the house looking for a makeshift solution, while I begin to wonder, hmm.. 70 degrees inside, 40-50 degree difference from the rest of the environment, I wonder how much the tire tubes will expand. KA-BLAM!! (Reminiscent of fun 60’s and 70’s shows involving grown men running around in tights fighting crime), and I’ve blown one tire. Needless to say, I almost emptied the other one in a little bit. Needless to say, coefficients of thermal expansion are not always your friend.
Needless to say, ah well, with the general scheme of things, I expected no better.
pundit@emphaticallystatic.org
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