True. Don't wanna beat my own drum. I'd open a shop if I had the money, convinced I could do it better than anyone else who has ever tried . . . yeah, right.
The MBTC is almost like an extended family, complete with cousin Ruprecht, kept in a cellar for 15 years . . . this cousin's mah sister, yeehaw . . .
(sorry
)
Some days, when the light's just coming through the back window at the right angle, and everything's flowing in and out of the shop smoothly, Biggsy's getting worked up on RRR about something, the boss isn't chucking a tantrum over something he'll have forgotten about tomorrow, and you aren't short of a vital part for a repair that has to be absolutely finished for tomorrow, and it's not raining, and you've had time to have a coffee and lunch, and people aren't asking too many obvious and time-consuming questions, then it's almost worthwhile.
I had an interesting experience once on a GVBR (yes, I was a Pegasus mechanic, to all of you out there who know us and . . . love . . . us), where poseur wannabe roadie bought a $100+ cadence computer to impress his poseur wannabe roadie friends/girlfriend: "I did 102 rpm back there, wow!", didn't want to be told it cost $25 to fit, wanted to do it himself, came back 10 mins later to 'borrow' cable ties, screwdriver, sidecutters, had pity taken on him (why? I don't know) by a certain mechanic who will remain nameless, snagged and broke every cable on the unit, and blamed us for not showing him how to do it, and wanted his $100+ back for us having sold him a faulty product. Certain mechanic who will remain nameless never got his sidecutters or screwdriver back either, despite a search for and accost, question, harangue, argy-bargy and walk off in disgust.
On the other hand, I have had people be almost pathetically and generously grateful for simple things I have done to their bikes as a matter of course. People, they're a funny lot.
M "most cyclists are nice" H