Solo

Out on a Limb


It's Friday night - I have two sets of instructions out; one for fitting the HID lamp and one for fitting the Bike-Quip risers that arrived this morning after only 2-days thinking about them.

The risers are there because Ka is simply at wit's end with my whinging about how, by Wednesday, my back is in tatters from the 300-miles ridden already and how the next 200-miles will have me crippled come sun-rise Saturday morning. Friday night and I'm certainly not feeling subtle, Darling. (Get down off the top of the wardrobe!)

Last night I even made two PowerPoint presentations to print with the fairing removal instructions. I'm reading them and rehearsing in my mind what on Earth, "14-foot-pounds" could possibly mean. I've only recently got a grips with x-lbs p.s.i!

Should I phone Gregg and ask for supervised time in his warm garage; or should I stick with it and go solo? My Sister-In-Law, Nicky arrives tomorrow. "Where's Pat?" She asks Ka in my absence. "Having help with a spanner", she'd reply cruelly. No. This is a matter of credibility; of honour, and of pride over good sense. I've talked the rear chain and wheel of Phut-Phut; I had Dilbert serviced, and I stuck wheel circumferential stickers onto Shadowfax without aide. I can do this: I have drawings to follow and a long history of research into these matters going back over two days.

I survived my Wednesday ride: solo.



I can fit a pesky pair of handlebar risers and a bloody bulb; no trouble. Just you watch. These are kits, after-all; meant for the home consumer not for qualified electricians and mechanical types. These are the realms of "layman". I have screwdriver bits, a handle, a hammer, and all manner of bits of socket sets picked up over the years - even some cable ties I procured in 1996 found lying unwanted in the street picked up just-in-case they might prove useful one day - and here that day might be.

Solo, it is.

(And now that's been made a public statement, solo it will bloody well have to be!)

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