And the Bicycle Lived Happily Ever After

Sometimes, a lot of times, things don't work out. Sometimes they do. Today at the shop on a rainy Saturday in May, something worked out. Something, you know, blog-worthy.

Upon installing a waterbottle cage on a Trek 2.3 WSD that I had just sold to a very nice woman, I discovered, while trying to back one of the bolts out, that it was cross-threaded into the insert and that the insert itself was spinning in the frame. Very bad news. This bike was minutes away from being on its merry way out the door, and suddenly I had hit a major snag. But I didn't panic. I told to customer to go get lunch and that when she returned, I'd have either fixed it, or have figured out what Trek would do.

I was determined to get that bugger out, but it would take faith combined with a lot of genuine, seasoned skill with a hacksaw to do it without destroying the frame. So I recruited the assistance of Jamie, our Zen master mechanic who believes that anything is possible, and we got right to work.

The plan was to cut the bolt head off, pry the flange of the insert away, pound the insert into the frame, and fish it out of the bottom bracket shell. Once that was accomplished, we could simply press a fresh insert in with our waterbottle bolt insert inserter thingy, which I didn't even realize we had, and call it good. Would it work? Would we destroy the frame? Would the insert refuse to fit through the vent hold of the downtube and remain forever inside, rattling away like that pebble your riding buddy discretely placed in your handlebar, driving you completely mad while he anomalously snickered?

We didn't know the answers to these questions as we courageously embarked on our task. You never know, but you cannot be afraid. You gotta believe. As George Michael taught us, you gotta have faith.

As it turned out, we achieved success, and aside from a few scratches on the frame, which were easily covered up with a frame sticker, (hey its gotta go somewhere, why not just about the waterbottle cage?) the bike was as good as new. We had the bike back together with all the remaining accessories installed by the time the very nice lady returned from lunch.

It's days like this, when the stars are all properly aligned, that you're reminded that life can be good, that work can be good, that people can be good, that your butthead friends who play tired practical jokes on you can be good, and that George Michael, who cannot seem to behave himself, can be good too.