aka_locojoe said:
Here's ya a shirt when you get-r-done
kingplinker said:
Oh... you guys are too funny!
There is a story to the name.. and of course, it is proof that I sometimes ain't firin' on all cylinders...
Readers' Digest Condensed Version:
Found bike on Fleebay - IN FLORIDA! Very excited, bid too much, paid too much, bought farm.... er, bike. Fleebay photo of object of my money's affections inserted here:
Brother in-law to my wife went to Webster and picked it up, brought to Tampa, where over the next weekend, wife and I would make trip to pick up bike (and visit nutty relatives).
Sunday morning, time to load 'er up (the bike...) on the rack and get on home (Lantana... spittin' distance south of West Palm Beach). Mounted bike on rack, and secured... or so I thought. Wife joined me in car, off we went ...
Jumped on I-4 to go to I-75. I-4 is under major construction (did I say "con"? I meant "DE") Road is rougher than a cob, no shoulders, Bob's Barricades, Florida State trees (orange cones for those of you who don't live here) all over, and people with way too much experiance at low level flying found on this road. After a rather abrupt entry to the concrete section of a bridge (roadbed had been cut down by what seemed like a foot, but more than likely was about 3" or so), I looked back in the mirror and noticed that the formerly fairly level tandem was now at an angle of approximately road scraping degrees. The mention of the word **** (sounds alot like ship) sent my wife into a rearward looking state, at which time the rather loud exclamations of pandemonium started, with her seeming very much intent on me getting over to the side (remember - NO shoulders due to DEstruction) and fixing obvious issue with bicycle to roadway relation... She was a little bit upset over the idea that we were going about 70 and there was this large thing attached to the back of the car that is now appearing from inside of the car to be dragging the road. After about four miles of frantic discussion (mostly from the passenger side of the car), I found an exit ramp and did. I also found a seemingly safe place to stop and did.
On exiting the car (
and the frantic wife's continuing excitedness), I found that the bike was fine, other than the precarious angle it was now sitting at. I proceeded to remove the bike, and re-situate it where the arms would not allow it to slip rearward into that heartwarmingly absurd angle again.
This is the non-firing cylinder part - If in my infinite ignorance, I had looked at how I was mounting the bike on the rack at her sister's house, I would have noticed that while the bike was perfectly level as it was mounted, there was nothing to stop it from sliding to the left (rightward movement was not possible due to the laws of motion, inertia, and mostly - gravity. The back was substanially heavier than the front!), which also allowed the angle increase to the point of the appearance of plowing up the pavement.
Once remounted, there was a decidedly different angle, now with the front of the bike slightly angled downward, but no chance of side-slippage, and more importantly, no chance of another episode of... you guessed it... Tandemonium!
The remainder of the trip home was far less eventful, and the once excited wife was now content to have the visor mounted mirror set so as to monitor any movement of the bike and to remain on alert in case of a failure of my now near rocket science method of mounting really long and awkward objects to a little rack intended for the "weight-weenie" type bikes you would normally find attached to one of these racks.
It should be noted at this point: I have had the maximum number of bikes the rack was designed for on the rack many times, of which one is equal in length to the tandem, but this bike only holds one rather large, mostly bald, and mildly overweight (did I say mildly?) person, as well as another "chopper" style bike and a normal womens (very pink) Electra Hawaii, and never had any issue. I can only assume that the Grey Goose (who came armed with a bottle of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice) that had attacked my feeble brain the night prior to departure was partially to blame for the misfiring cylinders in my VERY throbbing head at the time of loading the bike. Needless to say, the throbbing and so forth was continued far after the Tandemonium had passed....
The End...
Rat Royale
REC Elsewhere
)
