The Golden Wrench

A blog about bicycle repair and maintenance by the mechanics at Freewheel Bike.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Doppelgänger!!!

No, we don't believe that it's a bad omen to see what looks like the same bike twice in a shift. It's a bit creepy though. Can't help but get a chill down the spine when I see this at the overhaul bench...


...and this up at check-in...


...at the same time. Double-take. Check. Yup. I haven't seen a Trek 1000 in years, and suddenly, a pair swoops in to trouble my soul. I'm not normally given to superstition (I may repeat that several times to reassure myself), but it had been a hoppin' busy day and I was getting fatigued. I remember walking up toward check-in, seeing a dryer-lint gray Trek 1000 hanging in the stand, and saying "it's back already?" Just as I was turning around to drat myself for getting out of bed, I saw the other one still in the stand!!! Now, I'm not normally given to superstition (is it too soon to repeat that?), but it was clearly time for some caffeine and Clif Bar action. "First," I said to myself, probably out loud, "I will snap some pictures. If one of the bikes is not real, it will not show up on the camera." I, ever the closet empiricist, nodded quietly to myself, took some pictures, and strode purposefully to the showroom to buy some vittles.

After my caffeine and Clif Bar, I strode back to the shop and THEY WERE STILL THERE!!! Now, if one of the Trek 1000's was a phantasm, it wouldn't have been so bad. Figments of the imagination are relatively safe: cage matches between people and figments of their imagination usually go in favor of the people. A cage match with a Trek 1000, especially the one with the yaller rear tire, could be a handful however.