Sweat

Sweat the small stuff.
Everything is small stuff...

except the big stuff.

Shit your pants over the big stuff.

Back in February, I lamented the loss of my Tülbag.  Within it were certain things I felt were irreplaceable.

That chain tool.  An accessory for the massive OG Topeak Alien, something I grabbed out of a bargain bin for next to nothing.

I threaded an allen bolt in the bottom of it for leverage and created the world's best race-sized chain tool ever.  And then I lost it forever.

Replaced with this:

Which had a small failure the first time I used it, and then it was replaced with it's identical twin from my junk drawer hoping it would not end up useless and brittle as did it's sibling.

But it would never be enough for me, so I went searching.

Of course someone had NOS Alien chain tool attachments lying around.  Of course they were overseas.  Of course I would have to pay three times the amount I paid for my original one, but just knowing that they were out there for the taking....

I ordered one.   I waited.  The Pie missed the doorbell.  I got "the note."  I rescheduled delivery online and authorized to have it left at the door.  I signed "the note" just in case.  I came home, and "the note" was gone... no tool.  Friday, 5:20PM.

My face felt sad.

I went to the post office first thing Saturday morning.  I got a shrug that indicated, "Hey, were just the US Postal Service."

I got my package.  Not sure how or why it was still there.  I went home.

I thought the nut at the bottom was threaded.  I remember the M5 bolt not going in pretty last time, but it went in eventually.  This one was not threaded... perhaps the last one wasn't either.   I lost patience fast.  I grabbed the most impatient tool I own.

Victory... albeit a crooked one.

I feel whole again.  There is a certain peace in the world right now.

Then there's the big stuff.  Time to shat one's pants.

I hate boxing up my bike worse than I hate putting it in the travel case.  It's never as easy as it should be.  The first cardboard box I secured weeks ago exceeded UPS's no greater than L+2XH+2XW = 130" by a shitty amount.  Add $50 please.  Meh.  Back out for a new box last night.  Best one?  28" high... perfect for a 29'er.  Let just enough air out of the tires that it's 50/50 as to whether or not a bead might break loose spewing all that tubeless juice I just put in over the weekend.  Also the box is not long enough to leave my crabon frok mounted.  Same bike, different box, always a problem.  I woulda took photos along the way, but when I'm elbows deep in anger and bubble wrap, I'm not thinking about snapping images.

To Breck, the Misfit diSSent Brontoawesomeous Meatplow V.5 goes once more.  Crammed in a box, unhappy, both of us.  Affluent Anglo Saxon issues.

Of course after I boxed it up, I realized I never got a photo of my new Industry Nine Enduro rim.

Enduro... I know.  Love that word.

But I was reminded on the I9 site that they were Enduro before enduro became "enduro."

"The Enduro name means the same thing to us as it did when we first released this wheelset 5 years ago: Reliability, strength, and performance above all else."

So I will let it slide... although, if you were choosing a set of enduro wheels for your enduro bike so you can race ALL THE ENDUROS, I think the Enduro wheels would be your most logical choice.

Fack.