The old saying goes, “The cobbler’s
children have no shoes.” Way back
in history, back in the days of the guilds and villages, shoes were made for people
by individual craftsmen, cobblers, who also repaired shoes and boots. A busy and successful cobbler had a lot
to do. There were shoes tto be
made for customers, leather to be purchased, tools to be mended, repair work
that had to be done immediately, an
apprentice or two to be trained and supervised, a lot of things. The
idea behind the old saying is that a busy and prosperous merchant could find
himself without the time to take care of his own needs and those of his
family. In fact, often if a new pair
of shoes was nearing completion, ones that were intended for the family, they
would be purchased by a needy and demanding customer.
Those days are long gone. Shoes are made in factories in
Asia. They make a lot of
them. There is very little left of
custom craft in the world. Small
local bike shops are a large part of the custom craft that remains. I work in one such shop, and I am often
in something akin to the old cobbler’s situation. I do enjoy working on my customer’s bikes. Summer is our busiest time, and we are
usually flooded with repair work, tune-ups, and modifications. We also have to build a lot of bikes for sale. To that list add, we support a lot of bike rides, do charity
work, do fittings, give classes and training sessions. What with all of that, I sometimes get
caught a bit short in supporting my own stable. (There’s your cobbler’s children.)
So, it was with a great deal of pleasure that I managed to
sneak in an hour’s work on two of my rigs. I got the super supple racing tires off of my Giant Defy and replaced them with the
new, high longevity, high durability training tires. (I’m saving the racing tires for something special.) I also managed to do a complete brake
job on my tourist.
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