Mind you I never claimed to be one! Sure I love shoes and nail polish, putting on that dress once a year that I don't wear anywhere. I have my princess moments like camping, I don't like bugs, need running water at all times and prefer to not sleep on the ground. I will if and when the need arises though.
So with that being said I took the opportunity while the men were away to show that I'm not a princess or just a woman. On Sat once Choo left the house to go for a ride to a Show & Shine in Surrey, I moved my mostly stripped 1970 BSA from the shed #1 to shed #2. I'm calling them that because the first one he built attached to the house and the second one is a stand alone shed that he built to shelter our 2 running bikes but since they are outside for the season he's building a Shovelhead in there. So I figured there was enough room for me to move the BSA and strip the rest of her down so that the frame can be sand blasted and not tell him I was doing it so he couldn't make that face that looks so sad that I'm using some of his space.
This from the guy I asked to buy me a shoe rack and he bought me a tool box instead. What good is a tool box if I don't use the tools right? It is pretty though all black and silver. I wonder what he'd do if I girled it out, some unicorns or pretty flowers?
Ok a bit of princess is showing.
Where was I? Oh Ya...
So I moved her all by myself and she only had the rear wheel attached so that was a chore as well as underestimating how heavy she was...bare. I also had to maneuver her around my Sportster and then around Lo's Sportster, between hers and the truck and the car that has everything blocked in, without tagging any of them while keeping the frame and wheel balanced. Around the back of the truck, into the grass and pushed her backwards up the ramp into the bike shed. She kissed my ankle on the way in and the bruise reminds me of that every second but it's all good.
I got her in and settled and began looking at bolts, wires and things and figured that there was some stuff I could take off before he came home and I would be all self satisfied so I took of the pedals on the left side of the bike ( the right side ones were off already ). So pleased with myself when he got home and saw what I did he seemed pretty proud of me.
Me: Look! I took the gear shift off all by myself!
Choo: Brake pedal
Me: Um...no, gear shift.
Choo: Break pedal
Me: No it's on the left so it's the gear shift!
Choo: ...It's a British bike, they're on the opposite side
Me: Look I took off the break pedal!
Choo: Good job!
Just in case I did look it up and pre 1975 before the US changed their standards...everything was opposite. This made me realize that as I'm learning to ride and learning how to coordinate things on the H-D I'm going to have to learn how to ride the BSA differently. I'll be an ambidextrous rider...eventually! So the next day after chucking some broken concrete around...ugh...don't ask. It was back into the shop with me. Choo off on another ride somewhere I decided that the kickstand and rear wheel were coming off and both were a pain in the ass. He came home while I was removing one of the shocks and told me to wait until I took the tire off first.
Choo looking at the ratchet in my hand: Why aren't you using the Impact gun?
Me: Because I didn't want to.
Choo: But it's much easier.
Me: I didn't want to. ( hoping to gain the experience of using the tools he bought me...instead of a shoe rack. )
So he helped me, and figuring out how to get that thing off was a bit frustrating between 2 manuals and common sense dictation. I did find out what needed to be done and Choo found a screwdriver to turn what I deciphered as the Spindle Nut that had a hole in it. Well he was spinning it and it didn't seem to be moving so we took another look at possibilities to get this wheel off. He got a text and had to leave again. I knew he was headed to Tim Horton's to meet a couple of friends and asked him to ask them what we should do. One of the ones he was going to meet actually sold him the bike and owns a bike shop so if anyone knew how to do this it would be him. Seriously maybe 5 mins after he left and I was looking at the Spindle Nut I noticed that it had loosened much more than we thought it had. That was all I needed and I put the screwdriver back in the hole and started spinning it, low and behold more and more of it worked it's way out so I told him to never mind asking the guys but I couldn't get it all the way out it just kept spinning.
That's when the frustration happened and I thought I was going to lose it so after each spin I would pull outward well push because the frame was close to the wall so I was standing over it. I even swore like a trucker at it but kept the motion.
Spin...push...spin...puus...until THUD a 4-5 inch rod fell to the floor and the happy dance began complete with arm waving and butt shaking. My next text to him was this... with a "WOOOOOOOOO!"
Next thing I know, 3 bikes pull up, I get 2 good job's and a grunt which made me feel very proud of myself!
It's not about proving that a girl can do it, it's proving that I can. I told myself that if I was going to ride then I want to make sure that I know how things work and I'm not going to mind doing the work to take care of my own.
Let the journey begin!
Have a great week guys!
See Ya
S
