Well he was short, so strike one I guess. He was also grumpy - word of advice mate, customers pay your cheese bill, so be nice.
I should have told him up front I was a kiwi - when this was raised as we were leaving, instant demeanour change - he probably thought we were English. We then started talking rugby, Jonah and Tana to the fore - bless you both boys :)
He had no English so trying to explain a problematic headset was interesting - we eventually got there. And then I stood back and watched in complete horror as he popped the headset, got a large hammer and headset tool and literally pounded the merde out of it. At this point I actually whimpered - I could see my trip ending now as a result of this short Frenchman's assumption that I was an idiot Pom riding an American bike so deserved nothing less than to have his bike beaten to scrap - pah I spit on your Englismans grave.
And then it got worse. The first pounding wasn't to his liking, so he got a screwdriver, levered out a spacer, threw it on the floor, pounded it some more, put the cap back on, tightened it all up, smiled as he said C'est fini, gave me my replacement brake pads - and then he asked where we were from.
I waited to see if the news that I wasn't English or American made any difference to the repair - it didn't.
I will - as I have no other choice - assume he knew what he was doing. Had one minor downhill today and it seems ok. And the new brake pad means I can now stop without grabbing great handfuls of brake lever and silently screaming bad words.
Always a plus :)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
No comments:
Post a Comment