my thumb is weird

this past week has been pretty rough... probably because of too much work and very little play. work has been nuts - this better not be a pattern - enough said. we have SnakeCreek '08 version 3.0 this weekend and i am feeling way unprepared. my bike did not make it back from Arizona until last night which means that i have not ridden it in over a week. i'm excited to see the box and can't wait to pretend it's a new bike that i'm unpacking and putting together. the only problem is that i have a busted pivot bolt and there is no way i can ride the darn bike until i find a new bolt! i finish unpacking the bike and FRIG!!! the downtube is smashed... dented and paint chipping. i'm pissed! luckily the smash is far enough away from the welds to make me too worried about compromising the frame. maybe this is just another sign that i'm due for a new mountain bike???

now for the pivot bolt... it seems like the only way to get a pivot bolt is to order an entire rebuild kit which costs over $100 (and can't be shipped before the weekend). i left my bike at a shop so they could try to find a spare bolt lying around today - no luck. i go to pick up my bike and it is boltless in i'm potentially bikeless for another weekend and will miss the SnakeCreek finale. i express a little of this frustration with Ben at Peachtree Bikes and we talk about the different forums i could post on to possibly get a bike or pivot for the weekend... i decide that i'll just go to a hardware store and try to rig something up. thats when Ben decides to pull the good bolt out and take a look. something clicked and i could see the light bulb come on. within a couple minutes he had fabricated an entire pivot rebuild from a Shimano derailer bolt (the one that attaches the derailer to the hanger), two washers, and two bushings made from a juice bottle. perfect fit! a friend of our shows up at the shop and Ben chats her up while working on my bike. a while later and my bike is pretty much race ready. both of my brakes had been adjusted, my rotors trued, my chainring tooth straightened and minor shifting adjustments. sweet! now i have no excuses for not showing up this weekend - except i think my thumb is infected from that damn cactus. it has red spots on it, its warm and throbby and feels like its jammed. unless i was playing basketball at some point in my sleep i have no idea how it could be jammed... do they amputate digits for being hot, throbbing, and possibly jammed??

so... if you lose a pivot bolt and don't want to spend a ton of money or you're on the trail and can't wait to get to your local bike CoOp (SOPO!!) for a busted deralier to part out - a quick fix could be to pull your deralier, shorten your chain for single speed and then use the bolt in your busted suspension. Ben and Peachtree Bikes are the jam (sorry apb - i'll make it up to you).