Even the experts can be wrong

[pardes]

Along the lines of people being so overly-helpful that they complicate things with misconceptions, like "Bruce,"..... or help you toooooo much.....

All the bus drivers now all seem to know me whether I ride their bus or not. This is probably due to the fact that my lab is right next door to the bus garage and I sit under a tree for a break next to the bus driver parking lot so I say hello and chat with a number of drivers walking by to start their bus routes.

Anyway, I took a different bus home tonight and before I could even start pushing the bike toward the bus, the driver has sprinted out of the bus (loaded with full capacity passengers) and flipped down the bike rack. He snatched the bike out of my hands with a BIG grin and tossed it up on the rack.

Ummmmm, well, ummmm except he installed the bike in backwards and was trying to load the spring over the back tire instead of the front tire which made a difference in the tightness of the hold. I debated about saying something since he was so kind but I also knew he would be barreling down the interstate at 65 miles an hour on bumpy patches of road and I really didn't want to see my beauty Trek being launched into the air so I suggested we turn it around into the correct position.

Clearly he has never put a bike on a bus before. The wheels spun at angles which seemed to baffle him and he was having trouble getting the tires into the slots so by the time we FINALLY got the bike settled and got back on the bus ALL THE FULL CAPACITY PASSENGERS were glaring at both of us.

After this experience, I'm pretty impressed that I can strip the bike of a messenger bag, panniers, flip the rack down, whip the bike into place and get on the bus with my bus ticket in hand ready to punch all within 20 seconds.

Oh, and by the way, he did the reverse at my bus stop near home. He blocked a long line of traffic at a Shell gas station while he got the bike off the bus, walked it well out of the way of the cars, waved goodbye, and then got back on the bus.

A very sweet man.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

That's cute about the bus driver! You know, I am always intimidated when there is a full bus or I'm holding people up, and I know I would probably wind up dumping out the contents of at least one of my bags...you know how that goes!

Did you take a bow when you got on the bus? haha...

It pays to have a second set of wheels. If you have disk brakes it will get pricey but it's worth it. I know I have a spare set and once when I got a flat I just used my second set because I was in a hurry AND I left my patch kit at work!