tired haha klr

[Tumu Rock]

I was prepping my bike for my MSF course on Saturday and the Durty Dabbers ride in PA on Sunday. I had new MT21's but my tire irons hadn't arrived in the mail yet. No one in NYC had tire irons in stock so I decided to suck it up and shell out $80 to have the Pirellis mounted. That way I would learn about traction management on the tires I would be riding. Well, when I got up on Saturday morning to head for MSF the rear brake felt weird (I had bled the line already so I knew that wasn't the problem). When I realized it was definitely a brake problem, not just new tires that I wasn't used to, I pulled over and inspected the situation. The guy who changed my tires put the rear caliper back on wrong! He had both brake shoes on the outside of the rotor. The rotor had chewed through about half of the aluminum caliper "fingers". I went back to the mechanic and woke his ass up at 7:00am to bitch and moan. He saw his error, was mortified (I brought the man to tears) and offered to replace the part at his expense. Well, no shit you'll do it at your expense. Not to mention pay for the MSF course which I couldn't take due to my bike being unsafe. I also got to miss out on what would have been my first opportunity to meet some fellow listers in person. I felt like a kid who had his house robbed on Christmas Eve. I had an offer from a fellow lister (thanks, Mark) to loan me a rear caliper until the replacement came in but that would have meant 250 miles on a KLR with almost no rear brake. Or loading up the bike in my 85 minivan which has a cracked front axle and risk ending up on the side of the road with 2 usless vehicles. Well, instead I'm at home staring out my windows crying about my missed weekend (it was supposed to my mini-Moab!). I took 2 days off work for no good reason. Does anyone think I should give this mechanic a 2nd chance, or should I just get the part and install it myself? The way I see it, there are 2 possibilties for future service from this guy. He might be so pissed at his own mistake that he will give me extra special service for rest of my life, or he might resent me being a reminder of his shortcomings and I'll never get good service. Whaddya think? dat brooklyn bum _______________________________________________________ Get 100% FREE Internet Access powered by Excite Visit http://freelane.excite.com/freeisp

[carmic7@aol.com]

hello, sorry about the pun but my michelins are 2/3 shot in 4000 miles and was wondering which gripster to go with? as I understand it, there are two models, one more dirt, one more street, right? can someone reccomend one for me, mostly road riding in all weather, and tubeless tire or tube tire? -thanks, Neil