My tool is much happier too

Opening the letters to the editor of Bicycling magazine is like opening a cereal box as a child. Excitedly digging through the stuff you don't want, to try and find the promised goodness inside. Sometimes you find yourself a gem, most of the time you are horribly disappointed.

I've started a little game with myself when it comes to the reader letters, read the title, then read the last sentence and try to figure out what the letter is about. The latest was "Lost and Found" with the closing line of "My tool is much happier now."

Thoughts rushed through my brain as to what this provocative closing line and title could mean. Had he broken up with and reconciled with his psycho ex-girlfriend after she made the Best of Craigslist? His tool may be much happier, but what would that have to do with biking?

Maybe he found his back issue of Bicycling Magazine with Niki Gudex. You remember the one, the issue where she was the cover model and many readers got up in arms about having a model on the cover after they assumed she didn't ride? Apparently good cyclists can't look good. That was a classic and I could see why he would be happier after finding it.



Or maybe he'd found the perfect anatomically ergonomic seat after many numb rides, even more frustrating nights, and much cash spent on trying to find the perfect one. Sure, any of those concepts would have been appealing eye candy for us dear readers. But just like the toy in the cereal box, reality was much less exciting and way more disappointing. Read on...

Lost and Found
About a year ago I was working on my mountain bike with my trusty Leatherman tool. My work area was the floor of my cluttered garage. When I was gathering my tools to put them away I could not find the case for the Leatherman. I thought it must have gotten pushed under a pile. On a ride yesterday, I heard the hiss of a tire going flat, As I checked the tire for thorns, out popped the case. My tool is much happier now.

Charles Rozner, Northridge, CA

I can't fault his bike maintenance, I still remember the days of working on the bike with a pair of pliers and a bottle of 10W-30. Those days I had a love of my bike that was much different than the very odd BILF days of today. However, I have to revel in the story of how Charles rode around for a year with a Leatherman case in his tire. It's quite possible that when you work on a bike with a Leatherman, you maybe aren't as in tune to how off-balance your bike would be with a gigantic counterweight in the tire. Maybe it all just seemed normal with how the maintenance usually turns out. At any rate, my tool is much happier after reading the story.