When Basil and I took another trip to the Exton end of the Chester Valley trail, we discovered some competition for the road on the way to the parking lot. There was no one behind us, so I parked on the access road and immortalized the wait.
Then we took a ten mile ride on a third saddle — a Specialized I already owned. The test went well, and I may have finally found Basil’s new saddle. Details to come!
This was the last trip before the strap on my Mini O failed, but more on that later, too. Am I the only one who relies heavily on the strap on that most useful of small Brompton bags?
The Mini O is an odd duck. It’s kind of crudely put together, with nubs on interior. The Brompton frame is bolted on, with no cover plate or anything designed to disguise or mitigate the lumps made on the inside by the bolt heads. Given the Mini O’s size, that may be a good thing, since it maximizes useful interior space — though maybe flat head bolts would have been a better choice.
I was amused to see that the bolt heads dented the cheese during the ride down the trail from Wegman’s. (Excellent reason to ride this stretch of the Chester Valley Trail: The Wegman’s Cheese Stop at the grocery along the trail.) “Room temperature” cheese . . oh yeah!
We picked up a cheddar and a provolone for Dr. D’s lunches, and a Valdeon, which got consumed on Cheese Night, an important weekly event.
The Mini O is by far my favorite everyday bag when not traveling (and sometimes worth taking along even when on a trip) but the strap has failed; that’s an issue that’s more important than dents in cheese. More on it later; resolution may be at hand.
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4 replies on “Valdeon, Amusingly Squashed”
Unlike you to be testing to destruction? I’ll be interested to see where your strap failure occurred; whether it’s the mounting point or the strap material. Perchance you’re consuming far more cheese than you’re letting on?
Indeed, Ian; I’m not notably hard on my equipment. It’s the clip, I think — the loop that attaches to the button. (Though I suppose it could be the button itself; that would be much worse news, though.) The strap will no longer stay attached; it just falls off the button.
I’m taking the fifth on the cheese. (That’s the constitutional amendment in our founding document which states that we in the USA can’t be compelled to incriminate ourselves.)
Ouch!
Only for the cheese, Saul, and it didn’t seem to mind. The dent appears to be an unheralded benefit of the Mini O; I may rely on it in the future to test the texture of soon-to-be-consumed cheese!