On the rack over a rack
Back last week, I was involved in the ordering of a new bicycle. And since the plan did not include riding the new purchase over hill and dale to home, a plan was hatched to provide transport. On our car. Of course, the idea of carrying an extra bicycle came without any hardware, and so the dance begins.
A rack was purchased, after a shopping adventure, and the new box has been stored in the back of the car for several days now. Offloaded and onloaded, as our access to the rest of the car evolved. But today, the new bike was finally ready, and we headed in to the city to welcome the new bike. And the rack didn’t fit.
We found this out by following the installation steps, carefully. All the way to the final step which mentioned in small print that if the car had a “spoiler”, this particular rack would be a No-Fit. Oh my.
Back to the store. Yes, we could exchange our opened and tested rack. The next question, “with what?” was the stumbler. No roof mounted rack (our transversal bars were of the wrong profile). And the third possibility required a tow hitch.
Anything can be purchased, with enough time and money, but there were none of the necessary profile available in the city. We know; the girl at the sporting good store (bless her!) called down the list. However, the second one might be able to call on inventory from another branch. We’d purchase our new rack once we knew that a hitch was available.
Over to the shop. Yes, they could order one, for Friday, and they could sell us the same rack model. Deal! Write it up. We need to go to the bike shop, and we’ll be back.
As it turned out, sooner than we expected. The bike shop recommended a different solution, one better suited to our need, and we are flexible. Yet another rack was ordered and we returned to the auto supply store to cancel part of our order from only twenty minutes earlier. And they agreed, without hesitation! What is this, a world of be kind to traveling customers?
Now, the bike isn’t home, yet. But thanks to the assistance and open to change attitude of three different stores, we will get through this.
