wieners vs buns

For some reason I've been out of balance.

It's like when you prepare for a cookout. The shopping is done and the guests are hungry. Chicken and steak aside, there's a dynamic involving the tubes of processed meats sticks and their whole wheat holders. It's the old joke: "why do wieners come in packs of 10 but the buns come in packs of 8?" While some of us have enough friends to warrant the purchase of 40 wieners and buns, most family events have a few left-overs.

I have that problem with wheels for the road machines. I have a few sets of tubulars with and without tires and they're pretty much ready for use. The rub lies with the clincher rim wheels. Swapping a set of Cane Creek equipped wheels with my brother for his failing and discontinued rims has put me out of sorts. Russell set me up with some solid and reliable rims a couple of months ago but they're all 28 hole hoops. I have plenty of 28 hole hubs, but they're nearly all rears. The American Classics went on Donna for SS road duty. The old Cronometro/Cane Creek rear hubs are 28 hole, but the fronts are 16 and 18 hole. While there are rims compatible in that drilling, they're uber-cool and pricey. I have a Mavic 501 built up on Sephie's 26" hooped MTB, but she's using those until she grows big enough for 29er wheels.

So I resorted to eBay. I found an XTR front for a reasonable price and did the "buy it now" rather than losing auction after auction. It came today, all shiny and new as advertised. I had a good laugh when I unpacked the shipping envelope. Contained with the hub was the seldom read Shimano Instructions relevant for whatever Shimano part. In this case it was the 8 language instructions on the proper set-up and use of a Quick-Release... which was not part of the auction.