I read the internet through Feedly. Like many other people, I want to be good at my job, and my own life, and know something about the things that interest me and the world out there, but unfortunately there is not time for all of it. So, I get things that I think I might want to read, file them by subject (work, bikes, other work topic, and money for the curious), and spend a few minutes browsing post titles to pick and choose.
So, several months ago I read this post about mansplaining at bikeshops as a reason to buy online and then promptly forgot because I am way too busy these days to care about things that don’t really matter for more than 10 minutes at a time, but I remembered it right after this happened.
I needed a new spare tube. And I was running errands nearby, so I walked into this small, cramped store near Davis Square. I said
“Tube. 700c. 28×32. presta. long stem.”
And then the kid rummaged around and came up with a 18×23 short stem. “Will this work?”
“No. I need a 28×32 long stem. Thanks anyway.”
And that should have been it. That’s when I should have been able to leave and go to the much better bike store a few more blocks down the road to pay an extra dollar for the right tube. But then he asked: “are you sure that’s what you need?”
“Yes. I’m running 28mm tires on deep rims.” I was dumb enough to answer.
“is your bike a hybrid?”
“No. it’s a road bike. It has 700c wheels.” I was starting to realize the futility.
“are you sure?”
And so on. I just turned around and left a few seconds later.
Down the street, I walked in, said my 6 words and was handed a generic eight dollar tube. The whole exchange took less than 30 seconds.
I would have saved 5 minutes of my life just by going an extra 6 blocks out of my way to pay $1 more than I wanted to for a tube. Lesson learned.
