Dreams + Ability <> Success

This blog entry started out quite differently.  It was going to be the story of how local businesses help each other succeed.  And it really is gratifying to see how local businesses help each other.  But, in the end it was just not enough to overcome design flaws and incomplete plans.

It all started when we decided it w ould be helpful to have a bike rack on our Highlander so that we could transport Carolyn's bike as well as my trike if we wanted to go on a biking expedition that started anywhere but home.  Now that I'm riding my tricycle 3 or 4 times a week such a trip isn't out of the question.

I dropped into our local Sport Chalet which indeed had several bike racks.  However, the best one according to the sales rep was not currently in stock.  Besides, he said, I probably should talk to the experts at Rack and Road.  I couldn't believe my ears.  An unsolicited referral! Then he offered me a free license plate holder (advertising Sport Chalet, of course) which I took since the original one from my dealer was falling to pieces.

Next, Carolyn and I dropped in at Rack and Road and were told me needed an additional hitch receiver.  They didn't have that but referred us to Cole Fabrication, a local firm specializing in small welding jobs and whose motto is something like "If you can dream it, we can build it."  Shortly after we arrived and explained our situation, the lead worker Larry was discussing with the owner Jake the various potential solutions. They quickly weeded out the impractical solutions and Larry began preparing the pieces.

I have always been fascinated by welding, even to the point of buying little welding kits but never successfully welding anything useful.  That's why I'm in awe of someone like Larry or Jake who can make the whole process look effortless.

Within a couple of hours we had a new hitch receiver and were headed
 back to Rack & Road to finish our project.

We had had a good look at how small town businesses work together to provide big business customer service.

Unfortunately, here the story falls flat. To this point no one had bothered to actually check out the structural implications of a bike rack on the folded up chair lift.  For some reason the designers of the chair lift had included a spring mechanism that is bypassed when actually carrying a chair or scooter.  But in the folded up position the spring acts somewhat like the spring in a pogo stick.  When mounted as we had all envisioned, the bike would amplify each bump in the road making the car unsafe to drive, scaring the hell out of anyone following, and probably eventually ripping the lift off the back of the Highlander.   We didn't let it go that far, of course.  We returned the bike rack for full credit as it had not been used.  There was no  undoing of the welding, of course.  But hopefully we all learned a lesson about thinking things ALL the way through.