Working in a bike shop, okay, service shop, has it's upside. The downside is that I am constantly surrounded with reminders that the shop is a young man's game. I am the oldest in the shop by nearly ten years, but still get to do all the fun stuff the kids get to do...like deliveries.
Taylor (19 year old college student) and I had to deliver a treadmill and elliptical machine to one place in town and then another elliptical of gargantuan status to another customer out of town yesterday. I opted to go since there was nothing to do in the shop and we loaded up the box truck and pulled out.
We arrived at the first place and the customer said that whoever sold him the stuff said that we'd haul his old treadmill out for him as well. This was not the most pleasant of surprises as everything that we did required a flight of narrow basement stairs and a sharp, 180 degree corner with lots of breakable stuff at the bottom. By the time Taylor and I got the old treadmill out, I was already sweating like a chubby Elvis and ruing my decision to do deliveries.
The elliptical made me nervous because of the tight corner. The arms on the machine extend pretty far up and I didn't know whether we had a prayer of getting the thing through or not. We hit the bottom of the stairs and were pleasantly surprised that the corner proved no problem.
The new treadmill was another matter entirely. It is one of those units that folds somewhat flat when stored, but weighs a ton (not surprising to anyone that's owned an even half-way decent treadmill). We had hoped to carry it flat through the door frame, but that proved impossible as, even with the door off, we would have been probably about four inches short of space. This meant we needed to take it through and down the stairs sideways.
The motor on a treadmill sits completely on one end of the unit and weighs roughly the same as a refrigerator. When the unit is tipped on its side, all of that weight kicks to one side and makes is about as easy to handle as my dad's old classic pickup (without power steering) careening down a series of switchbacks on an Alpine slope with the brake line cut. I can still see the marks on my hands where all of the weight of the unit was concentrated while we worked it down the stairs.
Somehow we made it out of there with no property damage.
We hit the other delivery in good time after about a 45 minute drive and were pleased to see that even though it was a two story house, we had ground level access either way. Even though that machine weighed significantly more than the other three we had maneuvered already, the elliptical proved a very easy delivery.
We were back to the shop before 8:00 and then had the joy of moving a Bowflex machine to the floor for display and an air hockey/pool table that is a testament to how a poorly designed, poorly constructed piece of game equipment can ruin what is actually a fairly creative idea.
By the time I rolled into the house, my back was screaming. Amy, my compassionate, lovely bride, did her best to work the ache and strain out of my back before we turned in for the evening, but I knew that I'd still be paying for the effort today. I am and I fear what I might have felt like today without Amy's intervention.
I think I may have to leave the heavy lifting to all the young bucks in the shop from here on out.
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