Farewell to our Tandem … and a New Word

This morning Thien and Tom came to pick up our tandem bike, which we enjoyed for 19 years.  NDIS assisted us to get a bike which better suits our current needs.  We are happy to give our old one away to a blind man keen to do some cycling and maybe triathlons.

I have modified the bike a bit over the years, starting with toe clips to help prevent Antigone’s feet from coming off the pedals, followed closely thereafter by adding shock cords between the pedals to prevent the rear toe clips from knocking into the road when the bike is ridden solo.  These shock cords have the additional benefit of keeping the toe clips correctly orientated for inserting one’s feet – a real bonus.  Other modifications include a device to prevent the front fork from turning more than 90 degrees and chain guards made with aluminium extrusions.

Ironically, many observers see the shock cords between the pedals and ask ‘Are those to keep the pedals together?’  ‘Well, no’ I typically answer, ‘the chain does that very effectively.  They are to keep the rear pedal toe clips from smashing into the road when the bike is ridden by one person.’

As I showed Thien and Tom my ‘Bob modifications’, they offered me a new word ‘Bobifications’.  I love it.  Being a design nerd, I modify many things in my life.  In the past I have talked about things being ‘Bobbed’, but ‘Bobified’ has a better ring to it.

Thien and Tom had arrived earlier than planned.  When I answered the door, I was in the middle of a lashing.  I invited them to sit on the porch while I finished the lashing. 

‘What’s a lashing?’ they asked.  It’s like a very big knot for joining two things together,’ I explained, ‘and you have to keep tension on the cord for an extended period while tying it.  That’s why I brought it to the door.’  I was modifying Antigone’s walker / wheelchair by adding vertical handles.  I explained that yesterday at parkrun we discovered that when Antigone held her walker higher up and more vertically, she tended to walk with a better posture rather than leaning forwards.  To see if that discovery might work with her everyday walker / wheelchair, I was lashing verticals onto it.

So Thien and Tom already had a sense of my tendency to modify things before I showed them the tandem bike.  Like me, Thien has an engineering background.

Bobify, bobified, bobifying, bobification.  The word is easily modified into verb, adjective and noun forms to suit a range of purposes.  Whereas ‘bobbed’ was limited to a past tense description.  Should it be capitalised?  I don’t know.  Let me know what you think.

What was planned as a gift of the bike, became a wonderful exchange of a bike for a new word.  Thanks Thien and Tom.