Power Tools

Can someone please explain to me what the fuck a "Power house" is? I generally associate this term with a prolific basketball team or someone who can easily smite a peleton in the final 20km of a cycling monument. I do not understand this term in reference to inanimate objects, least of which being a crappy "tri" bike. And yet I am constantly presented with these aggravating and disturbing situations at work.

Today some guy came in and said he was having an issue with the front shifting on his TT bike. Of course he didn't call his bike a "TT bike" but said something along the lines of "triathlon," "race," and "bicycle." I chose to ignore this part of the conversation; "shifting problem" was all I needed to hear. Then he said something about not being able to maintain his top-end speed. I also ignored this comment because had I thought too much about it, my head would have exploded. But to my dismay he continued talking and even pointed to his "power house" the lower half of the bike in the general area of the crankset and bottom bracket shell. He prefaced his next question by telling me that he checked his brakes and wheels to make sure they weren't rubbing and also that the shifting was fine. The next words that came out of his mouth were "Everything seems fine, but I'm still having trouble keeping my top-end speed. Do you think there's something wrong in the power house?" [points to the bb assembly]. Humoring him, I checked to make sure the bb was spinning smoothly and there weren't any binding or loosening issues. I even checked his brakes and wheels to make sure they were in decent working order. There was nothing wrong with the bike, but he kept mentioning this mysterious "power house" and pointing to his bike. Within 3 minutes, I ran out of bullshit to check on his bike and words to say to make this Tri-dork leave my shop. All I could do was make a face and admit "defeat." I told him that "It was something I couldn't fix" but didn't go as far as telling him that by "it" I meant the absurd level of ineptitude for cycling and general athleticism that I was currently present with. At the end of our conversation, he finally gave in and took his bike back, adding that it was "probably just his legs because he hasn't been on the bike in months." I subsequently smashed my fingers in the vise to keep me from choking this guy out.

"Power house" could possibly be a pseudonym for "legs" and a horrible stroke could have cause this poor miscommunication, but I'd say that's meeting this customer more than half way.

Oh, and if you're wondering why he said his shifting was fine but still brought his bike in for shifting issues, it's because his left bar-con wasn't clicking like his right one and he is "100% sure that the left shifter was indexed and not a friction shifter." And yes, he was completely wrong.