Objective Jerk
Army Veteran Asshole that is learning to love Jesus. I use my MIC / Platform as a form of "Therapy", no schedule, no script, just whatever is floating my boat at the moment.
Objective Jerk
BIKE UPGRADES & CULTURAL LEARNING CURVES: Shimano Struggles, Starter Fixes, and New Country Challenges
Navigating bike repairs leads to unexpected life lessons about resilience and problem-solving. From upgrading components to tackling practical challenges in a foreign country, this episode explores the connection between mechanics and personal growth.
• Discussing the journey of repairing and upgrading my bike
• Navigating compatibility issues with Shimano components
• Learning from mistakes made during repairs
• Reflecting on life challenges and cultural differences
• Sharing humorous anecdotes of DIY adventures
If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and subscribe to stay updated on our latest discussions!
What's going on? All you beautiful people, this is the Objective, jerk and I'm said, jerk, how are you doing? Hope everybody's doing well. I am recording another podcast. This is my third one in a row, but I got like three hours left on my budgeted time for my plan that I have. So it's a short month, so I'm trying to get the most out of it as I can.
Speaker 1:Um, but yeah, so I've been busy for me. So, dude, my life right now I'm retired, my life's pretty, pretty easy, pretty simple. Even though it's simple and easy, I still find ways to complain, I guess. But that's just kind of my bipolar retard. I don't know what it is, but anyway. So, but things are good. You know, it's my life. I can't, I really can't complain, even though I do, if I, if I bitch and complain, just just know that I'm retarded, but yeah, so let's see, yesterday, I think I did my podcast, before I started really looking into the bikes, I reached out to a seller on Facebook and he, so I found man, okay, I'm not gonna, I'm trying to get too into this because it's just, but there's.
Speaker 1:So I, so I have a specialized bike right, and when I first got it here, when I started riding like regularly it didn't have, you know, it was outdated drive train and everything like that, but it was, it's fine, it worked great. I mean, probably the worst thing was probably the, the, the um shocks, cause they were spring. But so I've upgraded everything over time, but I've just kind of upgraded it with like local stuff, that's like mid or I was asking for mid, I wasn't asking for the most expensive, but I didn't want the cheapest, but it's just not working. So I think I discussed yeah, I talked about how the cassette just got shredded from my hub. And so now I'm like okay, I was telling my writing buddy he was my godfather when I recently got baptized. It's kind of weird, I'm 46 and I had to still have a godfather. But anyway, he's one of my riding buddies and I was like gosh, I never had these problems until I started upgrading it. And he's like yeah, it's because all your stuff was Shimano before. And I was like oh, you know what You're right. So I was like you know, I just I got to get, I'm going to redo everything the whole drive train with Shimano parts, um, so that's what I decided.
Speaker 1:And I found this guy who has and there's like four tiers of of drive trains basically, or at least um, cassettes, and and and and uh, derailers, you know. And so I was looking at the second from the bottom. So all of them are good. All of you know Shimano stuff is good. They work great.
Speaker 1:What's the difference between the cheapest to the most expensive is weight, basically for the most part. And then there's a little more ease of access to make adjustments to your derailleur and stuff. With the more expensive ones, with the, with the cheaper ones, you have to like it's a little more labor intensive. I guess you could say um. So I was looking at the second from the bottom. Right, that's what this guy had, and it was 12 gears and I'm like, okay, yeah, I think, maybe I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 1:And then originally it was just the, the derailleur, the cassette and the shifter, maybe the chain too, probably. And then it was like he's like, do you want to do the whole drive train? I was like, ah, which is like the, the, the, the pedal in the I forget what. Do you call it? Um, this isn't a mountain biking show, but the, um, I forget the term, but anyway, you know the, the, the, the gear and and and the, everything for the to pedal. Why, every time, every single time I have a podcast, there's a word I cannot think of drives me nuts. Probably drives you nuts more, right, anyway? So I was like, okay, I'm going to get the drivetrain. He's like okay. He's like here's your hub.
Speaker 1:So the hub is the middle of the wheel that the spokes go to, that connects to the bike. He's like is your hub micro-splained? And I'm like, what the fuck is that? So I had to kind of look it up a little bit and come to find out it is not micro-splained. So I'm like great. So now I'm looking at trying to find some hubs that are micro-splained to replace my current hubs. So that means I'm going to have to take my whole wheel apart and do the spokes and everything. And then, as I'm getting ready to kind of, I found a hub. Um, I was just going to keep the front hub as it was. I was just buying one hub, um, like a used you know um hub.
Speaker 1:And then I remembered that my bike, being as old as it is, doesn't have, you know, because you have, like the, the rear, the tail or the wheel and everything connects to it. You know, bikes are like older bikes are really narrow. But then if you look at like a new bike with, like you know, the most expensive drivetrain, they're like super wide because they need all the space for the cassette, if you get a bigger wheel and just all that kind of stuff, you know. So my bike is pretty much maxed out. And I was like, oh man, you know what, I don't know if that'll fit. So then, talking to some friends finding out the size, the hub I was looking at is not going to fit. So I was trying to find one to fit and I was just like, oh my gosh, I was like I don't know. So I was trying to find one to fit and I was just like, oh my gosh, I was like I don't know.
Speaker 1:So I was talking to the seller who actually I became friends with on Facebook because he was so much help. You know he wasn't just some middleman, it's pretty apparent he knows this stuff. I'm assuming he's a writer. But he really was real helpful with you know, I was like I don't think it's. I told him I was like my bike, I don't think it's gonna fit, and this and that he's like, well, I have 11 speed the, the lower model of shimano 11 speed, right, so that shit and it's not the lowest one is not micro splain, so it will fit on my current hub and it's one gear less, which is, you know, I was freaking tearing up the trails before when I only had what was it like? Eight, Eight in the back and three in the front, three by eight or however they say it, you know, now it's like just one in the front and then you have, like I had 12, but it was crap. So now I'm going to be 11, which is fine. I mean, how often I don't know.
Speaker 1:Anyway, so he helped me with that, got that figured out. So I was just like, oh, thank you. Okay, so great, so that's going to work. I haven't ordered it yet because I got to wait till I get paid, but, um, but yeah. So I was just like getting a little overwhelmed and going down this rabbit hole of all this stuff with the bikes, it was just like Holy crap. But if you know, um, if I want to work on my bike which I do because I want to know what's right, I want, I want to know that I have the best parts and it's done the right way, and if it's not, I have no one to blame but myself. So, and I'm pretty, you know, like I said, I'm pretty, uh, mechanically inclined, like right now, I just removed the starter. If you can tell I'm a little dirty I'm wearing my work shirt Um, I took the starter off of my truck it's a 2011 Nissan frontier for those in America, but Navarro for other places and my wife picked up a starter in town after her class.
Speaker 1:Yesterday. I found a video which I thought was pretty accurate and it was a great video, but it's just not the correct vehicle. I guess there's a pretty good difference between the Frontier and the Navarro. I have to watch it again. Maybe the one he did is a little newer, I don't know, but I watched this video. This guy was great talking about where to get to whatever and the sizes of the sockets and everything you need. You know what I mean. So I watched the video and I went and grabbed all my tools, so I had them all ready. So I have to figure out what size they are. I already know, and then I start working on it and I'm like this is not the same, because in his video, he's got a heat shield that you have to remove to get to the starter and there's no heat shield for mine and the wiring is a little bit different. So I was like damn. So I had to figure out which size the nuts were.
Speaker 1:And the thing is, if you don't know like starters are, they're actually one of the easier parts to replace on a car. So this is, I think, my third time doing it and they're all basically the same. I mean a newer, brand new car, I don't know. Uh, I couldn't tell you for sure, but from my experience, um, starters are all you know they're. They're bolted to the flywheel, you know the, the transmission to kick the flywheel, there's two bolts holding it on and then you got generally like two wires, two connectors connected to it, for you know, from the battery and whatever, and that's it. It's pretty easy. It's just depending on the vehicle and everything it's, it can be hard to get to.
Speaker 1:So the first starter I ever worked on or replaced was my first vehicle, which was a Dodge Ram 50. It was 85 and older vehicles are much easier. There's so much more space, less plastic, less computer wiring, crap, and I remember that was the first one I did. You know, my uncle was like this is how you do it. He just explained to me because he knew it was. You know, it was an easy job and I did it. I was pretty proud of myself, but it was pretty simple, you know.
Speaker 1:And then I did another one. I think it was like a red Ford, which was another. It was pretty simple, you know. And then I did another one I think it's like a red ford, which was another. It was like 88 or something. What year was that, or is that that other one? Anyway, I did another one, basically the same thing. It wasn't hard to get to. It was a bigger trick. Oh no, it was a 90. What year was that? A 95 f-150, I think, or something like that. Anyway.
Speaker 1:And then, so I wasn't too, you know, worried about this one. My wife, you know it's, the labor here to have people work on stuff is really cheap. But you don't know like you have people who are not certified. They're just individuals like myself that know how to do some stuff and have the tools and like, hey, I'll fix it. You know what I mean. So it's, it's not. Oh, I was going to get the thing to try. I forgot, sorry, the little mesh thing to see. If that cause I hear popping, but I don't think it came across on the podcast. It's just me. I squirrel, squirrel, um, what was I talking about? Oh, my goodness, I was talking about how easy it is, whatever this and that blah, blah, but yeah, so I mean, that's all it is, it's in.
Speaker 1:But this one was kind of, uh, difficult to get to, um, and it's, it's. It's crazy because it's just you can't, you know it's not like the battery. But this one was kind of difficult to get to and it's crazy because it's just you can't, you know it's not like the battery. You can just get right to the battery. You know it's down in the engine a little bit, or you got to go underneath and usually you can't get to it with two hands. You got to just get it with one hand and usually can't see it. So you got to feel and it's just in these awkward positions and you're like trying to, and if there was nothing around it it would take you two seconds to remove it. You know, um, it's just kind of crazy, I. So I get the frustrations.
Speaker 1:I remember my uncle, who was a mechanic that I talked about, I think, on the last podcast. He, he was good at it but he hated it at the same time. I mean, he taught me pretty much most of what I know and I'm grateful for that. But there were some times when he just was like so something was broken. Like here's a quick little story. Went took the family. This is what that F-150 I was just talking about. I think it was like a 95, maybe 96. I don't know. No, actually I think it was like a 95, maybe 96, I don't know. No, actually I think it was a 97 anyway. So I had a had a shell on it and then we took a bunch of uh, you know, tubes and stuff. We went tubing winter time up in like um soqualmi pass in washington and um had a great time. And then we left.
Speaker 1:I was driving home and I just remember thinking like man, but I mean, the roads were really kind of snow. It was like a lot of snow, so the roads were not normal. So the truck felt weird but I was just like, ah, it's the snow, the ice, whatever. But it did. By the time I got home it still was like what the crap? And then we get home and we're unloading the truck and then I smell and I can see. I had the freaking parking brake on the whole time, so it just. I drove on the parking brake all the way home and it just melted and destroyed those brake pads. It was a brake drums. So I went to you know, I bought some brake drums. So I went to you know, I bought some new drums.
Speaker 1:I went to my uncle to help me do it because I'd never done it before. But instead of like me doing it and him just sitting there kind of tell me what to do, he, he just does it because it's like it's just quicker and easier if I just do it, you know. I mean because he doesn't, I'm really simply him and I are like actually pretty similar. If you didn't know, you would think he was probably my father because we just look a lot alike. I mean I look like my dad too, obviously, but build and just kind of personality and everything showed me some stuff. But sometimes it was like just watch, you know, he'd just do it and I would watch and that's fine. I guess I mean that's, you know a lot of things if you see it once and then when you go to do it, you just do it once and then you're good.
Speaker 1:There's been a few times I'm trying to think situations where that happened. I was just kind of I watched somebody do it and then there came a time in my life where I had to do it and I was able to do it. So not a big deal, but anyway. So, after figuring out what size sockets and getting all the stuff I need to get to where I need to get to, to get the wires off and everything, I get the starter out. I laid down next to the starter my wife bought and they're not the same starter, so, yeah, so that's what I was just talking to with my wife. Um, she's got a. I sent her a bunch of pictures and everything and she's going to have to buy a new one or see if they even have one. But most likely I'm just gonna have to finish my job or finish installing it, probably tomorrow afternoon, because she'll come home from school probably not with the, the right starter, and she'll have to take back the other one.
Speaker 1:I don't know who knows, but kind of sucks because I'm trying to, like um, get some trash dumped off. So where I live, they they do have waste management, but it's just, it's not the same as it is in the States. It really kind of sucks. To be honest with you, like you know, there's garbage trucks that drive down our road every day to a dump and it's like we would have to, you know, we'd put the garbage cans on the side of the road but they would never pick it up. We'd have to like, hey, can you pick it up? Or give them like some money or something you know, and it's fine if we have to pay for it. But there's no, you know, you don't pay monthly for, like you know, like in the States, I don't know. It's just kind of weird. So, but there are like some like recycle places around.
Speaker 1:So I was tired of having my trash just build up in the front of the yard and never getting dumped. So what I started doing was I started burning, separating all of my trash, which was a pain in the ass because the kids just are clueless. So I'd have like a trash for like everything that can burn, and then I'd have a bin for plastics, a bin for cans and kind of do that. So I would burn all the burned stuff with some yard waste stuff and then we would just take the recycles to this one place close by right. But then my wife learned about the dump, that we can just go to the dump and it's set up pretty much just like in the States, which is cool.
Speaker 1:But the good thing is you don't have to pay. You'd go to the dump in the States, which is cool, but the good thing is you don't have to pay. You know, you'd go to the dump in the States and they would sit there and charge you by weight. They'd weigh your truck or whatever and you would pay. Um, here they don't. So that's kind of nice. Um, so now it's just like every two weeks or whatever, I just load our trash in the back of the truck plus whatever kind of stuff, go to the dump and we just dump it and usually I give them, like you know, 100 pesos or something.
Speaker 1:Um, so, but yeah, so that's what I meant to do a couple days ago. And that's when the truck wouldn't start and I was like, oh great, and it's not the battery, because it has power, just it goes, click. I already talked about it. So anyway, so it was the starter starters out. So that's what I'm waiting to do is get that fixed so I can get rid of the trash.
Speaker 1:But that's my headache. It's, I guess, a pain in the ass. But is it really? You know what I mean? I know some people probably listening to this and like god, this guy's, I think, either people are like dude, why does he live in a third world country? I don't know, I don't think I could do it, blah, blah, blah. But I think there's, you know, some people are just like dude. Man, he's got the life. What the freak is he bitching about? You know, and it's, you know, it's just one of those culture clash, culture shock kind of type things I guess you know. And it's just things.
Speaker 1:Just like everything here is concrete. You know, I'm I'm not a Mason person, I'm a carpenter. I know how to, I know how to work with wood and lumber that's pine and whatever from the states. A lot of the wood here is like dense as hell. You can't even nail a hammer through the crap. The nail will bend or break all the screws and the nails are cheap. So it's like just building a simple structure, some kind of whatever out of wood, which would be easy in the States, is like difficult here. So it's, you know, learning curves with, with everything you know. You know, like in the States it's like, yeah, you pre-drill before you screw something in for the most part, but you don't have to with everything. It depends on the wood or what you're doing, how big the screw is, things like that. Here you got to pre-drill, you have to, and then the thing is they do have like plywood, but it's really not the greatest, although we did buy some recently for my bed and it's like it's a little more expensive but it's a little better quality. So I think I'm going to use that in the future when building anything like I got to build, like my wife, we had a walk-in closet built with the house when we had people working on the house, but it's all like you know, cinder blocks, concrete and rebar that's how they do stuff here.
Speaker 1:But we had this large section like, okay, you can see here this door right. So the room I'm in right now was just a bedroom, a small bedroom, but then, um, I knocked down a doorway right here so it goes into the master bedroom, and then there was a door just on the other side of it and that was the main door for the master bedroom. So we, what we did was we turned. This door is the entry into the master bedroom and this is like you know, my little whatever. And then you have the master bedroom and then what used to be the doorway to the master bedroom we turned into like a walk-in closet, because there's like a huge the end of the hallway which is like a big open. It was kind of weird and my wife was like, hey, let's put a wall here and make a walk-in closet, cool. So the walk-in closet's there, but we don't have I got to build, you know, the closet. Really it's just a dresser and some stuff in there for her to hang, like a shelf and everything. So when I do that, I'm going to use that wood and, um, yeah, so that'll be fun. I guess I don't know, let's see.
Speaker 1:So what are you guys doing? What kind of chores and stuff are you doing around the house? You know I I've done like. I've installed dishwashers and sinks and various things. I never, I wasn't, I never did, I don't think I did like copper water lines and you know what do they call it? When you're dealing with copper and you heat up the to connect it and everything. I forget the term like. I never messed with that too much um, but like, so here, the water lines, it's just because we we have a well, we're not into like city water or nothing, and so it's PVC kind of run, and it's just it's kind of ghetto, but it kind of works here.
Speaker 1:Like I don't want to put, like I want to put new water lines the um, the better, like PVC. It's not PVC, it's like the white stuff, like you have to melt it to connect it. Um, I forget what they call it, but so, like I want to replace all our water lines with that and I don't want to have anything running through the walls, it's just going to be on the outside and go into, like the bathrooms and the kitchens, because it just, you know, time, the pvc. So we we can't use, like you know, steel or or, uh, any kind of any kind of metal, because our the well water just eats it up, so you have to have pvc. But then pvc kind of gets brittle over time, because the sun here is just, you know, destroys anything. That's kind of plastic. So, um, so we got to get that white, um pvc type I forget what it's called but um, but when we do that, though, I got to get a whole filtration system, water softener and everything like that.
Speaker 1:So then it's, the water is not as hard and so you know it won't destroy faucets. But I'm still not going to put lines in the wall and everything. I'll just still use that pvc. But it'll be nice because, like a lot of faucets I have around the house are plastic, because the brass not brass, the galvanized steel or whatever for a faucet just it crumbles and falls apart like every year. I got to replace the faucets, although the one in the kids bathroom is actually holding up pretty good. So I have like a mixture. Outside I got some plastic and I have some some um, I just said it the galvanized or cast iron whatever. And the cast iron just gets messed up over time and then the plastic holds up unless it's in the sun. Then the sun just destroys it. So it's just like it gets kind of annoying.
Speaker 1:So once we get the water system in the, in the filtration because we have like a small like basic filter system that I change out the filters every month or whatever, but yeah, I want to get a better system and a water softener so then the faucets and everything don't deteriorate. So it's just crap like that. That's just, and you know people deal with that in the states. You know there's hard water all over different places, um, but it's really like aggressive here though, um, but yeah, you know. So that's nothing new, but it's just, yeah, like plastic here just does not last at all. You know which. You know in the desert and in the states too, it's the same thing.
Speaker 1:But like, so where the, where my, my well, is the water pump, um, sometimes when the water level gets too low, then there gets like an air bubble in the pump and it won't suck up the water, and just constantly you hear the pump going, you know, um, and even if, like, the water level rises back up, it still won't suck the water. So you have to turn it off and you have to prime it. So you got to fill the water line with water. So I added a little, um little valve and a hose and like a, like a funnel, so then I could turn on that valve, pour water into it and then close it, and then, you know, so that's how I'd prime it, and I had a, like a little plastic pitcher that was out there and that's where I would get the water in, to pour it in there. Well, the other day I went and did that and I went to grab the picture and it just like disintegrated in my hands, it just crumbled. I was just like geez.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's pretty, I don't know, it's just, it's not that crazy, it's just. You know things are. If you live, you know, in the west, in the states, the southern, you know it gets really dry and really hot there. Or if you live in, you know, florida, where it's really humid, it's just just. There's things that are different. You know the houses are built different in all those places, but it's like that, but just completely different.
Speaker 1:You know, just like I said, everything is concrete here because termites are going to eat your crap, unless you have a certain kind of wood and that wood that they eat is so dense it's hard to build anything with. It's like man, I don't know. So I mean I'm, I'm learning, I'm, I'm getting there, I'm learning how to hang things and deal with the concrete walls. Go through concrete bits like crazy, cause it's like generally like when I hang stuff up on the wall, like everything you see hung up, it's just I'll pre-drill a little bit with the mason bit and then I put a concrete nail type in and that's what hangs everything up.
Speaker 1:Now if you hang, you know, something heavy, then it's like you got to get an anchor in there, or they call it a what do they call it here? A talk, I think, I don't know, and that's the other thing too. So it's like I go to and this is to be expected. I guess you know I'm in another country, so, um, but yeah, um, you know, go into the hardware store and I'll be asking for something and they're like, uh, no, we don't have that. And then I'll go walk around and I'll find it and they're like, oh, that's this, that's what that is. And I'm like, oh, okay, but yeah. So sometimes it's like I said the whole crap 28 minutes. Okay, um, man, I was going there for a while, huh, just blabbing. Um, that's, you know, that's what I do. This microphone is my, my buddy, my therapy, just the bullshit with um. So thanks for listening. I appreciate your time. Hope everybody's doing well, god bless, and I will see you guys next time. All right, bye.
