1 in 1.3 Billion!
The welder cuts the base plate for the mount as Doven and Reidster watch.
It was a good day for the camera department. After a pretty major setback, compliments of China Post, I found myself looking at a broken camera mount on the bicycle. It must have taken a major hit in transit from Qinghuangdao to Yantai because the piece that broke was almost an inch thick. So since then I had been struggling with rigging the bike camera with the remaining pieces of the mount for a couple of days. Needless to say, I was pissed.
Then after another broken spoke stop on our way down to Jimon, we happened upon a little welding shop. The man agreed to try and weld the broken pieces back together.
The weathered face of a master craftsman.
His face had so much character and this gave me a great opportunity to get some shots of him welding. At first he tried to just fuse the broken piece together, but it caught fire and he said it wasn’t possible. He then started rummaging through his piles of stuff, pulling out random pieces like valves and tractor parts to try and fashion something that would work.
Ian documents the experience.
We were just about to give up when he found this rod of steel with a metal ball welded to the top. The ball was a perfect fit for the mount. What were the odds? He then went on to make a bottom bracket that would attach to the bike. This only took about 20 minutes and cost 20 yuan, which is approximately 3 dollars.
I thanked him repeatedly and his wife looked at it and commented that it was very strong, but not very beautiful. I told them that to me it was very beautiful…
So we’re back in business…What were the chances…About 1 in 1.3 billion!
Another satisfied customer!
