My work situation is very similar. We rent office space on the second floor of a building owned by a senior center. At 62 I'm considered the young guy. They'll let you know what they think of your pretty quickly, and not in a mean or demeaning way. They're just pretty straightforward with things. When a few of them first saw be commuting by bike there was concern that I might not be making enough money to own a car. It was a sincere concern. When they later saw that I commute using four different bikes, some were fascinated and wanted to know what made each bike different. Others simply said, you're nuts. But like I said, very straightforward.

rude

This reply is off-topic to the thread, but this particular post and replies above struck a chord with me. I had recently sent this PM to a fellow BF subscriber:

To wit, that thread included this post:

turbo 1889 stated well a major attraction of BF for me. As an avid cyclist I was delighted to find the Forums, where I could chat with other like-minded cyclists at length about seemingly arcane subjects of interest only to cyclists.

There was a thread on Fifty-plus last summer that discussed, ”How Do You Communicate on Forums vs Face-to-Face”:

That thread was closed soon after I critiqued a long post by paragraphing it, with the comment:

I think I'd come up with stuff that needed to be fixed just to sit an listen occasionally (and maybe give him a few fun needles). Sounds like a very very cool dude. Chaadster nailed it—Respect! I hope I'm doing so well when I'm 82.

Haha, that's exactly what I've been doing! If I have some extra energy when I'm downtown (200m climb from home to downtown; an extra 50m to the bike shop), I'll swing by and talk to him. He's told me about the way his racers played games on each other, to the proper way to sweep a floor, to how people just don't carry themselves well anymore while holding onto the straps of the bus.

He's generous to a fault if you appreciate his workmanship and his workshop - so far he's given me a basket for my daughter's bike, two kickstands, a rack, and odds and ends for free. If something has been sitting in his shop gathering dust, and you promise to clean it and rehab it, he'll give it to you, probably.

His son and him ride once or twice a month to Veracruz (must be around 120 Km). I want to join them some day; it has to be good therapy to get crushed on hills by an "old person".

I do my best to drive business to his shop - it's a great resource to have here.

NOS88, that's a great story. So sweet. And it makes the point well about Federico's mechanic. The style is annoying, but he probably means well. It's not so much that he's criticizing you, Federico. He's trying to help. Sure, it's advice you don't want, but see it as a charming quirk. At his age, you know he's not going to change. It won't be too long before this guy is just a fine memory, so be easy on him, and take his love as it comes.

How do you say uh-huh in Spanish?

GhostSS, I love that scene in that movie! I will always have that in my memory, and it's my favorite scene in a bike movie. And yes, it fit's Federico's mechanic to a T. Federico, you should see that movie, as should everyone else.

If it wasn't a French film I would totally watch it, but I don't like to read my movies.

tl;dr

Say what?

Forum speak for "too long;didn't read".

You're in Veracruz, MX. There are so few good bike shops capable of working on serious bicycles in the entire country, that you should thank God that one is close to you. Consider the lectures as you would the husks on corn as something to put up with to get to the good inside.

In your shoes, I'd do whatever I could to make sure nothing happens to this guy. Consider your remaining options when he's gone.

Good to know (gtk?).

PS (post script): Why reply to a post you did not read?

Any post longer than 3-4 sentences is too long. If you can't get to the point quickly, you probably never will, so why read on?