The tubes were plugged or something, as Sram politely told me they only sent parts to dealers and I would need to work through a LBS. Uh-oh, warning lights start going off. My two LBSs at the time consisted of one run by a single-guy who pretty basically liked to play with his own bikes and not much else, and the other a large Trek-alized store full of pot-heads barely competent to install tires. My choices were limited, so I chose the small shop (individualized service and all that). "Uhm, yeah, I guess we can get that..." Two months later, lots of phone call, several stop bys, no parts.
I give up for a while and forget about my little IGH project. Finally think about it again as I'm cleaning out the garage and selling unused parts. Yeah, I'm not using that wheel, might as well sell it. I need to get that damn part though so I can sell it as complete/working wheel and make huge money that I can buy gold with. In the meantime, the bike shop has gone out of business (wow, who could have seen that coming!?!?), so that leaves Special-Ek as my only option.
I print out the email from Sram stating the part #. I print out their parts manual showing the part. I bring those to the shop. Guy at the shop is really trying to help, but just can't wrap his head around the idea of ordering the parts from Sram. He wastes half an hour going through a QBP parts book and trying to talk me into getting a Sturmey Archer part. I go home, get the wheel, explain how it goes together, and finally convince him the best thing to do would be to call Sram and ORDER THE DAMN PART FROM THEM!
A week goes by. He calls, says the part is in. I get over there. And massive fail. At least they didn't charge me anything.
Fuck it, I'm just buying it online. Looks like $7 shipped from Petra Cycles in the UK.
Hopefully they won't end up sending me Shimao SPD cleat bolts.
