[...] gasket and O-ring, and soak it in little aluminum pie plates of degreaser, whereupon once all the bits had been defilthed to my satisfaction I’d put the thing back together again, with one extra bearing or washer every year.  In this way I would contribute to the annual joke, which like great humour concepts everywhere increased with teh funny year after year:  that one day Dad’d be biking along and the whole shebang would collapse underneath him, having been losing parts annually for well over a decade.  It was a Peugeot, that bike, IIRC.  I think I’ll just wipe my bike down with a ShamWow. [...]