TWO MEN SET OUT on a tandem bike and pedal down a road; call them Ed & Ned, for short, Ed at the head and Ned, puny little fart, bringing up the rear.

Good thing Ed is young and strong because a big hill comes up in front of them, long and high and steep and Ed yells back at Ned that they are in for it.

Sure-enough, this is one of those hills that loom — a badass hill, no doubting it — and Ed’s muscles and splendid thew and bone are sorely taxed by a hill that gets steeper as the crest approaches. Ed’s starting to tire, no doubting that, and…

…and Ned back there complaining how worried he is they’ll never make it. Well, they do, at last, and Ed looks back and comments, “Damn, that got bleak toward the tipping-point of the angle of repose — not terribly memorable. And Ned says “Yeah, we’d have gone backward if I didn’t have the New Departure brakes on, all the way!”

Ed just smiles, what you going to do? A MORAL? You don’t always get what you deserve. Neither do we who get to ride; and look out for Fred, and then, Ted, by all means.