Me and my bike have quite a relationship going on. I bought her about 3 and a half weeks ago now. In that time I've ridden her pretty much every single day, it feels weird and slow to leave our flat on foot.
Over here there's no point buying a new bike as it'll only get nicked, I left mine outside our school building both unlocked and with the key still in the lock for two hours earlier, it was still there when I came back - safe as houses. I bought her from a bloke on a corner for 100元 which is about a tenner - not too shabby at all. However, this is what I believe is referred to as a false economy. So far I've had to return to bike corner..
..four times.
- One damaged brake
- One mysterious bumping
- One punctured tyre (the source of the mysterious bumping, which he only worked out second time round)
- One detatched mudguard.
The mudguard especially was a pain as we went on a massive bike ride to the mountain and just as we were setting off home it snapped off, luckily D-I-Y me stepped in with a hairband and all was well.
But my favorite time was definitely the puncture because it was a bit busy on bike corner so I was assigned the lady with the broken hand, and you haven't seen funny till you've seen a lady with a broken hand try and fit a new inner tube.
I did step in and help her, I wasn't much use though as my Chinese doesn't yet extend to "take the inner tube and insert it carefully in the tyre whilst I hold the other end of it and yell at you."
But overall, this is classic China. You buy something cheap and cheerful, get it mended a million times by a bloke on a corner and carry on your merry way. Bikes, shoes, clothes, laptops...the list is endless.
xx
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