My Bike

After one year of intense pressure (read: nagging from Zayd, Andrew and all of my other bike-riding friends), I finally caved and bought a bike last fall (I've since left Beijing).

I wanted to buy the cheapest bike since I didn't plan to ride it long distances, just to classes and back. I went to two stores, found the cheapest bike possible and bargained for it. I didn't get much knocked off, but it didn't matter. I had a cheap, dumpy bike that I could ride to school. I was thrilled.

My emotionally blissful state lasted for approximately 3 minutes. It was then I realized a very important thing: my bike sucked, like much more than I thought it would. Little did I know what I was in for.

As I rode away from the store, I noticed that I had a hard time peddling. The bike just would not move, regardless of how hard I pedaled and how much I sweated. About 20 minutes later, exhausted and convinced it was not just my wickedly out-of-shape body rejecting some much-needed exercise, I gave up. I looked down and saw I had a flat back tire (Yes I know, it should have been obvious, but it had been like 10 years since I had actually ridden a bike, sue me). I went to a store, filled it with air and was off. The next day, the tire was flat again. I went back to the store where I had bought the bike, complained, and got a new tire installed for free. I was happy once again.

The next day, my front tire was flat, and I had to buy a new one. I was starting to think maybe this whole cheap bike scheme wasn't such a great idea in the first place. But I got to class without a problem. Things were smooth.

Until, a few days later when I was riding and I braked to avoid a fellow student crossing one of the university's pathways. Only the bike didn't stop; so I had to get my brakes replaced (Thanks to some expert bike maneuvering, like using my feet as makeshift brakes, I did not hit the student).
Then, the next day, my brake handle flew off my bike without warning as I was biking along campus, almost hitting some poor Korean girl in the face. I got that fixed for free though since I complained yet again. The shopkeeper's grin said the whole story, but he simply had to rub it in my face,"Well you bought a cheap bike."

On a ride back from the Beijing Film Academy to my apartment, I heard a click and a snap. My pedal had somehow become dislodged and I could not fix it with my bare manly hands. This meant that I had to push my bike all the way home. A relatively pleasant 20 minute ride in the thick smog on a dark and chilly November night became a 50 minute walk. The guy at a repair shop took one look at it, smiled, and then got his wrench. A nut had fallen out, so he replaced it and then hit the side of peddle as hard as he could with his wrench. " 行 (Good, in this case)" he yelled with a wide grin without asking for any money. I was off and happy again.

One week later, I went to ride my bike to class and found that my rear tire was flat again; I didn't bother to fix it. I always liked walking through my neighborhood anyway.