Does a squeaking bike get the oil
A saying in Africa goes this way, "the squeaking wheel gets the oil". I don't think it applies to my bike. I am going to tell you how I have mistreated my bike. It is not my character to neglect my belongings, but I hope you will understand when you get the reason.
I got my bicycle from another person, not from a store. I liked it the moment I saw it. It fit my budget and had everything I was looking for, which was awesome rims and tyres. Beyond that, I was just looking for a typical mountain bike. I am glad I found the seller and got the bike. That day, when I bought it, I cycled through the city to home, a distance of several kilometers. It was one of the hardest commute I would ever make with the bike. I had not cycled for more than seven years, and here I was embarking on a journey filled with valleys, you go down on one part knowing there is the uphill part to peddle.
The bike was relatively new when I got it. Seems like its previous owner just put it in a car and drove to an exotic location below Mt. Longonot to just experience the scenery, going to Hell's Gate to see the attractions of the Great Rift Valley. I haven't done that. Instead, I have been through all kinds of roads in the neighborhood, riding soft and riding hard, testing the boundaries of the bicycle's frame. I am hard on it, but sometimes I treat it nicely.
I am sometimes overly generous and some neighbors seem to have noticed that. Over the past year, they have been borrowing my bike. In some cases, they brought it back in good health. I was not always lucky. One day it came back with a puncture. It has also come back with dents on the deraulier. Some dents I can attribute to its old age and rough roads. However, borrowers just seem not to care much on how much I will pay for repairs or replacements. They use it for the moment. I do not despise them, but I really hate their treatment of my bike. In the last one month, no one has approached me to borrow the bike. I wonder if they notice it has become a beaten up ride. I wonder whether they have noticed that the back brakes are not working, and they have been that way for a month or so.
I have the money to repair the bike, but I keep thinking of just getting something new. I once went to repair the chain and got more problems than I had in the first place. Then I got a new deraulier and now the sounds I get when I am on the bike and not peddling are insane. It seems like whenever I go to a repair workshop things get worse. I am still asking around on great places I can take the bicycle for repair, I hope to find one soon. I also hope to find a place to buy spares that does not have me getting refurbished ones that work poorly for the price of new ones.
I must say, I was not very ready for this bike when I bought it, and now, I have to think hard about how I continue treating it, if I want it to be a helper for my commute to the grocery shop. I work from home, so a commute to my job is not a problem. I just need the bike for fun, and if neighbors and repairmen are consipiring against that, I will just come up with a better tactic.
Right now, it seems like my squeaking bicycle is not going to get the oil.
I got my bicycle from another person, not from a store. I liked it the moment I saw it. It fit my budget and had everything I was looking for, which was awesome rims and tyres. Beyond that, I was just looking for a typical mountain bike. I am glad I found the seller and got the bike. That day, when I bought it, I cycled through the city to home, a distance of several kilometers. It was one of the hardest commute I would ever make with the bike. I had not cycled for more than seven years, and here I was embarking on a journey filled with valleys, you go down on one part knowing there is the uphill part to peddle.
The bike was relatively new when I got it. Seems like its previous owner just put it in a car and drove to an exotic location below Mt. Longonot to just experience the scenery, going to Hell's Gate to see the attractions of the Great Rift Valley. I haven't done that. Instead, I have been through all kinds of roads in the neighborhood, riding soft and riding hard, testing the boundaries of the bicycle's frame. I am hard on it, but sometimes I treat it nicely.
I am sometimes overly generous and some neighbors seem to have noticed that. Over the past year, they have been borrowing my bike. In some cases, they brought it back in good health. I was not always lucky. One day it came back with a puncture. It has also come back with dents on the deraulier. Some dents I can attribute to its old age and rough roads. However, borrowers just seem not to care much on how much I will pay for repairs or replacements. They use it for the moment. I do not despise them, but I really hate their treatment of my bike. In the last one month, no one has approached me to borrow the bike. I wonder if they notice it has become a beaten up ride. I wonder whether they have noticed that the back brakes are not working, and they have been that way for a month or so.
I have the money to repair the bike, but I keep thinking of just getting something new. I once went to repair the chain and got more problems than I had in the first place. Then I got a new deraulier and now the sounds I get when I am on the bike and not peddling are insane. It seems like whenever I go to a repair workshop things get worse. I am still asking around on great places I can take the bicycle for repair, I hope to find one soon. I also hope to find a place to buy spares that does not have me getting refurbished ones that work poorly for the price of new ones.
I must say, I was not very ready for this bike when I bought it, and now, I have to think hard about how I continue treating it, if I want it to be a helper for my commute to the grocery shop. I work from home, so a commute to my job is not a problem. I just need the bike for fun, and if neighbors and repairmen are consipiring against that, I will just come up with a better tactic.
Right now, it seems like my squeaking bicycle is not going to get the oil.
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