new bike

My new bike! Yep, here it is. I would call it a "road bike" as I use it to ride on the roads around here. The lady you see fixing it there added on the basket and sold me a lock to boot. After I rode off I discovered that I could deal with some things, the screetching front brake, the brake handle that slips around on the handle bar, the creaking seat, but the back wheel was so out of true that I thought it was going to wobble itself off.

On about every corner here there is a bike fix-it street vendor. It's usually a guy with a portable bike parts stand that sets up for the day (see photo). If you need to get air, or fix something on your bike you just pull up and the guy fixes it right there. It wasn't long til I found my guy to true the tire.

He removed some spokes from the back wheel and started replacing them. I walked around waiting for him to finish and while I was watching from across the street (and taking photos) I noticed that he was doing something with pliers to one of the spokes. As I watched I realized that he had cut one of the old spokes at the 1/2 point, and added another 1/2 new spoke from the other end and was twisting them together.... even now I'm not sure what use this was, but I had to let it be since it was so funny. The back tire still has a wobble in it, and the front tire is getting worse by the day. So I'll be stopping at another "bike shop" soon to get that fixed. I don't know if they can replace the brake pads but I hope so cause I almost blew my eardrums out today when I had to stop fast.