my sad bike

One of Brett’s primary recommendations for me in Berlin was to get a bike. Bicycle’s are ubiquitous here. Berlin is an extremely flat city, and, though large, is very bike-able. I don’t know if there are any formal share-the-road rules, but on smaller streets especially cars seem to expect and accept the presence of bikers. The sidewalks of the larger streets have bike lanes, and sidewalks in general are large and fine to bike on if you can manage to avoid hitting any kinder.

The first week I was here it was very sunny and I was very jealous seeing everyone on their bike while I walked, even though I like to walk. The GI is a 30 min walk or a very easy 10 min bike ride from my place. So that weekend after brunch the Bode crew and I went to the Mauer Park Flohmarkt (flea market), which is the best of three flea markets that I’ve been to here. As soon as I walked in I saw a good looking road bike, but it was for 80 euro and being the deliberate shopper that I am, decided to look around.

It is clear at this point in my life that I am not very good at buying things. By that I mean, I’m not very good at spontaneously buying things. If I see something I like in a store my first impulse is to note where the store is and come back another day. If I need to make a decision right away, my usual routine is to stare at the object in question for 20-30 minutes while considering all the possible ramifications of my potential purchasing decision. Do I really like this t-shirt? Am I sure that this t-shirt fits me the right way? Is $8 too much to spend on a t-shirt? What else could I buy with $8? etc. On the other hand, I’m a very good shopper if I have 10-20 hours to kill and an internet connection. This is the method I use for anything over $25. (The only time this didn’t work is when I was interested a couple years ago in buying a mattress. Judging from the comments on the many mattress forums, I am convinced that shopping for a mattress makes people go crazy.)

Back to Mauer park, while there were many bicycles at this flohmarkt many of them were not in very good condition, or were single speeds, or girl’s bikes, or some combination thereof. I ended up paying 70 euro for a blue road bike that was functional and kind of nice looking but had clearly seen better days.

I wouldn’t mind riding around a crappy bike so long as it worked ok, but the brakes on this particular vehicle started failing within days of taking it home. Even then, it wasn’t a big issue and was slightly comical, and having a bike was more a convenience than a liability. However, eventually the brake got stuck in one position, a position too close to the wheel so that the brake and wheel were rubbing against each other. It still sort of works, but as the guy at Fahrrad Linke said, if the wheel wears through it will just blow out while I’m riding, which would not be very good. The woman at Fahrrad Linke just laughed at me.

To add further insult, I locked my bike up on the street the other day, and when I got back to the spot, someone had broken my lock! Of all the bikes not just in that one spot, but all over the city, many of which have much crappier and easier-to-break locks than mine, someone decided to cut mine. Why is that an insult? Because fortunately (?), while they broke the lock, they decided to not take the bike! Perhaps they cut the lock out of general spite, or maybe they just wanted to borrow the bicycle for a while, but I’m thinking they rode 10 feet and realized that this bicycle is a piece of crap.

Hopefully I’ll be able to sell it.