My childhood can be summed up in 3 words: Legos, bicycles and computers. I still love all 3 activities despite computers take most of my time now. Bicycles as simple as they appear to be, are very complex highly-engineered hardware.

My front tyre got flat. Dad told me to buy the air chamber. So got 1.

As you can see on the box, it is supposed to be splints. Hope it does what it’s advertised to do. But i guess I’ll have to keep watching for objects puncturing the outer rubber every now and then. The “flat-resistant” air chamber costed me Rs 150 while the normal one is Rs 100.

It’s not easy to demount the outer rubber and mount it again. I saw my dad do it several times before. So I managed to change 1 myself. But F***. I put the rubber the wrong way. I asked my dad to do the process for me while I was swapping the rubber in the rear tire.

But almost everything else was non-functional on the bike due to rust. The rear gears derailleur would not adjust the curvature accordingly making me lose traction while could be very dangerous. Dad oiled it and made the springs functional again.

The front shock absorber was not in the perfect state too. I think it never moves. Dad put some engine grease on it. The handle bar joint was greased too.

I wonder if i can’t take care of a bicycle properly, what would happen if i were to get a car which is much more complex in it’s nature?

Do service your bicycle in a timely fashion. It can get really dangerous like mine was.