Bicycle adventures and the kindness of strangers

Just so you know, I am covered in bicycle grease, but I made it to my shuttle on time.

I heard a loud pop riding my bike to meet a friend for lunch yesterday and sure enough my back tire turned floppy a few minutes later. So, we had lunch, I disassembled my bike and got a ride back to my building.

I was planning to ditch la bicicleta at work and just bring the back tire to class with me, but we discovered that I could bring the whole bicycle, back tire included, on BART if I left from North Berkeley instead of West Oakland - hallelujah!

Our shuttle made it to the station a few minutes ahead of schedule so I caught the early train downtown, locked my bike, bought my last textbook (the store is only open till 7 on Mondays) and even bought a Clif bar to hold me through class since I forgot to get dinner.

Class was reasonably successful. Reading the textbook cover to cover is really starting to pay off. I'm def not the best kid in there, but after two weeks, I'm starting to be one of the better ones. Whoever I have to thank for a brain that's good with language, and has a good memory and the stubborn determination of a thousand mules, thank you.

I stayed after to ask el profesor a few questions and then headed home. I started a small pot of water boiling as I spread out some newspapers and set my bike upside down to begin surgery. I checked to see how to put the wheel back on with the gears in the right place, I figured out how to attach my little prying thing to my spoke so I could get the tire and then the tube out of the wheel. I checked to see where the nozzle was on my tire so I could look for more sharp things there when I figured out where the hole was. I filled up the old tube with air and found the culprit - a few tiny shards of glass - and removed them and their kind. I put some little raviolis in the water and got out the new tube, put a tiny bit of air in it to even it out, and stuck it in the tire so the nozzle lined up with the writing on the tire. By some act of god, I managed to get the tire back into it's spot on the wheel, filled the tube up the rest of the way with air. Then, I drained the water, added the pasta sauce and some chopped collard greens and covered the pot to keep it warm while I reattached the wheel to my bike. (!!!)

Reservedly pleased with myself, I ate dinner, took a shower and fell asleep not even that much later than my bedtime.

I was up early this morning, giving myself extra time to make it to West Oakland in case of any mishaps along the way. All was going well until I got to Adeline and MacArthur where all of a sudden it got REALLY hard to pedal and heard a rubbing sound. I pulled over past the intersection - because, bless it, it turned green right away - and had a looksy. I thought I'd just shifted off the bottom gear in the back so I shifted up to get the chain back on, but it was still way too hard to pedal, so I pulled over again a few blocks later and flipped the bike over on the sidewalk to investigate and sure enough my tire was rubbing up against my frame.

I couldn't have been fiddling with my wheel for more than a minute when a truck pulls up beside me. Young woman with bike trouble stranded in West Oakland at the crack of dawn. A man gets out to see what the trouble is and mentions that he has a truck full of tools, just in case. He helps me realign the wheel, I tighten the quick release, and we're off, strangers again.

My good as new properly aligned, fully inflated bicycle and I made it to the shuttle stop right on time with no more reservations about my pride.