BIKE HELL

Ever since I decided to join a sprint triathlon with my cousin Ray, I needed a bike. Thankfully, my brother Noel has a bike, but it's a mountain bike. I don't really care since this race isn't that competitive for me. I'm just doing it for the experience and to see just how hard it is.

The problem with my bro's bike was one of its tires. When I first got a hold of it, both of the tires were flat, so the first thing I needed to do was see if they could hold air. I pumped them both up to maximum pressure and rode around a little. They seemed fine.

But the next day, the rear tire was completely flat and I knew it was time to replace the tube. So I purchased a heavy duty tube with some tire tools and thus began my journey into hell.

It wasn't that it was all that particularly difficult to remove the tires, nor was it that difficult to replace the tube. The difficulty lay in trying to get the tread back on the rims. It seemed impossible to get the damn thing around the rim, but after a good hour of trying and trying and trying again, I finally got the thing on. My fingers felt weak and the pain in my lower back made me feel like an old shit.

But I was able to finish what I started. The next step is to fix the handle bars because they're not on straight. After all was said and done, I felt like I could actually get into this bike thing. It's so mechanical, you can get into messin' with all the little parts and fine tuning the thing.