After four months of riding my bike up and down the steep hills of Auckland, my spray-painted, left-wing minded bicycle broke. It wasn't anything that a quick welding job can't fix, but right now it's completely unrideable.
In a total twist of irony, it broke just a few days before I was planning on selling back to the shop where I purchased it. I was a little nervous because I had no idea how the bike shop owner would react. I was attempting to sell him a totally useless bike that wasn't in terrific shape to begin with. Fortunately the owner was fair and decided to buy it back at the amount we had agreed upon when I first bought it.
The premature departure of my main mode of transportation has left me a little uncomfortable though. I've been riding a bicycle everywhere for a couple of years now, so you can imagine that I'm a little rusty on this whole walking thing. I feel a little like an alien walking places where I have never walked before. I have a totally new perspective on what parts of the city look like now that they aren't whizzing by me.
I also discovered that my bike gave me a bit of a superiority complex. I feel so inferior now, walking with people instead of blazing by them on my brilliantly efficient mode of transportation. When I see bicyclists on the road I now feel inferior and I consider ways to let them know that I ride too, my bike's just in the shop.
I never really noticed how poorly I tied my shoes before either. Some days, I have to stop walking, bend down and retie my show. That never happens with a bike.
The only upside to my lack of a bike is that I get to wear hats again. Now that I don't constantly have a helmet on my head, I can wear my waxed cap for rain, my baseball cap for sun and my knit beanie for cold. I just wish I had a hat that let people know I'm usually on a bike and I'm ashamed to be walking.
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