Zen and the Art of Fixing my Own Bicycle

There is a permeating mentality that I see more and more of lately: "Let someone else do it." I have it with certain things. But with most things, I like to think I take the punishment for what I get myself into, rather than try to weasel out of it. Probably wishful thinking, but there is at least one area in which I can say that I am to a stubborn extent.

If I want to buy the cheapest, crappiest bicycle possible, then I'm going to deal with it rather than bringing it back to the store and returning it. For the last week, my neighbors have seen me outside with the bike turned upside down, working on its brakes because they were installed wrong. Everybody keeps on telling me to just bring it back and return it. But you know what, I knew what I was getting into when I got the cheapest bicycle there was at the cheapest store there was. I'm gonna fix it myself. It's just the way I am.

Ever since college, one of my favorite stories is when I got home from class one day, my then roommate informed me in a decently distressed tone that the kitchen cupboard door had come loose and wouldn't close, just hang down from the hinge. He told me that he called building and grounds about it and said they weren't going to be able to get to it for a while.

I looked at him like he had 4 heads. I couldn't believe he called B&G for something as simple as a loose hinge. I promptly walked into my room, pulled out my cordless drill, walked into the kitchen and fixed the cupboard door in what amounted to a good 10 seconds of work. My roommate proceeded to look at me like I had 4 heads, astounded by my "aptitude for carpentry". I screwed in a loose screw....

So I've not been as successful with my bicycle, but I'm going to keep trying if it kills me...and if my brakes don't work while I'm riding it one day, it actually might kill me. But I don't care, right now it is sitting in the other room with a piece of gum MacGyver'd in between the cantilever brake system. I'm hoping when it dries, it will push the brake wire far enough to tighten the mechanism and pull the brake flush against the wheel. Probably won't work, but damn if I'll stop trying!