Bike Repair

I don't know why I have such poor luck with bikes here in Japan. I've had a brake failure on a used bike, fixed that, and that bike got stolen - $120 total expenditure for the first bike. I bought a new bike for $250 with some metal pedals ($20) because they slip less and I just destroy the plastic ones. Too fat, I guess. Then that bike was stolen - $280 total expenditure for the second bike, bringing me and those I leech off of (ie, parents) up to $390. $125 of this was refunded as insurance, fortunately, for a new total of $255.

I'm currently on my third bike ($250), but I'm using two locks now ($12 for the extra lock - one comes standard on almost all bikes) and have the normal plastic pedals. All is well with this bike, until someone got a little overzealous trying to park their bike and managed to snap off the upshifting lever. Kind of them, I know.

At right is the part that was broken off. I was fortunate enough that it happened to fall on the ground in a gutter, so nobody stepped on it or anything. I stuffed it in my pocket and headed home. At left is what remains of the shift lever that is attached to the bike.

A few days later, I took it into a bike shop and asked them what it would cost to fix. They said they'd have to replace the whole unit, which, after some runaround, turned out would be $60. I think $5 of that was labor, in case you're wondering.

I'm not upscale enough to make this kind of repair worth $60, nearly 1/4 the original cost of the bike, worthwhile to me. But you know what is?

A $3 tube of superglue and some duct tape. Yeah, classy. I know.

So I dabbed some superglue on a few contact points and fixed the whole thing in place with duct tape, then let it set for about two hours.

It seemed pretty secure at that point, so I turned the whole thing on its side and filled everything that didn't look like a moving part with superglue. Then the duct tape again. My bike is back outside, nursing its wounds, but I can now shift up again. It's not a Knife Man Dan level of glue-ninja, but it holds the thing on.

Total cost of materials:
$4 - Scotch-brand superglue
$3 - クリームパン等 - Tasties
$20 - Incidental costs in visiting a hardware store. IE, "Look, gloves!" and "A non-slip pad! I can freem that on the bottom of my DDR mats and make for bonus goodness!" and... Well, you know. I bought a six-pack of chopsticks, for some unknown reason, and almost spent $10 on glow tape.

I very nearly bought this flashlight, as well, and I think most of you can understand why. It's 5W, making it nearly three times as powerful as my current 1W belt-carry. The thing looks so nice and Mag-Lite-ish, too, as you can hopefully see through the cellophane wrap. I may buy myself that for Christmas if I have money left...

As a last random picture, I also found these hammers. They completely outnumbered what I consider to be normal hammers. Out of frame is a massive wooden mallet, various sizes of crowbars ranging from six inches to 3.2 feet, and a Japanese couple running away from the gaijin with the 1-meter crowbar in his hands.

Results

Well, I did say that it was a small DIY project. Here's a picture of the final product.

It's basically a big, sticky version of the little Velcro cable ties from the dollar store.

It's a... Good... Too Good... Day?

Today has gone scarily well. I'm not kidding.

To start with, I woke up early. That's a good thing, by the way.

Then, I made breakfast and it just, you know, worked. It was delicious, the texture was nice, and it actually looked appealing. The seasoning worked well, and all the flavors blended nicely. Rare indeed for my cooking.

Did I mention that my school has the day off due to some freaky PE festival that we don't have to go to? I should mention that. It means I basically get my very own holiday, but without the crowds that ruin holidays here.

Next, I was helping Jes get some stuff set up on her computer, so she was actually talking to me. Problems that popped up promptly vanished for no known reason and without us really doing anything. I had solutions for most of them, but it was really nice to be overprepared for once.

So then I start reading about some DIY stuff and I'm in a particularly good mood from talking to Jes, so I exercise a little, grab a shower, and head down to the mall. Well, I went to the cycle shop I go to all the time, and he was more than happy to give me an old bike tube. In fact, he asked "Are you sure you only want one?" and we chatted for a few minutes. On my way out, I filled up my front bike tire, so the rest of the time riding around was extra comfy and easy.

So I deposit the tube at my bike and go into the mall to get some tasty treats. Because no trip to the mall is complete without tasty treats, right? Right! I ask for one tsubuan, which is kind of a shorthand way of saying that I want a two pieces of mochi (gelatinized rice) wrapped around a filling of tsubuan (red bean paste with a little bean texture left) and fried. When I tried to give her money to pay for it, she refused and said. "That's not necessary, you come here all the time. Go on, now." I checked once more and thanked her, happily on my way.

A few feet away is another shop that sells a different kind of mochi and I tried a new flavor of mochi that I honestly have no clue what it was supposed to be. That store always has issues with spelling, but even I can't figure out what flavor "Seeqester" is. It was frozen, so I couldn't eat it right away. Eh.

I head down to the hardware store to get some majikku teepu ("Velcro"). It's kind of pricey at $4.50 for a matched set of hook and loop sides that are each about 2"x3". I found it in bulk and asked someone who works there to help me figure out how much would cost how much. As it turned out, I was able to get about twice as much for two-thirds the cost that way, and it was the perfect size for what I wanted it for.
To top it off, I found some non-slip pads that I've been looking for and some glue that together were less than $2, so I have a second project for a little later. All told, I got out of there for less than $5.
How cool is that?

So I'm on my way home and I discover a new bakery that has pretty much just the stuff I like, and a bunch of new things I've never seen before - "leaf pie", for example, is some kind of thin strudel-like thing sprinkled with sugar in the shape of a piece of pizza. On top of that, they're all really, really cheap. Most bakeries here charge between $1.30 and $2.50 for their various bits. The most expensive thing I saw here was a new kind of fluffy クリームパン kuriimu pan ("delicious") and that was $1.16, which I of course bought. It was extra delicious.

So I'm about to get started on my little project. Here's what I got on my outing, minus the food, which I kind of... consumed.
The reason that today is scarily good is because things going this smoothly makes me worry about what's going to happen tomorrow.

But... I can't do anything about that, so on to hacking together some pieces!

A New Store

I just discovered that there's a hardware store about ten minutes away from me on a very simple path. Today is a day for some DIY, I think!