Air

It's amazing what a dramatic improvement air can make to a bicycle tire.

Today I went and retrieved my bike from school. I took a bus to school and then lugged my bicycle with its rear flat tire all the way home. Actually I quickly tired of lugging it and ended up riding it on the rim most of the way.

I took it to Seiyu, the Japanese affiliate of Walmart and was able to get it repaired without talking to anyone. It was pretty neat. I just brought it to the bike area, the guy saw the problem, took the bike patched both holes in the tube, handed me a piece of paper with the price on it and I paid, no muss no fuss.

What was also interesting is that he was able to fix the bike without ever standing up. When I brought the bike to him, he was sitting on a little cart thing. He had all his tools arranged so that they were immediately at hand and he didn't have to move to get any of them. It was a very efficent system and rather interesting to watch him work.

I'm so glad to have this problem solved.