Finally, the Bike Post

I bought my bike last week, but somehow I totally didn't mention it here on the blog. It's too bad, 'cause last weekend was pretty slow and it would've been a great time for it.

Anyway, this is my old bike (at left), which I'm letting Bethany use until she goes. Not certain what to do with it after that, though. I might be able to sell it back to the cycle shop i got it from, but I don't have a lot of hope for that. Besides, it'd be nice if I could keep it. You never know when a second bike might be handy.
Actually, there's a place by Part One that might work well... The biggest set of differences is in the ass-end, so I took a close-up of the back end, where you can clearly see the drum brake, the downward kickstand (you got a better name for it?), the lock, and... the little plastic guards to keep your skirt from getting caught in the spokes.

Yeah, I'm excited to have a new bike.

Here it is,alone and straight-on at right, and with my old one for comparison at left.

To review, I picked out my new bike because it has pretty much all the features I want in a bike here, about which I learned a great deal through my mamachari - "mama's bike" (actually "mama's chariot", a reference to the shape) - that was a $62.50 used deal.

My new bike - scratch that. It needs a name. "My new bike" just doesn't work. It's temporary name will be nueji ("new bike" - you see a lot of creative names like that in Japanese).

Anyway! Nueji has the following features that I want in a bike:

• Bike - That is, it means I don't have to walk. Walking is so frustrating after riding around town. I average 10-12 miles an hour through town if I pay attention to lights, while I average about 3 miles an hour.
  
• Twin caliper brakes - Caliper brakes are standard in the States, but most brakes here are of the drum type. This means they start to squeak after about a month, even when they are completely dry. It's a noise you quickly get used to, and you end up using your rear brakes as a way of warning people that you're behind them.
  That said, I can fix caliper brakes. Nothin' doin' with drum brakes.
• Basket shape - If you take a close look at the diagram at left, you'll see the difference. Nueji's basket is the one outlined in purple. I'm too lazy to take a top-down view, but it's squared off more from that perspective, as well, which makes it infinitely more useful than the more narrow, curvy basket of my old bike.
• Gears - Nueji has 6 gears, from which I've found myself generally using 3-5 and occasionally 6, if I'm trying to keep up with cars. The others might be useful if I were going up a steep hill, but I'd probably as soon walk.
• Magnetically-driven light - Many bikes use a cog that rubs against the tire to drive a flywheel which powers a light. These have to be switched on and require a noticable amount of work to drive, in addition to being loud and - this surprised* me when it happened - I've had them completely not work when my tires were very wet.
  Nueji's light is driven by a magnet mounted on the axle of the front tire that passes another and works as a very simple electric motor, just in reverse. I understand speedometers often work in this fashion.
  
• Shape - It's not a mamachari. I feel silly enough about having a basket on the bike, but the bent-back girls' handlebars and the I'm-wearing-a-long-skirt super-low frame just rubbed salt in the wound. Besides that, the frame is unsturdy when you start putting any decent amount of weight on the back rack.
• New tires - Old bike's tires were pretty worn down, and skidding took very little effort. In addition, the tubes had been patched too many times and needed to be replaced, so they had to be pumped up about once a week or they would be dangerously low. If you've ever tried to ride a bike or drive a car on rims, you know what I'm talking about. There are a lot of little imperfections in the road that you don't notice until your tires slide into every single one of them.

So, I got a new bike, and after a week, the only thing I don't like is that the bell rings very quietly every time you go over any decent bump. Easily solved by placing my hands closer to the center of the handlebars, though.

Thanks to my dad, who financed this. Thanks!

*Original word here was shocked, but I thought that might convey the wrong meaning. I turn the light on and off with my foot anyway, so that would take quite some doing. Insulated, waterproof boots don't conduct electricity so good, you know?