State: unaltered

Two days ago I fell into a pothole while biking. I didn’t fall from the bike, but I felt the shock on the handlebars, and then the bike made some strange noises while pedaling, but I couldn’t find the source. I went on biking and I felt the bike had lost rigidity. The sensations were strange, if I would shake the handlebars it would feel as if the bike would make swimming motions, like a fish.

I inspected the bike, but could find nothing. I shrugged and kept on biking. But the sensation of instability was getting worse by the kilometer, to the point where I was afraid it would somehow fall apart if I was too rough on it. Yesterday I inspected the frame and found a crack on one of the joints that had almost completely run through the diameter of the tube.

I lamented my accident, because I thought this was game over for my bike. I pondered my options and decided that the best course of action would be to get a new bike on monthly payments, as I can’t afford a new bike at this time, yet it is absolutely essential for my transportation because moving in public transport in Puebla is slow, inefficient, and in these times dangerous to health due to covid.

But I wanted to verify with my bike mechanic, so I head with him and he told me it was fixable, all I had to do was go to the muffler store so that they soldered the frame. I expected the price to be considerable, but I was surprised that it amounted to $3 USD.