I talk a lot about doing things myself and trying to learn new skills in order to be more independent. That is exactly what I did today.

First my super nice bicycle was in my mum’s basement, in storage. I took it out as part of my September goals to walk and cycle more, and put it up together. It is no big deal now for me to take the wheels out and back up, when I store it, it takes less space.

I inflated the tires and off I went to see a friend. I knew my tires didn’t have the right pressure, and usually I drop by the service station to inflate them, except that today I couldn’t find the adapter to do that. So I got a flat tire after going too fast right into a pothole!

First time for me to change a tire, I tried to patch it up but there were two holes and my glue wasn’t good enough so in the end I went for a new air chamber. I looked at a Youtube tutorial to help me through it.

Total cost: $4 for the chamber, and I bought another one since I was at the shop. They charged $8 to change it themselves.

I don’t consider that I ONLY saved $8, I also learned how to do it next time, and the time after that.

Anyway, I saw that it was really, REALLY SIMPLE to fix a flat tire on a bicycle! That kind of simple maintenance, for bikes, car, or anything in your house is easy to learn and saves you tons of money! Plus I didn’t have to push my bike all the way to the shop to have them fix my problem. I can fix a flat tire in the middle of nowhere now.

So I kept going. I have another, older bicycle that I haven’t used in ages. My mum complained that it took space in the common bicycle storage space, and I should take it to that autumn fair, where the local cycling association has a sale this Saturday. They said they would accept bikes in GOOD WORKING CONDITION.

I went down to the storage and fixed the brake on that bike, it was faulty. It was quite simple too, once you figure out where things go (thanks to the other working brake).

I also took care of my mum’s old bicycle that she wants to sell too. I took off the wheel to check it, and made sure the brakes were fine.

I don’t know how the sale will go, tomorrow I will clean the bikes and try to present them as shiny as possible so that they sell well!

Those three bikes were not usable yesterday, so I am proud and happy that the two old ones get a new life and that my nice personal bike is back to being my main transportation! No more motorcycle for a while!