A bicycle after 15 years
Jewel and I purchased early December last year a second-hand common Japanese bicycle, also known as a Jitensha or Charinko depending on which slang you use. We bought this at a small Japanese Surplus shop near the corner of EDSA and South Super Highway.
I hadn't had a bike ever since I went to my second degree college in UP. I used to own two bicycles then, a regular blue common street bicycle (it used to have training wheels back in the day) and a tan-colored high body large wheel type that looked like a precursor to the mountain bikes we see today. I used the regular bike for cruising within the village while the mountain bike i use for long treks outside the village (my version of a long trek was from my house in Navy Village near Pasong Tamo Extention all the way to the American Cemetery near The Fort). Both bikes suffered from rust death in the early 90's thanks to my poor caretaker skills.
15 years later my wife and I decided to own one for convenience and nostalgia.
By sight alone you can see the physical difference between that bike and the other regular western designs. Instead of the body being diamond shaped, the front end is sloped and almost parallel to one another. This is meant to be a casual bicycle, not meant for rugged terrain like mountain bikes we see today, although reading through some literature about these bicycles, many a user would claim they were built to last.
My wife loved the design mainly because it reminded her of the anime she used to watch or manga she used to read (I suspect lots of Shojo romance involved, and occasional Yaoi in the mix). She was particularly smitten by the simple basket it was attached to it. Later I returned to the same Japanese shop and bought a removable back seat basket for extra stuff. It proved later on to be very useful during the holidays, for those mad back-and-forth rush for last minute things to be bought at our sari-sari store. At the start she didn't like having a bell ringer on the handle, but later one regretted not having bought one at the store. As a Christmas gift, I bought her one for the bike, but the Japan Surplus weren't selling any of those classing dingers so I opted to buy the smaller and more modern Cat's Eye bell I got from Endless Bike Shop along A.Arnaiz Ave (formerly Libertad).
Everything they said was true about riding a bicycle, after years of not doing so. Although I am less then confident now about doing cartwheels with this thing, not like my attempts back in my teen years. I noticed I still have those reflex jitters every time I ride over a hump on the road, a left-over trauma I had thanks to my one and only major bicycle accident involving a hump, an owner jeep and rough concrete. That small stitched scar on my right eyelid (as well as numerous large shallow sandpapered skin scars in other parts of my body) acts as a constant reminder of my callous youth.
Now its used mainly as a gopher gadget (Robert! Gopher this! Gopher that!) and an occasional pedal to the nearby supermarket. The most I carried on that bike was 5 large bags of ice to used for our New Year party last weekend.
Now I'm trying to brush up on my bicycle maintenance. There were already tiny rust spots on some joints and twice a week I would spray WD-40 oil on joints, gears and chains. I'm a bit worried that my weight may have an adverse effect on the bicycle (I'm overweight but not grossly so... yet). After 15 years, lets see if I can still learn to put the pedal to the metal.