My daughter’s 12-inch bicycle had a flat recently. I do not know what she did actually, because it looks like she wore a hole in the tire itself that is 3 centimeters long and a centimeter across! The front tire is in decent condition, but might as well change it too. I looked into the cost of repairing the bike: $12 per tire, $6 per bike tube, plus taxes and shipping because the local shops did not carry white wheels which match her pink bike. I also looked at the cost of a new bike too: $49.99 for a Disney Frozen bicycle with training wheels. She likes her bike though, so I thought I would try to fix it.
Thinking I could fix it was the first mistake. When putting in the new tube and tire on her front wheel, it seems I punctured the brand new inner tube somehow. The wheel deflates in under a minute! I suppose along with the parts I probably needed to order some sort of special bicycle tire repair kit along with it. So now I am out $40 on bike parts, an hour of my precious time off from work, and I am now heading to the store today or tomorrow and am just going to buy a new damn bike.
Wasteful? Yes. However I am out an hour of my life and $40 of my hard earned money at this point. To get another bike tube, buy the right plastic tools, pull off the tire I just put on today, redo the job, and then still do the back tire….well, that is going to cost me more than just buying a new damn bicycle. That hour of my time is a big deal to as I have a long list of stuff to repair in the house. I would have been better off just picking up the $49.99 bicycle on the way home from work.
What a time and place I live in where its just easier to dispose and buy new rather than fixing something. It makes me feel really guilty, yet I just do not have the time to waste. Of course I wasted more time by writing this rant…but I boiling over right now and need to rant.
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