butchwax

After destroying my brand new inner tube last weekend by trying to use a screwdriver as a tire lever, I spent a bit of time searching around for tire tools, and learned a bit about the Beijing bicycle market during the process.

Bicycles aren’t the same ubiquitous mode of transportation in Beijing as they were in the decade after Deng Xiaoping started his economic reforms in 1978, when he said “to get rich is glorious” and when he promised that every household would have a Flying Pigeon-brand bicycle. These days, buses and subways have the greater role in shuttling the masses around this giant city, and as the Beijingnese grow wealthier, they take taxis, electric scooters and even drive their own cars. However, a great number still get around on bicycles, and the bicycle industry still thrives. Although the Flying Pigeon company has nearly quit manufacturing their classic 28″-wheel bicycles, like the one I ride, many other brands have sprung into the market, like Forever (who makes a similar classic 28″ model with enviable luggage racks that the mail carriers ride), Giant (from Taiwan), and many others. And when your bike breaks down, there is always a roadside stand within a li (a Chinese mile) or two who will sell and install new inner tubes, brake pads, pedals and cranks, and other common parts.

I use these roadside stands sometimes, but I don’t like the quality of work they do. The time before last I went to get a new right-hand (right-foot?) pedal, the shifu (’master’, a respectful form of address for one of the working class) cross-threaded the pedal, which I could see from the very moment he started, and then wrenched it down very tightly before it got stuck. He then corrected his mistake by screwing the pedal in from the back of the crank, which straightened out the threads enough so he could then reinstall it correctly. I don’t like this, though, because it makes it harder to install the next time. Then he tried to charge three yuan more than two weeks earlier when I’d come to replace the left-foot pedal. Yes, it was only US$1.17 instead of US$0.73, parts and labor included, but it bugged me because I’d had to wait quite a long time while he fixed his mistake, and he’d arguably broken the crank. And this is just the most recent example of many. So, I’ve decided to do as much work as possible on my own bicycle.

I have most tools needed to repair my bike, but was missing a tire lever. The tiny bicycle section of the Wal-Mart across the street had no tools other than tire pumps (one of which I bought), though this wasn’t surprising.

It was more surprising that several hardware stores at the giant nearby market, more like a bazaar, not only did not have them, but did not even understand what tire levers are. My Mandarin is poor, and I don’t know the proper name for ‘tire lever’, but I’d figure that someone who knows tools would know when a customer asks about a “tool that is used to install and remove bicycle tires”.

Yamin, on her Tuesday off, helped ask the local bicycle shifu where they got theirs. It turned out that they’d made theirs back in their hometown and brought it along when they set up business here in Beijing. I’d hoped to learn of a market where the pros equip themselves, but no dice.

After all these inquiries, the conclusion seemed to be that the low end of the market for the daily commuters doesn’t cater to those who fix their own bikes. After all, when you can get your pedal changed for five yuan and not get your hands dirty, why bother? This was no reason to give up the search, though. The next place to turn was clearly the upscale market, targeted at rich bourgeois who have money and time to spend on extravagant hobbies.

I guessed that mountain bikers with flats on the trail would need tire levers, and a (suspected foreigner-oriented) Beijing mountain biking club’s Google group listed several bicycle stores. This morning, Yamin and I went to one a couple of miles from our house, and it turned out they had the exact tire lever as this one on Amazon! (Isn’t it pretty?) However, they wanted 85 yuan, or US$12.45, which seems a bit high, considering that Yamin bought my whole bicycle for about 100 yuan (and considering the tire lever is cheaper on Amazon!). It didn’t seem to go with the old Flying Pigeon anyway, so I gave the tire lever a few longing looks and we left.

With all other options exhausted, there was only one left: go the professional route and fabricate my own tire tool. But I really needed something today, since I’d been riding the bus for a week (2x the commute time to the office), and fabricating something wouldn’t be easy, since I don’t have the same assortment of tools in Beijing as I did in Austin. Yamin remembered that when she lived in Lubbock, she changed the first bicycle tire of her life (again, there’s no reason to repair your own bike in China!), and she used a butter knife. This seemed like a good start, and with some modification, could be an ideal tool.

On our grocery trip back to the afore-mentioned market/bazaar, I bought a cheap hacksaw, and at Wal-Mart, I bought the heaviest stainless steel table knife I could find. After a little hacksawing (a little WD-40 helps keep the blade from overheating!), grinding (I wish I had a real grinding tool, or even a file…) and bending (the newest application for your Crescent wrench!), I now have the perfect tire lever! And that for under US$1 (not counting the hacksaw). Here’s a pic so you can admire its beauty.

Its head is already scarred from using it today, but it works great! It is stainless steel and very strong, and smooth enough that it doesn’t hurt the inner tube. The tools used to fabricate it are also pictured.

Since it turns out that the problem with the original tube was just the valve anyway, I’ll go try to buy just the valve tomorrow, but otherwise a new tube, from the shifu near our house. The Flying Pigeon should be road ready for Monday!

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 2:45 am and is filed under bicycle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.