Marvil the anti-marvel

This is Marvil, the evil 2nd-hand mountainbike that I bought for about $180. Notice that it is not a "marvel", and is in fact anything but. It is evil. The worst decision I made since being here was choosing this one over a model from a better brand but twice as expensive.



The list of things that have gone wrong so far:

• handlebars came totally loose (day 2)
• mudgard came off and stuck between spokes
• chain broke
• new chain not installed quite correctly (my fault),
  
• mudgard keeps getting loose and rubbing against tyre when going over any bump
• rear brakes frozen to rim on a cold night. Had to drag it back home and kept remembering The Neverending Story, where the boy leads his horse (Atreyu ?) through the waist-high mud fields, but the horse eventually sinks into the mud. OK, so the 4cm of snow wasn't quite as much of a life or death struggle, and it was icy enough for the back wheel to just slide along, but still, it was an ordeal
• gears refusing to change. Got down to just 2 out of the 21 at one point.
• puncture in the front tyre. Fixed it, and on the first ride, got a puncture in the back tyre
• rear brake pads totally worn

So now the bike has a new studded front tyre for extra grip on the ice, but its rear puncture is still unfixed so it is hanging in the basement storeroom. I have a 1/2 hour walk to work, or in more lazier moments a 7min walk and 7min bus ride (about $2.50).

There are extensive bike paths around the town, which is good. But I dunno how much it can be used in winter - it is very slippery on the ice (1 fall), and even when the ice melts the gravel and water on the road is also a bad combination (1 fall). Temeperature will become a factor, but down to -20oC it is apparently still common to see people on bikes.

If only I would have won that car lottery I entered...