Quote Originally Posted by lph View Post
Apart from a flat tire front and back, the rear gearing, a gripshift, wouldn't budge. When I looked closer at it I could see that whoever had put the bike together hadn't quite grasped the concept of cutting the wire to fit. Hmm, small bike, long wire, what the heck, let's WRAP THE SURPLUS AROUND THE FRAME.
Did you fix it?

It's frustrating and sad in a way the number of "invisible cyclists" I see each day with glarring safety issues on the bike. Mostly no brakes!

Most don't seem to know that basic things like clean and lube the bike regularly, replace/adjust cables solve a lot of ills. I imagine that when cables stick, wear or stretch and don't work anymore they just cut them.

It would be nice to reach out to them as cyclists and let them see the pride of knowing how to maintain the bike. My theory is:

Sometimes a language issue. Materials, books, websites not in their language.

Sometimes gender as in men of almost any culture don't like being told by women "you should do this"

Lastly most don't see themselves as cyclists. They see themselves as "car'less", that is doing this because they can't afford a car or get a license.