City Bikes Repair Shop is the Best!

Bike shop visits in Portland can be pretty hit or miss. The bike culture can be pretty militant and you're expected to know what you're doing when it comes to your bicycle. Unfortunately, that's just not going to happen. My roommates rely on me to program the remote. That is the extent of my mechanical genius. I can't  talk about all the various parts, I don't know what any of them are called, my bike is always dirty, and the bike shop people always seem disgusted when I want to pay them to fix it for me. I avoid bike shops to the same degree that I avoid shows at the Crystal Ballroom. A sometimes necessary evil.

However, my back brakes had worn down to the point that they were completely useless. I used my front brake solely for about a month before finally breaking down and going into a shop to get new ones. So I went to the City Bikes Repair Shop on SE Ankeny. I've never been in there because there are always people with dumb hats fixing their bikes on the sidewalks, and I figured it's the sort of place that will throw you out when you admit that sometimes you pay people to fix your flat tires.

That may be true, but they were SO nice. They didn't make me feel bad about not knowing anything about my bike and they didn't make fun of it or lecture me about how dangerous it is to run around in the rainy season with completely useless rear brakes. This girl helped me pick out new brake pads, she showed me how to install them and gave me the requisite tools. She was showing me how to adjust my brake cable and then she pulled on the brake lever and my cable snapped in a puff of dust. We were like, Um. That's not supposed to happen. So then she helped me thread a new cable in there and adjust the whole system and lube the chain and I even got to wash my hands in a sink in the back and they had powdered soap. I love powdered soap.

It was this wonderful educational experience and I now feel like I know how to fix my own brakes. I may even do it myself next time.