On Your Bike

The arching, aching, screech moved closer. A suffering metallic monster dragging its bones down the street. The steady arc of the sound made it obvious that it was a bicycle, yet the sound was so unearthly that I almost had to look to be certain. Sure enough, it passed me. A small-wheeled, red-framed demon with a small basket and the attachments that gave it away as a street rental.

Much like car sharing, bike sharing, the idea of rental bikes in convenient locations to use whenever you need them, has been in Tokyo for a while. The red version spotted above can be inexpensively rented with a smartphone and conveniently picked up in one place and dropped off in another. It's a good way to save your legs when going about town. I've seen them used by couples on dates and UberEats delivery riders. And more than that, we want more bike-able and walkable cities. Making Tokyo a little more like Copenhagen or Amsterdam with fewer cars and more bikes is an exceedingly good idea.

Bike-sharing is also expanding. Apps and bicycle stations are appearing around the city, including in front of my office this week, so it'll soon be even easier to get around on two wheels. Taking the train to your destination and then exploring the area by bike rather than taking the bus or walking sounds rather pleasant and healthy. It appeals to people's growing sense both that they need to decrease their environmental impact and increase their amount of exercise.

It isn't without its potential problems though. Bike-sharing in New York seems to work well but in Shanghai in 2018, uncontrolled competition and a poorly planned system led to a bubble that in turn resulted in forests of bicycle carcasses. That's unlikely to happen in Tokyo, but a bicycle station in front of my local 7/11 didn't last long, less than a year, so whether the demand is there is unclear.

But that screeching demon that passed me on the street raises a further issue: maintenance. Cars are more or less built to be outside in all weather, bicycles are generally not, and consequently leaving them outside unmaintained is fool-hardy. The useable longevity of the bike is diminished if it isn't looked after - just a few drops of oil on its chain would have turned that grinding screech into a gliding purr.

I have to confess that I don't always do a great job looking after my bicycle. Just recently I was brought to a halt by an exploding rear tire! I do oil the chain and inflate the tires (it amazes me how some people appear to ride with less than fully inflated tires) but I don't have it professionally serviced and even though I had noticed that the tire was perilously thin, I did nothing about it. I was informed by the bicycle mechanic who replaced the tire, that the wheel itself was damaged and would need to be replaced at great expense if due care wasn't taken from now on. I wasn't maintaining my bike as I should have been!

That made me wonder what else we fail to maintain? Many things I'm sure. And partly because there is such a pervasive sense in modern culture that whatever we have can be replaced. No matter how wasteful we think it is, that replaceability is subconsciously with us all the time. If it breaks, get a new one. This goes for bikes and brown shoes. But that way of thinking makes us careless and lazy - I was lucky that my exploding tire only did damage to my wallet. Properly cared for many things will last longer, and perhaps more importantly, keep us safer.

More intangible things are not as easily replaced as a bicycle tire either. Everything from our health to our relationships requires upkeep if they are to be resilient enough to survive long-term. Indeed, maintenance is an act of compassion, care and love for those things. To maintain something is to choose to put time and effort into it so that it will last in good condition. More often than not, it is easier not to, and we let things wear out. However, the things that we care for end up becoming more meaningful to us and add meaning to our lives. In the end, they become irreplaceable. As all the best things in life are.