R.I.P. - my egyptian bike

jules and i bought bikes a couple weeks ago to bike to the gym and the market and whatnot. jules' bike is pretty nice. mine, on the other hand, is a piece of shite. since day 1, i've had nothing but problems with it. it was wrapped in bubble-wrap when i first bought it, and i didn't really check it out. definitely, "buyer beware" here. it had a slight rub on the back tire, but i thought it was from the plastic. i got it home and found out it rubbed on the brake pad... no big deal, more annoying than anything. that night, jules and i were biking to the gym and about 4 minutes into the trip, my back tire basically melted. upon further examination, the tire was bent, and it finally reached it's maximum stress level and collapsed. people were stopping and asking if a car had hit me and such. they were nice. jules rode up the road to find a bike shop. i gave up and decided just to chain it to a tree and have my driver pick it up the next day. we picked it up the next day, but being sunday, the bike shop was closed. the next day we took it back and asked the owner to fix the tire. he kept saying i was hit by a car or i rode it down stairs or something. i kept telling him, if it was truly my fault, i seriously don't think i'd make the 2+ hour round-trip to downtown cairo at rush hour to save a few bucks. he finally decided he would fix it, and i watched as he did. he had to tighten EVERY spoke and screw on the bike. i'm surprised it didn't fall apart before the tire pooped out. after about an hour, and a trial run on the busy cairo streets, we were gone with what i thought was a good bike. later that night, i pumped up the tires getting it ready for the gym trip the next day. after work, i got ready for the gym, grabbed the bike and... the front tire was flat. WTF?! i had to walk to the gym again.

well, tuesday night i decided to give the bike one more chance. i pumped up the front tire, and let it sit for two days. thursday, we got off work early, and i had to go to the market, i checked the tires, and to my surprise, they were still full, GREAT! i hopped on my bike and started riding down the street. i forgot to take the keys out of the bike lock, so somewhere along the ride the keys fell out of the lock. a little further down the road, the chain popped off the cogs. i turned the bike upside down and tried to get the chain back on. everytime i did and tested it by turning the pedals, it would pop off again. i was halfway between home and the store, and i didn't feel like back-tracking or lugging around a disabled bike, so i left it's existence to fate. i righted the bike, placed it up against a fence on the side of the street, and walked away to do my shopping. about 45 minutes and arms full of groceries later, i walked past the spot where my bike used to be.

i hate that i wasted just shy of $100 on a shite bike, but seeing that someone had taken my bike, i felt like a weight had been lifted. i hope whoever ganked my bike is having better luck than i did. to you sir, thank you.