A bike part that found me

This is the foil backing to a bike tire patch i had to use recently. A small, sharp stone punctured & embedded itself into my front tire and caused a very tiny hole in the tube. So instead of buying a tube i just put a patch on the existing tube. I'm a member of the PSU Bike Hub co-op now, which i'm excited about 'cause i can fix the bike at school if i need to, & it was certainly a Godsend that day!



Note country of origin. I have tire patches at home, but needed one there, so i ended up with the German-made glue patch. For the record, much more complicated than the patches i have at home, but probably more sturdy & will hold longer as well. The whole repair cost me a grand total of $0.40 as i was able to execute the repair myself!

I have also topped off my tires a few times at the Bike Hub, lubed the chain & gears (with soy-based lube they provide), and today attempted to fix my rear brake which came loose on the way to school. Unfortunately i will have to get a new brake cable & housing, and i didn't have time to execute much more than a few basic adjustments today, so i got it back into a semi-working state & will have to fix it for real perhaps Wednesday or so.

I also created some bike art which i am quite happy with! I submitted it to a contest today to win *hundreds of fabulous prizes*, so cross your fingers for me (bzw druck mir die Daumen). Hopefully it will win & get displayed, though either way i plan to post it here soon.