Stranded with a flat tire.

I had the worse case scenario happen last night as I drove my electric bike home,  A key on the pavement punctured my rear tire causing a blow-up in a bad location of Wuxi.  My immediate problem was where to take the bike.  It being late at the night, I was not likely to find a repairman.  My first thought was to push the bike back to work and catch a bus home.  However, I quickly realized that pushing the bike was not an option.  With the flat rear tire, the bike was unpushable, except for a short distance, because the rear end was bouncing like a rubber ball when I did try to push the bike.  Pumping up the rear tire with air was not an option either because the pump I had couldn't have inflated a simple balloon.  Ten minutes of pumping with no evident progress caused me to give up. 

 

So I started to push the bike back to school.  I came upon a back alley where I had seen shops so I took the bike there.  At the first shop I found, I was able, with the help of my wife on the mobile phone, to get the shopkeepers to look for a repairman.  But I learned the nearest repairman was asleep (so much, for one being on call and hoping to earn extra money).  Eventually, after some negotiations between my wife, the shopkeepers, and a man who had a van, I and the bike were driven home.  The flat tire cost me fifty rmb and forty-five minutes.  

 

With the bike at the apartment, we will be able to get the local repairman we know to come fix it.