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Sometimes a spoke will break close to the axle and be kept in position by the fact of it being tied to its neighbour.
In a new machine nuts are apt to work loose at first. Those on the axles of the wheels and on the inner ends of the pedals next the cranks are the most important, and should be made as taut as ordinary muscular effort can make them. Bicycles are shipped by the makers with the pedals off, and at the selling agency the pedals are sometimes carelessly attached. This is one great cause of broken pedals. Once the pedal is loosened, it slips gradually away from the crank, and then some particularly hard thrust strips the thread from both male and female screw and the pedal drops off. The trouble cannot be remedied on the road (except that when the thread is only slightly defaced, a short piece of soft wire may sometimes be screwed in with it and serve temporarily), and the wheelman is obliged to ride home with one leg and get a new pedal, axle and crank piece. Another point to look to is the security of the handle bar; neglect to do this may result in a very nasty accident.
It is the common practice in India for the bicycle to be left to the tender mercies of the syce or the bearer. Now the average Indian domestic is never so profitably employed, according to his way of thinking, as when he is occasioning loss and annoyance to his employer. Put him in absolute charge of a bicycle, and he will do his best to damage the machine and endanger the safety of its rider. He will take a fiendish pride in scratching the enamel; if he can loosen a nut, he does so gladly; he will deluge the machine
