Why getting a regular tune up is a good thing

Two weeks ago I was walking towards the elevator to leave work, wheeling my bike along when I noticed a strange squeaky noise emanating from my bike. As anyone with a bike knows, strange squeaky noises should be looked into immediately lest something break and you die. So I stopped and looked down to examine my bike. The cause was immediately evident. My front tire was flat. Very flat. Flatter than I can get it by letting all the air out through the valve. I always carry an extra tube and my bike pump so the flat did not worry me. However, when I went to pop the front wheel off, I discovered that one of the nuts holding my front brakes together was broken in half. Half was missing and half (okay a little more than half) was still clinging to the bolt. This concerned me. So I took TRAX (the local train system) home. Saturday I spent an hour hunting various bike shops and hardware stores for a nut that would fit. Unfortunately, as many bike manufactures do, the nut was proprietary and had a non-standard thread pitch. However I was able to find a nut that would screw on a little bit, and with a few washers to make the connection tight and a bit of duct tape to ensure the whole assemblage does not come loose from road vibration I was up and running (or riding) again.