Look, marriage can be hard. You might have shared passions that bring you and your partner together—take if from the couple that found love through Strava. But you also need to strike a delicate balance between your own personal interests and the emotional needs of your spouse.

Otherwise you might end up like Burak Z., a Turkish man whose wife recently filed for divorce over his alleged obsession with his bicycle.

The Daily Sabah reports that an Istanbul woman, identified only as Yağmur Z., is asking for 400,000 Turkish lira (about $106,000) from Burak in court. In her lawsuit, she alleges that her husband’s singular devotion to his bike has damaged her mental health and left her marriage in shambles.

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”This is not an ordinary attachment, he is literally in love with the bike,” she said in her claim.

Instead of paying attention to her, Yağmur argued, Burak instead passes the days working on his ride. He apparently sets it up in the living room, cleaning and fixing it on a daily basis.

“My husband always spends time with his bicycle. He has a different kind of a bond with it,” Yağmur said.

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I’m sure our readers can relate to the guy’s enthusiasm. After shelling out for a sweet ride, who wouldn’t want to spend some time keeping it in tip-top condition? And doing bike maintenance in the living room doesn’t sound so extreme.

But relationships take hard work and care, and you can’t just fix them the way you patch a tube.

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Headshot of Matt Bevilacqua
Matt Bevilacqua
News Editor, Bicycling

Matt is a reporter, writer, and editor who has covered bicycling since 2014, when he cofounded a small bike magazine called SPOKE in Philadelphia. His work has a particular focus on where the bicycle intersects with politics, culture, and technology.