Yes it does a little, but the bike is still quite ridable. It's more of an annoyance than a safety issue. I rode about 5 miles with it like that tonight. I'd still like to get it fixed though, I bought this bike so that I could have a riding partner (have been riding alone all my life :|) and I certainly wouldn't want my friends to have any accidents because of that.

I shall buy that post linked to above. eBay has great stuff