A year after finishing university I went to China to teach English.
For one year, only one year, no longer than one year, really only ten
months, I can do it. Then I'll go home. Stay home.

I'll be starting my fourth year in September.

After only 6 weeks in China I _needed_ a bike. I couldn't speak the
language. Couldn't navigate the bus system. Wasn't fit enough to walk
as far as I wanted to. And my taxi skills were limited to getting
home.

I fell in love with that bike. It wasn't a bad bike. The price tag
was 498 rmb (about $62). I wanted the 200 rmb (about $25) bike. This
was presumed to be a bargaining tactic. I got it for 220 rmb (about
$28).

Summer 2003, while I was in the US, it was stolen.

The person who I loaned it to replaced it with a secondhand bike of
such incredibly high quality that, 4 months of sitting outside later,
with the key in the lock, no one had taken it.

My next bike - 350 rmb ($46) - was a Giant Athena.
http://www.giantbicycles.com/ch/030....003&model=6661
It lasted slightly more than one month before being stolen from inside
the school compound.

Bicycle number 3 was a secondhand Emelle that I paid $12 for. Then I
took it to the Emelle shop and had everything except the frame
replaced. It still looked like I had paid $12 for it. But it rode
like a new $70 bike.

I gave it away when I moved from Hebei to Hainan.

While in the states January 2004 I picked up a free Japanese bike from
a recycling center. It was part of my luggage on the February flight
back to China. I had it repaired and spiffed up. I loved it as much
or more than I had loved that first bike in Shijiazhuang. This was my
first bike with drop bars.

Bike 4 was stolen after one month. Which was how I discovered that the
place my employers had told me was a designated parking area didn't
actually have a designated parking guard.

I test drove some of the local bikes but couldn't find anything to
match the stolen Japanese bike. And as it was approaching my first
summer in the tropics, soon, I didn't want to bicycle anyways.

In September 2004 I bought a Merida F-701. This is a Chinese bike
company. The bike cost my boss 700 rmb ($88). It was a contract
signing bonus thingy.

I had Bike 5 for nearly four months. I got careless enough to think
that three locks (one of them a chain) were a substitute for a proper
parking place. It disappeared when I was paying my phone bill.

And now ... after all that background ... we finally get to the point
of this message.

My New Bike - #6

http://www.giantbicycles.com/ch/030....002&model=6636

Giant Speeder X

Including bicycle computer, and water bottle cage it cost me 816 rmb
($100). I bought it yesterday.

Current top speed is 32 kph. Which given that I've got traffic,
Chinese roads, and my general bad physical condition to deal with is
pretty impressive. Average speed is 14 kph. I've put about 25
kilometers on it since I bought it yesterday evening.

It's a bit too early to say if it really is love or just infatuation.


It seems to be a pretty good bike. As nice or nicer than the Merida.
I didn't buy a new Merida because the "non bargainable" price was
significantly cheaper when a Chinese friend asked how much.

I'm going home to the US in a little more than a month. I'll be there
for 6 weeks. I don't have a bike in the US. It was stolen while I was
in university. Last summer and the summer before I borrowed my
boyfriend's bike but it is one of those mountain hybrids and I've since
come to prefer skinny tires and drop bars.

I don't think I'll be filling up my 60 kilo weight allowance this trip.
I rarely do on trips from Asia. I always do on trips to Asia.

Judging by the picture on the website, and the price tag, is it
worthwhile to consider disassembling and taking this bike to the US?

-M