#1
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My New Bike
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 |
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#2
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Wow! This post is really interesting. I haven't seen anyone discussing
Chinese bikes before, at least not those sold in China. Please post more. I'd like to see pictures of your other bikes, if possible, and any close-ups. Thanks for the great post! |
#3
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Pretty cool... I don't have the brass tacks to walk into a class of 30 and
pretend I know how to teach English. Good on ya'! $28?! For a bike!? $12 for another? And that Giant for $88! That's nutty! Ditto the other reply - I'd like to see pictures! I knew someone who went to school in Asia. They tried to pay for lunch one day at the university cafeteria - something like $1.50 for a big meal - and tried to say "keep the change"... they thought he was *trying to haggle!* He slunk away in shame when he figured out how they were interpreting his gestures. ;p _________ Take this with a grain of salt as I have a huge bias toward them: had you considered a folding bike? Very easy to travel with and based on the 50km or so in the past week on my newest bike, a KHS folder, I'll never go back to a non-folder. Seeing as you like the Giant brand (nice bikes, I love the Prodigy SUB) take a Giant "Halfway" for a ride. Maybe it's the answer to your travel luggage size and weight restrictions. Dahon makes a comparable and less expensive model - look for the 2004 Impulse D6 aluminum. I've had both up to about 30km/h and didn't feel like I was over-revving. My KHS I've had to 38km/h. (just a thought! Chris |
#4
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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. Cheap! Cute (but apparently useless) fenders! I find it interesting that even though your bikes keep getting stolen, the price for your replacement bikes seems to be trending upward. Many people would go the other way and get crappier and crappier bikes until the thieves finally stop stealing them. Good luck keeping the new one! |
#5
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bryanska wrote: Wow! This post is really interesting. I haven't seen anyone discussing Chinese bikes before, at least not those sold in China. Please post more. I'd like to see pictures of your other bikes, if possible, and any close-ups. Thanks for the great post! I don't have any pictures specifically of bike #1. I don't even remember the brand name. I have a photo of a blind erhu player where you can see the basket and part of the handlebars but I doubt that is what you are looking for. The one picture of #4 was given to the police after it was stolen. I'll see about taking some pictures of #6 and putting them up on the web. -M |
#6
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C.J.Patten wrote: Pretty cool... I don't have the brass tacks to walk into a class of 30 and pretend I know how to teach English. Good on ya'! 30? 30....?!? My first year and a half I was at a high school and I had classes of 55-70. At the kindergartens I had classes of up to 25. Now, I'm at a college. My large classes 30+ but my small classes are less than 10. As attendance is not mandatory it translates more to 25 and 5. $28?! For a bike!? $12 for another? And that Giant for $88! That's nutty! Ditto the other reply - I'd like to see pictures! The $12 bike was a secondhand which was bought for the frame. Tubes, some of the spokes, one of the tires, both brakes, the front gear cluster, the derailleurs (front and rear) and the chain were all replaced with new. I also changed the seat for another secondhand seat. When I was done it was more like $60. But it _looked_ like $12. I knew someone who went to school in Asia. They tried to pay for lunch one day at the university cafeteria - something like $1.50 for a big meal - and tried to say "keep the change"... they thought he was *trying to haggle!* He slunk away in shame when he figured out how they were interpreting his gestures. ;p $1.50? At the university cafeteria? Yesterday night I went to a spiff Hunan Resteraunt on Haidian Island. When I say spiff, I do mean spiff. Upmarket dinner crowd spiff. For the five us eating mostly meat, drinking local beer, and sitting in an air conditioned private dining room it cost $10. If we'd been in one of the more fashionable districts it might have cost as much as $20. Possibly if we tried really hard and went someplace really nice (like the Japanese, Thai, or Indian) we could have stretched it to costing $40. Today's lunch (coca cola, duck, spinach, bean sprouts, squash, rice, eaten on metal plates sitting outside) was $1. Take this with a grain of salt as I have a huge bias toward them: had you considered a folding bike? Very easy to travel with and based on the 50km or so in the past week on my newest bike, a KHS folder, I'll never go back to a non-folder. I briefly considered one back when I was living in Shijiazhuang. I would frequently go to Beijing for the weekend and if I wanted to take my bike with me I had to sent it on the cargo train. Which meant delivering it to the train station the night before. Seeing as you like the Giant brand (nice bikes, I love the Prodigy SUB) take a Giant "Halfway" for a ride. Maybe it's the answer to your travel luggage size and weight restrictions. Dahon makes a comparable and less expensive model - look for the 2004 Impulse D6 aluminum. If you've ever tried to pack 60 kilo of stuff you'd be surprised how much it is, especially when you get another 20 kilo in carryon. It's hard to manage to take as much as I'm allowed. On the upcoming trip home I'll be near empty. Which is why I'm considering taking the bike back with me. Since the return trip to Asia I'll have books and cheese and olives and books and books and household goods and books and possibly clothing in my luggage I'll have to leave the bike in the US but... it will mean 6 weeks of _not_ having to use my boyfriend's bike. -M |
#7
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numbnutz wrote: 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. Cheap! Cute (but apparently useless) fenders! It was raining yesterday. I have to agree with you on the fenders not being very good. They kept the very worst water off of me, but I still got splashed. Better than nothing at all though. I find it interesting that even though your bikes keep getting stolen, the price for your replacement bikes seems to be trending upward. Many people would go the other way and get crappier and crappier bikes until the thieves finally stop stealing them. My bikes keep getting stolen, therefore I let the salesman talk about the 20,000 rmb bike, joined the salesman in drooling over the 20,000 rmb bike, joined the salesamn in wistfully sighing over the 20,000 rmb bike, then took his suggestion and bought the 800 rmb one. Once upon a time I had a crappy bike. It was bought by a friend as a replacement for my first bike. Because he was using my first bike when it got stolen. I left that bicycle outside for 4 months. In a semi-public place. With the key in the lock. And it wasn't taken. 14 months later, when I visited that city, the bike was no longer sitting in front of my old apartment. But, for all I know, it was sold for scrap metal. The bikes that the thieves won't take are the bikes that aren't worth riding. I'd like to have another camoflage bike (like #3) but the Haikou is subtropical and 1/17th the size of Shijiazhuang. In Shijiazhuang I had to look over a few hundred bikes before I found one worth refurbishing. Haikou's secondhand bike market rarely has more than 8 or 10 bikes at a time. I probably should have shipped the Emmelle south instead of giving it away. Good luck keeping the new one! It isn't so much a matter of luck as a matter of insufficient paranoia. Surely my boss wouldn't tell me to put my bike there unless there is a bike watcher. Surely three locks are enough to run inside for a few minutes. Surely... Surely my new bike will follow me _into_ the second floor internet bar. Where it will then be locked. Surely my new bike will be locked up at night inside a locked closet in a locked building inside a locked compound. Surely my new bike will only be parked places with guards. -M |
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