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Published: October 27th 2006
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Peak Hour, Qingdao inbound, traffic a mare!
This is about 100m before my pedal gave way, such a nice night for a ride! ’TWAS Tom Munro, from Ningxia Lu, that caught the cycling craze;
He turned away the good old bus (11, 226, 205, 31) that served him many days (6 weeks);
He dressed himself in cycling clothes (jeans,tshirt), resplendent to be seen;
He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine (300yuan, $45aus);
And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride,
The grinning shop assistant said, “Ni hao, can you ride?”
In case you havnt guessed already i have purchased a bicycle. There has been talk of this purchase circulating for weeks now and in typical Tom fashion i have put it off and put it off. HOwever, today was the day, i was sick commuting by 4 wheeled sardine can and by foot, so off to Walmart i went. I already had the style in mind i which i wanted, a small bmx-esque ride that can fold up. Eureka, they had one and it was only $45 Aus. Steal, a new bike for only 300yuan. I had been going to second handshops before this and was being made a mockery of. One joker tried to sell me a bike without a seat for $160,
Suckers! Down the outside!
As you can see, aggravated commuters on the 226, my old bus, as i cruise by. when u can get it new for $100. I may be tad wet behind the ears but that doesnt mean i came down in the last shower.
Anywho... so i was with Greg at Walmart and after cutting a few laps of the "superstore" on my new roadster, i decided that this one was for me. So i got the bike out of the front of the store and bid Greg farewell. He got the bus back home and i road. THe ride isnt exactly gruelling but its not easy. Distance is about 5km with with a slight incline. All seemed to be going swimmingly until i was coasting along and the seat decided to suddenly descend without notice. So i was riding along now with my knees near my head. Every time i raised the seat up it would slowly slide back down. A minor set back, but nothing to worry about. About 5 mins up the road i was generating good pace riding past a primary school after class had just been let out. I felt like the 'cool' older kid everyone stares at so i embraced the moment briefly until the chain fell off mid stride.
Made in China
Take 2, this quality piece of chinese engineering decides to give way. Kinda like Chris Tarrant this bike, looks the goods but just failed to get the job done. Karma, for acting like a wanker. THe lord works in mysterious ways. To redeem myself i flipped the bike upside down and attempted to get the chain on. Its a lot tougher with a bmx cause there is no give. Took me about 10 mins until i was finally successful. Was riding no more than 50m down the footpath and i had a repeat performance. Steam permeating from my ears i noticed that the frame around the pedal shaft was more buckled than a pilgrim's hat. Furious i hailed the nearest cab and it was back to Walmart receipt in hand.
After the 10 min cab ride i had settled a little and was excited at the prospect of exchanging my current piece of shit for a new one. Took me a while to explain to the service staff that my bike was 'fei chang bu hao!' (very bad), but after we were on the same page we went to swap it over. At first they tried to fix it for me but i didnt want a bar of that, instead changed it for a mountain bike which was a bit more sturdy. Transaction complete and one satisfied customer. This bike already felt better than its predecessor. On the same route home and it was peak hour. On the freeway i kept to the right like all other cyclists, i really felt like one of the crew now except, my bike didnt have chicken cages, planks of wood, fruit, drums of water or anything else hanging off the back. About 20mins into the ride things were fantastic, i was adamant that the best way to see China was on two wheels. That was until i cycling furiously down an off ramp behind a fellow cyclist when the left pedal started feeling a bit weird. Suddenly there was this terrible clunking sound and my pedal was 20meters behind me in the middle of the freeway. Funny now that i look at it, but in hindsight was probably fairly dangerous! Not sure what was worse, walking the bike home or the "i told ya so" looks i got from the boys when i got home. NO doubt i will be paying Walmart another visit tomororw, this time i would suggest i will be getting a refund. So that was my day today, pretty eventful and amusing so i thought i would share that with you. We visited Laoshan the other day and got some really good pictures so I will upload those when i can.
I start teaching on Sunday now, very weird day to start, then Ash gets here the following week which is very exciting. Once again thanks to everyone who has been sending me emails and reading my blog. During the week i passed 500 readers so that was quite amazing. I coped bad press from my last blog and vow never mention politics again. The popularity worm took a severe dive so hopefully i can redeem myself in coming weeks! Thanks again everyone, good luck to those playing cricket tomorrow, speak to you all soon!
Take care
Tom
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Ash
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Hrrrmmm
I have no words for that!!! I KNEW THE BIKE WAS A BAAAAAD IDEA. and i hope u do get your refund, cos I certainly do not fancy a "dink" during my stay!! So also must say...told u so! And the fold out bike LOOKED RIDICULOUS. and while im at it, so does ur camo hoody!!! that is all! Love u! hehehe :-)