June 25, 2004

joining the masses

so today i joined another billion chinese people. i bought a bike. now instead of spending 15 minutes walking to work and 15 minutes walking to lunch, and 15 walking back, i can hop on my bike and be there in 5 minutes.

i bought a pretty cheap bike. it's a one speed. the seat was a little loose and i had to tighten it when i got to work. the brake was also a little loose and needed some adjustment. in the end, i got the bike, an extra chain lock, and three wrenches (you can never be too prepared) for 160 yeun (about 20 USD).
course the fact that it's a cheap bike shows. but it's good enough for a billion chinese people so it'll be good enough for me. (for the truly minimal amount of riding that i need it for.)
my only disappointment is that there's no chance of riding it without using your hands. when i lived in san diego, i used to bike to school and back, and after i graduated i biked to work and back. when doing this i would usually sit up strait on my bike with my hands hanging at my sides and just ride. it's a great way to ride since you're not hunched over. (not efficient though, since you've got more surface area and if i remember correctly, drag increases exponentially based of surface area at power of three... but i digress.) unfortunately the front tire on this bike isn't really strait. if you watch it you can see it moving from side to side. this kind of throws off the balance and makes hands free riding impossible.

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