Far too late considering I need to be awake at 0600 but ………..
Well the bullet was not only bitten but swallowed as well today.
I went to town after lunch on a mission to buy a bike. As always with anything I do in China it was not without problem. One very big one in fact.
The sodding bike shop I have used for four years and bought six bikes from has disappeared and now they are selling bedding from within! Well that threw me a little bit but I had braved the cold air to chop in the old silver streak and I was determined it was now or never - or at least until the weather warms up.
Opposite “my” bike shop there has always been another one but it has sold really ugly e-bikes more befitting a sixties American film but I took a gander in their window. Yep, still ugly bikes but at the far end there looked to be some candidates.
I am pretty conservative and don’t want to stand out for the wrong reasons so 90% of what they had was out. There were a few bikes similar to what I was looking to trade in but who the hell takes a Fiesta in and buys one a year younger unless it is different?
Anyway, there WERE two that caught my eye. One in yellow and one in black with red flashings. The black was immediately ruled out on account of a black bike being involved in my near-fatal brush with an artic forty months ago, so the yellow it was going to be if anything. I am an impulse buyer and a salesman’s dream so the girls working there must have thought Santa had arrived early.
I had expected to part with 2,500y but despite haggling and exchanging the tired old hack I ended up agreeing on 3,000. This is where it gets into the silly, late mid-life crisis stage. This is the seventh bike I have owned in China and hitherto every single one has had a topbox to carry shopping. This bike doesn’t have one.
No problem, thought I, just hand the carrier bags on the luggage hook at the front. I forgot one thing.
Pepsi.
How the hell can I have a bag of beer and wine where she sits when I take her out? This I only realised when I took her out tonight. Thanks to a fellow teacher in Japan, a young chap who survived the Japanese tsunami a couple of years back suggesting I buy a backpack to keep Pepsi in. Idiotic idea of course but thinking about it, I could buy one to keep the SHOPPING in!
That problem solved, there is another. The shop being small, I couldn’t test ride the damned bike and nobody spoke English. None of the bikes for sale had batteries fitted - hence I am a dream customer - I sealed the deal sight unridden.
There’s no “cruise control”. Every Xin Ri/SunRa bike has had a thing where if you maintain a speed for 8 seconds the bike will carry on using the same power - but not this one. Shit. Having said that - and it may be psychological - this one does go like greased weasel excrement off a blanket. Digital dashboard, disc brakes at the front and headlights that actually allow me to see ahead.
I am very happy though with the blazing banana and look forward to timing the school to Lottemart run, which I believe the Silver Streak set the record for at 23 minutes.
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