Vrooom no More
May 25th, 2006 by MarkWell, my scooter broke down. It seems like it’s pretty serious, too. I was going to buy some groceries when I noticed it was stalling when I stopped at lights. It didn’t seem like anything too bad, though; I figured the idle was just set too low. But after I bought my groceries, my scooter started stalling while I was driving it. At that point, I realized there was a serious problem, but there wasn’t enough time to do anything about it. Before I even made it home, a 5 minute trip in total, it died completely. I tried to start it for a few minutes and then pushed it the rest of the way home. I just bought the scooter recently, so I can probably just call the shop I bought it from and see if they can fix it.
Vrooom no MoreHosted on Zooomr
On the good side, I finally heard back from the one bike shop I’ve been able to find in Línkŏu. It’s a Giant shop, so all it sells are Giant bikes, kind of ironic since they didn’t carry any bikes big enough for me. They had to special order one, and it finally came in today. It only costed about $2500NT, but I can’t say I’m too impressed with it. The Giant I bought in Jiāyì for $2300 two years ago had a much bigger range of speeds and some decent front shocks, too. This one seems to be about the absolute minimum hardware they could reasonably offer- no shocks, a narrow range of speeds, and a fragile looking frame. Giant has really gone down hill quickly in terms of their lower-end bikes. That’s okay, though. I had a one-speed dirt bike when I was a kid and I remember enjoying it pretty well.
I got off work early tonight, so I rode my bike all over Línkŏu. It’s sure not as bike friendly here as it was in Jiāyì, but I enjoyed it. It’s really nice to ride around town, and for some reason I enjoy it way more when I do it on my own power instead of with the aid of some gas-guzzling motorized thing. I guess that’s because I lived in Boulder, Colorado for so much of my life. It’s kind of hard to come out of that place and not be some sort of eco-nut.
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May 26th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Mark-san,
You do not need to repair your scooter. Riding a bicycle is much better for your health, wallet and the earth. The major drawback is that bicycles are easily stolen even if they are locked. Be careful.
I love riding a bicycle too. But I do not want to do it here in China because it is very dangerous for me. You must ride through a lot of people, bicycles, rickshaws, dogs and kamikaze taxies on the street.
May 27th, 2006 at 2:38 am
I guess it’s a bit safer here. All my friends say I’m nuts riding a bicycle in this city, but it could be much worse. As long as I stay to the right of the road, I seem to do alright. The only problem is the packs of stray dogs that like to rove around here. They stayed the heck away when I was on my big, noisy scooter. Now that I’m on a bicycle, though, they gather up all their doggy buddies, follow me, and growl at me.
Still, I’m loving the bike. I went out riding for over an hour tonight. One cool thing about Guishan is that I can pretty much get away from everyone if I head out towards the ocean. It’s a wonderful feeling to be whizzing along at night in solitude, with only the sound of wind in my face.