The Bikes of China

[Werehatrack]

On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 02:57:56 -0500, Paul Hobson <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Werehatrack wrote:
>> I used to see a bare spindle sticking out of a crank on a bike at the
>> police auctions fairly regularly, but now that the city here is
>> recycling as many of the bikes as possible, I hardly see any bikes at
>> all.
>
>Just curious: by "recycle" do you mean that they send them to a
>recycling facility or give them away to people who need them?

The city has a shop that refurbishes them, and the bikes are made
available to city employees for use as transportation; the city is
apparently actively encouraging the use of bikes, particularly for
short trips, instead of cars. Our current mayor has been pretty vocal
in his encouragement of bikes as an alternate form of transport.
Happily, becuse we have quite a few cops on bikes, the police here
tend to have a more rational view of cycling as well.


--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

 

[Paul Hobson]

Werehatrack wrote:
> On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 02:57:56 -0500, Paul Hobson <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Werehatrack wrote:
>>
>>>I used to see a bare spindle sticking out of a crank on a bike at the
>>>police auctions fairly regularly, but now that the city here is
>>>recycling as many of the bikes as possible, I hardly see any bikes at
>>>all.
>>
>>Just curious: by "recycle" do you mean that they send them to a
>>recycling facility or give them away to people who need them?
>
>
> The city has a shop that refurbishes them, and the bikes are made
> available to city employees for use as transportation; the city is
> apparently actively encouraging the use of bikes, particularly for
> short trips, instead of cars. Our current mayor has been pretty vocal
> in his encouragement of bikes as an alternate form of transport.
> Happily, becuse we have quite a few cops on bikes, the police here
> tend to have a more rational view of cycling as well.

May I ask what city this is? Seems like a neat program that I'd like
read more about.

\\paul

 

[Werehatrack]

On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 15:25:20 -0500, Paul Hobson <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Werehatrack wrote:
>> On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 02:57:56 -0500, Paul Hobson <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>>Just curious: by "recycle" do you mean that they send them to a
>>>recycling facility or give them away to people who need them?
>>
>>
>> The city has a shop that refurbishes them, and the bikes are made
>> available to city employees for use as transportation; the city is
>> apparently actively encouraging the use of bikes, particularly for
>> short trips, instead of cars. Our current mayor has been pretty vocal
>> in his encouragement of bikes as an alternate form of transport.
>> Happily, becuse we have quite a few cops on bikes, the police here
>> tend to have a more rational view of cycling as well.
>
>May I ask what city this is? Seems like a neat program that I'd like
>read more about.

Houston. There's relatively little publicity about it; there were
never huge numbers of bikes getting auctioned anyway. OTOH, cycling
continues to gain in popularity around here, to the point that my
daughter and I were hardly the only ones pedalling through downtown
late this afternoon. The bus drivers were even polite when we were
running along in their route.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

 

[John Pitts]

On 2006-03-04, Mark Hickey <[email protected]> wrote:
> I didn't notice any "license plates" on any of the bikes though... has
> that requirement been dropped?
> ...
> Maybe it was a "Beijing thing", and didn't ever apply to other
> cities?

Bikes had plates in Fuzhou when I was there in 1995.

--
john
2 wheels good! 4 wheels bad!

 

[John Pitts]

On 2006-03-03, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
> Just thought I'd tell people that, since I've gone and gotten myself a
> digital camera I can now post pictures of some of the interesting
> things I see on the road on a regular basis and have put them up in a
> journal at crazyguyonabike.
>
> http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/journal/flyingpigeon


Great pics, thanks Marian. In the mid-90s I spent a few weeks in
Fuzhou. A couple of vivid memories:

1. A lady cycling to work one morning, dressed in a very nice print
frock, big-brimmed hat (the sort ladies wear to the racetrack) and
strappy high-heeled shoes, with immaculate hair and make-up. She was
having no trouble at all pedalling, and one got the impression that she
did this every day.

2. Walking back to the hotel very late one night with a colleague, and
encountering two policemen near the bike racks on the footpath. One
policeman was calmly watching the other _jumping_ up and down on the
rear wheel of some unfortunate person's bike. I have no idea what the
owner (or the bike) had done to raise the ire of the policeman. There
was a small crowd of people standing around, watching. We just kept
walking and didn't make eye contact...

--
John
"Do or do not, there is no try" - Master Yoda

 

[Mark Hickey]

John Pitts <[email protected]> wrote:

>1. A lady cycling to work one morning, dressed in a very nice print
>frock, big-brimmed hat (the sort ladies wear to the racetrack) and
>strappy high-heeled shoes, with immaculate hair and make-up. She was
>having no trouble at all pedalling, and one got the impression that she
>did this every day.

I was constantly amazed at how far some of the women could ride a bike
and still arrive looking *perfect*. I always get off the bike with my
hair looking like an Albert Einstein bad hair day, but they'd get off
the bike after riding miles through the sooty air in Beijing and look
like they were walking into a shampoo commercial shoot.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

 

[Bill Baka]

Mark Hickey wrote:
> John Pitts <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>1. A lady cycling to work one morning, dressed in a very nice print
>>frock, big-brimmed hat (the sort ladies wear to the racetrack) and
>>strappy high-heeled shoes, with immaculate hair and make-up. She was
>>having no trouble at all pedalling, and one got the impression that she
>>did this every day.
>
>
> I was constantly amazed at how far some of the women could ride a bike
> and still arrive looking *perfect*. I always get off the bike with my
> hair looking like an Albert Einstein bad hair day, but they'd get off
> the bike after riding miles through the sooty air in Beijing and look
> like they were walking into a shampoo commercial shoot.
>
> Mark Hickey
> Habanero Cycles
> http://www.habcycles.com
> Home of the $795 ti frame

Hair spray?
I get a bad hair day walking across the street if a car goes by and
makes a breeze. The very first thing I always have to do when riding is
to comb my hair before I even think of going into a building.
Maybe a Bruce Willis cut?
Bill Baka

 

[Mark Hickey]

Bill Baka <[email protected]> wrote:

>Mark Hickey wrote:

>> I was constantly amazed at how far some of the women could ride a bike
>> and still arrive looking *perfect*. I always get off the bike with my
>> hair looking like an Albert Einstein bad hair day, but they'd get off
>> the bike after riding miles through the sooty air in Beijing and look
>> like they were walking into a shampoo commercial shoot.
>>
>Hair spray?

Naaaah. Just long, shiny, flowing, straight black hair. Amazing...
must be Scotchguarded or something... ;-)

>I get a bad hair day walking across the street if a car goes by and
>makes a breeze. The very first thing I always have to do when riding is
>to comb my hair before I even think of going into a building.
>Maybe a Bruce Willis cut?

I finally just got mine cut very short. I know it's time for a
haircut when I end up with "mini-mohawks" that match the vents in my
helmet.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

 

[[email protected]]

Mark Hickey wrote:
> John Pitts <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >1. A lady cycling to work one morning, dressed in a very nice print
> >frock, big-brimmed hat (the sort ladies wear to the racetrack) and
> >strappy high-heeled shoes, with immaculate hair and make-up. She was
> >having no trouble at all pedalling, and one got the impression that she
> >did this every day.
>
> I was constantly amazed at how far some of the women could ride a bike
> and still arrive looking *perfect*. I always get off the bike with my
> hair looking like an Albert Einstein bad hair day, but they'd get off
> the bike after riding miles through the sooty air in Beijing and look
> like they were walking into a shampoo commercial shoot.

What's even more impressive is the ones who do it in miniskirts WITHOUT
flashing their underwear.

-M

 

[Mark Hickey]

"marian.ros[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Mark Hickey wrote:
>> John Pitts <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> >1. A lady cycling to work one morning, dressed in a very nice print
>> >frock, big-brimmed hat (the sort ladies wear to the racetrack) and
>> >strappy high-heeled shoes, with immaculate hair and make-up. She was
>> >having no trouble at all pedalling, and one got the impression that she
>> >did this every day.
>>
>> I was constantly amazed at how far some of the women could ride a bike
>> and still arrive looking *perfect*. I always get off the bike with my
>> hair looking like an Albert Einstein bad hair day, but they'd get off
>> the bike after riding miles through the sooty air in Beijing and look
>> like they were walking into a shampoo commercial shoot.
>
>What's even more impressive is the ones who do it in miniskirts WITHOUT
>flashing their underwear.

Not all of them manage the "WITHOUT" thing though (not that I ever
noticed, of course).

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

 

[[email protected]]

Mark Hickey wrote:
> Bill Baka <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Mark Hickey wrote:
>
> >> I was constantly amazed at how far some of the women could ride a bike
> >> and still arrive looking *perfect*. I always get off the bike with my
> >> hair looking like an Albert Einstein bad hair day, but they'd get off
> >> the bike after riding miles through the sooty air in Beijing and look
> >> like they were walking into a shampoo commercial shoot.
> >>
> >Hair spray?
>
> Naaaah. Just long, shiny, flowing, straight black hair. Amazing...
> must be Scotchguarded or something... ;-)
>
> >I get a bad hair day walking across the street if a car goes by and
> >makes a breeze. The very first thing I always have to do when riding is
> >to comb my hair before I even think of going into a building.
> >Maybe a Bruce Willis cut?
>
> I finally just got mine cut very short. I know it's time for a
> haircut when I end up with "mini-mohawks" that match the vents in my
> helmet.

I'm currently going with shaving the back of my neck all the way up to
my just above the start of my ears and letting the rest of my hair grow
long. Hopefully it will work better than the pixie cut I'd previously
adopted for the tropical weather since that tends to result in bunches
of curls sticking out of the sides of my helmet in clown-wig lumps.

 

[SMS]

[email protected] wrote:

> What's even more impressive is the ones who do it in miniskirts WITHOUT
> flashing their underwear.

The first time I went to China was in 1987 on a bicycle tour. As we
pedaled into Jiangsu province, our lovely 22 year old guide, from Wuxi,
was waiting on her bicycle. She was wearing a transparent purple dress,
which was hiked up over her knees so she could ride the standard diamond
frame mans bicycle. She had not learned the skill you outlined above.

The first thing she asked the two of us that arrived first, was "teach
me bad words in English." The women in the tour group hated her, as she
spend much of her time flirting with the men in the group.