The last biking in Shanghai post



The last bike I owned in Shijiazhuang was a second-hand Emelle that
had been very badly neglected. I had everything on it replaced and
that bike was nice to me. I remember the shop I had the work done in.
A random Emelle shop. I spent three hours in that shop while they
replaced things, before getting bored, leaving, and coming back two
hours later to wait another hour. I got to know that shop's stock
pretty well during those four hours of waiting. And I got a fair bit
of chat in with the grease monkeys, despite what was then a very very
low Chinese level. My recollections of that shop's stock of bits,
bobs, widgets, and high end thingymabobs is along the same lines as
what Haikou has. Partially because the 20,000rmb price tag on one of
the bikes stuck in my head...

So, I was expecting Shanghai to have a lot better stock. I was very
disappointed.

I went to five bike shops in Shanghai. The Giant on Guilin road,
Bohdi Bikes, the Gubei Carrefour, the Shimano Authorized Dealer
mentioned on Shimano's website, and a high-end road bike shop that the
person from the Shimano place took me to.

Knowing that Shijiazhuang had good stuff two years ago and that
Haikou currently has good stuff I can't understand how Shanghai
doesn't.

Bohdi bikes is a place that does titanium framed mountain bikes. Of
the places I went they were the only ones that had anything even
resembling the selection available in the small provincial outposts I
have gone shopping in in the past.

But, strangely enough, the employees hadn't the faintest clue about
anything to do with road bikes anywhere in Shanghai. In Haikou the
overlap between the two bike clubs is huge and even though I don't own
a mountain bike or have any intention of buying one in the near future
the mountain bike club's shop will still adjust things or patch my
tires for free on the grounds that I'm a "one of us" and will probably
end up buying something from them one of these days.

(Though if I ever do get tempted by one of the mountain bike only
events I'm likely to borrow or rent a bike.)

Okay, so Haikou is 1/20th the size of Shanghai. But, to not even
know if Shanghai had a road bike club, or the address (or name) of a
shop specializing in road bikes seems kind of weird to me. Surely some
of the people buying stuff from them also have road bikes? I think I
may be the only person in Haikou with a bike over 1000 rmb who has ONLY
ONE BIKE.

The Giant shop where I had my bike reassembled was the same.
Absolutely no clue about anything bicycle related outside their
immediate purview. Didn't have any bikes as nice as mine and seemed a
little surprised that my bike was Chinese made and purchased in China.

The Carrefour was totally the wrong sort of place to go. Commuter
bikes. As low as 120 rmb. I won't blame them for not having anything
I was looking for. However, the lack of aftermarket luggage racks did
surprise me somewhat.

The Shimano Authorized Dealer (found on the web) didn't even have a
selection as good as Haikou's shop. At least he did know where a
speciality shop was and was even willing to take me there.

It felt right. They had cases full of components, frames on the
walls and ceilings, a rack of clothes. But... on closer inspection it
was the same stuff seen three or four times, instead of three or four
different things. And even though they had road bike stuff they didn't
know about any road bike things in the Shanghai area other than a
weekly group ride out to the Pudong Airport area.

Before inviting me (turns out I can't go anyways) they wanted to make
sure I knew that they'd be riding really fast (20kph) really far (30
kilometers total). I'm at the very low end of the mid-range of skill
and endurance for my group ... with perhaps 100 people I'd say I'm
probably number 80. But, this shop's idea of fast and far is my idea
of casual in-city errand running speeds.

So ...
I did not get more clothing. I will either have to order online, get
stuff made, or resign myself to only wearing one of the three color
combinations in stock in large sizes in the Hainan shops.

I did not even begin to look at clipless shoes and pedals. Having
surfed the net, I wouldn't think eight shoes and two kinds of pedals is
a large selection but again, Haikou beat the shops in Shanghai. I
wanted to get a real world look at some of the things available on
Nashbar.com without having to actually order them over the net. I've
only had toe-clips for a very very _very_ short period of time but my
geeky nature finds the clipless shoes more elegant and I want to try
them.

And, I did not get a headlight (out of stock, out of stock, why would
you want that, out of stock, and same as Hainan for 20rmb more).

In fact, the only things I did get were a water bottle and a luggage
rack.
And I had to get the luggage rack from a street vendor cause the
'real' shops selling better stuff either didn't have luggage racks or
were quite insistent that my kind of bike couldn't take a luggage rack.
(but then why does it have those extra holes on the frame? the ones
that the bolts holding the luggage rack in place are currently going
through)

I've got another year before I next plan to be back in Shanghai.
Maybe I'll find something before then.

-M