The motto of this „Smarter Than Car“ (STC) bike ride today was: We are taking the audacious step of announcing that spring is here! Despite the sandstorms and late snow the temperature is rising quickly and the weekend is forecast to hit 18 degrees. About time! So dust off your bike and get ready for a leisurely Sunday morning ride through the city. We will meet between the drum and bell tower at 11am and ride a scenic 1 hour route through the city and arrive at Chaoyang Park for a picnic lunch. Please bring your own blanket, food and drinks.
春天骑行: 我们斗胆宣布一下春天到了. 抛开沙尘暴和春雪不说, 气温正快速回升,预计周末能达到18度. 好不容易熬出来了. 所以把你的自行车擦干净, 准备好周日下午的快乐骑行吧. 我们上午11点在鼓楼和钟楼中间的空地集合, 然后骑1个小时, 享受城中美景, 最后到达朝阳公园野餐. 请带上毯子,吃的喝的.
It was nice to see my fixed gear bike friends come meet us at the Beijing drum and bell tower. That was particularly good as we had a woman and a camera man from Beijing TV station come to take footage of the event. I thought they would film this spring bike ride which has the idea to encourage people to ride their bikes in Beijing as a low carbon emission and fun transportation method. But no, Beijing TV was more interested in me doing a trick bike performance. I had come to this ride with my cyclo cross bike and outdoor shoes as after the ride I was heading to the TREK cyclo cross race. As I did not bring any one of my fixed gear bikes I said that they should film someone else of the Beijing fixed gear group. So we first asked Liang Xing aka Ryo to do some skidding on his fixie.
That was okay until he skid into a barrier. But he bent it back and it actually still worked afterwards so the guards were not too upset. Well then I grabbed a 56cm Natooke fixed gear bike (which was way too tall for me) off one of the guys and did some tricks for Beijing TV. And after some more photos for Global Times we could finally set out for our STC spring bike ride.
In the beginning of the ride there were a lot of people on the streets in this beautiful weather. As we cycles along the side of one of Beijing’s canals we came past a group of people watching 3 people pulling a guy that probably could not swim out of the canal. I have no idea how he could have fallen in the canal, maybe he was already drunk. But it was good to see that he was still alive.
I love this route along the canal, you have almost the whole road for cyclists. Once in a while there is a car but it is amazing how empty it is despite in being in the center of the city.
More of my pictures are in this webalbum of our Smarter Than Car ride. The group arrived at the Chaoyang Park. But as we could not bring our bicycles inside (only kids are allowed to do that and we were considered too old) the majority of thd fixed gear guys headed off. I unfortunately had to go to board the bus to head out for the cyclo cross race. And the others locked their bikes and went inside the park for a spring picnic. Shannon Bufton and I are looking forward to more people joining us for the next STC bike rides.