China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

Today I joined a spinning class (indoor cycling with music and instructor) for the first time in my life. And not just a normal one. It was a spinning class led by my Belgium fellow cycler Patrick Dean and accompanied by a Latino drummer. The drumming really enforces the beat of the music. That was a very nice experience. And I should do this regularly to prepare for the road races of this year.

Today was the regular winter road cycling ride to the East of Beijing. We had beautiful weather with blue sky and sunshine, but still quite cold. The loop is about 60km on smoothly paved extremely flat roads. This picture is courtesy of Tom showing me and our Mongolian friend Naran in the front.

In the evening we met Federico for dinner.We went to one of the small places where you chose vegetables and other things on sticks and then cook it in water. It was the first time for me to be in this kind of restaurant and it was delicious. But I have not yet figured out what is the best choice to not spend too much money but at least kill the hunger. Maybe all teh bike riding made me especially hungry.

Then we tried to find a bar close by as it was really freezing cold and we all were riding bikes. Unfortunately that area is not known for having any bars. We asked a few people and they all pointed us in one direction. It turned out to be a fancy hotel that has a bar. We decided not to go there and found a small bar below ground nearby that said it has live music. The music stopped shortly after we arrived and we were not too unhappy about that. We started playing games like making unbelievable towers out of the building blocks.

We also made a domino snake like around the candles that actually with 2 adjustments fell down as expected.

With all these games we did manage to stay long enough till it turned midnight despite the really expensive beer and the horrible tasting tiny 50.-RMB hot chocolate. It was Federico’s 30th birthday and he thought we did not know. But we did 🙂

Chinese New Year is whole 7 days of public holiday (only if you chose to work on the weekend, otherwise you only get 3 days off) and fire crackers. Finally I could join the Peloton this morning as I had finally managed to open  the lock on my bike. Tom arranged the standard winter easy 2.5 hour loop bike ride along the Wenyu river North East of Beijing. I arrived at the morning meeting pint with another cyclist who came for the first time. We waited a while till another guy showed up that said he never had ridden that route. As it was already after the meeting time we were starting to wonder if anybody else would show up and started talking about how we could ride. But finally our master Tom arrived and guided this small group of cyclists towards the Wenyu River. Half way through he said that he will turn back as he is slightly sick and he gave us further directions. We missed one turn but noticed that when the road suddenly ended with a huge construction fence. When we reached the North East banks of the Wenyu River we really enjoyed this newly paved empty road and were happy to live in Beijing and enjoy the Olympic investments that had been done. Because of this beautiful road we decided not to do a loop, but just cycle back the same way. Then we decided it would be shorter to actually cut through to the 2nd Airport Expressway on the other side of the river. But that road was first not nicely paved and soon after it turned into a dirt and brick road. So this shortcut was shorter but did take us longer. It was fun though.

In the afternoon we continued to work on the 1000 piece puzzle of a traditional Chinese painting that we had bought at the temple fair for 10.-RMB. We actually had to start the puzzle by ripping pieces apart that originally came uncut. We soon also found out that almost every piece was the same shape. Today was the third day working on it and we did finish it with only 16 pieces in the wrong place – There are letters printed on the back so that you can afterwards double-check that you placed every piece correctly…

…or maybe it was actually meant to do the puzzle with the letters facing upwards so you can then conveniently put the glue on it for framing. The shop we had bought it at only sold one size puzzles plus the respective size of frames to go with it. But as we are not Chinese we did not buy the frame and we will not hang the puzzle on the wall. I had enough of looking at different shades of yellow and orange while doing the puzzle. If the painter of this painting would still be alive I would like to tell him that a river should not be the same color as the soil otherwise it makes not a good choice for being used as a puzzle.

After WD40 lubricant and higher temperatures did not change anything I am convinced that somebody had messed around with the bike lock making it not opening anymore. I quickly decided to forcefully open the lock, but I did not have the tools. Unfortunately it is currently Chinese New Year holiday which means: All shops are closed. So also the nice hardware stores. But after 4 days without my nice bike I found a small hardware store that was already open. I never had been to this store. I walked in and asked if he could help open my bike lock. He first offered me a tiny saw. I told him I need some thing bigger. So he brought this huge bolt cutter (or massive pincer) and it went through the bike lock like a knife goes through warm butter. I was happy but also shocked. I hope my Kryptonite locks are more resistant.

I love Beijing for making these things so easy. I did not need to buy any tool, the hardware store let me use his tools. And the shop owner was really helpful trying to assist me – and that being free of charge. This attitude makes living in Beijing easy.