Sunday afternoon I decided to fix some of the problems that I was having with my bicycle. Most of these were simply matters of maintenance.
I was getting tired of some issues with my bicycle. However, as tools are not generally available, I tried going to a local repairman and was not satisfied with the quality of the work. They are great for repairing things that are broken. There seems to be an issue when it comes to tuning. It is more a matter of different expectations than a matter of ability. Having raced, I have very high expectations so far as what I expect the bicycle to do. Most of these are matters of smooth and secure shifting and noise reduction. Remember, it takes energy to make noise; thus, any noise is wasted energy.
The basic issues were rust and a need for cable adjustment on the derailleurs'. The rust was pretty much covering the chain and all of the chain rings and gears. The obvious answer is to oil them. That leaves the problem of finding oil. Of course, I tried a bike shop. I also tried a bike parts shop; these are not the same places. Neither of these shops had oil. Aside from the presence of rust, the bike was also making a lot of noise
There was also the adjustment issue. The bike was shifting poorly. When in a relaxed position the cables had a lot of slack in them. There was also a problem with one of the cables having wound itself around an idler gear. Basically, the bike was covered in rust, making noises, and shifting poorly.
Having given up on finding the right tools (The Park Tool site is a great resource. However, it assumes that you have Park Tools.)I decided to work with what I did have. I had a multitool made by Gerber and a small adjustable wrench. For oil, I had cooking oil; which I find to be a great improvement over no oil.
The first thing I did was to remove the idler in the rear derailleur and deal with the cable that was wound around it. While I had it apart I put some oil on the bearing parts (stamped steel and plastic). I then loosened the bolts on the front and rear derailleurs' (one at a time) with the adjustable wrench and tightened the cables before re-tightening the bolts.
At this point I started to put some oil on the chain using a piece of paper as a brush (I had looked for a small paintbrush for this part but did not find one). Once the chain was oiled I ran it through the gears in order to get oil on all of the gears and the chain-rings. Because I do not have a bike stand, and I have not seen a single one, not even at the bike shops I tipped the bike so that it was supported on the front wheel and the kickstand for this part. I think the rear axle is bent because the gear-set has a wobble; however, there is nothing I am going to be able to do about that right now.
After the whole thing was oiled I then started making the adjustments. I put the bike in its lowest gear and adjusted the set screws on the derailleurs' until they had resistance and then I did the same for the highest gear.
Going for a ride I can say that the difference is like night and day. It really does ride and shift better then it did when it was new. There is no more, chain-throwing, over-shifting and the shift on to the small chain-ring is smooth; I no longer need to reach down with my foot to push the chain onto that ring.
None of this should seem amazing to anyone with good tools and a set of basic shop equipment. Heck, back at home I have a bike stand and a Nashbar copy of the Park Tool basic set. What amazed me was the degree of improvement that could be made to a cheap bike with very simple tools.
As far as the wheels, they are not so far out of true that I cannot continue to use them. However, I can see that I will need to true them soon. I think the attitude toward wheel truing is one of the reasons that drum brakes are so popular here. I have seen wheels with over two inches of play on each side. One suggestion that I got, from a bicycle forum, regarding truing the wheels, considering that I do not have a truing wrench, was to remove the tyre and tube and turn the base of the nipple with a screwdriver. I expect that this will work; however, it will put the bike out of commission for several days so I will wait until it starts to snow before doing this.
Recently Zeneta and I have having our Tuesday night dinner with students and no other teachers. We did the same this week. I allowed the students to take me to a place that they have taken me before. I am under the understanding that the name, when translated, is, "the old colleagues restaurant." The food seems to be reasonable inexpensive (which is good, considering that I frequently host large numbers) and is quite good. However, all of the dining rooms are not entirely private and the other group, seen in some of my pictures, was not a part of our party.
Upon return I met with one of the other teachers and she commented that she would like to return to having herself, and some of her students, joining me for my Tuesday night dinners. So, I suspect that the size of our dinner parties is due to grow. This is workable. What I have found is that a ratio of one westerner to every four Chinese students works well. While two to one is ideal, up to five is tolerable; a ratio beyond that leaves some of the students being neglected. Having Michelle at these parties will allow dinners of twelve to fifteen; parties larger than that will be hard to seat.
Zeneta got herself a new desk today. She has been fighting with the people to get her computer connected to the Internet, instead of using the school supplied computer, pretty much, since she got here (I have entirely given up on making my Mac work with the network here, it just isn't going to happen). It has been a matter of one little problem after the other. In order to connect her computer to the network here so she can access the internet she needs to install a piece of software from the school called, "ruijie supplicant," (for which, it appears that there is no OSX version, and I am still looking for BSD version that I will not have to compile myself). To run this she needs to have the full Chinese version of Windows, which she does not have.
So, she called to the office for a computer DISC, the disc for Windows XP (they think that they are running Vista, they are not running Vista). They were very cooperative and agreed to send one. In very short order someone knocked on the door bearing a computer DESK. Of course they would not take it back because they had been sent to bring a desk, not to return with one. So Zeneta now has another desk and is still unable to connect to the Internet with her Toshiba.
Wednesday evening Zeneta ad I went to dinner with just the two of us. We went to a place that we often eat and Zeneta enjoys playing with the cat at the restaurant. She has wanted a picture of the cat for some time.
Before we went to dinner, I had finished playing, "Star Trek: Generations," for the assembled students. In a word, they hated it. I have tried other Star trek along with other Sci-fi with them. They simply do not like it. They liked Star Wars (of course I did not bring that with me); however, as everyone knows, Star Wars is technically not Sci-fi, it is classed as a space opera.
I just find it interesting that they do not like it at all. One thing I think is very off-putting is that there is a lot of plot jumps. Anyone who has seen this, and many other Sci-fi movies, is aware of what I mean by plot jumps. These movies, and others, like Serenity, also suffer from being part of an evolving story. It is interesting to see how these movies fail to work with people that have not been raised with this, evolving, story around them. Even people, in the west, who are not fans of Star Trek series have a basic understanding of the story and have seen the terms introduced into everyday life.
I have pretty well written off Star Trek for showing to the students for the rest of the semester. I am hoping that when Zeneta returns to the states that she will send me some acceptable movies. They seem to really like modern films (As defined by a characteristic film and direction style, very simply, the quality of the recording medium has improved in the past thirty years and films older than about fifteen years, just plain, look old. There has also been a change in the style of directing. People no longer talk to the camera; this can be attributed to improved audio post processing. There is also the fact that modern sound stage work looks… well, less like something that was shot on a sound stage).
They also like complete stories. They dislike stories that assume that the watcher has seen a previous movie or read a book; because, it is unlikely that they saw the previous movie or series, and they probably did not read the book.
They do not mind if it takes several films to tell the story. They liked the completeness of Lord of the Rings and are loving the Harry Potter movies. As I mentioned earlier, light romance goes over well. "Fifty-first dates," was very well received. Another movie that I showed, "Ice Princess," was greatly enjoyed. I can safely say that, "Ice Princess," contained all of the elements that they prize. It had very good quality film and lighting, it had popular music, it featured pretty girls, It had the classic mothers expectations verses the daughters desires plot conflict, it had a very light but nice romance; and above all, it was G rated.
It is necessary to remember that my observations are being biased by where I am. For those who are not clear on the point, this is essentially a girls college with a male / female ratio of one to five or six, if there are even that many males. It is also very conservative in regards to dress and decorum. There is tremendous concern for avoiding, even, the appearances of impropriety. Quite simply, it fits the stereotype of a catholic women's college, if the catholic women acted like they are supposed to and sometimes portrayed, as a matter of practice and choice.
Thursday English club was canceled. This was due to the cold. With there being no heat in the college there was just no way that the students wanted to go out in the cold for a club meeting.
When I found out about this I invited some students at the last minute. The class, early in the evening, was not particularly well attended; I was told that this was due to the cold. However, one of the students who was not in class, reportedly trying to stay warm in her dorm room, managed to make it to dinner; which I teased her about.
In a classic state of misdirection, I gave the students instructions to meet me at a particular gate. They took me to have meant the gate by the hospital and were waiting for me there. I, of course was at the gate before that one. As a result, we were all standing outside for about twenty minutes waiting in 0c degree weather waiting for the other to arrive. They phoned Zeneta and me and I walked down the hill to the gate that they were at, met them, and then we walked back up the hill for dinner.
We had dinner at the same establishment that I mentioned on Tuesday. However, there are really two restaurants in this particular establishment and so we were able to secure a private dining room. I felt a bit silly when I asked for something that was not on the menu so one of my students (Kelly) left. After Kelly was gone I discovered that she had gone to another restaurant to have them make what I wanted and brought it back for me. I like it and definitely thanked her, this is normal in China, and it is very different than America.
Saturday was another shopping day (what! Did Robert just skip Friday… yep, pretty much). I did some of my usual Christmas shopping (you know… that looks nice, I'll take ten). There are a lot of Christmas trees in town and red Christmas caps being worn.
We went with three other students and spent a fair amount of time in the electronics mall looking for a toy for Zeneta. She has now opened one of her Christmas presents a bit early.
We then walked to KFC for lunch. We now seldom eat at KFC, by local standard it is quite expensive and we have found a lot of local food that we like. However, this was not a usual day and we decided to splurge a bit. I think that the students who were with us enjoyed it.
After lunch, instead of taking the bus back to the school we walked to the river, crossed it and walked along a nearly empty street that runs next to the river and crossed to the side that the university is on at the next bridge. While crossing this bridge we saw a group of fishermen on their boats. What was interesting was how they were fishing. It is a form of falconry. They went out with a large number of birds, similar to kingfishers, and had the birds catch and bring them the fish.
We then returned to our flat and spent several hours trying to send the pictures that we had taken during the day to the students email. It turns out that the problem we were having was widespread yesterday and today I was able to send the pictures with a minimum of fuss.
We then went to dinner, hosted by one of the students, and while we waited we shot some pool. As you can see, the tables are simply lined up along the alleyway and are seldom level. Zeneta took a picture, inside of the restaurant, of some of the wiring. It you let things like this bother you, you won't last a day in China.
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