Reservoir Ride

Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Reservoir Ride

From Robert C

It has been some tine since I have expanded this chronicle of my life in China. As many of you have read, I have visited Debra in Xian. I do not visit her there often as it is a four hour train ride for her and a twelve hour train ride for me. However, as all readers have gathered, I tend to take a night train and, after crawling into a bunk, sleep, pretty much, the entire trip.


The semester and I have made plans to stay another year. This leaves me with the summer, which scheduled itself surprisingly fast.


Debra informed me that my account of my trip to Shanghai was not as entertaining as my writing in the past. I do have to say that even I noticed this transgression. I know what went wrong. There were two things. First, I was using the Belkin Keyboard on the Toshiba Pocket PC. I have to say that it is not a very good keyboard. As all of you know, I am no typist; however, a bad keyboard just makes it worse. I was getting frustrated with all of the corrections that I was making.


So much for blaming a mechanical device for human failings (something I hate about Stephen Kings writing); the real reason is that a travelogue is best served cool. The best writing is not done while one is doing. First, the stories do not move smoothly and the days do mot fold into each other smoothly. The second is akin to the first; there are no stories, the account becomes just that, and account, or report, of events.

I have concluded that one should keep a journal and attempt to avoid the loss of details and facts. A great writer with a name that that I can not longer once gave an important bit of advice, “never let a fact get in the way of a good story.” This admonishment should be taken with temper and caution, it does not mean that one should be fast and loose with the facts and turn a story of something that did happen into a story of something that did not; however, one should not bog a story with such details that the story itself becomes lost in the telling.


Here we have the difference between a travelogue and a trip report. Either recount a journey or, as the name makes so clear, a trip. However, one appeals to the little account in many of us; the other, it speaks to the artist in our soul. (So much for the mindless drivel that you can find of any one of ten-thousand blogs, on with the show).


I see that the last thing I have mentioned is the local riding group. I have continued riding with them.

Rather funny, to me is that I have be delegated to the “fast” riding group. One thing that the fast group tends to do is to ride faster; however, they also ride further.
Almost immediately, I noticed the twenty kilometer rides stretching to thirty.

On one of the long training rides it was mentioned to me that they also go on long weekend rides. I was told that on that very weekend there was a 100kim ride planned. Of course, I agreed to go. I was told that all the information I needed would be found on the website which, of course, turned out to be in Chinese.

I was able to make enough sense to get a start time and on Saturday I was there. However, it was not a 100km ride. We only went 59 Km. However, most of it was off road and the destination was a seldom visited reservoir. The group consisted entirely of men and it was at a bit of a competitive pace.

While we rode hard the ride was enjoyable. We turned off the main roads rather early in the ride and continued through several small villages. I discovered quickly something that has continued to be a trend on these group rides. I am a front runner. I do not ever want to be in front simply because I do not know where we are going; however, I am not many places back. I find this interesting because of the popular idea of the Chinese as a bicycle riding culture and my knowledge of where I placed when I was racing (there is a good chance that when I return I will also return to racing, I am as healed up as I will ever be). Generally, on all the rides, I finish second.


After passing through these villages we turned off the roads to single track paths and continued ridding hard (I had to stop once because I got tangled with a rope that was attached to a goat). There is the normal resistance to being the first one to start walking (…yes, the walk of shame) and the times I ended op doing so were generally the result of a missed shift or someone in front to me stopping.


We finally reached the reservoir which prompted a photo moment (note that when I took the photo I did not realize that not all the straggles had rolled in) and a couple of the guys walked down to the water to splash it on them selves. This is something interesting; it was about 30-32c we had been pushing hard and no one got in the water. The Chinese do not swim. I have seen one person swim the whole time I have been here. While the poor water quality would be seen as part of the reason, the other is that they simply do not swim. The students have told me that it is very uncommon for a Chinese to know even the basics of swimming. As a result, even on this very hot day they just sat on the shore and splashed water over themselves.

We left on a slightly different route that also involved both single-track and narrow single lane roads. When we finally reached a highway (a different one than we had started on) we waited for the stragglers and the shop mechanic made any needed repairs. I was the last one for repairs, my headlight had vibrated loose and was flopping, and so I left the rest stop last. As luck would have it, a small, slow, truck passed me as I was starting a hill and I was able to draft (to use another vehicle to break the wind making it much easier to go faster) him and quickly dropped right back into second. In all, it was a good afternoon.

One thing that is making these rides hard for me is that I made the decision to get a touring bike. In its essence this bike is a compromise. It is not a high speed road bike, it is not a mountain bike, it is made for durability over long distances. As such, on the off road stretches I am at a bit of a disadvantage. However, the disadvantage is not as much as one would imagine. The gearing is still quite low and while the tires are 700s (700mm) instead of 26inch they are wider than some road tires and work pretty well off road. I would say that the biggest disadvantage is the weight. Because I am using only one bike, not a large stable of bikes, I have fenders and racks and plenty of other things on this bike. Also, due to the road focus, the frame is also larger than a mountain bike would be and for durability it is made of heaver materials. This all adds up to a heavier bike.

If I were starting out with the intent to stay a while I would have quickly built a stable of bikes (ah, the benefit of hind sight). First, I would want an electric bike (or a beater) for going to class and local trips. Second, a road bike for, you guessed it, road riding. I am not talking about shopping here, that is covered in the first category, I am talking about high speed trips around the lake and long trips on local roads. The third category to be filled is a mountain bike. These are all unique and distinct roles that cover not only basic transportation, but also recreational riding.