Crazy Sunday Part Two: New Bikes

Preface: relevant background

Since adopting the bicycle that I found under the stairs of the neighboring apartment, I have continued to have several problems with it... First I replace the tires, then I replaced the seat, then the chain kept falling off. For a while it was falling off every time I rode it, I would fix it and then ride cautiously and pray that it would not fall off again. Finally one time when it came off, the chain snapped and came apart. So,,,, I had to go get the chain fixed... Then the peddle broke, I had it replaced, a week later, it broke again, I had it replaced... Finally when I thought I had everything in order, the chain started having problems... Needless to say, I have become quite sick of it... 

Since arriving, I have been going through withdrawal from not riding my motorcycle. Furthermore, I have been fascinated by the electric bicycles that many people are riding around. I thought, wow It would be cool to get one of those. In the back of my head for the last month or so, the desire to get an E-bike has been slowly growing! After discussing my desire to get an E-bike with Tim, he said "Heck Yes! Lets Do it!" so we did!

Crazy Sunday continued:

We left the hotel and jumped in another cab and headed to the new campus to meet with a friend of mine (Aaron), who had told me that he would help me buy an E-bike if I wanted to get one... After finding him we jumped on a bus and went to another part of the city where there is a street with about 10 E-bike shops right in a row... We did some shopping and found some bikes that we liked. Aaron was sure that he would be able to bargain the price down a little bit, but we would have to go through a little bit of theatrics first... We had to pretend that we were not interested and we had to pit two neighboring shops against each other.. After it was all said and done Aaron cut the price from 2200 RMB to 1800 (280 US) a savings of about 20%

Let me tell you... these things are cool! it is about the same size and style as a small bicycle, but in addition to peddles, it also has a battery. On battery power only, the bike can do a max speed of about 30 mph and go a range of about 25 miles on one charge!!!! it is easy to remove the battery and bring it in for charging or to simply plug it in while it is on the bike. --- It sure is a fun and convenient way to travel around the city. Since getting the bike, I have been riding around the city a bit more and checking things out... My only regret is that I did not get this baby the moment that I got here and that I waited 2 months before giving in to my desires!