Want to talk about the bike I saw (so cool) somewhere where there will
be people who will read about who will care about the coolness of the
bike I saw. Already posted about it to my journal but, for the most
part, the friends reading that aren't bike people and the only
understanding they will have of the coolness of the bike I saw is that
I think it is cool and am pleased with having seen it.
So, since this is yet another internet bar that hates the
crazyguyonabike website and won't let me load it I'm posting here.
Today, about 10 or 15km outside of Hai Duong on the road to Hanoi I saw
the nicest bike I've seen since I came to Vietnam. One of the nicest
bikes (for certain values of nice) that I've seen since coming to Asia.
Though that statement is fret with error since I didn't really
sufficiently care about bikes enough that I'd be able to accurately
gage the niceness of various bikes until quite recently. Let's call it
one the nicest bikes I've seen since September (which, for the accuracy
minded is the most recent time I came to Asia).
Even with recently seen bikes in Haikou including Arrigo's Bianchi with
components he picked up when he lived in Singapore, I'm still willing
to say this is one of the nicest bikes I've seen.
1970s(?) Japanese race bike -- Fuji Olympic -- 18 speed (3 x 6), quick
release wheels, high enough end components that I bothered to write
down that it was a Sugino crankset, Suntour shifters, a Nitto stem, Dia
Compe brakes, etcetera (don't have my notes with me right now). Lugged
steel frame that felt like it managed to be only slightly heavier than
my aluminum bike is unloaded. (Hard to tell, I could pick it up one
handed but I didn't have my bike unloaded to really compare weight.)
Absolutely beautiful.
In a looking past the ungreased chain, the missing brake hoods, and the
places where the chrome had lost its shinyness sort of beautiful. I
was totally into old and battered antique things that needed work long
before I was into bikes.
Being ridden as a Vietnamese-style tandem. I've heard the terms stoker
and steerer used when describing the front and rear positions on a
tandem. This bike literally had a stoker and a steerer. One boy to
pedal. One boy sitting sidesaddle across the top bar controlling the
steering and brakes.
Speaking of the brakes, despite the bike being 70s or 80s it didn't
have the nasty interrupter levers across the front bar. However, it
also didn't have brake hoods anymore or much of the tape left and
whichever boy was steering tended to go down on the drops to use the
brakes.
They, and two other friends on an upright bike were also going to
Hanoi. With more than 50km still to go.
I'm slightly more impressed by the strength of the boy on that bike
since, not only was he riding a heavier bike, his girlfriend (on the
rack) wasn't swapping off with him nearly as often as the boys on the
race bike and he didn't have the pedals (which somehow manage to allow
two sets of feet to use one set of pedals) I've seen on the other
Vietnamese-style "tandems" I've seen a few times on this trip. I'm not
unimpressed by the boys on the road bike I'm just more impressed by the
other boy.
I rode with them. My odometer says I did about 14kph which, since I
was wiggling back and forth, waiting at the tops of hill like objects,
and had already put most of an hour on it at around 20-22kph means they
were going a lot slower than that. Only one of the boys spoke even the
tiniest bit of English but it wasn't really necessary to do much
talking. Just a lot of pointing at things, smiling, and stuff like
that.
Frequent repetitions of the word "Hanoi." Usually when pointing at
milemarkers.
I paid for lunch. They paid for the tea. And the sweet sesame candy.
And the fried banana pastry.
The trip would have been a lot more boring, and a lot less tasty
without them. People who speak the language do a much better job of
ordering food. The scenery and weather left a lot to be desired. It
takes a special kind of boredom to notice that the street signs with
icons intended to mean things such as "no trucks," "pedestrians ahead,"
"school zone ahead," "bike lane," "cow lane" and so on are not
identical. It takes a really special kind of boredom to notice how
non-identical they are. It takes an extra special kind of boredom to
remember which street signs you photographed. (I don't think I got any
of the ones where the pedestrian is wearing a bowler hat, but I did get
one horse cart where the driver has a pointed straw hat.) This is the
point I was at when I met them.
Unfortunately, almost all the way into Hanoi proper, on the railroad
bridge, nearing the very end, I was riding near the back and my jacket
(but much more importantly my stuffed toy monkey) fell of the rack and
they didn't notice that I'd stopped. So I lost my four new friends
without managing to get contact info or the chance to make a serious
offer of "hey kid how much do you want for the bike?" cause y'know if I
made my panniers into carry-on luggage I could probably get two bikes
into my checked luggage .... ....
..... .... come to think of it, it's probably a good thing I lost them.
-M