When I first moved to Da Nang i decided to carry on the tradition that I had established in Chiang Mai, Thailand and that was to get around town mostly by cycling. The reason for this is simple really: You get some exercise and end up at the same place that you would normally be paying for a taxi to get to. Also, if you do have a few too many, there is only so much damage that you can cause to yourself or others on one.
Bikes don't need to be expensive and I am not the kind of jagoff that would be at all concerned about having a $6000 bike just so it can weith 5kg like they use in the Tour de France. When I see people on bikes like that I kind of roll my eyes because really, you don't need that.
Here is a photo of the bike that I am going to go and pick up this afternoon.
This will be the first fixed gear bike that I have had in many years. This was something I would shy away from if it wasn't for the fact that almost all of Da Nang is dead flat since we are at sea level. The mountainous areas are extremely steep and I managed to make it over them just one time when I had an 18 gear bike and it was not a process I intended to do again. I used my old bike like a madman and I would meet everywhere by bicycle. It's quite hot here so I would almost always bring a backpack that had another shirt in it to change into rather than be a sweaty disgusting mess when meeting friends for dinner. It was really unfortunate one day when I walked out of my condo and it had been stolen.
I will admit that one of the main reasons why I bought this bike was specifically because it was manufactured by a company called "Twitter." I don't use actually online Twitter because I don't like wasting time but this bike was very good to me. It wasn't a top end bike by any means and it would frequently piss me off with the gears getting a bit out of whack and changing on their own or simply refusing to change at times. That's what you get for spending just $150 on a brand new bike I guess. I also didn't need the big boi tires on it either since there sadly is not a great deal of off roading to be done here in Da Nang because everything is covered in cement. So therefore the smaller wheels on the new one will be more appropriate.
The best bike I have had in the past 20 years was the one I had in Chiang Mai
This bike is what they call a "hybrid" in that the tires could handle off road situations but they were slimmer than mountain bike tires so you could get higher speeds on it. Believe it or not, that Nadi basket on the back there is NOT a professional accessory but is a laundry basket that I attached to the rack with about 127 cable ties. That is where my shopping or even better, my dog would be put when I cruised around town. I loved that bike and technically I still own it but I had to leave it behind because I was not going to pay the cost of moving it to another country. I paid around $200 for that bike and I used it daily.
Since I have become a bit more health conscious as of late, this might be exactly what it is that I need in my life because I genuinely enjoy riding a bicycle even though the streets here can and should be considered chaos by most western standards. The trick is to find a car and use it as a shield if you are ever at an intersection. They also sell horns for bicycles, which I initially found amusing but it is actually extremely necessary in this country.
So I am off to go and buy the TXED or whatever the hell that thing is called in the top picture in just a few minutes. I'm taking a taxi to pick it up and will ride it back home. Unlike my last situation with a bicycle, I am not going to be just leaving it unlocked outside my condo because I plan on actually keeping this one this time. No more stealing from me!