Modes
2019/12/10
Once I pulled the trigger on a trip to Vietnam so many questions had to be answered. Where in Vietnam am I going to go? Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi? Where will i stay? How will I get there? What will I eat? How many bags can I take?
I saw that there are a lot of fully supported bike tours to many of the most popular places. This sounded good. Bike, lodging and meals included. The photos and the videos of the trip were very enticing. The tours of the Mekong River valley sound wonderful. A fully supported tour from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh in Cambodia seemed really cool. As I read the details the distances cycled didn’t jive with distances on the map. How could a distance of almost 300 km be covered in 3 or 4 days of 30 km of cycling? Then it hit me! The tour was giving fast forwards on buses from one nice cycling place to the next. None of the un-pretty, unpleasant places in between. Truly a gentleman’s journey. Not for me. I don’t think anyone has ever accused me of doing things the easy way.
Suginami Green
Well, if I’m not going to go on a bike provided tour what will I do? I still want to cycle. Could I take my bicycle with me? Surely Mad Max, the Surly Blue Beast, is too big to get on an airplane without paying more than the airplane ticket. But maybe a folding bike or a mini-velo could be arranged.
Back in July I bought a used folding bike. After a week I sold it. It didn’t fit me well and was uncomfortable to ride. In early November, my friend, Mario, and I went to Cycle Mode where I saw a Brompton. Brompton bicycles are the BMW luxury sedans of folding bikes with a price to match. Of course, I wanted one with all the bells and whistles. You know, power windows, anti-locking brakes, 4 wheel drive, mag wheels, and two cup holders. Sigh, one can dream.
I took a morning off to line up for Suginami Green. This is a one-weekend-a-month garage sale of impounded bicycles. There will be more about this in an upcoming post.
You never know what you are going to find at Suginami Green. I went with a notion to take another shot at finding a good folding bike or maybe a mini-velo. I had two purposes in mind. The long term purpose was to find a mobile bike to used for part of my commute to my new job. The other purpose was to find a bike I could take on an airplane as checked baggage.
Mini-Velo
I lined up at Suginami Green bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with a quiver of hope in my heart. When they opened the gate and the small mob streamed into the impound yard I was at the head of the pack. I new exactly where to go. There, parked next to a handful of overweight folding bikes was a pretty blue mini-velo. At this point you are probably saying to your screen in an irritated voice, “Paul, you keep yammering on about a mini-velo but what in the name of sam hill is a mini-velo?”. Well, I’ll tell you. A mini-velo is what you get when you accidentally put your full sized road bike in the washing machine. Everything shrinks down, especially the wheels. I know that is physically impossible but bear with me for just a few more sentences. A mini-velo has a frame like a road bike and gearing like a road bike only smaller with smaller wheels. We are talking 20 inches instead of 26 or 28 inches. The seat post and handlebars are often longer so a full grown human being can ride it. You probably think that’s ridiculous or call it a kids bike. Well it is a little ridiculous looking and it would make a good gateway bicycle to hook kids on road cycling. But, as bicycles go, they are kind of cute.
Anyway, when I saw it shining their in the Suginami morning sun I could hear it calling my name and begging me to take it for a ride in Vietnam.
I have been commuting on it to work the last couple of weeks to get used to riding it and to make sure it can go the distance. It definitely feels different from Mad Max, my full-sized road warrior, and I won’t be charging up any mountains on it but it’s a great little bike. I think it will hold its own on the relatively flat roads along the Mekong River.
As is my tradition I christen all my bicycles with a name. I was struck by a lightning bolt of creativity and named it…wait for it…are you ready for it? Mini-V! All right, not the most creative name but it fits. Really…fits.
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