I was the original hipster. I rode a fixed gear, with freewheeling, the only kind I knew for the longest time. It wasn't until much later did I realize that there were actually bikes that could change gears and can cost over $100. Surprise!
My father taught me how to ride. I was 8 or 9 years old, in the football field. The only protective gear I wore was a pair of Chelsea boots my mom got from god know where. My father gave me a push and some words wisdom--like brake the back wheel not the front. The next thing I knew I was in a ditch next to the football field. We repeated this a few times until I was able to stay away from the ditch. It was such an accomplishment that I didn't kill myself, bruises and cuts sure. The worst accident shortly after I learned how to ride was I ran into a pregnant woman. She was all right, more worried about me than herself. Why didn't I brake? Perhaps I used the back brake like my Dad had told me? Blame it on Dad. Actually I just read that front braking with the proper technique is the way to go but I always thought braking front would throw one off over the handle bar.
I remember I rode to primary school. My friends (cool hipsters as well and like me totally oblivious they were hipsters) and I would just do some crazy stunts nonchalantly before school, during recess and after school, like dropping down a slope and coming back up sideways, hopefully; or tried to knock each other down using the back wheel or simply ran at each other. Back then wearing a helmet bicycling was unheard of and probably a laughable idea. After school and before dinner I would ride to pick up my sisters from the main roadway when they came back from work and ferried them home in the backseat, one at a time. When I was waiting for their buses, I would just do some "fish tailing"--braking the rear wheel while turning. I enjoyed that.
Fast forward to middle school. The original hipsters still rode their bikes on and off. My parents had promised me a new bike when I got to middle school. I think they tried to talk me out of it, monetary or otherwise, but in the end they relented. I rode my bike to school like so many other kids. I don't think we did stunts any more not regularly like we were in primary school anyway.
At post secondary school, I moved out only returned home in the weekends. Me and my flatmates would ride for fun. I don't quite remember how we got our bikes. Back then bikes were just bikes: utilitarian and proletarian or I didn't know better. Nowadays bikes are works of art and objects of desire that can cost a small fortune. They were just regular bikes but I remember I rode it down some concrete stoop with three or four steps as if it was a small BMX. And one time I rode it when the brakes were not working. I think I deliberately crashed it in the underground pedestrian tunnel going down slope and making a turn. The wheel was all banged up. I had to push the bike back home.
My affair with the bike effectively ended when I moved to New York. Bicycling is an acquired and non perishable skill. Maybe I will start biking again, minus the crazy stunts.
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I am close to the shool and never got a chance to ride everyday. Biking is just for fun.
ReplyDeleteWe bought one for our use at HK$400 something in Shatin. Perhaps we borrowed another from schoolmates living nearby or neighbours. I remember sometimes we could do biking together, somehow. One time we went cycling in some would-be building sites, all full of mud and puddles. At the time I liked to injure myself doing difficult stunts and regarded abrasions and lacerations on my body as marks of bravery and honour.
ReplyDeleteYou lucky bastard. You got your own bike, a new one, even when you're a secondary school student. The one we bought in Shatin was my first bike. I think I owned part of it at least. Those days, most bikes available in Hong Kong were made in Taiwan. I learned to ride a bike with success when I was a primary school student and perhaps mastered it in Shatin when we went riding all the time after school.
Biking was and remains my life-long passion and that fire in me never dies out. It was and still is the very single sport I love to do most. I would've been a much healthier person if only I had had the chance to ride a bike every day. I bought my second bicycle in Tuen Mun immediately when I could afford one after becoming a court interpreter. Sadly not so long after I rode it all the way home to Tsing Yi, it's Shimano rear derailleur mechanism was stolen when it was parked outside our small flat, still securely chained to a thick water pipe and ultimately confiscated by the housing authority for illegal parking. It cost HK$600-plus at the then 屯門八百伴百貨公司 close to the Tuen Mun Law Courts.
I acquired my third bike last year. It's ordered from Wiggle UK on the Internet and shipped all the way to HK from the UK. The Raleigh Bicycle Company was a household name in Britain. Founded in 1887 it is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world. It's a stylish, light and sturdy road bike. At HK$5,500 or thereabouts, the Raleigh Airlite 300 Tiagra 2012 51cm White/Red was a bit too expensive for my liking. In fact it was much cheaper than similar bikes on offer at bike stores in Hong Kong even if shipment cost was taken into account.
Sadly I still don't have much place to ride my bike if I do not ride on roads or motorways. The talk and plan of linking up all the bike routes of the New Territories has run into a wall and will not be realized any time soon. You know how busy roads in HK are. When I rode around Tsing Yi Island in my second bike one time, I was almost caught or hit by the unloaded 40-foot trailer's rear right corner of a container lorry when it was speeding past me. I dared not tell my mom about that close call of mine lest she should throw that bike away before I knew it. As you said, it's considered uncool to wear a helmet in those days.
Your memory is not bad. I just checked my diary We bot that bike in January 17, the same year we graduated, for hkd 432,
ReplyDeleteI don't remember when and how much we paid for it. I remember a few incidents though, riding down the concrete stairs as if it's a mountain bike, riding it brakeless as if it's a track bike and crashing it, riding it without a seat--that I think it's Sid's specialty? Eh?
ReplyDeleteI don't remember riding our bike without a seat but I took it as your complement and gladly accept it.
ReplyDelete