It is interesting that in a country that one associates with bicycle riding that the bicycles are of such, generally, low quality. I am converting all of the prices to USD for the readers’ convenience; however, remember that all prices paid are in RMB. The current exchange rate is apx. 7.87 RMB to 1 USD and a experienced college teacher makes between 1,700 ($216) and 1,500 ($191) RMB/month.

At this point, I have purchased three bicycles. For Zeneta (my wife) I purchased a generic Chinese bicycle. Comparatively, it is of better than the common grade; however, it was still rather inexpensive. I did not expect her to ride often, her only real use is when others are going somewhere on bicycles and she does not want to be left out. Note the pinned on crank arm and the poor quality of the welding. The top tube was not centered to the seat tube when it was welded. These types of welding flaws are common, even though I did not notice it when I was purchasing the bicycle. We still have this bicycle and it is used by Zeneta at times; it is also used as a loner for times that I go somewhere with a student, and I have used it as a spare for when my bicycle has been out of service. The drum brake is very common on the single speeds here in China. Her bicycle cost about 20.33 USD.

The bike

showing the poor welding (at least some of it). This quality of workmanship is pretty much the standard.



At the same time I purchased a single speed for my use, a pigeon. My uses are much harder on the bicycle than Zeneta’s. I intended to ride the bicycle, daily, to work. This ride involves several steep hills where nearly everyone dismounts and walks. The general welding was a bit better. It was made out of thin wall steel, which lightened it by quite a bit. There were differences on the bottom bracket and other small parts. In general, it appeared to be a better bicycle and, I liked the way it looked. The problem I discovered was that the chain line was off. This was not noticeable when I purchased it initially because a guard covered the chain; however, this resulted in the chain breaking when it was under heavy load. I ended up selling this bicycle to Colin (another teacher) when his was stolen. It initially cost me 33.03 USD.

The bike is the front one in the row

The chain line, I am not so sure it shows in the picture. However, it is off by about 1-2 cm

The result of a bad chain line