My new bike
| 2 min read
While in China, I picked up a new bike to replace my (very disappointing) Vaast bike(s). I put about 240 miles on the bike in 5 days while in China, and have put another 60 miles on it since I got home yesterday!
The bike packed in it's bag, sitting in a hotel room at the Shanghai Airport
The bike is an S-Works Aethos and I absolutely adore it. It's unbelievably light, fast and comfortable. The difference between it and my previous Vaast R1 is night and day. I'm able to keep up with 24mph group rides without fatigue or pain.
I've named the new bike 流星 (Liúxīng), Chinese for Meteor. The name references the star like paint pattern on the otherwise black carbon frame.
In front of the Yellow River
While in China I joined a few group rides. I did a high intensity ride with the Specialized store club at Saihantala (Baotou's Inner City Grasslands park). I also did a number of longer distance rides to places like the Yellow River and the Kubuqi Desert.
At the edge of the Kubuqi desert
The desert ride was especially memorable, 115km through cities, grassland, freeway and desert. Although my Mandarin is terrible, I made close friends with everyone in the group!
I plan to take Liúxīng back with me to China every year going forward. There's no better way to truly group rides.