I finally got a small group of students to join me for a group ride. The plan had been to ride to Huaiyang, but having a plan B proved to be essential. Steve accompanied us on this ride and we found out upon leaving campus that the Zhoukou marathon being run this same morning effectively closed off the eastern part of the city to us. No one was getting across Zhoukou da dao even with […]

Sometimes we just need to protect people from themselves. Like when someone you’ve just met, say a 20 year old young man who plays basketball and runs, insists that accompanying you on your 100km ride is no problem. He really wants to come even though he doesn’t ride that much. About now warning bells and sirens are going off in my head, but what to do? Such was the case last Wednesday when “David” convinced […]

Last week, we asked BicycLincoln followers about their favorite gear. You clearly had winter riding on the brain, and rightly so – just look at Lincoln on Saturday, during our first snowfall: So, without further ado, here are your top picks for winter gear – plus a few more suggestions from BicycLincoln board members. TOOLS You don’t want to get stranded in winter. Pack a good multi-tool, a tube, some cash – and a cell phone. Reader favorite: PDW […]

It was brought to my attention recently that there are new friends of Bicyclincoln that don’t why this blog post appears every week. My name is Janine Copple and I am a Bicyclincoln board member living in China this year. I previously posted Trail Ramblings which was mainly about area trails in and around Lincoln. The cycling world is vast and diverse. We may do things differently and for different reasons but we all speak […]

I wasn’t expecting to have snow and cold weather before you all in Lincoln, but we got it anyway. We woke up to flurries Tuesday morning and it kept up all day. It didn’t dampen the spirits of the students, though. They were excited to see it and still packed the performing arts center to see who would be judged the best singer on campus that evening. Most of the 25,000 students live on a […]

I’ve been riding the spicy soup loop forward and backward this past week so I feel like I’m getting to know the area to the west better. I didn’t even get lost! Next up, more of the southeast sector. This last week was foggy and smoggy. I’ve never ridden in fog like I did yesterday. You might think that it would make people stay home, but no. There were cargo motos and scooters everywhere. Luckily, […]

There was no reverse spicy soup ride for me this week. Instead I managed to get quite lost above Huaiyang when I thought I was below it, so I got about the same mileage wandering around as I would have. It was cloudy so I lost my orientation and I couldn’t get my map to work, then I got bad directions. I just wish I’d known where I was at the time. Sunday I finally […]

First, the good part. Ding invited me to ride out to Xiaoyaozhen for spicy soup, a 100 km loop in a direction I hadn’t yet explored. His texts are understandable but spoken English not so much, as is the case with many who have studied English here from people who don’t really speak it. I try not to ask too many questions to keep the frustration level down. The route took us through orchard country […]

You’re a safe, savvy rider. You follow the rules of the road. You’re friendly and communicative. You choose less-busy routes when you can, and you ride predictably. You make it easy for drivers to see you. No doubt, the vast majority of other road users you encounter will be cooperative and even outright appreciative. You can’t change the fact that some drivers, no matter what you do, will be upset simply that you are on the road, and […]

It’s hard to believe it but I’m now familiar with many or most of the major routes in and around Zhoukou. I remember when I first arrived how confusing it seemed to go downtown or get anywhere in or out of the city. Taking a taxi ride I’d count the blocks and turns and look for landmarks in order to have an idea how to get back from where I was going. It didn’t help […]