An S40 in China. Loving the bike :)

[Roger Underhill]

I made a basic video of riding my S40 in Shenzhen, China. It's my first recumbent and I'm really enjoying it. I'm pretty happy about that as it was a leap of faith! It's a basic edit on a cheap action cam but I've added some explanatory captions throughout. And there's a quite a variety of paths and situations in the video. I hope it is of some interest to you all.

I plan to write a more detailed review of the S40 as I had several reservations prior to purchase but none of them actually proved to be a problem. So that was really nice. It's really a rather enjoyable and versatile bike. There's a little bit of offroad/gravel at the very end and certainly the bike is not a limiting factor in any way

 

[Trekster]

Thank you very much for the video. Very informative, for one who is considering an S40. I'm glad the area and trails that I ride are not near as congested as those you were riding on. For only your 4th ride, I think you were doing very well indeed; especially considering you had a lot of traffic to negotiate.

 

[Pollock]

Welcome to the tribe!

Great last name as well!

 

[Pollock]

You do have good control for only your 4th ride. A few wiggles, but nothing surprising. Keep at it!

 

[Roger Underhill]

You do have good control for only your 4th ride. A few wiggles, but nothing surprising. Keep at it!

Thx. I’m still a novice but I’ve ridden all my life and usually pick things up fairly quickly. My rides have been 30 to 40 km each time so I’ve had a fair bit of practice now. Getting ready to start hitting my old KOMs. It’s so much easier to ride at speed on a Cruzbike: I feel way more relaxed and can breathe deeply more easily. Very happ!

 

[Roger Underhill]

You do have good control for only your 4th ride. A few wiggles, but nothing surprising. Keep at it!

Thx. My greatest improvement came when I was comfortable enough to clip in and now being clipped in seems to be a necessity to ride ‘well’. It’s a lot of fun

 

[dtseng]

Xie xie for sharing the video. It looks like they have nice cycle paths in Shenzhen. Are those bikes painted yellow free for people to ride?
These bikes scatter all over the side walks and I don't see any place one can swipe the credit card.
It's really dangerous to cycle on the left side of a series of parked cars. Did that lady scold at you ?
Some one could suddenly open the door and the bike would hit the door.
Car drivers will not look backward. Therefore, cyclists should keep a good distance from the parked cars and don't go too high a speed when cycling in such precarious lane.

 

[paco1961]

Nice vid. I see pedestrians in China are just as clueless as they are in the US. Nice job maneuvering around them on just your 4th ride!

 

[jond]

Thanks. Very interesting to see modern China. See not looking is universal. All those dead bodies left there after cycling accidents lol. Really sleeping on the job on concrete. Next stop ...........

Apologies accepted. No roadie shall pass. Lol.

Great handling. Doubt I’d be any better.

So many bikes laying around. Enjoy the s40.

 

[jond]

Thx. I’m still a novice but I’ve ridden all my life and usually pick things up fairly quickly. My rides have been 30 to 40 km each time so I’ve had a fair bit of practice now. Getting ready to start hitting my old KOMs. It’s so much easier to ride at speed on a Cruzbike: I feel way more relaxed and can breathe deeply more easily. Very happ!

Exercise caution. Speed can bite. If you can ride regular tight figure eights. Resume pedalling after fast descents. Put your bike on a white line and have zero woh Nellie moments then roger go for it.

Your handling did look good to me especially the girl stepping out and low speed people sections.

Still at speed it’s different.

Your gravel was almost single track lol.

 

[DavidCH]

Very impressed and very adventurous. Don’t worry about that DF getting the better of you. Interesting to see modern day China. Thanks for posting and welcome!

 

[Roger Underhill]

Xie xie for sharing the video. It looks like they have nice cycle paths in Shenzhen. Are those bikes painted yellow free for people to ride?
These bikes scatter all over the side walks and I don't see any place one can swipe the credit card.
It's really dangerous to cycle on the left side of a series of parked cars. Did that lady scold at you ?
Some one could suddenly open the door and the bike would hit the door.
Car drivers will not look backward. Therefore, cyclists should keep a good distance from the parked cars and don't go too high a speed when cycling in such precarious lane.

All the rental bikes use an app to scan a QR code and pay. I’m not sure of the cost but it’s not expensive. They’re very popular but problematic as they are often randomly dumped!

 

[Roger Underhill]

Thanks. Very interesting to see modern China. See not looking is universal. All those dead bodies left there after cycling accidents lol. Really sleeping on the job on concrete. Next stop ...........

Apologies accepted. No roadie shall pass. Lol.

Great handling. Doubt I’d be any better.

So many bikes laying around. Enjoy the s40.

A lunch time nap is very common in China. I was still a bit surprised by it though

 

[Roger Underhill]

Exercise caution. Speed can bite. If you can ride regular tight figure eights. Resume pedalling after fast descents. Put your bike on a white line and have zero woh Nellie moments then roger go for it.

Your handling did look good to me especially the girl stepping out and low speed people sections.

Still at speed it’s different.

Your gravel was almost single track lol.

Thx. I surprised my self when the lady stepped out I’m still fairly cautious and keep reminding myself to stay in control and keep practicing a smooth peddling style without to much hand stabilisation through the bars. It’s coming along... it reminds me of the old kayaking days with the hand foot coordination required and very similar to climbing on my df anyway. If I get into any difficulty which isn’t too often now, I just coast for a while and get it back. Good fun

 

[Roger Underhill]

Very impressed and very adventurous. Don’t worry about that DF getting the better of you. Interesting to see modern day China. Thanks for posting and welcome!

If I’d wanted to stay with the df I could have but I’m still in the learning phase and stuck to ‘the plan’ - do my own thing... I just saw the humour in it and especially with all the bents passing df videos that are out there. Mine isn’t one of those! I’m just happy to be out on a Cruzbike and perhaps to share something of this country and culture. I don’t know of anyone doing cycling videos over here so I may try to do more and make them more informative and interesting. Let’s see.

 

[jond]

Thx. I surprised my self when the lady stepped out I’m still fairly cautious and keep reminding myself to stay in control and keep practicing a smooth peddling style without to much hand stabilisation through the bars. It’s coming along... it reminds me of the old kayaking days with the hand foot coordination required and very similar to climbing on my df anyway. If I get into any difficulty which isn’t too often now, I just coast for a while and get it back. Good fun

Yes the kayaking is a good analogy of cruzbike control.

Any new videos of your Chinese escapades will be greatly appreciated .

Great to see how others deal with the human condition in other countries and cultures. I was pleasantly surprised to see bright clean sunshine. Preconceived ideas of mine still from olympics and the ever reliant media beats.

 

[bladderhead]

Only your 4th go on the bike? Looks like you've been commuting on it for ages.

They have a huge problem with people abandoning the hire bikes. There are millions of them. Loads of hire companies started up really quickly. Local authorities collect them into huge piles, but they are running out of space. I think they are going to be banned.

In one bit of your video I saw a car parked on a zebra crossing. There was only just enough space for you to get through. Someone in a wheel chair would be blocked. Parking is a problem. The car is an antisocial device.

 

[Roger Underhill]

Only your 4th go on the bike? Looks like you've been commuting on it for ages.

They have a huge problem with people abandoning the hire bikes. There are millions of them. Loads of hire companies started up really quickly. Local authorities collect them into huge piles, but they are running out of space. I think they are going to be banned.

In one bit of your video I saw a car parked on a zebra crossing. There was only just enough space for you to get through. Someone in a wheel chair would be blocked. Parking is a problem. The car is an antisocial device.

The rental bike problem is much better than it was. It teaches us long-timers patience The car on the crossing was unusual and was not parked, just waiting for a barrier to open. I motioned for the driver to move forward and as I went round the back it did just that. So it was a civil encounter and exchange where I coached and the driver responded. I was ok with that... The wheelchair comment is a valid one and there are many disabled people in China. We have blind paving stones and dropped kerbs everywhere. But it’s very rare to see a disabled person. There’s something about attitudes here and I won’t try to explain it but we just don’t see them. I can’t expect to ride fast on the cycle lanes here and we have to be constantly vigilant of the ‘no rules’ brigade and that’s just part of life in China. Sometimes, I have to confess, I have become one of the ‘no rulers’ and it can be childishly satisfying to break a few rules *on occasion*.
When I’ve done some more on the video side you may get to see those who ride the wrong way on the road and that’s pretty normal here. So normal in fact that it is completely normal There’s so much to show... I can’t wait!

 

[Roger Underhill]

Yes the kayaking is a good analogy of cruzbike control.

Any new videos of your Chinese escapades will be greatly appreciated .

Great to see how others deal with the human condition in other countries and cultures. I was pleasantly surprised to see bright clean sunshine. Preconceived ideas of mine still from olympics and the ever reliant media beats.

I’ve been over here for a while and was living in Beijing at the time of the olympics. I loved the city but the pollution drove me away. We do have pollution in the south but really much much better than the north and mostly good. The industry is different here and we don’t have the coal fired city heating systems for the winter.

I’m certainly looking forward to creating more content. There are plenty of interesting things here for sure!

 

[Bentas]

Great vid, thanks for sharing, your skills are impressive at this early stage, just wondering what pedals you are using they look fairly user friendly .