Traveling straight from China to Greece is very interesting. The most apparent change is the sound. China is loud. Horns always blaring, people on cell phones feel the need to shout to communicate. No place is taboo to engage in cell phone conversation – meetings, bathrooms, etc. Greece is the opposite – I am in Kilkis at the moment a small town of about 12 to 14 thousand. As I traveled to get here through the Vienna and Budapest (I may have to make a travel blog of all the places I have been and never left the airport) airports I noticed the sound was 20% of what it was in China.

Another huge difference from China is the food:

I could get fat here.

The view from my balcony just after sunset – is it Greece or the Palouse????

hell

There has been many movies made and books written on what would happen to the people condemned to hell – Now I am pretty sure it would be being reincarnated as a donkey in China>

Another day in China

I was in Guiyang China about a month ago at the same site I am at now. Between my temporary office and the production area (I walk this route several times a day) they started construction of a building. When I left last month it was pretty much just a large pit in the ground. When I returned this is what it looked like>



The tower is an elevator that is used to carry the concrete up the structure – 1 to 2 small wheel barrows at a time. The cables are wound around a spool powered by a little gas engine – runs the motor to raise – and lowers with a brake. The concrete is brought by this little contraption that puts out more pollution the 100 cars in the US with smog control>







Besides the 2 tools that I mentioned, everything else used on this project is human powered -



This is pretty typical in China. I have to admit, every time I visit I appreciate what we have at home – laws, government, etc. Although far from perfect – pretty good, relatively speaking.

Some bike content

My favorite bike is a 1998 Litespeed Owl Hollow – until now. Maybe. In 1998 I bought this bike – since then it has had 4 different forks, 3 complete build kits and a plethora of odd parts. Every part of this bike has broke – except for the frame. I have owned many bikes, but this one has been the best investment (if you can ever call a bike an investment) of them all. In the last 4 -5 years a few things have driven me nuts about this bike:

1. No disc brakes – since the design of this bike the trails and terrain we ride on have gotten harder and more technical (better) and technology has brought down the weight and price and raised performance, I believe they are a must for the way I ride – was able to correct this with a Specialized DB adapter, a small chunk or aluminum, and a whole bunch of filing. >

2. 2.0” rear tire MAX – 1.9 is best to keep from rubbing the stays. – pretty much the same reasons I gave for the brakes. However, I cannot just widen the stays.

3. It is built for a 3” travel fork – but I have a Pushed FOX that feels like more. But 5" of FOX travel would be nice.

About 2 months ago I had a standing search for a Litespeed Kitsuma on Ebay. - Litespeed made this bike in 2001 only, they had some left over and labeled them 2002. This is a very unique bike built around a 5” fork, 2.5”+ tires, disk brake only, freeride geometry (for the time, freeride now is 7” of travel and a 67 or slacker degree headtube), and weighs just under 4 pounds for the frame. So, fueled by a few beers, being edged on by my 13 year old son that may love riding more that anyone I have ever met, and the fact my wife was not around to stop this little party, when the auction came to an end – I became victorious - I think I have heard that somwhere before. Anyway, berfore this trip I had Chris at Wheelsport East start searching for a couple of parts for my new ride - a FOX 32 TALUS with a 15 mm axel - and a hand built wheel set with DT 420 rims (not sure of the spokes) and XTR hubs - would go with Kings, but I have had a set for nine years (now on my road bike) and I have just had enough of that "I'm getting chased by angry insects" sound any time I coast. - I will post some pics of the project when I return home.

Clean again

I finally got my luggage back from Air Canada after about 3 days – I was once told by a wise Chinese man (really!) that you can get 4 days out a set of under shorts – on the second day you turn them around, for the third and forth turn them inside out and repeat.

I passed by this meat stand in the morning on my way into work – I took this picture at about 3pm when I was coming back from getting my luggage from the airport – it was about 90 F outside – mmmmm.>

First post

Well this is my first blog entry – let’s see if I keep it up. I plan to mainly blog about cycling, probably my greatest passion. But there with be some other stuff as well – my kids, running, my travel – yada yada yada.
Right now I am writing from Guiyang China (where all of the cycling I have seen here is for necessity) >

I should be here until the end of the week then I am off to Thessaloniki Greece, for about two weeks (where maybe I can sneak a ride in) – then back to my family and bikes.