The Family Car

When I arrived in China four years ago, I spent about 300rmb to purchase my first mode of transportation: a classic, turn-of-the-century, black cruiser, complete with a basket. Going into my fifth year, now, I still have the black beast, and it has seen its fair share of work. On more than a few occasions during my courtship of the future Mrs. Franks (Suli Fu), the heavy duty rack on the back acted as her personal seat. I, as her chauffeur, negotiated the bike-heavy streets of Kunming. I have also managed to go through about half a dozen new pedals and have had to either patch or change the rear inner tube at least twice as many times as I have had to change pedals. Even so, I have enjoyed my original ride, and I still enjoy it to this day.

About five months into my first year at Kunming International Academy, I finally took the time to get out and price a new mountain bike. During those first five months, a couple fellow teachers had regularly invited me to join them in the Western Hills to do some trail riding; because I had left a Specialized Stumpjumper back in Whitefish, MT, the urge to get into the hills surrounding Kunming really was quite tempting. So when I had finally saved up enough money to look at a bike just for trail riding, I pedaled the Black Beast to the local, quality bike shop and found beautiful, aluminum-framed bike, which I still ride into the hills each Saturday morning. It has seen a variety of roads (dirt and paved) and trails surrounding the city. Like its monochromatic predecessor, this candy-apple red and silver dirt-lover has had a few tire changes, along with some fixed spokes, and a few other part changes. The plan right now is to throw some slicks on the front and rear, and ride this bike in an 80km race around a lake within two hours of Kunming. That is set to happen on 30 October. I will make certain I take her to the bike shop and get her tuned up before pushing her in the race. Now, as most of you know, other than a couple off bicycles during my four, going on five, years in Kunming, I have also managed to picked up a wife (just one of those). In the summer of 2009, Suli and I got married. With my wife's two bicycles, a city bike and a mountain bike she got from a KIA teacher who moved back to the States, our bicycle family totaled four. Of course, when man and woman join in marriage, very few people actually care how many bicycles they own; what most people care about is whether or not the couple plans on having any children.
Strangely enough, this standard interest in progeny actually pertains to the previous discussion of bicycles. You see, my wife and I do plan on having children; in fact, in a matter of about three more months, we will be giving birth to our first child, a son. This means that we need to make arrangements to get three of us around town. Certainly, we could go out and find a child seat for the back of either of our bikes, but even then, our little boy would not be safe in it until he can hold up his own head. Therefore, we decided to look for our first "family car."
Just saying the "family car" reminds me of the Twiddlebugs from Sesame Street. Do you remember them? They were a group of small beetles that lived in a window planter-box. Their family car consisted of a large match box with buttons for wheels. As I recall, they ended up pushing their "car" to their family outing. Suli and my goal for our first family car is to not have to push it, except when we have to go up some hills. You see, our first car only has three wheels (san lun che) and has to be pedaled where ever we decide to go. Below is the Kunming branch of the Franks family and our new "family car." So essentially we now have three Franks and five Franks pedal-powered vehicles. Now my Sweetie Pie can ride in comfort, because too many of her Chinese friends could not believe, at eight months pregnant, that she was still riding her own bike around town.