June 22, 2023
Shakedown Ride 2
Reverse Direction
There's something to be said about eating barbeque and drinking beer outside on a hot pre-summer night. It's memories like these that are the lead up to even better things to come.
Trying to plan things way in advance, I was on the phone in the morning with the bank in Canada. The plan there is to eventually dump another whole life insurance policy. Long story, but some great progress was made on getting started.
Then it was a long session of marking all the remaining exam papers. Finally after all that, we went for a delicious buffet breakfast at the hotel.
Next it was packing up and doing checkout procedures which went remarkably smoothly. I simply reversed the order of how things were unpacked in the hotel last night and followed my own system flawlessly.
Then I asked a simple question: why wasn't all this done many years ago? It could have saved a shit ton of trouble and stress not to mention money. This seemed to offer more proof that my minimalist approach goes far beyond just taking as little as possible with you. There are many other wider and far reaching benefits such as the economic gains, not to mention mental health. I feel this was just beginning to scratch the surface.
Once outside the hotel, the bike was unlocked and a few tweaks were made to the panniers, phone case, and water bottle holders. It was a good improvement from yesterday and made the riding even better.
It wasn't long before the same 7/11 from yesterday materialized. This time the goal was to spend the remains of a cash food allowance the school had given me. But everything had to be in denominations of 5RMB and 10RMB notes to avoid any change clutter. I managed this by buying hot milk and sports drinks.
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There was hardly any traffic coming back into the city this time as many people were still trying to leave in the opposite direction. It didn't take long until I was re-absorbed into the concrete jungle.
The best part about this was testing out the pannier arrangements as well as the hotel packing and unpacking system. It only takes a few extra minutes to do it properly and there is no rush. The savings are enormous.
Some overall reflections and feedback on the shakedown rides:
1. Backpack or no backpack? The advantage is that the computer and valuables are directly on my person as opposed to inside the panniers. It would protect better against theft perhaps. On the other hand it is very awkward to ride with a backpack. Still need to figure this one out.
2. The panniers have a lot more room than I imagined. This isn't an excuse to load more things in them, but still I was greatly surprised by the carrying volume.
3. The Canada/US phone doesn't work very well with Chinese mobile networks, even if I connect it to a hotspot from the Chinese phone and/or use a VPN. It makes navigation impossible so I have to rely on Chinese maps or my own mental GPS. This however won't be an issue overseas so I'm not too worried about it.
4. Wireless earphones and music selection would be a major asset on rides like this. Will try to set that up.
5. The lock carrying holder needs to be fixed as it's awkward to carry a lock in my luggage.
6. The phone holder case is ideal, keep that.
7. The water bottle holder isn't very effective, scrap that, it's better to just put water bottles in the panniers
8. The hotel check in and out procedure was flawless, this is something to be rehearsed and practiced again, and again, and again.
9. There was a surprising amount of healthy food to be found at the 7/11. With practice, this can always be repeated. Another thing to look into is flavored packets for the water and/or electrolytes.
10. The Garmin GPS worked perfectly and connected well with Strava. Definitely keep this going forward.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 213 km (132 miles)
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