Bike to Basics!

Photos taken from China Daily
Posted by China Daily (April 6th 2010)

"Next year, CHINA is going to become the cultural hub of fixed-gear biking," says Tyler Bowa (Founder of people's Bike), fully bearded but barely out of university. "When I moved here 12 months ago I couldn't find one shop selling these kinds of bikes (in Shanghai). Now there are six or seven. It's becoming much more affordable."

With China's increasingly fashionable and bike-friendly youth warming to the idea of new sports like "bike polo" and alleycat racing, Bowa predicts the number of riders nationwide will triple by next March, led by progenitors in Guangzhou who pick up trends from nearby Hong Kong.

Together with his business partner Karl Ke, Bowa organized Shanghai's first-ever alleycat race, in November, taking their cue from alleycat's China debut six months earlier in Beijing.
"What people soon realize about fixed-gear biking is that it's not just fashionable, fun to customize, a little bit edgy and dangerous, or even healthy," Bowa says.

More of this? Check China Daily!

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