I enjoy getting around by bicycle. I own a scooter but I only drive it once a week to go to practice bowling sessions and honestly, it isn't necessary for that. I just feel the need to get it out of the garage at least once a week so that the battery doesn't go flat nor the tires. I really don't need it at all.
But the bicycle is more relaxed and as crazy as traffic is here in Vietnam, they are surprisingly accommodating of bicycles despite the fact that there are no bicycle lanes anywhere.
My recent purchase of a Marin bicycle was a mid-priced one, and at least to me it is a pretty quality machine and was worth the somewhat premium price.
This thing has 21 gears but I only ever use the 7 in the middle. When I was thinking about it, these bikes and all other bikes don't really have 21 gears, there are redundancies in there as you switch the various gears on the front and the back.
Recently I tackled the only really hilly terrain we have here in Da Nang and it goes out to a peninsula towards a tourist attraction called "Lady Buddha" that overlooks our bay here in town. The road leading up to it is kind of nice because unless you are going to the statue or one of the very few resorts that are down that way, there isn't much reason to head that way. This cuts down on the crazy traffic that exists everywhere and for the most part you don't need to be hyper-aware of all the cars around you because there is plenty of space for once.
This hill was a bit more than I was prepared for though and my heart rate monitor alarm went off 3 times while I was doing it.
Once I got up there though, it was nice and peaceful. My condo is somewhere in the distance with all the other high rises in the background.
There were very few people up here and this was kind of nice because while I love living in Da Nang, there are way too many people there for my liking and as I have mentioned many times in the past, getting any peace and quiet isn't easy to come by.
I kind of take care of myself physically but this hill climb kind of let me know that I am probably not in as good of shape as I would like to be. It was only a 300 meter elevation difference if that means anything to ya, but once you get to the last hill climb section there is only one more stop before the road ends. The above picture doesn't really do it justice as far as how difficult it was for me but that was because I didn't dare stop at the really steep bits out of fear that I wouldn't be able to get the necessary momentum to continue onward.
Since there is so little traffic out there and the roads are in really good shape, I really legged it on the ride back down and got to a speed of over 60km/hour. While this is probably child's play to someone that does a lot of cycling, to me it was exhilarating and also a bit frightening when I thought about what would happen to my body if I was to crash.
I'm not generally a huge risk taker as I have gotten older, especially not after that back problem scare that I had recently. All in all it was nearly a 30km round trip ride and I did stop for a breather every now and then. The entire trip from where I live, to the top, and back, took one hour and twenty minutes. According to Strava, this burned 800 calories which should help me out a bit with the excessive drinking I did over the past weekend.
My legs hurt a bit after this and honestly, it will probably be a while before I have a go at it again.
I think the Marin performed wonderfully on this little excursion though and there were no issues. The brakes in particular are wonderful and that is a good thing because if they hadn't been wonderful I probably would have flown off the side of the mountain into the sea.
If you ever find yourself in Da Nang and are the sporty type, this is a pretty good day out and I recommend it!