End of an Era... The passing of the Solar 2000|下一個時代就開始，我的單車就去世！

Although I wasn't doing as many bicycling blogs recently,  I had still been doing a lot of biking on weekends this past year.   

As you may know, I bought my bicycle in September 2006 when I first moved to HK.  The first year I used it to commute to work at the University from my house in Ma On Shan.  After I moved to Hung Hom (and eventually HK Island), my bike stayed in the countryside of HK, where I would ride it from train station to train station all over the place.  Literally all over the New Territories, from Yuen Long to Sha Tau Kok to Tuen Mun...    over the course of four years.

Here's a pic when I first bought it... before they put the pedals on.   Its some generic chinese brand called 'Solar' that are popular here.  this was the "2000" model.

Two years after that, while parked in Taipo,  my bike was savagely ripped off (as documented in this blog).  It cost me almost 2/3 the original cost of the bike to replace all the missing stuff. :-(

Two more years went by with no problems... even sometimes leaving my bike illegally locked under an overpass or on a railing for weeks at a time!  ...until last month.  

On a Sunday afternoon I went to go riding and found my bike was not where I left it.  Not just my bike was gone, but all  the other bikes parked (illegally) on this section of railing were gone.  I figured the police must have confiscated them all...   doh!  I don't even know where I'd go to claim it,  if they'd keep it or how i'd prove it was mine (or if I did claim it,  would I want to admit " yes, the one with all those alivenotdead.com stickers on it is mine.... yes, just like the stickers that (someone besides me) puts all over the city! that's my bike!")

Anyway,  I didn't have any time for biking during the promotion of Legend Fighting Championship 2 (7 day work weeks RULE!)   but last weekend the weather was too good to deny, so I went to my friendly neighborhood bike shop and picked out a replacement....

Here it is getting prepped...

I present to you... the Solar 2200!!!    For some reason bicycle prices have gone up a lot in the last four years...    this one cost me significantly more than the "2000" even though its functionally not really much different (just a cooler frame design).  

This time I locked it in a legal bike parking spot to be safe!  Hopefully its still there when I go back this weekend.... :-P