Local suburb ride

Today we went for another quick ride around our local suburb. Up the hill, down, along, and down some more, to the bottom of the suburb to our local café, a leisurely lunch, and back up the hill home. Nothing spectacular, just 10 km, and no photos this time.

What made it special was being approached by some people when we stopped at the local supermarket. They were interested in our e-bikes. “That’s the cheating way to go, isn’t it?”, said he, but not unkindly. Our standard response is “Oh no, you still have to do the pedalling! It just takes the edge off those hills”, with a sweep of the hand at the hills all around us.

Jim told us that he had a folding bike too, and that he thought that an e-bike would probably be in his near future too. Anne, on the other hand, prefers to walk.

John is always ready to hand out a little card with his website and my blog address on it. We talked a bit about our rides, and I suggested that if he was interested in a “convivial ride”, he might like to join the next Folding Goldies ride, which will be on 4 June. It will be taking the train to Trentham, biking down the Hutt River trail, and continuing on to Days Bay for lunch, then taking a ferry ride back to Wellington. 

I love it when we get to talk to people about our bikes and our rides, and our blog and website. So if you see us on one of our bike rides, do come and talk to us.

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I was thrilled last week, when I received a comment on one of my blog posts from someone in the Philippines, who had discovered my blog, and who, on the strength of our adventures and John’s technical write-up, was inspired to buy folding Giant Expressways like ours for himself and his wife. So inspired were they, that they are planning to take their bikes to Taiwan for a cycling tour later this year. 

I was especially interested in furthering contact with this couple because I spent two years in Manila during my late teens, and my invitation for him to contact me by email resulted in a great response. I wish them all the best, and look forward to hearing all about their cycling in the Philippines, and in Taiwan later on.