The colorful wolf

Take a look at this:

It's Chinese, and despite the fact that it looks like something you would use to construct a road with, it's actually quite delicious. It's sweet, but not too sweet, and the viscosity reminds of my childhood experiments with cocoa powder and water. I like it :D

So, I got a new bike ^^
It's small! I don't have pictures yet though, I will make some when the weather improves. I really want to try it, but it's been raining ever since I got it :X I went to Ebina today and I'm getting used to it, but it's quite a strange bike.

It's small. Way smaller than my bike in Holland. It's got 28 gears, and the gear change flipper thingies are very coolly hidden near the brake handles. There's 4 brake handles, 2 for front and 2 for rear, so you have many ways to position your hands on the steering wheel.

It's quite weird. The tires are quite thick. Thicker than a normal bike, since it has to carry a lot of weight because it's a touring bike. The front has a suspension system similar to a mountain bike. It's quite easy to take apart and put back together, which is useful since we have to take it to the south of Japan.

But the worst part so far is: it's completely and utterly impractical :( There's no stand to put it down on, so you have to lean the bike against something when you park it, like a wall or a tree. The steering wheel is quite small and doesn't actually have room for lights (which are of course not included), so I had to be creative and tape the front light I got from Kamil somewhere else. I'll try to make a proper fix for that later :O There's 4 bags included in the bike, since it's a touring bike, but I don't want them to get stolen, so I leave them at home in daily life. So then there's no place left to hang a plastic bag or some other stuff.... The pedals are quite annoying too. They have a nice ... foot holder (don't know the English word, you put your foot in it and it stays secure on the pedal) which almost always hits the ground if you take a corner and your foot is not in it. And it's difficult to get your foot inside after you get started.

But who cares! It's so cool :D It's really high tech. You shift a gear up by pushing the handbrake to the inside, and down by a small button on top of the handbrake lever. The brakes are superb, as I was forced to notice this night as I almost surely crashed into Kamil when he made an emergency stop right in front of me, but thanks to the great brakes we both managed to survive ^^ I'm looking forward to riding this bike more soon, when hopefully the rain will stop... Rain makes me gloomy :(