Testing the senses in Shanghai to find China's best antitourism and off-beat secrets. Dry and sometimes funny observations from a fixed gear roller, food eater and photograph taker.

I remember when Hong Kong was as different from England as I could fathom. Now a week there seems like a homecoming break from the intensity of Shanghai.

We took a roll around the Island, cruising through the mostly flat Sheung Wan, Kennedy Town and onto the undulations of Pok Fu Lam. The 46×11 ratio was complaining by Aberdeen and as we crossed back over to Happy Valley I managed a personal best – slowest 2km ever.

The island is not huge, with a couple hours and a few gears it would be on the cards to get all the way round. Aberdeen is probably not worth the trip but Hong Kong is not knee deep in skyscrapers as the dark side of the island suggests, there’s some striking natural beauty – punctuated by a luxury apartment block overlooking the choice spots here and there.

It did feel strange to descend out of a national park straight into lunch-hour Wan Chai. Within minutes we had Froyos in hand and the umbrellas to battle with.

The General

We’ve just finished our latest fixed projects. These are a couple of new utility bikes made by Forever. Converted China Post Office and China Telecom frames. They look awesome, really vivid paint jobs and some awesome decals with golden characters and phoenix motifs.

I’ve now taken off the rear rack, was a little weighty and I might cut down the mud guard. The blue one has the fold down platforms which are hilarious. Need to find a longer post and maybe new seat, this one is as squeaky as a Victorian bed.

Also looking for a 1″ front fork that doesn’t extend the front wheel out quite so far.

Ride wise, really smooth. Great for cruising around the French concession and after running 46×13 on Ocean-san it’s easy wheel all the way.

Roy

With our race numbers attached in the right places we were counted into the holding pen by a guy with a megaphone and an inferiority complex. I think it was then that I realized we were the only fixed-gear riders. In fact, we were the only riders not part of a bike team who were all adjusting the gears on their carbon road frames.

Alex was herded off to the side -there’s no equality in road cycling. I found a space in the middle of the pack at the start line. All eyes on me I turned on the ipod and tried to ignore a furious “team bauhaus’ coach who did not like Ocean-san being a track bike and had already got Jeff disqualified for not having a break.

A couple false starts later and with the pistol 75 riders burst forward along the Shanghai F1 home straight. The pit exit zipped by on the right and we curved on mass up to the right around the first bend.

I was already up at 40km/h and as we hit the second straight I was around my top speed. In the baking sun I was already panting and I didn’t let up for the whole lap, pushing hard as I could to keep at the thick end of the field. This was going to be a challenge.

As the bikes thinned out and we came onto the huge back straight for the second time the notion of challenge turned to ordeal. With the wind in my face I was struggling to keep up with the bike in front and couldn’t quite hook into his slipstream. Looking over my should I had a chain of bikes drafting behind me.

What followed was 10 laps of non stop pedalling. I gradually slipped backwards through the pack as riders hooked up behind on the straights and then with the chance for a break sprinted away in the corners. I managed to catch a couple packs but they weren’t open for members and I pushed on alone.

In the end I got lapped twice by the pretty formidable front runners, kept the back markers behind me and gradually picked off people in front. I crossed the 55km finish line in around 1h40 and came somewhere around 45th overall … and first in my category of one.

where’s Wally? yes we are both in the top photo