Beijing (Dongbei) Riders' Club/Association

[Lao Jia Hou]

LJH, if you need any archi & interior design / construction management / on this, will be glad to assist, just let me know. beware the chinese contractor, you pay for wood they install paper.

Thanks for the offer! We were fortunate because our contractor is a guy who has done many MC shops, and will undoubtedly want to maintain his reputation. As for design assistance ... always willing to hear suggestions (Marty has also kindly offered his services). At this point, we are entirely focused on getting the building rebuilt. Originally, it was a bunch of tiny rooms on one level, with a horrible washroom facility. We knocked out all the walls and the ceiling, so it is now an open plan, we've had a loft built, and a NICE washroom! We've also had the building fully rewired, with LOTS of power now available, and new plumbing.

Once the building is "complete" in its new shell format, we're looking for ideas on how to organize things. Right now, though, the place is a real mess with bits & pieces strewn everywhere. Not currently photogenic, at all, but I'll try and get some before/during/after pics up at a later date.

I'd be interested in a membership, so just thought I'd put my hand up. Even though I'm even further away than Jeff, therefore realistically the number of times I'd ride or otherwise be up in and around BJ are likely not often, still it might give me some poetic (riding) license to do a ride up that way sometime soon. Plus it has been ages since I was last up in the big capital city after all. Regards

Thanks Bikerdoc - love to have you around. One impetus to us establishing a riding club was our experiences of having many visitors from elsewhere wanting to come and experience the fantastic riding around Beijing. There were the issues of "how do I get my bike there?"; "can I rent/borrow a bike?"; "where do I go?"; "can I meet some people with local knowledge?"; "what happens if I have a breakdown?"; and so on. It is a lot of fun to introduce new people to the great riding we have around here. But it was rather haphazard before - this might be a bit more organized.

Getting members from other parts of China is certainly an objective of ours. I'll keep you informed of what's happening. By the way, as I mentioned before, we'll have overnight facilities available on-site ... but that is also a work-in-progress.

Wish this was in Nanjing or I lived near it in Beijing! Do keep us posted on this adventure.

Hey TA - you can establish a satellite place in Nanjing and host 50 of us Jing'rs tramping down. Personally, I think that's a great idea!!

By the way, I prefer freshly-roasted Brazilian coffee beans, medium ground and then French-pressed through 92 degree (celsius) filtered water. Please make sure you have it ready to those specs. I'm not sure what the other 49 guys might want. Don't worry, we'll email all our requirements at least a day in advance.

[TexasAggie]

Hey TA - you can establish a satellite place in Nanjing and host 50 of us Jing'rs tramping down. Personally, I think that's a great idea!!

By the way, I prefer freshly-roasted Brazilian coffee beans, medium ground and then French-pressed through 92 degree (celsius) filtered water. Please make sure you have it ready to those specs. I'm not sure what the other 49 guys might want. Don't worry, we'll email all our requirements at least a day in advance.[/QUOTE]


HA! You are a true Canadian. If it does not have alcohol and come from grapes, I do not drink it. Although I admit I could enjoy seeing you guys drink the coffee that comes from civet arses!

[thedannywahl]

I'd love to sign up as an "out of town" member. I've really wanted to get to Beijing and have a couple of days riding around some of the cool areas up there. Having a home base there would make the logistics so much better as just 4-5 hours of round-trip to get to Beijing from Tianjin more or less puts a day trip out of the question.

[Lao Jia Hou]

You are a true Canadian.

My ice hockey stick is always at-the-ready. Handy for fending off errant polar bears and stirring buckets of maple syrup.

I'd love to sign up as an "out of town" member. I've really wanted to get to Beijing and have a couple of days riding around some of the cool areas up there. Having a home base there would make the logistics so much better as just 4-5 hours of round-trip to get to Beijing from Tianjin more or less puts a day trip out of the question.

Thanks "danny" - I'll also keep you informed. I was at the building yesterday and it is coming along, albeit a bit slow (we're making changes). The building has a nice "industrial" look (exposed brick, etc), so we're also putting glass blocks in the loft area to bring some additional natural light into the loft area.

One nice thing about our location is that it is within walking distance of a subway stop (Line 15). You can hop the high speed train in TJ, be in BJ in 20 minutes, and then transfer onto the subway (in the train station). Leave your bike here, or use one of ours.

We're also near the airport (10 minutes by taxi), for those further afield & without access to a high-speed train to BJ.

[TB-Racing]

We should arrange a MCM meeting (long weekend, of course avoiding a national holiday) in Beijing next year spring for a party and some mountain rides!

[Lao Jia Hou]

As promised above, here are some before/after pics:

First, the exterior …





The courtyard …





Our next door neighbour’s shop on the courtyard …

[Lao Jia Hou]

The original interior (entrance, a series of small rooms, false ceiling, toilet – all in bad condition) …

[Lao Jia Hou]

Construction begins. First thing done was to remove all of the interior walls and the false ceiling. The poor contractors had to work in freezing Beijing temperatures during December, using only a bucket-fire to stay pseudo-warm and to also keep the wall plaster materials from freezing. The interior of the building was very smoky (like Beijing is this month – January!)







We had the contractor build a loft ...

[Lao Jia Hou]

Construction ended last week. The contractor did a good job, and on time (actually a bit early).

[Lao Jia Hou]

Most importantly about the contractor, he didn’t try to rip us off. I know several of you have heard about my current disastrous experience with someone who was supposed to paint a vintage bike for me – that shop did a crappy job (full of mistakes), took forever, and is now trying to charge me more than double the original estimate. Totally different than our experiences with these building contractor guys. Good honest guys. Highly recommended. We disagreed about a few items, negotiated a few small things, but everyone walked away happy.

What’s next? We need to start moving stuff in. Donations are cheerfully accepted (again, this is a non-profit association – it isn’t a business). Suggestions on how to arrange things are also very welcome.

Special thanks has to be provided to MCM member ShuBen whose German precision and ideas helped a lot. Thanks buddy – your time & efforts are appreciated (although I don’t think the contractors appreciated your German-precision as much as Charles & I did! Hahaha).