Supportive Cycling Community
给力的单车社区
Some of you may wonder where you can go to meet other cyclists. I would highly recommend Adelaide Bike Kitchen (https://www.adelaidebikekitchen.net/) and EcoCaddy Night Rides (https://www.facebook.com/groups/EcoCaddyNightRides/).
可能有些人看到这里会想，哪里可以认识其他的骑行者呢？那么在这里，我就要凭我的亲身经历，向你们强烈推荐Adelaide Bike Kitchen （阿德单车厨房）和 EcoCaddy Night Rides （EcoCaddy夜骑）。
Adelaide Bike Kitchen
阿德莱德单车厨房
Address: 22 Gibson St, Bowden and find them on Facebook
地址：22 Gibson St，Bowden，可以在Facebook上找到它
After riding for a while, I have been thinking to fix a basket in the back of my bike so I don’t need to carry my heavy backpack. In summer, my back could get quite sweaty. However, it was a bit dear to purchase. So I let this idea sit in my mind instead. Then, one part of my bike broke. Well, I did really need to see an expert then.
So ‘Bike Kitchen’ popped up. I remember my previous supervisor once mentioned that to me. There is a group of volunteers working there, and they teach you how to fix your bike at a very low cost. So I decided to check it out.
It was based in a warehouse, looking old, but had its own character. Different parts of a bike were hanging on the wall. And there was a painting with a message, ‘be a good person’. I am sure these volunteers all have a loving heart.
Seeing me coming in, they instantly greeted me with a big friendly smile, which made me feel very welcomed and safe to be there. J After hearing my issues, I was introduced to a guy called Alex I think (please forgive my memory). He took me inside while talking to me confidently: “I am sure we could work something out.”
Then I saw a good number of people there, talking, smiling, and doing some work on their bikes. When they saw me, they all waved at me. WOW, it seemed like a very friendly and great community.
Alex began to explain to me how to fix my bike. He didn’t expect there was some extra work added in order to help me. Any guess?
He had to explain the meaning of some words he used, because I really didn’t have the vocabulary related to bike components, such as different types of screw-sockets, screw shims and screwdrivers. But I was very impressed by how patient and nice he was all the time. Sometimes, poor Alex even had to repeat a few times.
Then a small accident happened. Careless me, my skin got scraped literally at the beginning of the process (probably only 10 minutes into the repair). He then kindly did most of the work while explaining to me. He said he didn’t want to see me getting hurt again. So KIND.
Before we finished, someone shouted, “Dinner is ready.” Every Wednesday they have a communal dinner. You only need to pay 5 dollars. What a great idea. That night was pizza night, Alex insisted on working while eating.
When we completed the work, it was already dark outside. I didn’t expect it would take that long, so there were no lights with me. I asked whether I could borrow lights from there and return them later. They agreed without asking me for a deposit. Aww, how trusting they are.
The whole city is the same. Once when I went to a fruit and veggie shop, I didn’t bring enough money, and they just simply told me to bring it next time. I think life can be much easier and happier if you can trust people. My family and friends sometimes said I am too trusting. That made me think about whether I should change. But I decided to stay with my own nature to live authentically. If this makes me comfortable, happy, and easy to connect with people. Why should I change? Be true to oneself is always very important, at least to me.
Apart from my positive experience in Bike Kitchen, I also like their value, unsurprisingly.
“We provide a simple way for people to create bonds.” Joey (Adelaide Bike Kitchen secretary) says. - Fritz
“Give people a bicycle and they’ll ride for a day; teach them to fix their bikes and they’ll ride for a lifetime.” “Mum” of Adelaide Bike Kitchen says. - The Advertiser
骑了一段时间后，我就想如果在脚踏车后座放一个篮子，我就不用背沉沉的包了，那该多好。尤其是夏天骑车，我的后背很容易出汗。但是，一个车篮却意外的有点小贵。所以我就把这个想法抛到了脑后。再后来，我的车一个地方坏了，必须要找专业人士修理了，有花费少的地儿吗？
突然，我想到了'单车厨房'（Bike Kitchen）。记得以前的主管向我提过它。它好像是由一群志愿者运营的，旨在教会你如何自己动手修车，经济划算。动手能力不佳的我，为了省钱，也只好，豁出去啦。先去瞧瞧吧。
厨房坐落在一间仓库内。虽然看起来很旧，但翻新得却很有特色。单车的各种零部件悬挂于墙上。这时，一幅画吸引了我的注意，上面写着，做一个好人。好恰当的地方，我相信这些志愿者一定都有着一颗大爱之心。
我开始向前台介绍自己。看着她们大大的微笑，友善而真诚，让我觉得自己是受欢迎的，也让我感到这个地方非常安全（毕竟独自前往这里，还是有点小紧张滴）。讲述完我来这儿的原因后，我被带到一个好像叫Alex的人面前（请原谅我的记忆）。他一边自信地对我说，“我相信我们可以解决这些问题。”，一边把我带到基地内部。
里面人很多，他们一边说笑，一边给他们的爱车‘做手术’。看到我进来，他们都向我招手示意。嗯，这里看起来是一个非常友善的单车俱乐部哦。
任务来了。Alex正式开始向我解释该如何修我的车。他事先一定没想到，这次会比他平常的工作量要大。有猜出原因的吗？
因为他还需要向我解释一些单词的含义。我对于自行车零部件及修理相关的词汇量几乎为零，例如不同类型的螺丝，螺丝垫片和起子。让我意外的是，他全程一直都超级耐心。可怜的他有时，同一个东西，可能要重复好几次我才能记住。
在动手开始不久（差不多10分钟后），小意外就发生了。马虎的我，手指不幸负伤，表皮被刮破了。于是，Alex就一边向我解释，一边替我完成大部分工作。因为他不想看到我再受伤，善良的人呐。
修理进行到三分之二，有人喊道，“开饭啦。”原来每个星期三，也就是他们的开放日，都会有共进晚餐环节。只需付上5澳元，就可以和大家一起用餐。好主意！我去的那天晚上是披萨，敬业的Alex坚持一边吃一边工作。点赞！
大功告成，问题解决，还有了铃铛和车篮，花费只需，10澳元。看向窗外，天黑黑。我没想到会花这么长时间修理。啊，囧了，我没带灯。于是我问道，可以借下灯稍后归还吗？他们爽快的答应了，而且没问我要押金。这里人与人之间的信任，真的让我很喜欢。
其实，整个城市都是这样。还记得有一次，我去一家蔬菜水果店，钱没有带够，店主只是简单地说，下次带上就好。我真心觉得，如果你能信任别人，生活会变得非常轻松而愉快。我的家人和朋友有时会说我太相信别人了，容易被骗。这让我想着自己是否应该有所改变。但我最后决定还是要坚持自己的本性，活出真我。如果这样让我感到舒适和开心，并且能够与他人很好的建立联系，那么，我为什么要改变呢？忠于自己在我看来，很重要。
除了我在单车厨房的完美体验，我还非常欣赏他们的价值观。
“我们通过提供了一种简单的方式来帮助人与人之间建立感情纽带。”Joey（阿德莱德自单车厨房的秘书）说。-来自Fritz网
“给人们一辆脚踏车，他们会骑一天；教他们如何修车，他们能骑上一辈子。”阿德莱德单车厨房的妈妈说。 - 《广告报人》
EcoCaddy Night Rides
EcoCaddy夜骑
Some of you might want to know whether there are any community rides so you can ride with other cyclists together. The answer is a definite YES, EcoCaddy Tuesday Night Rides, for example, I got to know this from Bike Kitchen.
I was excited, curious but also a bit nervous on the way to the meeting point, because I didn’t know whether I was the only amateur in the group. It turned out that I worried too much. As human beings, we tend to over worry a lot about unnecessary things. Any solutions? Action, because it cures worry and fear.
The organiser Daniels Langeberg was a very welcoming, easy-going and thoughtful leader. Before our ride, he first asked the group, “Is there any first timers?” Good to see I was not the only one. Then he said, “Welcome to our Tuesday EcoCaddy Rides. It’s going to be an easy and social ride rather than a race, so don’t worry. I will lead the group, and Ben, could you be in the back, please? We just want to make sure we don’t lose anyone. ” Wow, what a caring and friendly group!
有些人可能想知道那阿德是否有骑行团呢，这样你就能和其他的单车爱好者一起骑行了。当然有！比如EcoCaddy周二夜骑，我也是通过单车厨房了解到的。
还记得在骑往集合点的路上我很兴奋，很好奇，但也有些许紧张。因为我不知道自己是否会太过业余。最后发现我的担心完全没有必要。没办法，我们总是倾向于过度担心很多完全没有必要担心的事情。那么针对这个问题，有处方吗？有，行动起来，它是治愈忧虑和恐惧的不二良药。
组织者Daniels Langeberg是一位非常热情，随和，考虑周到的人。在我们出发前，他首先问大家，“今天这里有没有第一次来的人呢？”很高兴看到我不是唯一一个。然后他说，“欢迎来到我们每周二的EcoCaddy 夜骑。这将是一个轻松的社交类骑行，而不是比赛，所以新人们不用担心。我会在前面带路，Ben，你可以骑在最后吗？我们只是想确保不让任何人中途失联。”（让我想到电影，一个都不能少，哈哈） 不禁感叹团队好体贴！
The following experience made me like the team even more. So cohesive. To be honest, at the beginning it was still a bit scary and overwhelming. I’ve never cycled with a big group of people (14 in total) and I didn’t even know where we were going. Daniels wanted to keep it a mystery. Indeed, it was much more fun and exciting to not even know where I would be in the next second. I like Surprise. Be a follower to embrace an unknown world ：）.
My lovely team members gave me a lot of assurance. Throughout the whole journey, they constantly reminded one another, such as “car in the front”, or “watch out on your right”. You felt that you were being looked after very well and you could trust and rely on them. A few times, some people fell behind due to traffic lights. At that time, what did the rest of the team do? Not keep riding, hoping they could catch up. Instead, every single of them waited so patiently. No one complained or said anything.
Besides these, there are two more things I really liked about the ride:
我可爱的队员真的给了我很多定心丸。整个旅程中，大家都不断地相互关心提醒着每个人，高频词汇包括“前面有车”，或“注意你的右边”。你觉得在这里你是受到很好的照顾的，你可以相信并依赖他们。中途有好几次，一些人因红绿灯而落队。这时骑在前面的队员是怎么做的呢？不是继续骑他们的，想着其他人之后会加速赶上来。而是停下来，等。而且每个人都是非常耐心地等，没有一句抱怨。
除了这些，骑行还有两件我非常喜欢的东西：
The exploration experience
It was so fun to discover the beauty of some hidden places in the city. I felt I was like a baby exploring a brand new world, especially when I came across some interesting street graffiti arts or some tranquil unknown lanes. Sometimes it came to a dead end, but does it matter? Absolutely no. That’s a part of the journey, right?
探索体验
探索这个城市中一些秘密基地的美非常有趣。我觉得自己就像是一个婴儿，观察着眼前的这个全新的世界。特别是当我穿越一些惊艳的街头涂鸦或是以前从没发现的宁静的胡同时。当然有些时候骑到后面才发现原来是个死胡同，但这有关系吗？当然没有，因为它们都是探险必不可少的一部分啊。
· Human interaction among the group
We talked and rode along the way. A lot of times we rode in pairs. By the end of the ride, we stopped in a bar where you could choose to stay or say goodbye. I chose to stay and found out everyone came from very different backgrounds. Sometimes I got a bit upset, because some of the conversations were difficult for me to understand, so I felt I couldn’t connect or engage with them. But on second thought, I asked myself, why I should react like that? For things I couldn’t understand, I just need to be courageous, be honest, acknowledge the fact that I don’t know and ask for clarification or explanation. That is the only way we can learn things. But a lot of times, especially as a Chinese, we value ‘ face’ or reputation too much. We are so afraid that people might look down on us or laugh at us if they find out we don’t know something. When you accept your imperfections/ignorance, new knowledge will come to you.
队员间的友好互动
除了看风景，我们一边骑一边聊，悠哉惬意。很多时候我们结对骑行。在骑行最后，我们在一间酒吧落脚，你可以选择留下或就此离别。我选择了留下，才发现大家都来自各种完全不同的背景。有时我会有点失落，因为有些话题我完全不懂，所以也就很难参与到谈话中。但再一想，会反思自己为什么会有这样的反应。对于不懂的事情，我能做的应该是诚实的面对它，然后勇敢去问。承认我们的无知并询问才是学习新知识的唯一方法，不是吗？但很多时候，特别是作为中国人，我们可能过分注重“面子”。当我们不知道某件事时，我们会特别害怕别人会因此瞧不起或嘲笑自己的无知。而只有当我们开始接受自己的不完美或无知时，才能收获知识，进而进步。
This Tuesday I just attended their #100 ride, celebrating a milestone. Therefore, I decided to interview Daniels to find out more about him and his rides. (Thanks a lot Daniels.) BTW, we also talked about other things, which I will share with you in my future post. (Stay tuned)
这周二，我刚刚参加了他们的第100次骑行，庆祝里程碑的一刻。因此，我决定采访Daniels以了解更多关于他和他的骑行活动。 （非常感谢Daniels。）顺便说一句，我们还讨论了其他事情，我将在以后的文章中与大家分享。 （敬请关注哈）
Daniels’s bike journey started even earlier than me, since he was 5 (Ok, you won). He was curious to explore, and he thought to learn to cycle at an early age was very important for kids.
For him, cycling always means freedom. In his eyes, that is the best way to move and discover new places. A car has some costs associated with it, such as petrol and environmental cost, in particular. But a bike is different, you can go as far as you want. The only cost is your energy and time.
What made Daniels to organise the Tuesday rides which started a bit over 2 years ago then? 3 reasons:
It was really hard for him to see his friends, so doing this gave him an excuse to stop working.
He would like to get people to share the same love for cycling on a regular basis and explore the city in a more casual way. Everyone is welcome as long as the person can ride a bike. It is more about human power movement essentially.
· He wanted to dispel some myths, to create a change. Some people may think it is dangerous or hard to ride. But by attending it, they may not even realise that they cycled for 13-15 km. And they get to see some cool things that they never noticed before in the city.
Daniels的骑车之旅开始的时间居然比我还早，那时他5岁（好吧，你赢了）。他非常好奇并迫不及待的想探索世界。所以在他看来，孩子在幼年时期学会骑车非常重要。
他认为，骑行对他意味着自由。它是探索新天地的最佳方式。汽车需要付出额外的成本，例如石油和环境上的。但是自行车则不同，你可以随心所欲的骑行。唯一的成本就是你的精力和时间。
提起2年多前组织周二夜骑的原因，主要有3点:
由于工作忙碌，他很难见到他的朋友，所以这样做给了他一个暂停工作的借口。
他希望可以将单车爱好者聚集起来，定期分享对脚踏车的热爱，并以更轻松随意的方式去探索这座城市。只要你会骑车，这里就欢迎你。
他想消除一些疑虑，带来积极的改变。有些人可能认为骑单车很危险或很难。但是通过参加到骑行活动中，他们根本没有想到自己已经骑了13-15公里。而且他们还可以发现一些之前从未注意到的这座城市里的有趣的事物。
Daniels said they rode every week except on rainy days. I asked why he could do it consistently. He said part of it comes from his own discipline, and the other important factor is people turned up each week. That external pressure forced him to be accountable too.
Takeaway messages for me are:
·You are more capable than you think. So please remove “impossible” from your dictionary.
·Don’t jump to a conclusion without even trying.
· Everything starts from an idea. To make it happen, action and discipline are required.
· If you want to do something consistently, but you are not really self-disciplined, then you need some external pressure, such as inviting your friends or others to do the project together.
Hope you get something out of this. Most importantly, I hope to see you in some rides in the near future, so I can have a chat with you
Daniels还说除了雨天，骑行活动每周都有。我问他是什么让他可以这么坚持的做一件事。他说，部分来自于他自己的自律，另一个重要因素是人们每周都会来。所以这种外部压力也让他觉得要负起责任。
划重点时刻来啦 ：
你其实比你想象中更有能力。所以请在你将“不可能”在你的字典里删除。
不要在还没有尝试前就轻易下结论。
所有的一切都源于一个简单的想法。要实现它，就需要行动和自律。
如果你想要坚持不懈地做一些事情，但自己又没有很强的自律性。就告诉你的亲朋好友，让外界督促或邀请他们一起来做项目吧。
希望你从这次阅读中获得了一些东西。最重要的是，我希望能在以后的EcoCaddy夜骑中看到你，一起聊聊天哈。