Beware! Foreign Language Students!

[karohemd]

As I was waiting at the red light on the Arbury Road/Milton Road junction, a Chinese couple cycled past on Milton Road. This on its own wouldn't be unusual but they were on one bicycle, him sitting on the saddle and her standing on the rack behind him with her hands casually on his shoulders.
This was my WTF moment for today...

Comments

[davefish.livejournal.com]

They have been doing this for the past week, I've seen them a couple of times. It looks quite good, but its not really the sort of thing I'd want to try on a busy road.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*nods*
They don't seem to have a sense of safety, anyway, like when they're going the wrong way round the roundabout...

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

When we were in Beijing, we saw people cycling like that (and with many other burdens attatched to their bikes, including once a pile of seven mattresses for single beds, which was quite something). I think it's just what the Chinese learn to do in order to get themselves, X, Y and Z as quickly as possible from A to B.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

*gasp in horror*
The standard Chinese bicycle is much more heavily built than the kind you buy here, and can better take being ridden with, say, five children and a tree trunk on it.

Its heavier build also means that many Chinese students have an elevated estimation of how much effort cycling is supposed to take on a UK bike and don't notice that they have no pressure in their tyres at all until they hear a grinding noise and see their tyre outers lying on the road 50 metres back.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

That's just scary...