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Special Event

The Qing

celebrate the end of spring

Serk Cycling Beijing

Distance

200km 

climbing

2500 m

difficulty

Full Qing: 5/5

 

Time

Monday April 30

Meet at Serk at 3:45 am

Start riding from Serk at 4 am 

Location

Start at Serk

Finish at Serk 

To celebrate the end of the Spring Classics where hardmen flourish (and to finish something we started but didn't quite finish during the Qing Ming holiday), Serk is putting the Qing back on the calendar.

We'd like to pay respect to the one of the hardest of all hardmen - Eddy Merckx. He preached a simple message -- "ride lots" and legend has it Merckx woke up way before dawn to do his 200km rides before his rivals even started their day. 

So we are organizing a pre-dawn epic ride through Beijing and its mountains!

Riding before dawn isn't something we usually do however the 3-day holidays always come with horrible traffic (last year it took us 3 hours to get back to Beijing) so we decided to ride out early and ride back into Beijing rather than drive.

If you haven't ridden in Beijing at night here is your chance to experience the 4th dimension of Beijing cycling. There are few cars/even fewer people and a type of quiet that you'll be hard-pressed to experience again anywhere in China. Descending is a dream (you can see cars coming from a long distance) and climbing in silence is almost spiritual. Actually, scratch that - we'll bring along some music and spice up the climbs! 

This is paying proper respect to Eddy. If you complete the challenge it is pretty much guaranteed you'll have Eddy luck the rest of the year. You'd win the Tour if you somehow managed to get to the start line.

Schedule 

0345 Meeting at Serk

0400 Start riding 

1400 - 1800 Arrive back to Serk

Note

This ride is unsupported. If you have an issue at 4 in the morning you are on your own. Bring enough tubes, food, and water. We will have a contact number for medical emergencies - anything else is not supported and is part of the adventure. You should carefully think through your planning.


Ride Level

This ride is not suitable for beginners. It is an unsupported endurance ride so you'll need to be an experienced rider. If in doubt get in contact with us!

Requirements

You will need very good lights for this ride. There are some great LED lights available on Taobao for reasonable prices. Make sure you check the lights are bright (600 - 800 Lumen recommended) and battery life is long (at least 3 hours)

At Serk we recommend the top level lights from Bontrager.

Front light - Bontrager Ion 800
Rear light - Bontrager Flare R

If you order by Friday, 28th noon we can offer you a discount of 10% on these lights.

Front light - Bontrager Ion 800 Usual price is 698 RMB / Pre-order price is 10% off 628 RMB.

Rear light - Bontrager Flare R Usual price 380 RMB / Pre-order price is 10% off 342 RMB

Why are these lights so good? 

They are super powerful/light and easy to charge. Serk Staff has used many different lights (including top-level Specialized and Taobao specials) and the Bontrager is our choice due to the small but powerful size, ease of charging and robustness. Warranty on Bontrager product in China is also exceptional if there are any issues. One of our customers' lights fell off because of incorrect mounting at 40km/h. The light survived and still worked but not as well. It was still replaced by warranty. The lights are expensive but worth every RMB.

Check out an independent review here 

Route Detail

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Ride Registration