Learning Mountain Bike Skills, Improving Bike Control

"Huang Chong, you're not even having a single piece of braised pork? Are you really that disciplined?"

"Not eating any, Brother Wang. I'm too heavy right now, so I'm planning to slim down a little. It'll improve my climbing efficiency—"

"No wonder your power output was so steady on the climbs. With the willpower to stay unmoved even by braised pork, us ordinary mortals will probably get dropped by you on every kind of terrain before long!"

"Brother Liu, don't jinx me with praise. I'm not a monk. Once I slim down, I'll help eat your share too—"

"Ah, forget it, forget it. Since you won't eat braised pork, I'll reluctantly eat another piece for you. We rode so much this morning—I can't just eat fat-loss meals like you, or I won't even have the strength to ride back downtown!"

"That works too, Brother Chen. You have to eat and drink your fill to ride farther. But I'm worried I won't make it back in time for the meetup. I drove a friend's car here this morning—"

Throughout lunch, Liu Junjie and the others noticed that Huang Chong ate only low-fat vegetables and the sandwiches he had brought himself. They all admired his self-discipline.

After intense exercise, a person's hunger could easily double.

Especially when faced with those large, bright-red chunks of braised pork on the table, slowly simmered over low heat with caramelized sugar coloring—who could resist?

They were amateur cycling enthusiasts anyway, and they were all getting older. There was no chance of ever reaching the level of professional riders in this lifetime, so they did not need to watch what they ate too closely.

Besides, long-distance cycling consumed a tremendous amount of energy. They had climbed uphill for dozens of kilometers, including an HC-category climb.

The calories they had burned that morning were more than enough to offset the heavy meal they were eating at noon.

But Huang Chong definitely would not eat high-calorie dishes like braised pork. In fact, if he had not been worried that the team members would find him unsociable and too withdrawn, he would not even have joined them for lunch.

After all, the secret behind why stir-fried vegetables at restaurants tasted so good was the blended oil made from vegetable oil and lard.

Those seemingly light stir-fried vegetables actually packed an outrageous number of calories.

Of course, he only symbolically ate a few leaves of vegetables.

Compared to what he had burned that morning, that little calorie intake was practically negligible.

After lunch, everyone went their separate ways and headed home.

Wang Qiang and the others planned to find a shady place in Lin'an District to rest for a while, then ride back to the city center in the evening.

It was the middle of the day. No one had the courage to ride beneath Hangzhou's midsummer sun.

Across the entire Yangtze River Delta, road cycling races such as the Tour of Zhejiang, Around Qiandao Lake, and Taihu Lake were generally held in October or November during the latter half of the year.

The reason was that average summer temperatures in the Yangtze River Delta could approach 40°C. It was simply too hot for road cycling races.

Only road cycling events in high-altitude areas, such as the Tour of Qinghai Lake, could be held around July in the middle of the year.

After parting ways with Wang Qiang and the others, Huang Chong rode alone back to the parking lot, stored his bicycle and belongings in the system space, then returned directly to Gongshu District, where Du Wei lived.

The result went without saying. That guy had stayed up late playing games again last night and was currently fast asleep in his room with the air conditioner running.

Huang Chong moved as quietly as possible so as not to wake him. After taking a shower and changing into clean clothes, he went to work at the bike shop.

He had already discussed it with Du Wei. From now on, his pay would be calculated by piecework, giving him maximum freedom: the more he did, the more he earned. He would no longer have to stick to a nine-to-five schedule.

When Liu Chaoyang saw Huang Chong come in to work that afternoon, he was immensely grateful.

During summer vacation weekends, the bike shop was insanely busy. He was the only mechanic in the store, and most of the time he simply could not handle everything by himself.

"Little brother, if you hadn't come in today, I would've collapsed from exhaustion. Look at the new orders booked this morning. Installation jobs alone are backed up for half a month, and they're all high-end bikes. Boss Du's shop is honestly the busiest one I've seen since entering this industry. Young people these days really are willing to spend money. Road bikes costing tens of thousands, even over a hundred thousand—they just buy them without blinking. Back when I was young, I'd hesitate forever before spending a few hundred yuan on a Forever bike."

Liu Chaoyang sipped goji berry tea as he sighed endlessly.

When he was younger, he had run a bicycle repair shop, but he had never seen anything like this.

He could only barely scrape together a living through his skills, while Du Wei could earn two or three million a year selling high-end bicycles.

Even the base annual salary Boss Du offered him personally exceeded 200,000 yuan, not including overtime pay.

Huang Chong could understand his feelings.

Although Liu Chaoyang's generation of post-90s kids had only been born around ten years earlier than him, a post-00s kid, their material living conditions had been worlds apart.

At any rate, ever since he was young, his parents had never let him suffer over money.

He smiled and comforted him. "Master Liu, times are different. Our country's economy developed too quickly, and money isn't worth what it used to be. A few hundred yuan in your day would probably have several times the purchasing power now, wouldn't it?"

"That's true, but no matter how purchasing power changes, spending a hundred thousand yuan on a bicycle... little brother, I really can't imagine it!"

Liu Chaoyang clicked his tongue and shook his head, knowing full well that all he could do in this lifetime was envy them.

Fortunately, most of the luxury bikes that left Flying Speed Bike Shop had to pass through his hands. Even if he did not get the chance to ride them around and show off, he had assembled them himself, so at least he had some sense of involvement.

Just as they both got busy, a young man driving a luxury car pulled up outside the bike shop. The moment he entered, he started calling out, "Old Du, is my bike done with its maintenance yet?"

Upon seeing him, Liu Chaoyang hurriedly stopped what he was doing and greeted him with a smile. "Young Master Li, your bike was serviced ages ago. It's hanging on the wall behind you. But our boss isn't in today. Take it for a test ride first, and if everything's fine, you can take it directly."

Li Zifan nodded and glanced behind him, where he indeed found a YETI SB-150 hanging on the wall.

Wasn't that his beloved bike, which he had carried back after returning from studying in the United States?

As a mountain biker, he did not ask the shop assistant to take the bike down for him. He removed it from the wall himself, then rode outside for a test ride. He even performed several standard mountain biking moves. Finding that the bike was as smooth as when it had just left the factory, he was very satisfied.

When he came back, he praised Liu Chaoyang, saying, "Old Liu, your skills are impressive. I originally thought domestic mechanics would be relatively unfamiliar with the structure of niche mountain bikes like this, so the maintenance probably wouldn't be that great. I didn't expect your technical skills to be no worse than those foreigners' at all!"

Li Zifan was forthright and generous by nature. After confirming that the bike had no issues whatsoever, he specifically returned to the shop to praise Liu Chaoyang in person.

However, Liu Chaoyang shook his head with a smile. "Young Master Li, I'd love to accept that praise, but unfortunately, I wasn't the one who serviced your beloved bike. See that young guy assembling a bike over there? He was responsible for your bike's maintenance. His skills are better than mine."

Hearing this, Li Zifan froze for a moment. He then walked over to Huang Chong, who was assembling a Pinarello road bike. Seeing that Huang Chong seemed even younger than he was, he immediately became interested and asked with a smile, "Hey, brother, Old Liu said you serviced my bike? Do you ride mountain bikes too? Your skills are that good?"

Huang Chong naturally knew Li Zifan. He was also one of Hangzhou's young wealthy elites.

Huang Chong normally paid extra attention to people like him who rode expensive bikes, so he smiled and shook his head, answering honestly, "I don't know mountain bike techniques, Young Master Li. Things like Manuals and Dolphin Jumps look really difficult. But I did service your bike. Have you test-ridden it? Is there anything that needs adjusting? If so, I can adjust it again for you now."

Young Master Li smiled and waved his hand, replying amiably, "No, no, the bike's fine. I test-rode it just now. The brakes are very responsive, and the suspension air pressure is set perfectly. It's as smooth as when it just left the factory. I just didn't expect someone who doesn't ride mountain bikes to understand their structure so well. But if you have time, you should try mountain biking too. It's highly playable—at least far more fun than road cycling. As for those mountain bike moves and techniques you mentioned, they aren't hard to learn. You can start practicing on a small-wheeled street trials bike. Once you've mastered the key points of each technique, you can switch to a standard mountain bike."

The moment Li Zifan finished speaking, a new system prompt appeared before Huang Chong's eyes. He had originally intended to brush him off with polite words, having no plans to get into mountain biking.

[Detected that someone has recommended mountain bike techniques to the host. Please learn the basic bike-control technique: Front-Wheel Lift, in order to improve your bike control ability.]