BIKING IN HONG KONG: WHAT CAN BE DONE

thanks,
brandon, did you mean this too...?

Brandon,

I had the misfortune of getting caught. will go to court tomorrow. keep you posted.

ratcat, where? hope the judge is lenient. what a waste of the tax payers money IMO.

Just this last summer around mid day, me and my friends decided to give Lady Clemente a visit. It was a really nice ride cause we had never experience it under sun light. And when we got to the Aberdeen Res. Road junction around 5 pm, we saw this official approaching. At this very moment we had a choice, to turn around and ride back into the trial. He had no way of catching us. But....back of our minds, or perhaps only on mine, that would be bad image for mountain biker, so I decided to stay and sort it out like civilized human beings, begging him to give us a second chance. But of course that didn't happen. I meant the second chance, the being human part worked out all right. We recieved letters in a few months time and we had to go to court. But during our conversation, he almost forgot to take down our bike's brand and spec. I had a feeling if he didn't, then he would have no evidence that we had rode our bikes inside Res. area and cannot prosecute us. Not sure about that part though.
We were fined 250 hkd each.
Not bad, less then a parking ticket. But from a friend of mine, who got into trouble a few times, the fine was said to be compounded. The second offend would generate a 500 fine..... again not sure about that too.
And since it was day light and we were intruders, we did took the extra mannerism of dismounting our bike every time we see people. We played with thier dogs and talked to them about weather. We saw two joggers, we give them the right of way and the two thumbs up.......

The moral of this story is:
Give way to hikers, but never stop for the AFCD!!
The best thing to do, as Ratcat has found out, is to turn round and ride off as quickly as possible. Or you could pretend to be a European/Mainland tourist who can't speak English or Cantonese...or you could assume that anyone trying to stop you riding your bike in a country park is an Illegal Immigrant trying to rob you, so you are justified in pushing them into the nearest bush and escaping...only give in if they've got you cornered!

I quite agree with MB - sod the dignity and moralising and get the hell out of there. I once dived into a storm drain in Tai Tam park - bike and all, to escape an ascending motorbike. Proud to say that i've ridden illegally for 10 years and never been caught.

ok, we are bandits. That's a good way. But still I see guys here trying to make good things happen by trying to get more legal trails open. That very good for them and they have my 100% respect!!! I tip my hat off to them. I live in HK side. I like to have a good time on nice timid little trails away from traffic and pollution. I have little choice but to get in there at odd times. And the night seem to fit my scheduel well too. But if they can get Clemete and other HK trail open illegally, they are saints. I just try not to get in thier way of business, no moral issue here, just pratical.
I am a local Chinese and I almost wanted to volunteer myself to these guys trying make mtb world a better world. But I have so little knowlege of mountain biking and so that's that. The least I can do is to behave a bit more civilized.
The mountain used to belong to everyone who repect it....now it is becoming a war zone between AFCD, hikers and bikers.


	Magazine Past Issues Subscribe Articles Events Forum About Us