The Engleson Files

Well, progress on my old school three wheeler bike has been slow and steady but is now in the final stages of completion. I call this bike: Heilongjiang, or Black Dragon River as China’s most northerly province is called, which is also the place where I first saw these bikes used in abundance and became transfixed with them. On the previous slideshow you saw the bike displayed in its primitive stages and as you can see now some serious progress has been made. Watching this bike grow has been a lot of fun but has also had some serious setbacks/frustrations - but I am convinced that is what makes the whole process more valuable in the end. The guy who has been in charge of its re-transformation is a beauty and his work has been truly amazing. The bike you see towards the end of the slideshow (in its mighty Heilongjiang green) is the 75% completed version and now only the classic finishing touches are needed - stay tuned…

黑 - Hei - Black
龙 - Long - Dragon
江 - Jiang - River

Another project I currently have on the go is this the restoration and motorization of this classic three wheel bike you see before you. Through a carefully orchestrated switch-a-roo with my bike guy I am getting parts and labor at cost and will soon have a revitalized tricycle on my hands. While this ride is no Chang Jiang, I do love it dearly and have so ever since my first visit up to Haerbin (where you see these bikes everywhere). In China, this style of bike is your standard blue collar means of making an honest buck. In rain, sleet or snow, everywhere you look you can see them carrying: fruit, meat, garbage, recycling and trinkets - you name it these bikes can carry them! Built out of solid steel they weigh a ton, can pack a ton and are pretty much indestructible. Can’t wait to see this come to completion.

Went down to Dalian this past weekend to take a look at the beginning process of Case’s and mine new/old Chang Jiang 750 motorbikes. Da Doa (the guy in the green shirt) is the man in charge of the resurrection of these bikes and is a total bike enthusiast; for 10 years Da Doa was a member of the People’s Liberation Army in China and spent many hours riding in the Chang Jiang doing some type of murky army business. Anyways, I went down to a body shop where Da Doa’s friend works and saw how they will strip everything down, grind it clean and then re-paint/chrome it. The bike you see in the slideshow will either be mine or Case’s and does indeed look very rough right now, but let me assure you ladies and gentlemen, when these bikes are all done you will not even recognize these humble beginnings. Basically everything on the bikes right now will be replaced and/or stripped down and then re-done to a new shine. Phase #1 is officially underway.

One final painting project I have during my time in China is to try and find an artist who can capture the pure essence of the ‘Dogs Playing Poker’ painting and transfer it into ‘Dogs Playing Mahjong.’ I want to try and encapsulate everything I can of the game of Mahjong and Chinese society and have it show in this painting: the smoking, the rolled up shirts, the yelling, ganbei glasses, bijou bottles, manbags, large tinted sunglasses, government propaganda, the shang ting le (game point in mahjohn) - I want the whole gammit. Now, I have no idea how I am going to convey all of these ideas and have the artist understand and appreciate the concept of the dogs painting as well (a translator will most definitely be recquired!) I am going to try my artist guy downstairs at Song hai li and see if he is up to the challenge, but for now, if any of you have ideas that you feel are necessary for this painting please drop me a line.

Today is a very exciting day for me, because today is the day I get to drive into Dalian and purchase the one and only Chang Jiang 750! Yes, for 6 years I have longed to own this vehicle and I cannot believe it has finally come to light. Now, by no stretch of the imagination will this purchase come easy; the basic principle of my owning this bike is that I have to pay for it all on my own - which means my sorry ass is going to have to find some lowly alternative methods to producing cold hard cash! But in reality, I am happy to do so because I am just so excited to have the opportnity to own this classic beauty. So, the deal is I will be going into Dalian today to purchase two (one for me and one for my Uncle Case) older versions of this bike and then get to watch our beauty mechanic transform them into glowing new(er) models. The bikes will be taken apart, rebuilt/painted and chromed in roughly 30-40 days and I simply cannot wait! So folks, stay tuned to reports of one of my most exciting projects to date - the Chang Jiang 750 with sidecar.

**Update** - Driving the Chang Jiang 750 in the pouring rain is not a wise idea!

Last year an artist moved downstairs from us in Song Hai Li and from the moment I met him I knew he would bring trouble into my life; I am a complete sucker for projecting and just knew he would be able to provide me some cool stuff! Anyways, inside his little studio he had a landscaped painting of Dalian, Kaifaqu - where we live - on his wall. I asked how much, he told me, and the transaction was finalized (except, of course, I had not clarified this with the accountant). The painting is all hand drawn with pencil first and then finalized with black pen. The detail is absolutely fantastic and just know this will be a real nostalgia piece when we move back home. My only two bits into the painting was that I asked for Kristin and Svea to be painted in (Svea in her stroller), Magnus to be riding his bike with his Mom and then me riding my bike with my Yong Jiu teammates - look for them in the slideshow. After a few hours of grief giving, Kristin has finally embraced the painting and has figured out a way to justify it to our auditors.

So, soon after we checked into the Ubud Inn I was introduced to Ketut, who I was informed was a very good word carver who would serve my needs perfectly for the project. I showed him the board and loosely described what I wanted on it; the top was fully completed and now I just wanted something done on the sides. Cheerfully, he told me, “no problem,” and that was that - Ketut and I were in business together for the next 5 days. I was in a serious time crunch in Ubud because it was the last part of our journey and the project absolutely needed to get done - but, again, to Ketut that was, “no problem!”

I saw a few wood carvings around our hotel that looked interesting. I showed him these and then just asked him to make it as “Balinese” as he could. Ketut went into great detail about telling me some ancient Hindu stories and how we could put these on to the board, to which I heartily agreed.

One day when I went in for one of my routine check ups and photo-ops, I noticed that one side had the swastika planted right smack-dab in the middle of the board. Now, yes, the swastika is an ancient Hindu symbol which means peace and life, but to most of us Westerners, the Nazi’s have tainted that meaning somewhat. I was a little uncomfortable discussing this point but felt it just had to be addressed it to see if there was some type of compromise we could reach. Ketut understood and we both worked hard at finding a way to make it look less Nazi-like. (The Nazi’s changed the angle of the swastika for their version of it) In the end we found a way, the swastika stayed and I am happy that it did - it is a very important symbol to devout Hindu’s in Bali and, therefore, it belongs on my board. Sure, people may react to it at first back in Canada but it should make for a good conversation opener at best. In the end, Ketut was a hell of a wood carver and I enjoyed working with him greatly.

The following pictures are of the final stages of the congklak board and my next post on the project will be the final product…

So down at the ‘Chillen’ Out Bar’ I met Dean (the man you see in the picture above) and his assistant Alex who both accepted my challenge with the project with great eagerness. They painstakingly shaved the paint off the congklak board by hand and then began to carve in beautiful designs. 90% of the design on all the pieces was done by me, 100% of the skill was provided by the Indonesians. Many times I would just go down to where they worked, hang out with them, talk and new ideas would come up - I absolutely loved it!

For the mallets I had one carved out with geckos on the shaft and the other I had traditional Indonesian masks. I then asked them to whittle down the upper handles and add in any other traditional Lombok designs to give it that extra special touch - Lombok flowers seemed to be these guy’s specialties. For the congklak board, I was always being offered these bone necklaces on the beach with symbols of Lombok, Bali or Trawangan and one day thought that that might look kinda cool on top of the board. So I bought the necklace and asked Dean and Alex to carve in the Lombok symbol and make it the main focal point of the board. After 9 days of shaving, sanding and carving the end result of Dean and Alex’s work was absolutely brilliant and I could not wait to take the pieces back to Bali. By now my mind was in full woodcarving mode and thoughts of what else to do with the pieces consumed many hours of my day…

So the congklak board did not get completed on time in Senggigi and a very complex Plan B had to get established since we were to be down on Gili Trawangan: 1. the board had to get finished, 2. Wok and Arpah were going to have to find a way to Bangasal an hour away, take a boat over to Trawangan and deliver the goods to me there. Before we left Senggigi we had no idea where we were staying so everything had to get established after the fact by cell phone. This was a huge leap of faith in the boys since I had paid them already and did not have anything in my hands; but my worries were quickly dashed and the Senggigi boys delivered the goods in fine form!

So, as you can see by the picture above that two other pieces were made as well - croquet mallets. Why? Not too sure what happened but I woke up in a cold sweat one night in Senggigi dreaming about croquet and figured it was divine intervention telling me something; so I had my congklak guy fix me up a couple of mallets as well. The charm and beauty of these mallets (in my opinion) is the wood that it is created from: a Jack Fruit tree. The color you see before is the pure, natural color of the wood and I think it is just gorgeous.

Once the guys arrived on the island and the pieces were unveiled to me I was disappointed on two fronts: 1. my mallets were a little too big (especially in the diameter of the handle - my fault), and 2. the congklak board had been painted over. I asked for both pieces to be stained but they must have mistook that for paint instead; all the natural beauty of the teak wood was lost and it just looked very plain and boring - and this was simply unacceptable. So, the Trawangan phase officially had its duties - somehow get rid of the paint on the congklak board and find a way to fix the size issue of my mallets. So, without hesitation I grabbed Svea, hopped on our bike and headed right down to the “Chillin’ Out Bar” where I just knew I would find someone who would be able to help me…

Well, for me the trip really started to get going when I got the idea to get a good old fashioned project on the go. During my research on Indonesia I read about what their national sports and interests were and stumbled upon the game of congklak (pronounced - Jone Clak). I read about how congklak is the traditional game of Indonesia and also discovered that the games origins could be the oldest in history. Many know the game as Mancala and those in the know figure the game originated in Africa some 7000 years ago - and then must have come to Indonesia soon thereafter; if you would like any more detail on the game click here.

Anyways, I thought it would be kinda cool to get one of these boards made; and since we established a fairly non-hectic travel schedule I figured there would be enough time in each location to get it done. One thing I absolutely love about projecting is how it forces you to dig deep within a location and find people who are skilled in whatever it is you are doing - and I often find that it is these people I like hanging out with the most. Every location we traveled I had a guy to chum around with to share in the process of creating - it was a huge highlight of my vacation!

So, on our first day in Senggigi I immediately asked the guy at our front desk where I could find someone to help me. He then put the buzz out to one of the workers on staff who then asked his friend who sells souvenir trinkets on the beach, and then about a half an hour later - viola: I had a congklak guy! Soon after, I walked over to the beach, shook the man’s hand, asked if he had lots of teak wood hanging around and then began to draw out what I wanted done. There was only three days to get the base forged out and then I figured I would take the board to our next stop and find some other guy to put his magic touch on to it as well - Arpah (my congklak guy in Senggigi) said, “no problem, it will get done in time. You have my promise.” I also asked if I could come out and watch it being made and take a few pictures- again, “no problem.” Two days later Magnus and I had our motorbike chauffeurs waiting and then went on a wild ride into the countryside and watched our guy make our new congklak board; every single ounce of this board was hand made.

It was from this moment of starting the project and talking to everyone involved where I learned about the deep, and highly skilled, tradition of wood carving in Indonesia and just how important it is to many. For the next three weeks I would meet a handful of people who all helped greatly and added their own beautiful touch to my Indonesian project. I hope you will enjoy watching the stages with me and I know you will all be amazed at the final product(s). Here are pictures of the opening process…

P.S. - sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, I had these scanned from my film camera.

I adapted this phrase from a Chinese horoscope book and then had it translated and painted onto my bike. I think it summarizes quite nicely my intentions for the big rally to Dandong next year:

Lao Shu is a leader, pioneer and conqueror. He always likes to be at the forefront of the action and can easily find his way around any obstacle. Lao Shu adapts to various environments easily and is very aggressive in nature. He can get more accomplished in 24 hours than others can in as many days. Simply put, Lao Shu is a proven winner.

In order to add a little muscle to the Lin Hai Gang fleet, the second installment was an easy choice in equipping another Yong Jiu with a 20 cc 2-stroke engine - this too is pretty standard custom for all the old guys here in China. I have named this beauty Lao Shu, or Old Rat. Getting this bike properly equipped with a motor was a bit of an ordeal but was worth every minute and kuai spent. Basically, for 500 rmb ($80) the transformation from bike to speed demon was complete. Gunning down at top speed Lao Shu can probably max out at 35-40 kph. I cannot tell you what a feeling it is to be barreling down the street with all the other blue-collared Chinese guys; I definitely feel this purchase has made my assimilation complete. Anyways, I have big plans for Lao Shu and I love booting around on it. More to come…

In order to keep up with young Magnus Bjorn on the bicycle, Dad (or Lin Hai Gang, as he is known in China) decided to go out and get a bike of his own. Now, being the staunch traditionalist that I am it was a no-brainer for me to purchase the classic Chinese style bike. The bicycle you see before you is a Yong Jiu which is a bike company out of Shanghai. There are three major bicycle companies in China which all make this exact same style of bike, which is basically a copied version of the early 1900’s Raleigh bikes out of Nottingham, UK - so you could see why this bike had so much appeal! I was going to buy a Flying Pigeon out of Tianjin, but through careful dialogue with the locals it was very clearly expressed to me that the Shanghai version is the best quality. So, I am now the proud owner of my very own Chinese bike and this is to be the first official installment of the Lin Hai Gang fleet: number 2 will be announced very soon…

Well folks, here it is: The Chang Jiang 750 with sidecar. This is the automobile I have dreamed of having ever since the first day I saw my good friend Adrian Conradi drive his around here in Kaifaqu (yes, envy is a powerful force!) Here in China these babies are dirt cheap and, as you can plainly see, are simply beautiful to look at. Now, for the last 3-4 years I have been begging/pleading Kristin to allow me to buy one and bring it back home to Canada, and for the past 3-4 years she has been sluffing me off. Well, thankfully, those days are gone and finally she has agreed to allow me to purchase one; she agrees this bike is perfectly suited for Penticton. So, the plan is this find a bike that is 13-15 years old (to appease Canadian law), buy it, and then fix it up and bring it back home with me once we return. This project will be drawn out, but as you can imagine, I am most excited to be in the game!