The Bike Of..

“I got the bike during Introduction Week, at the bike sale in front of the Sport Centre. I know that Dutch people don’t usually make bargains but when I mentioned to the seller that I come from Taiwan, he pointed at a yellow bike and said: ‘Oh! This bike also comes from Taiwan! So if you want it I’ll give you a special discount!’ In the end I got it for 70 euros, which is a pretty good bargain for a mountain bike. Plus it’s nice to have something from home!”   

There’s one thing that Yeh does find a bit annoying about his bike – the bright, yellow color: “The bikes here in the Netherlands are usually in dark or earth colors, so I felt kind of uncomfortable riding a shiny, yellow bike. Since I’m a shy guy I tried to cover some parts of the bike with black tape.”

Besides using the bike for routine shopping chores, every weekend Yeh explores the surroundings of Delft with his bike in order to relax and find his inner peace.    

“It’s so convenient with the never-ending bike lanes. I can just pick a direction and go on and on. Several months ago my friends and I discovered a ‘sacred place’ in the woods and wetlands between Delft and Rotterdam, which we named ‘the magical forest’. ” 

Yeh has had many wonderful memories with his bike. Last summer, he rode to Switzerland with a Taiwanese national flag flapping behind him. One night he camped in a garden of a Swiss family, having been invited by the homeowner, whom he’d stopped to ask for directions. “He offered the couch but I didn’t want to intrude, so I camped outside in the garden. In the middle of the night I heard footsteps outside my tent and some weird sounds and I got really scared. So I held a pepper spray in my hand all night. But in the morning I discovered a home-made chocolate cake with a goodbye note outside my tent! 

“I really love my bike, but now we – me and the bike – are going through a separation, because I’m currently doing my graduation thesis in Leuven, Belgium. So both of us are single now,” Yeh says, laughing.