I’ve got to give Yongin its due credit. It’s a beautiful district that starts just a few miles east of us here and extends several miles to the northeast. I’ve liked the city for as long as I can remember, probably going back to visits to Yongin Farmland (now Everland) nearly 40 years ago.
But that’s not why I named my ride “Lovely and Wonderul Yongin” — although the title stands on its own as true. I named it as I did because I knew when I logged on to Strava, my fellow rider Joon would have something terrible to say about the city. And he did. He called his ride, “I hate Yongin.”
We’ve got a saying in our group, and it’s especially true now: “What Ch’eonan is to the body, Yongin is to the bike.” So, much like we’re convinced now that a trip to Ch’eonan will involve some kind of intestinal distress or other bodily difficulty, it seems that for at least one of us (Joon), Yongin will eat your bike. It started last year with a double-flat and near marooning early in the morning on a Yongin street (I did find an open shop that had tubes that fit, and we continues with some delay). And now it continued with a messed up chain, a rear light flying off, and a bug in the helmet, all within just a few miles…in Yongin.
But that doesn’t take away from the beauty of the city. Yongin sits on a ridge running from the Han River south and that separates the flatter west coast (where I live) and the next valley over (which I absolutely love). A ride through Yongin involves crossing that ridge, then coming back, so we’ll usually get a couple of good climbs (along with a good share of ups and downs) into any rides that go in that direction. But as much as I dislike climbing, I can’t help but be happy with the payoff. Great views, beautiful rolling hills, and fun descents.
It’s been a rough summer — no matter how we’ve tried to mitigate the heat, it’s always reached up and snagged us near the end of our rides. We’re worn out and thoroughly soaked six times over. This ride, even with Joon’s problems, was our first long one in the cooler temperature, and it’s left me with good memories…
