You may remember last summer when we put together a fleet of rental bikes for Bike China. They made for a great ride and have kept Bike China’s clients happily pedaling along. Some of our friends in Chengdu here have had the good fortune of riding them on some of our countryside rides.

Being in Chengdu, surrounded by an endless array of world-class roads and scenery we’re no strangers to touring. So we weren’t surprised with Escape Adventures, a New Zealand touring company that guides tours all over the world asked us to give their bikes a full refurbish in time for this season’s tour.

They wanted to take their stock Avanti hybrid touring bikes and have them outfitted with complete Deore groupsets, given a proper overhaul and most importantly given a fresh coat of paint befitting the company’s style. Orange with the updated logos and markings of Escape Adventures.

It took a bit of elbow grease and little bit of magic, but the end result is twelve striking good-as-new bikes. Eye-catching and clean they’ve had all the right bits updated for another dozen seasons of introducing groups of eager riders to Western Sichuan.