Cycling is fun. I suppose that is obvious from all the raving I do on this site. I have personally enjoyed the experience of riding round new roads (which are not part of bus routes) and discovering nice nooks. Most of my cycling is however done for utility. I commute to work (35Km’s 2 way). As a consequence, I end up rushing along with the traffic in the morning and have a bit of spare time to look around for interesting places in the evening. Of course the other type of riding, I do it occasional Touring, which is mostly recreational.

My LHT, a well oiled beast carries me around on these rides in style. But over the years, I have come to accept that I would not readily bring out my bikes for short rides (< 20km).  The effort of bringing the bike through the cramped elevators, likely change in clothes / shoes just goes over the bar of me enjoying the short ride.

I suppose that’s when I contracted foldinitis. Though the Tikit or the Flyby is a far cry from the versatility of the LHT, they fill a very neat niche. One of taking short rides exploring the neighborhood. I have been living in my current location for almost a couple of years and have very little idea of what my neighborhood offers. The other day when I was heading back from IKEA I realized that the small dirty canal behind my house turns into a gorgeous 100m wide river just a couple of Km’s from home. I guess the ‘discovery’ was part chance and part due to the fact that I was riding a bike.

Over the weekend, a friend of mine sourced out a mushroom farm near my place (I did not know they had mushroom farms in Singapore). The funny part is that the farm is just about 6 km from home, a literal stone throw away. Coupled with the fact that it is near Jln Kayu, the home of Singaporean Prata (flaky bread). 6 Km as you imagine is below my threshold for taking my LHT out. But since I have a couple of foldies (a surrogate flyby and an easily steal-able tikit) in my house, I could not come up with any excuse to avoid the trip. And it was worth while. Crisp ride in summer showers, little traffic, wide roads etc…

I have been out having fun ride on the foldies almost every weekend now and I can understand why it quickly seems like the go-to bike for people who have foldies. It is just so quick to take out and much fun to ride that you don’t think twice about cycling away. At least that’s how it seems when you live in cramped high rises. And I am enjoying every bit of the foldie experience.

Now, let me get back to stalking the PC / PS.