I am starting to have insomnia thinking about Baikal. The thought of a bike tour around the lake is taking strong roots and I am totally convinced that it is something that needs to be done. In my mind, it seems like a seed is being planted to kick start a nomadic lifestyle.

Baikal, sharp, crisp, bi-syllable, banana shaped fresh water lake seems to be taking over my thoughts. There is something magical and alluring about this lake. When I was on Train-007, something strange happened while passing through Baikal. I guess it was a combination of train fatigue, heat and the extremely annoying change to the direction of sunlight. I was looking froward to the views of the frozen lake and once the lake came into view, the sunlight started playing tricks. The train passed along the coast and was constantly changing directions from NW to SW and back to NW. The cabin was a toasty 30C and the blindingly bright sunlight reflecting off the frozen lake was increasing the temperature and made me squint. When I peeked out of the train, all I could see was the sky and the frozen lake reaching out at the horizon. The urge to get out of the train was at its peak (like I said, It could be the heat and fatigue, but I prefer to consider it the Baikal Allure).

However, a few hours of torture later, the mysterious Baikal disappeared from view and all was normal again.

Now that I am back, I get flashes of light and shadows and constantly see the vast landscape of Ice, sky and Sun. It is as if Baikal has a spell over me. I am forced to check out maps and stare at the lake. I am strangely starting to read Cyrillic. I religiously research about the lake, the people settled around, the weather conditions, climate patterns etc… I dream about biking along rough roads and camping among conifers. I feel the warm sun on my face and I realize I am at home and over slept.

It is difficult to look forward to the daily chore when you know there is a different life out there. It seems like I am getting flashes from a parallel Universe or may be from the future.

I wish to think it is from the future, and if that is the future, I need to prepare for it. I have strategize my life towards being a nomad. Need to find a source of $ to sustain my life. I do not need much money, just enough to survive and a few additional bucks for the rainy day. Generating savings for survival is trivial. I don’t think  that is a concern. What is a concern is that I am afraid the dream may disappear. I want this dream, I have always spoken about being a bike nomad but now I have a strong urge to be one.

I think Baikal is the key. I have a feeling that it is going to open the door to my future.

Came across this article in ‘Today’.

Latest estimates put the population to 17 million. I have been to Beijing and I should say it is a pretty congested town. It seems like they go through extreme measures to keep the vehicle count on the road down (similar to our weekend COE idea).

China is probably the largest car market right now and there is obvoiusly lot of money to be made in selling cars (They can have a COE system and an ERP system and I suppose the demand for car would not go down. It will be a good revenue stream for the Beijing Municipality. They can build better roads and better Public transportation with that money.

But it seems like they are doing neither. Instead, they plan to inconvenience car drivers by bringing back bike lanes.

Makes me wonder. If China (who are fighting for their right to develop at a rapid pace) can think of solving their traffic and pollution woes by introducing bike lanes, why does Singapore think the other way around?

I am not saying bring us bike lanes. I am just saying divert your attention from cyclists (and educating them) to Drivers (and how they can be made responsible for their actions on the road).

A nice way to round up a long weekend. A bunch of travel plans went down the drain but in the end, the weekend turned out to be much fun.

Myself and my brother decided to do a quick loop around the island and though it could have been longer, we stopped short to avoid some night riding. Me on my NWT and my brother on his Tikit. 85 Km of very pleasant weather punctuated with muted sunshine and light showers.

It all started with a quickly decided ride to the Zoo via Mandai Road. We looped in through the Upper Seletar, a nice winding, traffic free route that by passes the more congested Upp Thomson Road. Once at Mandai, we decided to continue on to Sungei Buloh and down to Jurong east. The Kranji Road was not much fun with too many trucks kicking up dust and sand but that lasted just for a few Km’s.

A pitstop at Sungei Buloh and we continued on to Jurong to head towards Clementi. Well, after about 40 km we decided to get something to eat and we found a good place in Jurong East, under the MRT line (with the noise of trains screaming past at regular intervals). Post Clementi, we took Pasir Panjang Rd to town (bypassing West Coast Highway) and from town it is my regular commute home.

We debated on whether we should continue on along east coast, head to changi village and return via Lornie rd. In the end, we decided to take it easy and headed home to clock 85Km. A very easy ride to top up a relaxing weekend.

If you followed my twitter updates (on the right sidebar here), you might realize, I picked up a Tikit for my brother by availing the Black Friday deal. And since it was here this weekend, we decided to take it out on a foldie shakedown. So 4 of us, 2 Tikits, a Buzz and myself on the NWT, decided to go around on a little jaunt looking for good food in the neighborhood.

Based on hearsay, we decided to make a nice little Nepalese restaurant called Everest kitchen serving excellent momo’s our first stop. A short 6 km from home, we were at the restaurant and sneaked in the bikes (actually, the restaurant was nice to let us keep the folded bikes indoors).

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A hearty lunch and some really good momo’s later, we wanted to head to Serangoon Gardens to check out the place. Regulars may know the place but it was totally new to me. Though I have lived in the vicinity for more than 2 years, I have never been to this place. I should say the foldies were helping me to explore the neighborhood and am glad I did go there. I visited a cozy little italian restaurant called Ristorante De Parma with some very friendly people and binged on a bunch of desserts. The menu is a bit on the pricy side but it is worth every penny.

Again finding space for the foldies in the cramped sidewalk was easy enough and I look forward to getting back frequently.

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I am also looking forward to exploring more cozy corners. If anyone knows of any hidden secrets, do drop a note.

There is a bit of obsession going on with my NWT over the recent weeks. I guess I have not put much thought on my earlier bikes and I just ride them without worrying about prettying them up or focussing on minor upgrades. Guess this is probably a phase and I will ride (no pun intended) through it as it passes.

One of the things that I found to be a bit of an annoyance was the location of the brake levers. I guess I am pretty happy with the gear shifters but the levers seemed to get in the way of where I found my hands comfortable, i.e. near the curve up front. So I made a mental note to push the levers forward. That means the the levers are going to be in partly in the bend and the levers may flare out.

I pushed them forward a bit and indeed the levers stick out a little. Not something that will bother me with my long fingers but people with small hands may find it a bit difficult. But then they may be comfortable keeping the  levers closer too. Like I mentioned, the trekking bars provide a variety of options and is fairly customizable. A couple of rides will be able to give me a sense of the position of the levers.

Anyhow, I felt good about the positioning and took some time to wrap the bars with the cloth bar tape I picked up from velo orange. Though it looks a little odd, I kind of like the two tone color scheme. I was planning to wrap over with a leather tape but I will wait to do that until I am comfortable with the positioning of the lever.

The positioning of the bell near the brake lever was pretty much annoying and I moved the bell to a place near the stem. I have to move my hands to get to the bell, but then I dont intend to use it to annoy people in busy areas. It is more of a device to communicate with my riding buddy over a short distance. It is pretty nice tool for that.

Finally, I gave a bit of boost to my LHT. I currently have a ESGE double kickstand and since the LHT does not have a kickstand plate, I was living with the annoyance of frequently tightening the stand. Furthermore, my stand came with a flat bold instead of a chamfered one. I picked up a chamfered bolt from Clever cycles (they were nice to give it to me for free!) when I was in PDX. I decided it was time to change and some of the leftover bartape came in handy. I picked up this tip from the Rivendell site and without over-tightening the bolt, the stand seems nicely fixed in place.

A good way to spend some time in the weekend don’t you agree?

You might have observed in the past few posts, there were a bunch of equipment upgrades on my bikes. Some of them well worth it, some probably vain. There seems to be missing an essential component, that of riding the bike. Heh, It is about time I really road tested the NWT.

Al, requested for pictures of the complete bike and here they go.

First up, a 100 Km loop to Kota Tinggi. It was almost impromptu ride, my brother pushed me to join him and I figured it is a good excuse to take the NWT on a shakedown. You know bikes take a bit to settle down. Cables will stretch, tires will roll into place, brakes will wear in etc… I had a few things to check out too, like how do my panniers fit the rear rack, will I have heel strike, will my setup with skating wheels work fine with the panniers, how will the dual drive hold up over long distances etc…

I realized after the initial short rides, the shifters were a bit tricky to reach, so the first adjustments were made (I have not put on bar tape yet expecting more adjustments in the coming days). I swapped my B17 with the B67 from the Surly and the bike was ready for the road test. The bigger question was whether I was ready

For those who do not know about SE Asia, we do not have regular seasons, the only thing regular is the intense sun, high humidity and thunderstorms and usually they decide to mix and match combinations as the day progresses.

We started off about 0830 in pretty much high sun and the only thing I could look forward to was some cheap / great food in JB and if lucky, some showers in the mid day. Luck did not hold out for us and we were served with intense heat and near 100% humidity throughout the ride. As it is with riding out through the causeway into Johor Bahru, heavy traffic is the norm until you cross Kota Tinggi. So an out and back loop means that we are practically in heavy traffic throughout the ride. Added to it was the fact that the highway 3 was being extended and all trees have disappeared. Shade was scarce.

Well let me say that it was a very difficult metric century. We ran through a few litres of water and at least a litre of gatorade (each) before we decided to turn back. At the halfway point, we stopped by a street side coconut vendor (Thank god they are willing to brave the heat to quench the thirst of travelers) and gulped down a couple of coconuts before turning back.

It was a good decision in the end as my brother was pretty dehydrated and exhausted when we reached JB. The ride route as follows:

So how did the bike hold up in this ride. Well, excellently. The  setup is a bit more upright and the B67 was a good choice, no sore butt or shoulder. The trekking bars were great. There were indeed many comfortable positions I could use, a worthy choice again. I do not like the position of the levers, I may push them forward a bit but given the curve on the bar, the levers might flare out a little. I will have to try the setup. I will most definitely move the bell to some place near the stem. The bell is a great idea to communicate with my brother over short distances. Ding Ding and we stop to check each other out.

I liked the friction shifters. Infinitely better than the twist shifters. The Tikit my brother was riding had a very tight twist shifter and the rear dee was also out of alignment. He had a terrible time shifting. Not so for me, heh. If I don’t shift smooth at first, I just need to feather the shifter and I am sailing along smoothly

The Dual Drive was a revelation. I need to probably write separately about the dual drive. It deserves honorable mention. But let me say a few words, Shifting was precise and smooth. I did have to use a trigger shifter for that and with a quick flick, I go from pounding on the pedals to tootling with a whistle on my lips.  The best part was that I could stick to any of the 3 gears and still choose to use the entire cassette. That means less fiddling with the gears. If you have been riding with front deraiullers (which most of us are), this is really neat. And the gear range is very nice. Rolling hills, well, bring it on I say now.Al e-mailed me once to caution me about some of the quirks of the dual drive. It has not reared its ugly head till now and I will wait for them to surface. For now, dual drive is really worth it if you are considering it for your bike.

The only minor issue I had was the chain slip when I switched gears too quickly (on the cassette not the dual drive). That is because of the odd angle the chain has to take when in the extreme gears. A chain guide should patch it, but I am in no hurry for that.

Overall, the bike worked like a charm, an intense metric century in trying conditions is the best way to check out a bike I guess and the NWT passed the test in flying colors. Thank you Bike Friday!

Here are some upgrades I have done on the NWT. It took me a while to gather required components and it was speedily assembled by the very competent folks at TR bikes.

Porn first, story follows:

SRAM dual drive II rear hub: I got this from the local Dahon dealer. I have been thinking about getting a bike with dual drive for a long while now (since a couple of years back when I first saw the Dahon speed TR). My brother wanted to setup a similar drivetrain on his tikit but to keep things even simpler, opted for the Alfine 8 speed instead.  I had a nice ride around and I should say the Dual drive is pretty cool. The gear range is awesome, very very low gearing and a very reasonable top end too. I am not too fond of high speed riding and the current gearing seems spot on.

I hunted around on the internet for a 32 hole dual drive but did not find a suitable hub. But as it happens, we search for things all over without realizing things are probably right under our noses. When I eventually enquired with the friendly fellers at speed matrix, I found that they had a built 20″ wheel with the hub ready to be used. I pounced on it and am glad I did. The ride is smooth, the gear shift within the hub is very smooth and silent. And though it does not sound to be a big deal, the ability to switch gears while stationery is really nice to have.

A+ for the hubs (until I get a puncture I suppose). Actually removing the click box is easy, I just need to carry a spanner / wrench to remove the wheels. Not a big deal at all.

Nitto B825 multi position bar: Flat bars are nice and minimalist and good for zipping around town. A folding bike is primarily designed for that and I respect the choice made by manufacturers. The nice thing about the NWT is the fact that they do not restrict you to stick with one type of bar. Since they take standard stems, I have a choice of any bar I want. I was thinking about getting a Moustache bar or my favorite Midge bar. It just happened that TR bikes decided to put their trekking bars on sale (and they were Nitto too). Well it was a bar I have been thinking of checking out and figured this is as good an opportunity as any to swap my bars. So on they went. The only trouble with the multi position bars is that they have multiple comfortable positions (doh) for your hand. This means that there are numerous choices on where to install brake and shift levers.

The configuration above shows what I decided for a first design. Brake levers go on the sides (pretty comfy hand position) and the shift levers are going on the ends, away from the brake but not a bad place for them. On the left is the shifter for the Dual Drive hub and on the right is the sunrace friction shifter for the 8-speed cassette. The sunrace shifters are a bit twitchy but I got used to them in under 3 minutes. After a 10 km ride, I think I would push the brakelevers a bit further up and once I am comfortable, will put on the bartapes etc..

MKS Grip King pedals: I picked them up at clever cycles when I was visiting portland a couple of months back. What can I say, they offer good grip even with sandals on and a large surface to rest the foot. I have no complaints.

Bike Friday Folding rear rack: I picked these up while taking delivery of my NWT and they definitely look very well made. The finish is nice and dare I say you can mistake them for a tubus. The nice thing about the rack is that the joints are supported by screws. This allows for folding the rack and add on some roller blade wheels for pushing the bike when folded. But I am also afraid after a while of carrying load, the threads may strip. Not an immediate concern but it is at the back of my mind anyway.

I bought a bunch of cheap skating wheels and put them up (I could not find the wheels in black). The wheels with bearings etc cost less than 20 sgd. They roll smoothly but is a solution to push the bike to a corner without damaging the rack and not for pushing around town.

So that’s the upgrade till now. There is a one more thing and I will update once it is complete . As it is the bike is all ready to rock and roll.

I have been contemplating some upgrades for the bike (part of it is lust for shiny new stuff and mostly things I think can improve my commute and beyond). There are 2 bikes that I am focussing on upgrades, firstly, it is my Long Haul Trucker and the second one id some upgrades to my New World Tourist. Lets focus on the simpler upgrade, my Long Haul trucker.

The focus is on setting up a power plant on the bike to generate electricity. Recently (2009 / 2010) many companies are working on products that focus on harnessing energy from the bike to charge electronics (phone, GPS etc…). Some good products coming on line are from pedal power +, B&M and Dahon. I have invested in checking out Pedal Power + and will be testing out their product in the coming weeks. The missing component in my bike is a good electricity generator.

Dynamos on bikes are very old technology and have been around for a long time now and the technology is very mature. Generally, there are 2 classes of products, side wall dynamos (good ones are from B&M) and the hub dynamos (good ones are made by SON, Shimano and SRAM). Pros and cons exist for both versions and I have decided on going along the Hub route. It is expensive option (generally) but if you get a good deal on a hub, it is a very fuss free option.

As I was procuring some components I chanced on a great deal for a Shimano DH-3N72 hub (< 60 USD) and pounced on it. I dont know much about the quality of dynamos but Peter White says that the Shimano Hubs (especially the 7x and 8x) are very good bang for the buck and a very good long term value. I received the package and the hub looks very delicious in appearance and it came with a skewer too. The electric attachment also looks pretty robust I do think it is a good value. I will have to wait for the built wheel and some riding to see if things are going to be smooth sailing.

So, the project essentially involves building a new wheel around the Shimano dynamo hub. I also found good deals on a nice head light (Spanninga Luceo) at velo orange and the entire package does not blow a hole in the wallet. I contemplated re-lacing my current front wheel with the hub but when I thought about it, I needed to get rid of the current rim tape, undo the spokes, get new spokes or try to re-tap the current ones to be used with the larger hub, build the wheels again and replace the rim tape. On the other hand, if I just got a new rim, I need not strip the current wheel and keep it as a backup or sell it to someone who needs it. That’s what I decided and I am going to get a new rim and build a new wheel around the hub. Some pictures in the blog show the new stuff and I will post pictures once I get the wheel built.

The wheels are being built by TR bikes who have built my earlier wheels too and do a great job about it. They recently have tied up with a new wheel builder and I am expecting the build to be the best one can get.

Enjoy the component porn while I wait for the wheel (should be in within the week) and I will be posting more of my experiments with the lights and pedal power + charger in the weeks to come.

Update: I realized it is not easy to find the sub 60$ deal on the hub. It is actually sold by Niagara Cycle Works and they have an amazon shopfront. A direct link to the product is here. It says DH-3N71, but they shipped a DH-3N72. According to Peter White, there is no difference between the models (except the 8x which has an aluminum axle). If you are still waiting on a hub, run there to score the deal.

It has been a few months and a few folding bikes tested, purchased and ridden. Though the initial posts were hinting at helping a friend decide on a foldie, it also was an exercise for me to figure out what I need (see, I walk the talk too).

As I mentioned elsewhere, a flurry of purchases were made, by me and people who are close to me that included:

1. A Novara Flyby Buzz (Rebranded Dahon Mu).
2. A Bike Friday Tikit. No, make that 2.
3. A Brompton M6.
4. A custom New World Tourist.

Each bike was bought for a specific reason and till now, everyone is extremely happy with their choice. There goes the debate on which ‘brand’ is better. All these are cool bikes with very unique features and equally unique quirks. I guess I should start with my bike, the New world tourist and continue on to other bikes in future essays.

Note: Most of the following is grabbed from my response to a comment from Al. so you might find duplicated info, but I suppose most of you are not reading comments…

Firstly, I decided I needed a custom sized bike as I could not get a comfortable fit on the Dahons / Bromptons. Of course, I could have obtained a decent fit from either one, but I had planned for a long term upgrade plan for the foldie and decided to go with Bike Friday.

Off the bat I decided to base the bike on a NWT and not the tikit, that made the decisions simpler. Nothing against the Tikit, I am just holding it out for a future purchase 

I was considering between the Sport / companion / expedition. I guess a large portion of the decision was factoring in the cost for a custom build. BF does some awesome custom specs but I did not want to decide up front (Didn’t have much lead time either, the bike was delivered in 2 weeks flat… Awesome).

I wanted to build the components on my own schedule. So I decided on the bike that gives me enough options. Sport has a narrower fork and I believe it can take up to 38mm tires without fenders. I wanted fenders and so that was easily eliminated. The expedition, it seems, is built with a more robust tubing and a wider fork. I was looking at the clearances for the fork and figured that I could do up to 2″ tires on the Companion without fenders and 1.75 with fenders. That was plenty good for me. Regards the overall strength of the tubing, I believe there is not much separating the NWT Companion / Sport / Expedition, people tour in all of them. So it essentially boiled down to the cost of a custom spec.

I was in discussion with BF and figured that I can get a custom spec NWT for as low as $948. Now that is a really good price point and I decided to upgrade to a Chris King headset with the savings. It is well worth it. Note I got a 8 Speed version that is plenty good for city riding. I am sure it is fine for loaded touring too but a wider gear range never hurt anyone (except pride when riding granny).

My idea currently is to make a slow and steady upgrade. The following are in the pipeline:
1. SON equipped front wheel.
2. Dual drive equipped rear wheel.
3. Rear D with a shorter cage. Stock rear D is too long (spec’d for Triple front) I like the idea of a dual drive heaps, especially for a 20″ wheel.
4. Handle Bar upgrade (midge or Moustache, still on the wall)
5. Bar end shifters (and a twist shifter for the Dual drive)
6. Front rack. I hear the bike handles extremely well with load up front, I got to try that some time 

Since I did not want to go the whole hog upfront, I went in for the cheapest custom. Turned out to be the NWT 

Went on a short ride towards Seletar Air base on a warm Sunday evening. The place turned out to be very rustic and very beautiful and rarely do you see unpaved roads in this Country. Took the opportunity to take a picture of the NWT (sorry for the crappy iPhone shot). The bike is itching to go on longer rides.

I find the bike without fenders a bit naked and am planning a bunch of upgrades in the coming weeks (fender included). I dislike the flat bar . But overall, the ride is pretty much spot on.

As you can notice, the bike Friday Folding Rear rack allows me to put in some Inline skating wheels (20 SGD for the upgrade, sweet) to prevent damaging the rack and for rolling it when folded. Good when rolling it from one corner of the room to another and pushing the while storing. Not much use on the road. Neat, none the less!