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).

It is how one views things. I saw this on one of my favorite blogs (ogle at hot, stylish girls on bikes – whats not to like).

I do not expect this to happen all over the world. However, it is a measure of how much the notion of cycling as a means of transport has seeped into the public conscience.

The problem as I see it in Singapore is that the authorities and public view cycling as either a sport or recreational activity or at the very most, a mode of transport for the extremely poor and dare I say it, foreign workers. The second part of the equation is the notion that the people who ride are unwilling to learn the local traffic rules and will flout the rules even if taught.

Now seen from such clouded perspective it is easy to understand why the authorities are trying to ‘fix’ the cyclist instead of the drivers and more importantly the infrastructure. The typical cyclist is viewed as one with low economical value and hence there is very little need to provide for them. This idea also spreads in other areas. A colleague commented on how someone from LTA was quoted as saying that providing amenities for handicapped people was cost prohibitive (I quote without basis here). The notion of economic value add is at play here again.

The same is true in the rest of the world too. I suppose Copenhagen city council is willing to invest in infrastructure since the ones cycling are teachers, lawyers, doctors and tradesmen, all contributing to the economy and it is ‘worth it’ to keep these lives safe.

I sound morose but I guess that is how things are.

Getting back, I am not expecting very fancy railings or segregated lanes (it will be great to have them and will encourage more cyclists). But I can live without some middle manager quoting to the media and media misquoting to rest of the world that cyclists are endangering their lives and others.

This is a real pity.

I quote from the Channel News Asia Article:

More often than not, cyclists are at fault when it comes to fatal or serious road traffic accidents involving them.

This has been the case in more than 50 per cent of such accidents between January and September of the last two years, said Senior Parliamentary Secretary of Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli in Parliament on Tuesday.

Common causes for the accidents include changing lanes without due care, failing to keep a lookout, and failing to give way to traffic with right of way.

The rationale is akin to saying (for lack of a better comparison) that women with short skirts are at fault for being molested.

Oh Please this is an amateurish argument. If you cannot provide proper infrastructure, you might be better off keeping the mouth shut.

It is totally possible that this is simply bad journalism (from what I see being published on local news papers, I will not be surprised). It is also possible that the parliamentary Secretary is quoted verbatim. Either way, it is a step in the wrong direction.

I am not absolving cyclists of faults but any argument that blames the victims is a weak mechanism to shrug off ones responsibility and avoid a sensible debate.

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.

F1 fever is hitting a high note. This the race weekend and final preparations of the track are underway. My riding route passes through most of the race track and over the past few weeks, things have been taking shape, lights, barriers, now kerbs are in place. Yesterday most of the roads were closed in the evening and I had to find my way across. The funny part was that I managed to get inside the confines of the circuit but could not find a way out on the other end.

Inquiries led me nowhere and someone suggested I walk through the underpass (where is the foldie when I want it ). Luckily, some parts of the circuit were not fully secured, I guess for people to walk in and take pictures. I managed to get out and follow along a couple of non traditional paths and rejoined my regular commute route.

When I was in the circuit, I could not help but snap my racer(ahem!) in the track. Looks more like a pick up if you ask me…

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!

I got one today, well technically 2 and not sure if the second one is my fault or not.

I have been diligently carrying my spare tube, puncture kit and pump in my bag on my daily commute and in the past couple of years, I have had no flats at all. I guess it is a combination of smooth and well maintained roads and some effort from my end to avoid any debris I find. It has been well and my tires have protected me from flats till today. Well if you are interested, the tires are Panaracer Crosstown.  I do not know how to differentiate tires but I do know they run metal beads and are a bit heavy. They work well in the rain and are pretty flat resistant. Good overall tires.

This morning, as I was leaving home, I had a feeling that the rear tire was not fully inflated, I did the old squeeze the tire with your fingers and figured I am probably ok  with the pressure. And it was fine for the 12 km after which I felt that the rear was dragging.  I took a look and there it was a deeply deflated rear. Well, I found a decent shade and got down to fix the flat, I found a really tiny piece of wire sticking through the tire, It could have been a stapling pin since it was stiff enough to poke through the tire. Well, I had 2 choices, try to patch the flat or just replace the tube.  I decided to replace as it is a quicker option. Went through the motions of checking the tire, inflating the tube a little, fixing the tire back and fitting the wheel. Then I started to pump the tire up, it felt positive but then the pressure ever picked up. I guess I must have wither pinched the tube while fixing or may be the valve is malfunctioning. Well I had already spent enough time and decided I should just head to TBB and worry about fixing the flat in the evening.

I was thinking I might just ride on but with the very flay tire, I did not want to damage the rim or fall down in traffic because the tire slipping out. Oh well, reasonable taxi fares to the rescue and I cabbed it to the bike shop.

I might know in the evening if it was my fault fitting the tube or a defect in the tube. Either way, a learning experience, I should periodically check my tire changing skills and also check if my repair kit is in order.

There are times when you settle into a nice rhythm for your morning schedule that you dont think twice about what you are doing. It has been that way for me for my morning commute to work. Once I am done with my wake up routine, I look for my cycling tights, Jersey, pack my pannier with my work clothes (puncture kit and pump are resident in the pannier), wear my clipless shoes and scoot out on my Surly. Most of the regular stuff I use on my commute like the GPS / speedo, lights, locks etc are on the bike and I dont even think  about them. I have had very few times when I realize that the batteries are dying or may be I forgot a plastic bag protection for my saddle etc.. and these are easily fixed when I get back home in the evening.

Now, most of you know that I regularly ride a Surly LHT and a Trek XO-1. I am not sure I have mentioned before that I busted my rear wheel on my XO-1 as a consequence of riding it with a bent wheel. I ahd put the bike up for sale and so did not bother much about fixing the wheels and the bike had been lying idle for a long while. Recently, I was inspired to not let the bike lie idle and wait for a sale, instead get some wheels and ride it around until I can find a suitable buyer.

After searching for a week, I found a nice set of used light weight wheels, Bontrager race lite. I was thinking of upgrading to a heavier wheel but I think the bike will have better value with lighter wheels. I swapped out my old wheels and set it up with the race lites. the new wheels came with tires too, that was a good deal to have. Once I have a ridable bike, my feet gets itchy and I have to take a ride. So I figured I would commute on this light, skinny wheels for the week. Trouble is that it kind of interrupted my morning rhythm.

Things seemed to go fine, I took my bike through the elevator, pannier fitted and all and was about to pedal off when I realized, shucks, I am wearing my Mountain shoe (SPD) and my XO-1 is equipped with a SPD-SL road pedals. OK took the elevator back to the house, swapped my shoes out and out I went again. As I was about to pedal off, I realized the saddle was too low. Damn, I had earlier let a friend test ride the bike and I have not restored the saddle for my height. Luckily, I carry a couple of standard allen keys in my handlebar pouch and got the saddle back in its position.

The ride was very nice in the morning with crisp air and mild sunshine. I reached work and was about to hook the bike up to its usual lamp post when I realized, damn I am missing my lock. I had a chain lock attached with the bike which I removed a while back. I had forgotten to bring it today. Though the parking area is under the security guard’s nose, I know better than to leave a unlocked bike out of my sight and did the only thing I could. Rode the bike out. Of course, I had a good plan B. a little further from my work place is a shop offering a BikeLodging service, you can park it in their shop and take a shower for 10$. That is realy cool. I have mentioned The Bike Boutique before and I still think it is a good business to be running. I am not sure if the Lodging services is profitable, but it sure get them karma Points and some really good exposure to the spending public. I was glad they exist and after a quick shower, managed to get into office not too late.

Well, all this simply because I decided to switch my bike. I need to have a more streamlined process to endure such ‘mishaps’ can be avoided in the future…

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.

I had to drop my brother at the airport recently and I reasoned that I could combine the drop off with ride along the Changi PCN. Why, you ask?

1. Because I can.
2. The folding bikes enable me.
3. I have not checked out the PCN and have missed riding by the runway.
4. Let a friend of mine gain experience riding on the roads.

So I decided I will carry the Flyby and my friend’s Tikit (didnt I say I have nice friends) along with the luggage on a cab. There were risks involved, what if the bikes did not fit. What if the cabbie was not happy. Oh well, I figured I will deal with it.

So the first hurdle was to fit 2 bikes on the boot of a standard cab and squeeze in a carry on bag. Iniotially, the tikit was behaving oddly but with a bit of coaxing, managed to fit it in. Topped it with the flyby and then showed the luggage on top.  Observed that the space occupied by the flyby is smaller than the tikit though tikit uses 16″ wheels.

We got to the airport and promptly plonked the bikes on a trolley and after a bit of fiddling, the stuck to the trolley and did not budge. Getting out of Changi on a bike is a challenge as the airport boulevard leads on to ECP and it is illegal to ride there. I am sure there is some unknown shortcut through the back alleys of the airport service lanes that one could actually cycle out of the airport. But I chose not to spend time investigating and headed down to the basement for a bus ride to the EC park. 36, it was and we hopped on without any hassle (The driver gave a curious look) parked teh biked in the luggage / handicapped spot and got to the park in 10 minutes.

Just as we got off the bus, a heavy thunderstorm swept the coast and we had to wait a while till the rain eased. Lucky break because the Flyby’s Dahon V-Clamp hinge decided to malfunction and it took a while before I got it all settled. I will have to write about the V-Clamp after investigating the issue. The rain did ease, we saw off a few roller blading babes and rode into the evening. The Weather was wet throughout the ride but with very light traffic. I’d take wet over crowd anyday.

We stuck to the PCN and I was impressed with the nice roads and the route it took along the coast. Reminded me of someone mentioning that road planners in Germany plan for a cycle path that runs along highways and connects villages / cities. I wish they had more roads like this in this part of the world. I kind of enjoyed the slow pace of the ride, as I usually am time-trialing mode at the Changi coastal Rd. The weather was brilliant and in no time reached changi village. Decided to break for dinner and had some decent food at one of the shops selling Thai food. Post dinner, the weather remained still wet and we decided to take a cab home and that’s what we did.

I am pretty impressed by the ability to make sudden changes in plans simply because I am on a foldie. I believe it cuts both ways, it can make one lazy and can kill adventure but can also salvage one in tricky conditions. Still the advantages are there and I enjoyed the ride, which is what matters.