Basic Bikepacking Workshop

In keeping a promise...

A novice cyclist once asked: "Hey Sam, you should organise a workshop for us beginners. Teach us how to patch a punctured tube and maintain our bikes.."
I took the cue, gauged the interest, established an on-line community first through Google Groups, which is now defunct which paved way for the Malaysian Foldies Forums.
And on the first outing, I managed to rope-in Schwalbe Malaysia to co-host a workshop called: "Basic Bicycle Recovery" at Desa Park City.

Fourth series in a row

In keeping with my promise, I proposed to conduct the Bikepacking For Beginners workshop, catering to a crowd of between 30-40 people.
I ran this with the event's co-host Mr Edmund Foo of Atmosphere Outfitters who agreed to have it at his premise for the second time. (We did Basic Folding Bicycle Touring last year).
To get things going, I also roped in Mr Yong from Quicksports, a loyal supporter of the MF group who specialises in the sale of Garmin Bicycling GPS.
Yong had set up a table to display his ware as well as participate in the 30-minute talk I conducted for the crowd.

A participant registering for the workshop

The crowd checking out Yong's goods

The crowd during the talk

Introducing Yong from Quicksports

Edmund with his special tee-shirts

A family affair

I managed to get some help from my wife Michelle who generously contributed an overhead projector for my PowerPoint presentation.
She also manned the registration table where door gifts were handed out courtesy of Le Run Industries. 
We expected at least 30 people, half the number had turned up.
Nevertheless, the show must go on! 
So, I presented my talk and ended it by thanking the participants and co-hosts for turning up.

Giving back

Hosting the talks was my way of contributing to the public apart from my opinions through my blog and Folding Bike Column on BaikBike.com.
By teaching people on how to do things, it is my hope that someday, they too would be able to spread the awareness.
Our good deeds in reflected through good examples and if done right, the interest could be sustainable.
That said, I hope to continue giving back to the community through my series of talks conducted at no cost to the participants...

Basic Folding Bicycle Touring Workshop

Leading the newcomers
After concluding the basic bicycle recovery workshop a couple of months ago, I floated the idea of conducting a basic folding bicycle touring workshop for beginners to Ed Foo of atmosphere outfitters.
He jumped at the opportunity and I got to work right away.
The first thing I did, was to inform Ruey Chan of Le Run Industries. 
Chan represents Dahon Bikes for Malaysia and had agreed to support the workshop by bringing some Dahon schwag and two sample bikes.
Ed, on the other hand, supplied drinks and light snacks.
He also convinced the building maintenance people from Subang Avenue to provide tables and chairs for the event.

Networking with the foldies
We had the Malaysian Foldie Forums which serves as an important domain for inputting a knowledge base on folding bikes.
Sadly, none of the dealers and distributors were interested in using it.
Its free anyway.
I can see the same people who are active on the forums as well as Malaysian Foldies' Facebook page participating in the programme.
The aim is to educate newcomers on the aspect of bicycle touring.
I had to make it very simple so that even those without any background on bicycle knowledge would understand the brief presentation.
 

Setting up the venue for the workshop

My regular cycling kaki Toh and television host Chris Ng

 Keeping things simple
I don't really know the level of expectation among the attendees for the workshop, so, with the assumption that most of them are new to long distance rides and being a cycling tourist, I have designed the presentation with a series of simple to understand point-form slides on the Microsoft Powerpoint software.
It took me about an hour to complete the presentation which is kept to its bare minimal. No jargons, fancy-schmancy technicalities. Just plain English and I have about 30-minutes to execute the job.

Giving introduction to the crowd at the beginning of the workshop

Making my presentation

Crowd reaction
Right from the beginning, I told Ed that I had expected no more than 30 people at the event.
And true to my anticipation, there were more than 20 people who came to listen to my talk.
I paced myself to 1 minute per slide and maintained eye-contact with the crowd.
Most of them were paying close attention to what I had to say and I managed to maintain their attention span throughout.
There was brief question and answer session at the end of the talk and I am glad that the attendees were quite cooperative.
Ed Foo took the floor after my presentation and Ruey Chan had his shot by introducing the crowd to Dahon's products.

Ed Foo explaining his products to the crowd

Posing for BaikBike.com

Summary
Both Ed and I were pleased with the crowd turnout at the workshop.
This was Malaysian Foldies' second outing and we hope to conduct more of such events in the future.
I think what's in store is a practical touring workshop for advanced cyclist and I just know where to plan the route and conduct the event.
After wrapping-up, I rode back to USJ26 with my Dahon Speed P8 and took a lunch break in USJ7 with my fellow folding bike cyclists.

Late lunch with the gang...

 

Some cool Ortlieb stuff and schwag

A long and overdue visit...
I've made prior arrangements to meet with Ed Foo of Atmosphere outfitters to view some cool Ortlieb 30th anniversary limited-edition panniers.
Foo is a quite hard to get hold of as he is perpetually busy taking care of his son and doing his sales rounds.
He told be that business has been stable after two years of setting up Atmosphere Outfitters.

Foo, showing off one of the limited-edition pannier

 The wow! factor as usual
I've got to say that the Ortlieb 30 years of waterproof pannier is nothing short of being impressive.
To commemorate their 30th anniversary, the German company had produced a limited-run of their famous Backroller classic.
Only one side is sold at RM295 a pop.
My favourite is the yellow-coloured Backroller featuring the Asian continent.

A rare find: The 30th anniversary backroller

Other cool schwag
I saw a pair of Ortlieb coffee mugs.
These are cool and are only issued to the regional distributor.
There was also a limited-edition small rack pack which was resting on the shelves.
Very cool to own, but Ed told me that only one was given to him for his loyal services.

The cool 30th anniversary mugs

The toxic green rackpack

The way forward
Its never cheap to own an Ortlieb product.
My first set was purchased from Fall Factor in Singapore and this was followed by another set of front and backrollers.
Recently, I've added a flight 27 backpack and a trunk bag to my arsenal.
These are never cheap, but they yield years of use under demanding situations.
Ed's stuff are now being sold at bicycle shops in the Klang Valley.
For a comprehensive range check out his showroom at level 3 in Subang Avenue mall in SS14, Subang Jaya.

What's up Ed?

A follow-up visit..
I gave Ed Foo a tinkle today. 
Told him that I would swing by his store at Subang Avenue. 
He's been running Atmosphere Outfitters for nearly half a year and is the authorized distributor for Ortlieb packs in Malaysia.

Ed and his new ride: A Dahon Mu P8

Now, a foldie!
I haven't seen the guy for months and when I walked into his store, there was a white coloured Dahon folding bike
It was fitted with a white Ortlieb backtroller and hidden in plain sight, was a Tubus bike rack, which I believe - the first in Malaysia mounted on a folding bike.
We exchanged some notes and caught up in conversation on what's going on in the folding bike scene.
He said the Mu P8 was purchased from Godzilla cycles in Kota Damansara.
The same guy who sold me my Dahon Speed P8 had cut a deal with Ed.

The gorgeous Ortlieb backroller classic

Coming to an event near you: Ed's ride

Some cool new stuff!
There's a shipment of the latest Ortlieb gear at the store. More on they way as they touch down at KLIA this weekend.
One particular pack: the COR13 caught my attention.
I was told that some knife expert bought two of them as his bugout bag - fearing that the world will come to an end in eight month's time... Well, good luck fellah! 
The COR13 is small and pretty nippy. But the price, well, can sink a man's heart!
Other than the waterproof pack, there are some Ortlieb Snap camera pouches. I swear by these when I packed my Canon Powershot G12 for my outings. 

The Ortlieb COR13 on the left

It's a dog eat dog world.. 
During our conversation, Ed told me that he nearly got screwed by a premium folding bike store in Damansara Perdana over some pannier deal.
Its a hard way to learn about the business as there some really nasty retailers out there.
He told me that Atmosphere outfitter's website is going live as soon as the final touches are added.
For the job, he engaged a freelance web designer to get the on-line store going.
That said, I think Ed's gonna be around with more Ortlieb goodies in the offing.. 

New Ortlieb distributor for Malaysia

Ed Foo's new store in Subang Avenue

Cyclists no longer need to head South for their Ortlieb gear

Atmosphere Outfitters' range of bags

Ortlieb Mudracer saddle bags

My buddy Ah Pan from Karak had introduced me to his fishing kaki Ed Foo who owns Atmosphere Outfitters in Subang Avenue.
This is a new store, comparable to many in Singapore and Thailand.
Foo had raised the bar on retailing high-quality stuff and when it comes to an extensive range of Ortlieb bicycle panniers, this is the place to look out for.
This also means that traveling to Singapore is no longer a necessity.
And dealing with fucking idiots in an outfitter store in Bangsar is a thing in the past.
Although Foo admits that he knew nuts about bicycling bags, he was glad to know that the touring community is growing in the Klang Valley.
"My turnaround for orders is five days, if you see anything you want on the Ortlieb catalog, you can get it here," assures Foo.
For a sceptic like me who have been fucked by the local dealers here in Malaysia, I was awestrucked by Atmosphere Outfitter's range of Ortlieb products.
Foo, who is a dirt-biker and fishing kaki, is familiar with motorbike stuff.
He told me that he was particularly disappointed with the attitude of bicycle shop retailers here as they were too afraid to retail high-end goods from Ortlieb.
I assured him that by creating the proper awareness, he will be able to reach out to the right group of people.
As an Ortlieb user, I told Foo about my experience with the Back and Frontroller classic panniers on my 2009 Dahon Speed P8.
After the intro session, I also told him about product knowledge is an important aspect in getting the message across and what you pay for is what you get.
During our informal meeting, I also told Foo about the attitude of cyclists here in general.
Most people want a bang for their buck and would spend less to get the most out of their gear.
That's why they end up with crap panniers and regret them for the rest of their lives.
He also told me how he got fucked from a Thai manufacturer who took pictures of the Ortlieb bags and had them copied and produced.
I got no issue with that because when a tourer gets fucked with inferior crap, then they truly learn that there is no point being penny wise and pound foolish.
And for cycling garments, Foo, who also deals directly with clothing manufacturers in Thailand, said he will be able to sell large-sized dry-fit shirts.
Well, Atmosphere Outfitters is still very new, barely a week old. So, if you want to check them out, head to Subang Avenue complex in SS14, Subang Jaya.