So, you want to cycle to work.. - Part 1

A little background.. 

I cycled to work in my late teens.
My longest part-time stint, was with a steak house in Plaza Bukit Bintang.
There, I worked as bus boy, dishwasher operator, waiter, cashier, cook and as an apprentice in the food assembly area.
Sometimes, I cycle to work with my Raleigh road bike.
I mounted lights on it and installed a Cateye cyclometer.
On the average, I cycled about 20km on a round-trip from my old house in Jalan Genting Kelang to Plaza Bukit Bintang. 
The outlet manager allowed me to park near the store room. And the bike was locked at all time. I didn't wear a helmet until I started work at the New Straits Times as a reporter.

The team Raleigh-Panasonic replica which was similar to what I have

Rebuilding a classic

My life had hit a "reset" button back in the mid-90s.
I switched careers from being a photographer to a reporter.
In late 1995, I took a bold move by enrolling with the New Straits Times' Pre-Entry Editorial Training Scheme (P.E.T.S).
I signed a contract for five years (bonding for cost incurred in the programme) and started work as a reporter in 1996.
I sold my car, a Suzuki Jimny 4WD because I could not afford to upkeep it.
So, it was back to the basic.
Walk, take the bus, board a cab, you name it, I've done it all.
I worked for another year before I had the idea to revive my Raleigh road bike.
Paid more than RM1K to get it restored with second-hand Shimano parts.
The thing was this: a bike from the 80s is already obsolete.
I didn't follow the development on road bikes at all and was completely oblivious to jargons like: wheelsets, groupsets and bla-bla-bla.
At the time, a bike is a bike, is a bike.
After restoring the Raleigh, I fitted it with a luggage rack and a set of panniers and rode it to work from my old home in Setapak to Jalan Riong.
This lasted a few months until constant breakdown got in the way.
Eventually, I abandoned the idea because a few years later, I bought a Piaggio Hexagon 150 scooter. This was followed by a Gilera Runner 180SP.
They've became my source of transport as the Raleigh was kept in storage. 

Toying with the idea of a folding bike...

Sometime in the late 90s, when the NST had a leased-line for internet browsing, I did some research on folding bikes.
The name "Dahon" came up on my Yahoo searches.
Eventually, I contacted a dealer in the US selling a Dahon folding bike.
It cost about USD$800 for the bike, and a further USD$300 to get it shipped to Malaysia.
I abandoned the idea and later, sometime in 2006, after settling down with my wife Michelle, I came across a selection of Dahon bikes at St Kilda's beach in Melbourne.
My interest in Folding Bikes was rekindled.

 

A vintage Dahon Speed, similar to the one I saw in Australia back in 2006

2008 Dahon Speed P8, my first folding bike...

I never hesitated to grab the Dahon Speed P8 when I first saw it at the Rodalink Bike Store in USJ 10, Subang Jaya.
It was going for RM2,095 and I managed to get a 5% discount for it.
I rode it around, found it nippy and compact enough to be carried in my Perodua MyVi.
Since I got acquainted with the Speed P8, I started to develop an interest of traveling and sight-seeing with the bike.

2011 World Car Free Day: The catalyst for cycling to work..

It was September in 2011.
Andrew Sia, a colleague of mine had wanted to do a story on World Car Free Day. 
He also wanted to cycle to work from his home in Bandar Utama with his Dahon Mu P8.
I told him that I would assist in terms of making the number by cycling from my home in USJ26 to Menara Star in Section 16, Petaling Jaya.
I clocked-in about 45km on the return trip and found that the route was quite practical for riding from Subang Jaya to Kuala Lumpur.
That was also the year I bought my third folding bike: The Dahon Jetstream EX. This was the last year the bike was ever made and I am very proud to be an owner of the Jetstream EX.

Riding to work from Subang Jaya to Section 16 using the bike lane on Federal Highway

Vehicle down-time, an excuse to cycle to work..

About two months later, my Perodua MyVi had started to screw up badly.
It had to be repaired and was stuck at the workshop for a couple of days.
My only choice, was to cycle to work.
Since I have done the first ride in September, it wasn't a real big chore to repeat it.
But my Jetstream began to develop some issues.
I thought it was my SRAM DDII drivetrain, but it turned out that the Ashima hydraulic disk brakes were faulty.
From this point, I continued to cycle to work until my car was fixed.

It's official: Cycle to work

On my second day cycling to work

Better prepared

The Jetstream EX suffered from brake drag.
To get it running, I had to bleed the bike's hydraulic fluid.
Later, I found out that a broken piston was the culprit.
While the Jet was grounded, I had my trusty Dahon Speed P8.
This was a real nice bike to ride.
The Schwalbe Big Apple 2.0 tires took the knocks and bumps on the road and its puncture resistance provided me with a safe and uninterrupted ride from my home to the office.
But people in the office are not used to seeing a fellow colleague commute with a bike.
They say the small 20" bike and asked a lot of questions.
To me, it's all I have to take me from home to the office and back.
And my co-workers were very supportive. They didn't complain about the bike being wheeled into the newsroom.

The Dahon Speed P8 next to my table

Courtesy

I observe courtesy when I wheel my bike into the workplace.
To earn the respect of my fellow colleagues, I made sure that the bike didn't get in their way.
And when I am done with work, I pushed the bike into the elevator, head to the ground floor, set it up nicely and ride off.
Similarly, on the road, I observe the traffic rules.
No jumping the red light, constantly keep watch of impending traffic, especially maniac drivers.
And so far, so good!

Next, in part 2: What you need to observe if you want to ride to work...

ToST III - Part 8

Leaving Hat Yai...

We had half the day free.
Some of the guys had decided to sleep in while a few of us headed to the city area in search of late breakfast.
The hotel offered food at its restaurant and pub.
This is just an average fare and since we've had so much to drink the night before, it was just right to load up on coffee and some light snacks.
Sin suggested the porridge shop near the old Lee Garden hotel on Niphat Uthit 3. 
The place is very near to the Emperor Hotel where we stayed on ToST 1.
It took us less than 15-minutes to get there and we got down to business by ordering some porridge and steamed chicken.

A view from the hotel's window...

Late breakfast

Prepping for the long haul back to Kuala Lumpur..

I've put a broadcast on what time to meet before departure.
From the breakfast place downtown, we rode back to the hotel, parked the bikes outside the lobby and went back to our room to pack.
While chilling out, I managed to re-pack some of my stuff including a couple of food and toiletry items.
I like the travel-sized shampoo and body shower gels that are sold in Thailand. And at one particular wholesale mart, I found them cheap.
While we were resting in our rooms, Pat broadcasted a distress call over the Facebook messenger. He had a flat tire again.
The bike shop fellas really screwed up his Surly Long Haul Trucker.
And by 12:30pm sharp, all the guys were gathered around the lobby. 
We rigged up the bikes and rode out towards the Tune Hotel in Hat Yai where we had our lunch at the Koay Teow Lueah (Boat koay teow) shop. 
For the third time, this became our regular makan place.. 

The tasty and spice Kuay Teow Lueah 

The owner of the shop preparing his noodle dish...

Riding to the train station.. 

A successful tour with the 2008 Dahon Speed P8

Roger, keeping an eye on the bikes...

Inside the sleeping berth on coach L8, Express Langkawi

We unloaded our panniers and started working on bagging the bikes.
This time round, I decided to carry my trunk bag and panniers. The Speed P8 was much lighter on the carry-on cover.
At the train station, I collected 100 baht from everyone to pack dinner. This, with some light snacks and drinks was purchased from the Robinson's department store nearby.
Michelle and I worked on this while the guys waited at the train station..

Waiting at the LRT station in KL Sentral 

Job well done! 

Setting up the bikes for the ride to Michelle's parent's home.. 

Enduring the 14-hour train ride..

Given the choice, I would prefer the bus service. They don't take that long to get to Kuala Lumpur from Hat Yai. Its also pretty comfortable and the travel time is much shorter.
On the train, we need to lug our bikes and luggage to a platform where two coaches and an engine awaits.
It departs at 4pm Thai time and arrives the next day in KL Sentral at 06:30am.
The good thing about this trip was the return tickets that we bought in advance. 
This means, no fart face and stares from passengers whose seats we had taken up.
But the fact remained that people actually smoke in-between the coach and when you take up the front row (So that we can keep an eye on the bikes and luggage), you have to put up with people coming and going through the door.
We are immune to this and endured the long ride to KL.
Strange as it seems, the air-conditioning was not cold on the ageing coach.
As the train approaches the Kuala Lumpur railway station, we parted ways with Pat and Sin.
The remaining ones alighted at KL Sentral.
I waved goodbye to Andrew Ng and Roger excused himself to visit the toilet.
Michelle and I lugged our bikes to the LRT station and boarded the ride towards the Paramount station.
We parted ways with Roger and wished him good luck on this trip to Cambodia in the following week.
When we got off at Paramount, we set up our bikes and rode to Michelle's parent's home in SS3, packed up again and drove back to Subang Jaya.
Upon arrival, our dogs were happy to see us with their tails wagging.
The ToST III has been an interesting trip.
We've enjoyed Thale Noi the most and the stay in Ranot and Sathing Phra was an eye-opener.
Towards the third-quarter of this year, we will be planning a fourth tour of Southern Thailand and are looking forward to realizing it...

ToST III - Part 7

The journey to Hat Yai..

We've had a great time in Songkhla. 
This time, we had a proper and working air-conditioning and great food.
We met up at the motel yard and prepared the bikes for its journey to Hat Yai, which is roughly about 40km away.
The plan was to have breakfast and we discovered that there is a road parallel to Songkhla's route 407. 
This inner road exits at the 408 intersection and while we were cycling to look for food, we found a Chicken rice shop and decided to have our makan there.
It turned out that the owner had worked in Japan for 10 years and spoke fluent Japanese. He tried to strike a conversation with Sin Tai Lim and it was quite amusing.
And on the quality of food, I must say that this shop has one of the best chicken rice around Songkhla.
During our stay in Songkhla, we discovered a few good eating places and the usage of a bicycle had opened up plenty of avenues for sight-seeing. You won't be able to see such places if you drive or in a tour group.
After the good fill, we rode down the 407 and began our journey towards Hat Yai on the 408.

Dawn in Songkhla

Roger

Pat

The chicken rice stall

A decent breakfast

Helmet failures.. 

First puncture..

Mid-way down the road towards the 408, Michelle said her rear tire felt funny.
I told her to pull over and checked the pressure. 
It was slowly leaking air.
On the Dahon Speed TR, you would need a special tool to remove the nuts that is holding the wheels on the fork.
This is a tedious affair and it's very time consuming.
I removed the wheel and took out the inner tube. Felt around and found a piece of wire that pierced the outer wall.
There were pebbles and glass fragments embedded on the tire wall, but this was not enough to go through the puncture-protected layer.
In my humble opinion, the Schwalbe Big Apple tires are the best touring wheels around. You can't ask for more. Although it rolls rather slow, the Big Apples would get you there and back.
I set in a new inner tube, inflated it with my Biologic seatpost pump and we were on our way.
The one thing that annoyed me was the fact that some of the guys went out on their own and were waiting some five kilometers away.
I was also quite pissed off when they made no effort to call us with the Thai cellphone line.
Lucky for us, we located them at a coffee shop, chilling out from the heat.
All of them were having their brew, I walked off and got myself an iced coffee from a stall at the end of the row.

Fixing the flat

Resuming the journey

Into Hat Yai...

We were cycling on the 408 and on the other side of the road, the landscape was totally alien to me. 
It took me a while to realize that we were cycling on the same route when we did the ToST I last year. 
There were a couple of rolling hills along the way and this was no issue as we maintained our speed at 13km/h and slowly climbed and rolled down towards the junction leading to Hat Yai's city centre.
At mid-day, the sun was up and it was getting really hot.
After taking a right turn towards the Sena Narong Military Hospital and Route 4 leading to Hat Yai's Big C hypermarket.
From there, Pat led the way and got lost. I seriously didn't know what the hell he was doing, cycling in circles.
We made our way towards Niphat Uthit Road 1 and found a Vespa dealership that also sells bicycles.
Here, we met the owner Khun Paul who was nice enough to talk to us. The guys spent some of their Thai baht here by purchasing some bike gear.
I bought two Blackburn lights and the most decent find was a Blackburn Super Flea. This was a score as it's not available in Malaysia.
We also installed a double kickstand that cost us about 650 baht (RM65).
I was quite annoyed by one of the store clerk when she demanded my full name and phone number. 
For the kickstand, I paid her with coins and made her count every single shilling.

An advertisement for the Songkran festival in Hat Yai

Leaving Songkhla

Rolling into Hat Yai

Pat, leading us nowhere.. 

Every Baht counts.. 

Installing the double kickstand

At the Vespa dealership

With Khun Paul at the bicycle shop

Bicycles, bicycles, bicycles...

After checking-in at the hotel, we visited another bike shop in the downtown area.
This was the trendiest store in town, and also the worse bike service dealership.
We met the owner last year, but he couldn't recall ever seeing us.
Michelle said she was annoyed with the fact that the guy was completely oblivious to our presence and the fact that we spent so much money shopping at the store.
"What an ass! Stupid businessman..," she said.
I wasn't really bothered with the guy's business model. We didn't spend at all and as the day became hotter, Pat decided to leave his bike for service, something which he had regretted.
The shop specializes in Surly bikes, but the quality of their service really sucks as Pat had his bike returned with a double puncture. It seems that the moron who tuned his bike had fucked up the rim tap in the wheels.
We continued riding around Hat Yai and decided to get back to our rooms for some rest.
The guys went out on their own and we met up for dinner later in the day.

At the trendy bikes store downtown..

Sin, with a girl who works at the Roasted pork shop

You can't separate Pat from good food!

Dinner at the Elephant restaurant.. 

A hundred and two bottles of beer throughout the tour!

We had dinner at the usual Elephant hot pot restaurant.
Sin made the order and we splurged on the good food and beers.
Our beer consumption had totaled to 102 bottles throughout the journey and after a good fill, we staggered back to our rooms to get a good night's sleep..

ToST III - Part 6

Songkhla-bound..

We've been on the road for five days.
From Pak Khlong, we have clocked-in at least 190km.
That's another 56km to go when we hit Songkhla, a port town East of Hat Yai.
Michelle and I had enough rest from the previous night and we made arrangements to leave Sathing Phra at 05:30am.
Trying to take advantage of the cooler weather at the break of dawn.
With the lights mounted, we rode off to route 408 and slowly made our way to the Ban Ngam Muang intersection.
There is a PTT petrol station here with a 7Eleven convenience store. The toilets here too are pretty clean.
I told Roger about this, but he was unsure. 
We did the ride on the reverse route last year and took a break near Ngam Muang before heading off to Sathing Phra and Ranot.
The only difference that I notice was a new Tesco Lotus Express convenience store and the 7Eleven on route 408.

Leaving with pleasant memories at Sathing Pura resort..

Sin, riding his Dahon Speed P8

Nasi kerabu surprise!

After asking around, we learned that there are makan stalls at the Ngam Muang beach area.
So, we rode in and discovered a row of makan places owned by Thai Muslims.
One of them, a man in his mid-50s spoke to me in Malay. 
I responded and he uttered a few words in Broken Malay. Later, he said he had worked in Johor and Singapore.
We watched the activity at the stall and noticed that a lady was serving the Thai version of the nasi kerabu.
So, I wasted no time in ordering a plate and so did Michelle.
The fare was very decent and after a good fill, we proceeded back on the 408 towards Songkhla.

Nasi kerabu

The breakfast crowd

At Ban Ngam Muang

The ferry crossing

We weren't too far from the Songkhla bay ferry crossing from the Ban Ngam Muang intersection.
Slowly, we gained speed and rolled down towards the Tinsulanond bridge junction. It's actually further to travel down the bridge rather than taking the ferry crossing. We save at least 20km as the crossing leads straight into Songkhla town.
So, the group that was ahead waited at the junction and as soon as we regrouped, we rode to the ferry crossing.
This takes place every 15-minutes as commuters with their vehicles make their way across the sea.
For bicycles, there is no charge for using the ferry.
We boarded the ferry and enjoyed the brief ride across the Songkhla bay.
My mission was to locate a place to stay for the night and we are running at a small budget of 450 baht per night.

Entering the Songkhla Bay

On the ferry enroute to Songkhla town

Thumbs up: Nearing the last leg of the tour

Hunt for a cheap stay...

I remember riding past a cheap motel along the road to Queen's Hotel during ToST 1.
But I can't put the place together on my head as it was just pieces of recalled memories.
We made our way towards the edge of Songkhla town and could not locate the place, so, I signaled for U-turn back towards town.
Some 200-meters down the road, there was Thai signboard with the tell-tale 24-hours signage indicating that its a motel with vacancy. We checked it out and it has a large room with working air-conditioning.
Further down the road, we checked out two other places and settled for the first one called TJ resort. It has WiFi connection, air-conditioning but no hot shower. Price for a night is 450 baht.
But before we settled-in, Roger led us to his favourite Siew Yuk rice shop across the Green Hotel.
This place serves a decent roasted pork dish as well as Thailand's famous Khao Kha Moo.

Songkhla's finest: The Siew Yuk rice stall

A hearty treat!

Out and about in Songkhla...

Again, some of the guys wanted Thai Massage. 
And they get it.
We set to meet at 03:30pm to take a ride around Songkhla and the deal was to get to Samila beach.
But there was a Beach Volley Ball tournament, so, no tourists were allowed into the area.
I suggested a ride to the Naga monument near the Songkhla Bay area.
We took a ride downtown and followed the lakeside and this led to a security area and a dead end.
An Army sentry stood guard in the sandbag and just when we were making our exit, one of the guys took out his camera.
I told him not to take any shots as photography in Military installations are prohibited. Maybe he had mixed around too much with a bunch of hippies on bikes who doesn't believe in head protection...
Anyway, we rode back onto the path leading to Samila beach and took an offroad course to the Songkhla Bay. It passes by the Aquarium and there is a proper bicycle lane leading to the area.
When we got there, there was a worship area for the legendary Luang Pu Thuad, a figurehead and a monk from the South.
Some of the guys paid their respects and we took snapshots of the Naga head.

At the TJ resort in Songkhla

At the bike lane in Songkhla

The Naga monument

At Samila Beach

Fried rice dinner

Chilling out with some cool ale..

Calling it a night.. 

We rode back to the downtown area after hanging out at the Songkhla Bay.
Light was fading fast as we switched on our lights and rode towards the town area.
We found a stall serving Pad Thai and Pad Khao (fried rice) and settled for a meal there.
After a good fill, we rode back to the motel and bought some beers to celebrate the fifth night of the tour.
Hat Yai is next and we were looking forward to get there..