Campaign For A Lane 2012 – The Arrival

Posted on 4 Nov 2012 by Diane

A couple months ago, I boarded a bus and took a ten hour trip up north to Penang Island in Malaysia. With me were 20-some of my cycling pals and all of them, except myself since I was just there to take over a cancellee’s spot, were taking part in an annual event called Campaign For A Lane. It’s an 80+km ride around Penang which promotes building bike lanes in Penang.

The weather wasn’t cooperating when we got there. It rained heavily the day we arrived. I remember hoping that it wouldn’t rain on the day of the event — I didn’t want to risk my friends getting into accidents because of the slick roads.

In case you’re interested, we stayed at the Red Inn, a homey hostel in the historical district.

The rooms were a little cramped and we did have some issues with bike storage, but I appreciate that they were very gung-ho about all of us being there. It felt as though we booked the whole hostel because we were so many. Bikes were stored at every corner.

The room I stayed in was particularly tiny but comfortable at the same time. There was just enough space at the food of my bunk to store all the Bromptons that were on this trip.

After we checked in and threw our stuff in our rooms, we decided to go have a late lunch. It was still raining so that lessened our food choices a bit. Most of the guys wanted to go eat at this wan tan mee dive, but I wasn’t keen on getting wet just for noodles so I chose to eat dimsum at a nearby shop… after the wan tan mee fest, the rest decided to follow and have a second helping of lunch.

After eating, we decided to waste time and loiter the general vicinity… and of course we ended up visiting a couple bike shops.

Love this sticker on the glass doors at CCI…

… and how their tools aren’t put in their proper places despite the illustrations.

After another short snack break (notice how often we seem to stop for food?) we headed over to pickup the event’s cycling packs.

Yet another break… this time for bubble tea.

Just when we decided to catch cabs back to our hostel, a group of cyclists rolled in. AHA! We know those people!

This group of Titanium Butts cycled from a nearby town.

We stayed at the hostel and just chilled out until it was time to roll out for dinner.

For dinner, we took our bikes and headed over to where our great Ti Butt leader was staying. He and his partner are quite familiar with Penang so they decided to lead us to good eats.

But an altercation at the first food place we stopped at (It was getting serious! I was waiting for someone to throw the first punch!) and the rain foiling our plans AGAIN, we decided to have dinner at a food court.

We cycled back to the hostel after dinner because quite a few of us were tired from the long day of travel. The rest of the night was spent gossiping and watching a flick or two in the hostel’s open area before we finally succumbed to the lull of sleep.

If There’s A Drill, There’s A Way

Posted on 30 Oct 2012 by Diane

You know how I wrote a post of a friend’s mod turning an Ortlieb Ultimate 5 handlebar bag into a saddle bag?

Well, I always wondered if you could force a way to mount the Ultimate 5 on the front instead. You could build an adaptor for other mounts so that you could still use the Brompton luggage mounting system. Or, you could do away with an adaptor and use another mount brand. I mean, if you really want something done and you have the tools and skills do to so, then you can build it.

My friend Roland recently shared his Brompton’s newest makeover. He mounted a Dahon Luggage Truss on his bike. I love this idea, and so will Val from HK. LOL.

I think this is pretty ingenious because the Dahon luggage mount (you could also use the one from Tern) opens up a whole slew of luggage possibilities at more affordable prices (maybe). It’s compatible not only with Tern/Dahon bags, but also with certain models from Ortlieb and KlickFix.

He says he, “Drilled a longer bottom hole to mount the bottle cage nut.” I suppose the Brompton’s mounting holes aren’t aligned the same as as the Dahon’s, which is why he did that.

The Dahon luggage truss is longer and looks like it’s slightly higher than the standard Brompton block. Unless the bag/frame mounted in front is higher than the handlebar or touches the wheel, I don’t think it will affect steering.

Roland says it doesn’t affect the fold either, except perhaps if you plan to pack it up for travel and put it in luggage or a box. Then I’d worry that handlers would throw the packed bike around and it’ll land on the truss and break it.

The only serious downside I see at the moment is that the Dahon truss isn’t able to carry the same weight load as the Brompton block. Dahon says it’s got a weight limit of 5kg, while Tern’s version can carry up to 7kg. At least that’s what the product details say, but let’s be honest, I bet it can carry much more than that.

I think the Brompton block has double the weight load limit. Brompton’s touring bag alone has a capacity of 31 liters. If you fill that up, it’s very easy to surpass 7kg let alone 5kg!

If I ever did this mod, I’d get the KlickFix Vario/Tern Kanga front rack for sure!

PS. All photos used with permission from Roland. Thanks!

MyBikeShop Too!

Posted on 8 Aug 2012 by Diane

MyBikeShop, one of the LBS’ in Singapore specializing in folding bikes, has opened its second branch called MyBikeShopToo! in Midview City.

Of course we went over one Saturday to check it out and say hello. We were there too early. Oops! Store hours open at noon!

When we visited, the store was still fairly new so there wasn’t a lot of stuff in the shop… yet. The shop is painted in the familiar yellow/orange motif like their branch in the west.