ME and all the other October 24th-ers!
It’s been two years. The group was much smaller then.
There was no Ultraman pose yet, either.
Wanna know something stupid? I dropped the Brompton that day.
That’s not a peace sign. That’s me indicating I’d still be here two years later. Ha!
All photos from Taiwoon’s Flickr!
If you have anything to feedback to the NPark’s team on the PCN’s; flooding, or a fallen tree, extreme debris, or an crack in the path or whatever; here’s how to do it. Prior to the Bromptongate scandal, communicating with the NPark’s team was a lot less formal and response time was a lot quicker too. These days, we must go through proper communication channels.
In general, you can email to the group address nparks_mailbox@nparks.gov.sg for any feedback.
If you have a specific PCN in mind, you can mail the person in charge of that PCN directly.
The best way to help fix up the PCN’s would be if you explicitly mention where exactly the issue is. You can do that by figuring out the location based on lamp post numbers.
And of course, all the warnings and prohibition signs along the park connectors. This is Singapore, after all. 
Premium, most of the time, means quality. Quality items, whatever they are, will last longer, are built better, and have better ROI in the long run. In the bicycle world, this means that your bike will stand the test of time, use, and abuse with less problems or possibility of failure. Not that cheaper bikes are faulty, but admittedly they cannot stand the rigors of consistent and heavy usage.
I cycle a lot by the everyday man’s standards. And I cycle often. From work. To go eat. To meet friends. Because I’m bored. Now I don’t cycle as much as “serious cyclists”, but definitely more than 150km a week. In real world terms, that is longer than the whole circumference of mainland Singapore.
Truth be told, I wouldn’t want a bike breaking on me in the middle of a journey unless I was on an Nparks’ PCN. Can you imagine the handlebar joint breaking while you’re cycling on the road (That’s where you’re supposed to cycle on anyway. Cycling on the pavement is illegal in Singapore except in Tampines, FYI.) with a fast moving lorry behind you? That’s a serious accident waiting to happen — and yes, I actually know someone who experienced this. Believe me, when you get your ass back on a bike in case you didn’t die from the accident, you’ll be demanding a better bike.
People ask me what price my folding bikes are and they get flustered when they find out that they’re usually above $800. “Why so expensive?”, they say; after all, there is always a sub-$200 folding bike to be found in some department store.
“My market bike is only $95!”, one uncle told me.
Yes, uncle. I understand. But didn’t you hear what you said? You said “market” bike. I have a market bike too, and it’s around $300 bucks, but I won’t be able to use it as much as my other bikes.
When people ask me to recommend them a folding bike, I always ask them what they plan to use it for. For me, purpose is the most important factor in picking out a bike.
If it’s just for use around the neighborhood, by all means, go choose anything that fits your budget. But if you need it for serious leisure use — if you plan to go cycle at least 30km on it often, and in speeds much faster than the usual “uncle” cycles — please get yourself a better bike. You’ll spend less maintaining and upgrading it, and you won’t worry about that odd rattling sound when you’re on it or that squeaky sound that happens when you pedal.
For bicycles, the three desirable factors are this: low price, light weight, good strength. The joke is that you can only pick two.
A bike that is light and strong will not be cheap.
A bike that is strong and cheap will not be light.
A bike that is cheap and light will not be strong.
The buyer decides his priorities on balancing these three.
For folding bikes, it’s even more important to buy quality items because of the fact that there are MORE points of failure. Because they can fold, they have joints, and the better the make, the stronger those joints will be. And usually, the better and the smaller the fold, coupled with a better quality, means that they’re more expensive.
Think of this way, could you imagine a more affordable Proton car to do a Asia-Africa-Europe journey compared to, let’s say, a Hummer, without encountering as many mechanical problems? No, right?
This ain’t all talk. HandsOnBike made a comparison here between an Aleoca Ready2Ride and a Dahon Mu P8. Go check it out.
