Candy Cranks

May 22nd 2010 - 10h00 AM - Merlion Park.
More info, HERE.

The boys from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are in town. Me, the local guys here took them out for a ride. Its all about the RATSKL with CAS, Fixpatrix, PEONFX and Nookmag hitting the streets.

I managed to find a website that calculates the distance of my rides. Its not easy to find those sites to calculate the cycling distances in Singapore, unless i go around with a GPS. I think some of you might find this website useful.

Most of the time, i’ve always guessed that I am doing a mere 30km during Fast Friday rides… but it seems that its a lot more.

The T.O.S Final Teaser from Crank Arm Steady on Vimeo.

We don’t have a velodrome here in Singapore. So… we tried the bowl over at the skatepark yesterday. It was a friggin’ hot day, nevertheless, it was all good.

More pictures here.

My girlfriends and i planned on an impromptu ride last friday nite. We decide to go on an all girls ride last Saturday. They are not seasoned riders but some have the intention to get their own fixies soon. Sabrina, one of my girlfriend’s daughter, recently bought a fixie for herself was also present that night. Most of the girls were on rented bicycles that were readily available at East Coast Beach for $8/night. It was a good ride out with these girls and i do hope we will do this more often. When you are with great company, riding is so much more fun. After burning off some calories that night, we gorged ourselves with a hearty plate of coconut rice with fried chicken.. heh. And some good sugar cane juice!

Pictures courtesy of Anne.

Critical Mass Singapore rides on the last Friday of every month. The idea of the rides is to draw attention to how unfriendly the city is to cyclists. The purpose of Critical Mass is not formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set location and time and travelling as a group through city or town streets on bikes.

Next Ride: January 29th 2010, 20h00

For more info on where is the meeting point and pictures of previous events, click here. The site also includes Singapore law on cycling.

Friday night ride… the usual Fast Fridays with the Crank Arm Steady crew. Its been 3 weeks since my last ride with them boys. My right knee misbehaved badly that night resulting to piercing pain each time i pedalled through my journey. I gotta go get it fix… ASAP.

Happy Belated Birthday to you, Sim Chik! And more rides with you in the future, Nat.

Riding keeps me sane… Punggol -> Haji Lane -> Orchard Road/Forum -> Holland Village -> Portsdown Road / 99 Bends -> West Coast Vivo City -> Home

The Singapore fixed gear scene is being noticed in Urban Velo issue #17. I am pleased to see more and more people in Singapore riding. And also more girls are seen with fixies as well.

I have not gotten a chance to ride with some of the girls i have seen with their fixies. Perhaps i should do an all girl fixie event to get these 2-wheeled She-Ra out for some fun with our lovely bicycles.

T.O.S - Tour Of Singapore

In my earlier entry, I’ve blogged about the first fixie cycling event to be held in Singapore.

Tour Of Singapore.

It took us 10 hours to complete it… riding through the coastal line of this tiny island. From the city, to the heartlands, to the quiet remote lanes of the island… 53 riders on fixie pushed through. We passed through a cemetery. We were smelling the freshly baked bread from the nearby factories. We even have to watch out for the pack of wild dogs.

In all… TOS… One long ass ride as many would say. A sore one to be exact. 120km… all around Singapore. I have ridden through places I never thought I would. I went through bending roads, unfamiliar routes that were never known to me. It wasn’t easy. But it was worth it.

Thank you to the rest of the riders that we were with me that night. For giving me the strength to push through and do something I never thought possible. Everyone was motivated, encouraging and driven to finish it.
I completed TOS… and I was the only woman to make it through to the end.

Pictures courtesy of Mr 36 Yasin and Haiqal.

About a week ago, i was in Macau to visit Acit there. The roads looks good for cycling but weather was a lil too cold for me. We both head down to meet James in HK to see Brian Fu of Hong Kong Fixed Gear. His shop, Rodafixa was created as a 2 year Fixed Gear project. It was a pleasure to finally meet him, since me and him corresponds via my label PEONFX. We hope to see him soon in Singapore, preferrably for a ride… or perhaps over coffee.

And to James… thanks for taking us to have the best beef noodles in town!

UNKL347 in an Indonesian Label from Bandung that not only create excellent designs for apparel but they are also one of the exhibitors for this year’s Singapore Design Festival.

With the upcoming TOS (Tour Of Singapore) just around the corner, we have been working(or should i say pedalling hardER) to increase our stamina to make it through the 120km for that event. I will be covering more on TOS in my future entry.

Its the usual affair before every ride that we would chill out at SUP clothing. Its the usual hangout basically. Jacky, its owner, is also a part of the Crank Arm Steady Crew, so its only natural that riders are welcomed with open arms at his store.

There’s always things to do before we start off each ride, working on some tricks outside the store, doing photoshoot on new arrivals or i would prefer a cup of hot mint tea and people watching.

On most rides…. with no route in mind, we always end up in a food joint, creating fake bicycle parking lot for ourselves while we fuelled up on some isotonic drinks and gorging up to our local delicacies. One of the greatest thing about Singapore is that there’s variaties of good food found easily along any streets. What better way to complete a nite’s ride with a plate of oyster omelette.

Picture courtesy of SUP and Yasin of CAS.

It was one of those usual night rides. PEONFX, CAS and some others rode around the southern end of Singapore, ending at the Marina Barrage.

Photos courtesy of Killer Gerbil.

There’s only a handful of us that nite. The weather was unpredictable, downpours every now and then. Most rain falls during the northeast monsoon (November to January) and showers are usually sudden and heavy during this time of the year in Singapore. We’ll be riding a lot in the rain for these coming weeks. Despite of the flat tyres issues of Ayie and Sue, we had a good ride. Here’s some of the photos i managed to take during Friday’s ride.

Jeff of Urban Velo send me the link to do a short write up for Issue #16’s I love Riding In the City. Just a summary about getting to know a bit about myself, my take on riding down the roads of Singapore.

Earlier this year, the OCBC ride had a massive turnout at their first premier event. They are also currently extensively promoting for next year’s event that would be held on 6-7 March 2010.

ANYONE CAN RIDE.. that’s their tagline. It has events ranging the age of 2 onwards. Its not everyday that we can ride our bikes on a car free day on the usually busy roads of Singapore. From the young to the old.. its gonna be pedal powered day on this tiny island.

JJay