THE BEST BICYCLE VIDEO 2013!!

Kicker scooters 2

Goped Kicker

This is one of my top choices, it a tad lighter then the Razor A5. A better looker and the fact that you can sling it on your shoulder is definitely a huge plus. Made in the USA.
Pros:
- I like the wooden deck, "lefty" fork, the brand
Cons:
- If you are taller than 1.8m too bad for you, 150mm wheels could have been 200mm.

OXELO Town 7 EF Scooter

Just watch the video! Have not tried it personally though.

Pros:

-Trolley mode, 1sec fold time, built in stand, lockable, looks futuristic too.

Micro Black/White

I have heard this is more comfortable due to it's Flex design, but the price is just too much.

Willing to lend me your scooter for a proper review? Drop me a line: starringme at g mail

On bike video recorder...

When a game has a little too much budget...

My Trail bike cannot possibly do this!

Aluboo

Vietnam Tour: Day 7 (27th Aug) Tuy Hoa to Da Dia Rocks (Rapid slabs)

Woke up early at about 5.15am, but by the time I got ready to ride I had missed the Sunrise... I somehow remember something about the sunrise here being especially beautiful. I had also originally wanted to catch the Sunrise at Hoi An but a pity I missed that too.

I freeloaded more drinking water from the reception and proceeded on my way towards the seeming mysterious part of the city.

Anyway, I rode according to the instructions by Valkyrie and soon entered the smaller rodes, immediately greeted by lush rice fields that were on both sides of the road. Quite a different feeling when riding on the large highway.



Although only about 35km to the place, it was ridiculously hilly, steep climbs and steep descent. It was not fun at all. Surprisingly I passed many people pushing their bikes on the inclines, almost all single speed lady bikes. I mean might as well walk or get a mountain bike in such terrain! But i guess getting one must be difficult.

Just almost there I saw a detour, a small track at the beach where many rock formations were. Thinking that was the place I went to investigate, locking my bike to a cactus. I was climbing rocks to get a better viewpoint and just around a really huge rock, I saw the other side! A lighthouse!

The rocky landscape was somehow serene. It was around noon and it was getting hot. I locked my bike to a cactus, and walked to the lighthouse. I read somewhere that some people camp here at night just to watch the sunrise from the lighthouse. Anyway, the view was good and there was no one around. I took out my baguette and enjoyed my it in the little shade that the shadow of the lighthouse provided. It was so calming and the sea breeze just made the experience so good. I stayed there longer then I anticipated.

Looks like a nice place for Mountain biking!

If you can see there's a rectangular rock wedged in between the two. Cool!

I look back at the lighthouse, finding it difficult to leave. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

After a ridiculously long 35km in, I arrived at my destination. Shrugging off a lady asking me to go into her shade and get some drinks (Although extremely tempting). Look at those hexagonal rocks!

Flowers on a cactus!

Wow wow wow, I was just in awe at the rock formations.

It seems, even with lots of erosion the general shape of the rocks are still there.

Even the staircases down to the rocks were hexagonal, look ride-able downhill.

How is that so neat? Yet naturally formed? 

This place is seriously amazing, and the only reason I know this place existed? Through the domestic flight's magazine! If I had not took it out, I would have missed this place altogether!

Ok, So legend has that a Giant of some sorts wanted to make a bridge to I don't know where but he died before finishing. Can't find the story on the net so, I will just leave it as that.

Further research says what's on the surface is only half of the formations, the other half is underwater! I would be nice to have snorkeling equipment!

Looks like some locals fished up some starfish and left them to die :(

Have you seen the cicular boats before? They are made by hand, are paddle by one oar to get to their fishing boats.

Caterpillar-like flowers by the roadside.

I locked my bike there, i went down to enjoy the Rapid slabs

It was quite a experience to be riding on a golden carpet! My guess is the tarmac heats up faster and thus dries the rice? much quicker! It also makes for the ride extra hard...

As I was heading back, a school was just dismissed and as I passed them most wanted to race/keep up with me. I tried taking a picture of their contagious smiles but he was quick to turn away! I was physically tired already, but they gave me extra strength! Still, headwinds was so bad I was at single digit speeds. Slow and painful.

After a really slow ride back, it's time to relax at the beach!

Lots of beach!

I kept dinner simple, and slowly enjoyed of the soup. Went back to the hotel and caught up on youtube subscriptions (decent wifi, but still had to wait for videos to load!)

Distance today: 76km of steep short hills!
Distance to date: 639km

Statistics

Studies have shown 20% of drivers miss cyclists.

Sounds about right, when i decided to use my camera for my commute for Prata. So everyday, we have a 20% of being in danger, ride defensively. In the video, it seems a tad close, but I was prepared to e-brake so it's fine. Have reported it to the police.

Vietnam Tour: Day 6 (26th Aug) Quy Nhon to Tuy Hoa

Woke up, relatively early packed up my stuff and headed down to the reception. All staff was still sleeping and felt a little guilty waking them up to allow me to check out.

Commonly known as a moped, affectionately known as the Mobylette. No longer in production, i believe it is rare! Petrol powered bicycle anyone?

The guy was nice enough to wait for me to strap up my bag and lead me out onto the street, where I filled my bottles in the day light (the curtains made it impossible to see inside).

Immediately on my way to the next town was the climb out of current town, it was long but cooling. A couple of local roadies was going downhill and shared eye contact that mostly likely meant respect, respect that the climb was no walk in the park. After longer than I wanted, came the first down hill. And I was greeted by a lush hill...

Some climbs were pretty bad... The only consolation were the coastal views and eventual downhills after the climbs. During one of the climbs, a full sized bus blown it's tire right in front of me. It made me do a unintentional bunny hop (just kidding) from the deafening boom as smoke erupted from the wheels and escalated my heartbeat quickly. I took a few seconds to calm down and carried on riding (no one was hurt, and the bus continued driving after the driver came down to check). Think a stretched Mandai with a more uphill nature and amplify it. A really meandering road, going up and down and around the hills, many times the road would go inland and then out again to the shore:

Oceanic views

Lovely place to take a break, rock faces and small islands galore.

As quickly as the downhills disappeared a insanely long a straight road was ahead. I must have spent more than an hour on this road. Dead straight... A peloton of roadies actually came from the opposite direction, with the slight headwind I wished I was riding in a peloton too. The company would have been great too!

The views are sometimes surreal, and I was still on the wicked long straight road! Who knows such views were ahead?

Reaching the base of the hills, a tiny settlement by the river.

The children on the extreme right had just broke their bicycle chain... I had no chain breaker and couldn't help them out. Still, it was funny that they tried to continue pedaling!

I stopped to apply sunblock, and this road marker, 1270 km to HCMC!

My first real break was at the 70km mark, it was good progress and the setting off early thing really paid off. 

As a toured, my main form of navigation came from my iphone 4's GPS. I came to a crossroad, continue on the road:

Oh gosh, not another climb!

Climb the hill or a bridge made of sticks.

Here goes nothing! Live for adventure! (Start of bridge) Btw, there is a toll. Be careful, they will try to charge you double.

And it ends off in sand! The bridge was extremely uneven, but luckily for my huge 2.0 ties at a comfy psi. It was alright.

Just at the end of the bridge was a man made pool, the locals were inside using a net to harvest some fresh prawns!

Looks like I'm off the beaten track! I just went with my gut as there were no signs and 101 junctions, I eventually turned on my GPS and followed it from there. Some of the younger resident saw me and laughed. No idea why.

It was quite tiring to be riding on the trails, but it was welcomed break from the horn blaring roads. Great to see the slow pace of life there and the many faces I rode past. I got some biscuits from a mini shop and continued on my way until finally I reach smooth tarmac:

I like this shot. Originally meant to mark relief at riding on tarmac again... As I took the shot I was overtaken by this lady, and the result is just magical

Thought of riding across this thingy across the river, there was no reason to. haha

It was really hot, but hey since I brought the tripod might as well use it for a cool self riding shot. Should have taken more of these.

Chicken rice for lunch! The chilli was sweet, good fuel this was.

Another climb, a whole new view!

As I was nearing town, a large building stood out at the crest of a hill. I would have loved to give it a visit. But the gates were closed. It looked to be a run down factory of sorts.

As I finally reached the peak, a quick rest and a look back on the long straight climb as a pat on the back.

Just before I set off downhill I noticed a hitch hiker.

What a bugger, but i let it get the free ride. Riding solo, has it's pitfalls.

Once in town, I visited 3 hotels asking for the cheapest room and spent a considerable amount of time thinking if I should rent a motorbike and visit a nearby attraction. I researched on my phone, using the hotel's wifi and found a must-visit restaurant on trip advisor. And it also lets offer a motorbike rental service, so why not?

It wasn't difficult to find as it was marked on the map, as I entered the restaurant... A guy eating and drinking vodka greeted me and asked me to take a sit. He was quite clearly wasted but I figure what the hell, the reviews were quite amazing. There were only two tables set up, I just sat around waiting... Until eventually a guy came out from the back door and told me that he might not have any more food left and that he would be closed tonight. He checked and told me only pizzas left. 

Good for me!

As I was waiting for the pizza to cook, the must have drink was good:

Good stuff.

Called Bob's cafe he adviced me on ghan da dia, but was told the sky was going to get dark quick and night riding is really unsafe. Valkyrie a Russian (the guy who was wasted) who has been in Vietnam for 4 years works as a tour guide, offered me 1/3 full vodka shot, while I was eating the duo gave me some history from the Vietnam war. Bob's sidearm was a rifle with it's barrel cut down (Smaller was easier and if the enemy fired they could just spray, no need for accuracy since they can't see the enemy anyway) and his stint in the navy, and got his book too.

He shared quite a plenty of stories with me, in his shop. There is a wedding photo of him and his Vietnamese wife, he joked about when they brought her back to his home. He couldn't recognize her from the lack of makeup. But she has an extremely kind heart, and the proceeds from his book are channeled into improving the lives of the locals and charity work. The Russian also talked about his life as a military pilot and how i looked like a local, many a times conversing with me in Vietnamese. He also confessed he loved the place for it's sights and told me roughly how to get there. It was just the 3 of us, and finally being able to speak English to another person probably kept me sane. I must have spent some 2-3hours there, just absorbing the stories and just enjoyed myself.

His book was good (by the way you can have it for a donation of any amount), I read it during my rest days and made me realize how rare a person like him was. To the River Rats, I salute you!

Distance covered today: 110km
To date: 563km