New page: Where to rent road bikes in Singapore

Since there seems to be quite a lack of information on this, let's share what we know!

If you would like to contribute/share/add-on, just comment or email me at starringme@gmail.com

Here is the link:
https://dualcircles.blogspot.com/p/where-to-rent-road-bikes-in-singapore.html

Review: Spinlister App, Find a bike to ride, passive income?

NOTE: Spinlister has now said good bye, you can read about it here.

Me being me, always looking for opportunities, I was searching for passive income and it seemed like a good way of doing that, is renting out my bike(s).

Something that kinda gained traction a little is this little app called Spinlister. It is basically a platform similar to Uber, Airbnb, Grab. You use the app to search or list out a ride, where you decide the price of rental.

Ever since I tried this some time back in Apr 2015, there has been few and far between rentals. I did recently start collating just how much I made on rentals.. Total to date(22nd March 2018): USD$1,404 or about SGD$1,850

Not too bad, let's go through how to best start out!

1. Download app here:
    iOS
   Andriod
2. Register your account below to net you additional USD$5 credit!
   Click here for additional USD$5 credit
   Or use this promo code:
   4d56d1
3. List your bike!
   At the point, I would like to recommend you use the website to post as the iOS app I tried is a little buggy.. You have to fill in everything step by step, with chances (pural) the app will crash and lose your previously saved details on the listing or even not let you save at all.
   a. Take 4 pictures of your bike!
   b. Pricing, you can put a rough estimation first.
   c. Location, hot tip: Press the GPS symbol on the map, let it load then fill in any blanks.
4. Wait for approval!

That's it, all you have to do is wait, albeit sometimes quite a long time.

Now, you have to be warned, there are a few cons in renting out your bike.

Damages
Now, Spinlister will in fact cover you on this:

However, some of us simply love our bikes so much, even a single scratch inflicted, sears through our soul. If you are like this, there is no way you will be able to let your mind be at ease and it's best not to rent out your beloved bike.

Deliveries
Some expats or countryside folk (Ulu residents) will request deliveries and this is where you can either value add or cash in on. I have many times rode down myself, more mileage, fats as fuel, and a token fee for the added service. Why not?
Doing you have to plan in advance, the address, security concerns, if it's a hotel, here's a tip:
Get the person's full name, check-in date, duration of stay, room number and contact number if possible. You can then pass this details to the hotel concierge (if there is one) and leave it to them.

No shows
As with everything nowadays, there will be people who speak with you all week and subsequently disappear. Spinlister does actually still charge the guy though, it's just the bummer where you have to plan your schedule to accommodate them.

No hits
With all the rage with bike sharing going on, I would expect demand to go down further. So be patient and may the renter rent from you.

Paypal
Payments are by paypal and will take a few days after the actual rental is completed, if you don't have an account or patience, this might be a issue for you.

Bikeshare vs Bus/MRT vs your own bike/escooter!

So ofo bike share are having free November and December rides, prompting me to try them out.
It was such an ideal timing and I had the perfect scenario to use it, that will be another story.

Right now, what I was interested to know is that which is cheaper? Bike share or Bus/MRT/LRT?
Now logically if the distance is too near, walking is free, cycling should theoretically be cheaper then the bus or MRT. But at what point should I opt for one or the other?

Being an engineer the excel spreadsheet starts! With that a magical chart appears:

Ain't it cool? Data can be beautiful, any info-graphic designers out there wanna do something with me? Give me a buzz!

Conclusion?

Amazingly the answer depends on which bike share company you choose! 

Short distance: oBike and Mobike starts off cheaper with their 50 cents rate.

Medium distance: Mobike is the cheaper choice for longer commutes. 

Long distance: Ofo, until it hits a cap of $2.

What is even more interesting for me is when I calculated the time take on your transport mode of choice.

Time is money, isn't it?

So taking you bike on short distances is almost always going to be faster since you don't have to wait for the bus and you can drop-off the bike at your void deck!
The magical number where buses are faster is when the distance to be travel is 3km and more.

Share it! Comment! Let me know what you would like to know next!

Simpler chart to understand:


That's it! Dualcircles signing out.

tags mobike obike bikeshare.sg sgbikes ofobike gbikes

OCBC 2017!

Minutes Rider Bibs! 00 2010 2117 2127 2137 2293 3788 5783 01 2056 09 2097 2285 11 2293 14 3559 17 2035 25 2307 2302 31 3555 40 3275 42 U-turn point 2172 44 3941 49 3277 59 3133 105 2010 107 3796

U Cycling Team Ride 10 Dec 2017

Ucycling Team Ride 10 Sep 2017

Ucycling Team Ride 16 July 2017

Uncut footage!

Vietnam Tour: Day 13 (2nd Sept) Bao Loc to Ho Chi Min City!

On a roll!

Woke up real early, 430 am, prepared as per usual now, bike ready and suited up! Went to the counter but... The staff was sleeping.. Had no choice but to wake them up, somehow got a 10k discount and off i go!

But what the heck, I had to stop after 1 km... Had to don the poncho and rain cover, oh well. 

Then it stopped raining, just FYI, my poncho is polyester and there is zero vents. It gets H. O. T. T. HOT in a snap! So I took it off the moment I could.

Except that it would rain and stop and rain and stop another three more times before my bladder finally gave up from all that persuasion. :D

As expected, it was super cooling riding refreshingly early with little traffic. What came next was Resident Evil worthy:

I was to enter the ghost town... Just kidding.

Fog! Mist! What is this! Riding in the clouds woo hooo! So I thought as I ride I the visibility would stay constant like above right? Maybe keep to 10-20 metres? Boy was I wrong...

The mist was so thick that when I rode in, certain parts I couldn't even see the road. I was engulfed , I was literally riding on clouds! A truly surreal experience, riding like that make me happy beyond logic, perhaps it feels like a dream. Kinda similar like when a plane flys through a cloud.

Of course this meant the road is extremely dangerous, thankfully even the vehicles slowed to a crawl, including the kamikaze buses. I was feeling safer since traffic was pretty much at my pace now, I just enjoyed the cloud nine descent of some 10 km! I couldn't stop more since there was almost no shoulder and if I did stop, should any vehicle come, I would most certainly be knocked over... Check out the views: 

There after I wasn't so happy, the road condition worsened still without the shoulders, adding difficulty was hills... God damn rolling hills one after another, ouch. Even if there were road shoulders, they would be covered in gravel and the trucks would horn at you to veer into them so they could pass. It's like your boss, started ordering you around when you have 4 days back log of work on Monday, and then he comes back and said he needs an additional task by yesterday... Kidding, kidding! I guess I was pretty drained, tired, wet and not yet dry. So you kinda wish the conditions would improve, of course the exact opposite happens, it started raining.. I lost count.

Have you every had such thoughts when you see something along the road? What if at that exact moment I was riding past, it toppled over... Ahhhh Ride cautiously!

Push on, push on, pushing. When I had enough I stopped for lunch.

I took a longer break here, because I was dry! Food was pretty good and the mamasan (lady owner) very very graciously topped up my water constantly. I also took my bottles to refill. Super nice!

All to soon, I had to move on. I remember seeing the 130 km marker (still a long way, damn!) to Ho Chi Min City (HCMC) and hit highway 1A almost immediately. When I did hit the highway, HOLY MAMA. I think my ass was crying tears in joy, thanking the heavens, LEGIT smooth highway! I never thought they existed in the whole country. Amazingly the shoulders were actually smoother then the main road! Smoother! With that, tons of motivation and energy came up (maybe from my ass) and hunkered down to spin those wheels faster.

Traffic increased significantly as per usual when I approached cities, but HCMC must be pretty damn big! Still more then a century before I hit the city center! Lots of scooters, handful of bikes, I could pretty much draft the slower scooters and even accelerated past them onto faster scooters when I see one. Fun fun! The longer downhills, I actually started to overtake them past 36km/h and then crank the heck out of the bike back up the hills! Spin hard! Although there is not must scenery now, it was actually more of people watching, I watched the pillions riders as they came and they looked at me too.. I guess I was a rare sight? Crazy guy on a bicycle riding at scooter speeds looking wet and sorry. And just like that I kept going, I was kind of surprised it was already dark, push on I must! I think there were very few traffic lights and I took the opportunity to re-lube my chain thanks to the start-stop rain. I lubed twice, each time after the rain stopped, anyone counting how many times it rained now? Also at the traffic lights were children coming up to me to beg. Never saw that before, tough lives.

As I got nearer the city center, I got more excited and actually cycled faster, stopping once in a while to check the map as the intersections got more frequent and complicated. The nearer I got, it absolutely got more confusing, round-a-bouts, super heavy traffic, literally going around in circles. I finally found the hotel. Finally man. 

Warning graphic image of my foot.

After a shower and dry clothes, time for dinner, I searched TripAdvisor and wanted to eat sushi, but couldn't find the place. I was on the correct street but zero idea on which side. Crossing the street here is super stressful! With hunger levels at emergency, I settled for Kentucky.

Distance today: 199 km 
Distance to date: 1160 km
No. of punctures to date: 1

Vietnam Tour: Day 12 (1st Sept) Da Lat to Bao Loc

Short note: I should really finish up this Vietnam trip write up, it's been years.. Literally. year 2012. Still a trip of a life time!

Got a little lucky at breakfast!

The same great breakfast as yesterday!! Golfed down what I could and off we go! It was 10km of continues steep descent that Initial D fans would love.

I thanked many many many times that I had chosen hydraulic disc brakes for this trip and even more the front Ice tech rotor that were so strong with zero fading throughout! I was thinking if they would turn red hot! With the dry roads and strong brakes, I quickly got in tune and overtook everything in my path. Taking my time to overtake only when it was clear. Being a mountain road however, that was not much clear space, since every other turn is a blind corner! There was one bus and that was nerve wrecking, it was going so slow and it was so long! I had to decide when and if I should overtake. I finally found a little stretch and went for it! I had to make it before the next corner. Past more then half the bus, it was the point where braking and going back behind the bus would be quite impossible. Luckily I made it easily. Phew!

Looks like a dam, pretty cool!

One of the most proper toilets I think!

Super cool wind while going downhill was great, so great I missed a stop where there was a waterfall. I passed that and even contemplated going back. Me and my weakness to waterfalls! But of course, the hills that I had to climb to go back to the waterfall was definitely a no-no for me.

Some highway on the left, so bikes had this section of the road to ourselves!

I came to a point where that was a highway beside the road, looks like a toll-road. 

There was quite a bit of wind, if you could see from the flag..

Still very beautiful scenery as I ride along.

Looks like I'm going into a storm.. Hope for the best!

The road got worse.. At least I seem to be drafting the storm.. The wind pushes it further.

And then I came to this point in the road where I saw on the left and on the right:

Storm Storm!

It's sunshine!

Quite a plenty of hills before a got to Bao Loc though! I counted at least 7, the pain.. I had Pho somewhere in-between and checked into yet another random hotel, this time without any AC. 

Checked into the hotel and said goodbye to the storm clouds I narrowly missed.

Settled with Com dinner just outside the hotel and went to bed early as I had a lot of distance to cover tomorrow! Till the next post guys!

Distance today: 100 km 
Distance to date: 961 km
No. of punctures to date: 1

Vietnam Tour: Day 11 (31st Aug) Rest in Da Lat

It's a rest day!!! Damn! And nicely planned, after that grueling climb a rest is definitely welcomed. The weather here in Dalat was amazing, super cooling, fresh air and laid back atmosphere. It's a little different in feel here, the buildings look and feel different.

So first up, breakfast! And let me tell you, if you ever come here, you must stay in this hotel: 

simply for the food:

I ate and ate and ate, nothing but a good breakfast to start the day. It's free flow and look at those fruits! That has to be healthy!

Total consumed: 2x banana, mango dragon fruit, avocado, passion fruit, 2x baguette, cheese, ham, bacon, tea, watermelon, great!

The market, multi-storey, didn't see anything i fancied there.

I didn't know where to go, so the first thing I did was walk towards the lake, the weather was good, so I just sat there watching the lake and the people. It seems there were some kind of eel clinging on to the shore and some guy were fishing them up easy! It was entertaining. Super chill out. Perhaps, you would like to do some painting here?

Does this remind you of something? This house would be one of a kind in Dalat!

Reminded me of this! haha

Some sort of rice cake i think

This was good! Fried eggplant with ginger, recommended by trip adviser

It's fried rice! the shop was a vegetarian one, wasn't anything special for this rice.

After lunch had more time to laze around, and that was what I did in the hotel, watched Discovery channel, went to the Jacuzzi, oh yes that is a place to chill when you body is aching from riding. After I had finally rested enough, It was time to go check out the evening scene!

Nice! Didn't bring your bike? Rent one! Looks to be nicely equipped.

Shops and dining on the staircase guys! coolness.

Wasn't really hungry, so I ordered soya milk and a cream puff! Yums!

Night performance to call it a day!

Distance today: 0km (Rest day!!)
Distance to date: 861km
No. of punctures to date: 1

Vietnam Tour: Day 10 (30th Aug) Phan Rung to Da Lat

I started way before sunrise, the counter staff were like wth? I knew it was gonna be difficult day of climbing. It was so cooling, and heading up towards to mountain with a feeling of excitement and dread. Just before climbing, the road became dirt paths.

I was to be going up those Himalayan mountains, haha.

The first kilometre of climbing, cool views

The road was so bumpy that my ass was sore very quickly, look at the winding climbs, turns after turns, if i were to describe torture, it would be riding up this. Also notice there is so shade on the road, whenever there was, i was zigzagging riding towards shade. Andddd I went out of water.

I got chased by dogs, 1 2 3 times. I stopped by a unmanned shop. Wanted to get water, ask if anyone was around, no reply. So i left, in first gear I wanted to spin up to change, so I spun up fast, only to be charged but a huge black beast, its one of those dogs that looked they took steroids. No kidding. I shouted, "SIT!" to no avail, and got ready to spray water at the dog, except i didn't have any.

I didn't accelerate, I didn't have the legs honestly, so I kept my pace and shouting, then a 2nd dog joined in. Oh great. They eventually stopped and I continued. Albeit with my heart beating a little faster.

Even the good view were no consolation, i was using my last gear available and it was to be on this gear pretty much the rest of the way. What a grind.

Need water. I finally found a lady selling coffee at the top. So overpriced but I had little choice. Thirst quenched! 

Finally a glimpse of some civilization, and the weather.. Torture me slowly.  

Much needed lunch break!

That's how they store their tissue!

The trees here a little different from the bottom of the road, what a different vibe. The weather cooler and it made climbing bearable.

A dirt path I was so tempted to go, there were even sounds of a waterfall! But with no legs and time, I had to push on.

Of course it was to rain me.

Somewhere here 2 guys on a motorbiked rode beside me and shaked my hand, they indicated that they would pull me up. Partly afraid they will gonna make me pay and partly because I wanted to complete this epic climb I politely declined. They looked at me in disbelief, it gave me strength!

Half rain half shine

Another small village i passed, they whole village must be here! I was was pretty lively!

Looks like a World War truck!

There goes the last light.

A clear indication the town is approaching and the climate here very good for flowers!

Fully dark now, laughing Buddha welcomes all.

I can't tell you when good this was, and so, cheap.

The last view I saw before heading into town. Those are lights for each green house growing flowers. That is some tech! A makes for a good night view.

Da lat!

After the mad 10-15% climbs I take a bit to find Dream Hotel 2 and have a much needed rest and shower.

Distance today: 108km
Elevation today: 2207metres (Shut up legs)
Distance to date: 969km
No. of punctures to date: 1

Just a note, 2207 elevation is like climbing Mount Faber 27 times except I had to cover 100km as well. This had to be my most epic climb to date.