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Tour News
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Registration is now open for the Tour de Thailand 2009.
Time is flying by and before you know it we will depart Chiang Mai for Phuket on our 7th Annual Tour de Thailand charity ride! This year’s ride, beginning on December 8th and ending on January 3rd will prove to be the best tour ever with many new and returning riders from all over the globe.
Visit the jungle-clad mountains of the north to the deep blue Andaman Sea of the south as we ride the length of Thailand in total 2,300 kilometers or 1,438 miles.
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Operation Smile, Thailand
Throughout the world, Operation Smile volunteers repair childhood facial deformities while building public and private partnerships that advocate for sustainable healthcare systems for children and families. Together, we create smiles, change lives, heal humanity. [more here] |
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Foundation for the Blind in Thailand
For sixty years the Foundation for the Blind in Thailand under the Royal Patronage of H.M. the Queen, which is a non-profit organization, has assisted blind and low vision people. This has been possible because of the kind cooperation and assistance from people who realize the value and importance of providing blind people with equal opportunities. [more here ]
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General News
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Excerpted from the UK Times:
The richer people become the further they cycle, according to official British figures overturning conventional wisdom that the bicycle is largely a poor man’s mode of transport. The richest fifth of the population cycle on average 2½ times as far in a year as the poorest fifth. The British Department for Transport’s National Travel Survey indicates that the poorest fifth, despite being five times less likely to have access to a car, are very unlikely to consider cycling as a solution to their transport needs. The London Cycling Campaign said that people on higher incomes tend to be better educated about the health benefits of cycling and more concerned with maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Link to full article @ UK Times Online
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General News
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In Beijing the bicycles don't stop for red lights. I had pretty much figured this out for myself by my second day on a rented 15-speed mountain bike. But it was Lu Xianfang who taught me how to weave my way across eight lanes of traffic that had the green light, and probably thought it had the right of way.
Link to full article (of-site)
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General News
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Beginning on July 15, thousands of bicycles became available in Paris at hundreds of self-service docking stations installed around the city by J. C. Decaux, an outdoor advertising company. Anyone, even fresh-off-the-plane Americans, can stroll over, swipe a credit card and ride away on a sturdy, well-maintained three-speed bike, a “vélo” in French. Access to the bikes is available all of the time; it's liberating, as in “liberté,” so the “Vélib” was born.
Twelve weeks after the introduction of the Vélib, 15,000 bikes have been put into service at more than 1,000 stations. In that time Vélibiens (or Vélibeurs or perhaps Vélibistes) have checked out bicycles almost six million times and ridden them an estimated 7.5 million miles.
The Vélib system is simple. You swipe a credit card in a kiosk that is located beside a row of parked bikes and purchase a one-day, one-week or one-year subscription. (The system also takes a 150-euro deposit authorization to ensure the bike's safe return.) The machine prints out a card with your code number and you enter a personal password. You tap in this code and password to unlock a bike and ride off.
Link to full article (offsite)
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Tour News
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Hello everyone - As many of you already know, Forbes participated in the 1,500
mile Tour de Thailand Charity Bike ride and subsequently received a Highly
Commendable award for Community Services as follows:
Foreign Service Youth Foundation
Highly Commendable
Clements International Award for Community Service
presented to
Forbes Slater
For your participation as the youngest rider ever in the 2006
Tour de Thailand Charity Bike Ride.
At great personal sacrifice and with great courage, you
completed the 1,500 mile arduous trek and
became the highest fundraiser in the tour's history, collecting
over $5,950 for both an American and a Thai charity.
Your dedicated commitment and perseverance demonstrated to
Thailand the spirit of American giving.
Here is a link to the
photos (offsite)
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Thailand Bicycling News
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 What makes a bike frame with the smoothest ride? Titanium? Aluminum Alloy? Graphite Composite Fiber? If you want a bike frame that gives you a really smooth ride--maybe you should go chop down a bamboo tree.
That's just what Daedulus Bicycles does for their bikes: they build their frames out of bamboo.
Designers Liakos Ariston and Jacob Prinz started Daedalus Custom Bamboo
Bikes two years ago after drawing up designs on a napkin; so far
they've made a limited run of high-end bikes that sell for around
$1,250 each.
And where did they dream this up? Why, on a trip to Thailand of course! (It must have been the Chang Beer talking.)
Prinz spent time working for his family's construction company, but
it was on a trip to Thailand where he got inspiration from seeing the
bamboo woodworkers of Southeast Asia.
"I saw a lot of examples of
what people were doing and the structures they could build, it was such
a raw form of construction but at the same time they were able to build
things up to our standards," he said.
Read the full article at SanLuisObispo.com
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Thailand Bicycling News
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The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is conducting surveys to build more
bicycle trails to promote riding bikes and other environmentally friendly
vehicles as part of a campaign to help fight global warming, Bangkok governor
Apirak Kosayodhin said Saturday.
Leading a large gathering of famous
singers and actors, the Bangkok governor and a procession of assorted
celebrities rode their bicycles through busy traffic from scenic
Narathiwatratnakarin Road along Sathorn Road to Wireless Road and Lumpini Park
as part of a campaign to urge Bangkokians to ride bicycles pass through the
traffic and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas emissions, which
contribute to global warming.
The governor said that City Hall will
build and map more bicycle routes to promote saving energy, the habit of
healthful exercise, and visits to tourist sites along the bike
trails.
The BMA also plans to boost the number of bicycle parking lots at
elevated train stations and subway stations to encourage the public to use the
metropolitan areas' expanding mass transit system, Governor Apirak said.
City Hall has been conducting activities designed to promote reducing
global warming on the ninth of every month. On Monday (July 9), the metropolitan
administration will launch activities focusing on switching off car engines
while parked and reducing dust.
A "Lights Off" campaign was carried out
in May in the capital to raise public awareness of the contribution of electric
light to severe global warming. Not all of Bangkok's at least 10 million
residents turned off their lights, but enough joined the nighttime activity to
vividly demonstrate life without light. (TNA)
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Cycling Humor
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- You know how many miles you rode last year
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- You have a year-round weird tan
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- You have passionate opinions about logging trucks
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- You have permanent nerve damage in your hands, neck and/or groin
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- You have lots of pics of yourself next to the signs at the top of mountain passes
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- You sometimes think seriously about the trailer vs pannier debate
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- You know what "gear inches" means
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Read more...
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Cycling Humor
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- You buy your crutches instead of renting.
- You see nothing wrong with discussing the connection between hydration and urine color.
- You find your Shimano touring shoes to be more comfortable and stylish than your new trainers
- You refuse to buy a settee because that patch of wall-space is taken up by a bike.
- You have more money invested in your bike clothes than in the rest of your combined wardrobe.
- Biker chick means black lycra, not leather, and a Marinoni, not a Harley.
- "Four cheeseburgers and four large French Fries" is for you.
- You see a fit, tanned, Lycra-clad young thing ride by, and the first thing you check out is his or her bicycle.
- You empathize with the road-kill.
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Read more...
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Thailand Bicycling News
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 The Nation newspaper ran a nice article today about bicycling around Ayutthaya. The mention renting a bike there for B30--that's not going to get you much of a bike. Be prepared for a rickety old Chinese single-speed. If you want to ride Ayutthya in style, bring your own bike or rent one in Bangkok, we don't know of any shops that rent tricked out bikes. Contact us and we will hook you up with a rental.
It's a great ride, cycling around Ayutthaya; in our opinion it's one of the best day rides in Thailand. (It's also part of the Tour de Thailand!) If you are going to do it on your own, it's easy to get there from Bangkok by train (see details in the article). In fact, you can go there, ride and be back in a day--easy. Ayutthaya is a not-to-be-missed stop on a trip to Thailand and seeing it by bike is a great day to add to your agenda.
True fact: it was after my first ride in Ayutthaya (on one of those crummy rental bikes) that I thought up the whole idea for the Tour de Thailand. It's a place filled with inspiration!
Link to full article (offsite)
PS: If you do know of a good rental shop in Ayutthaya, let us know. To post it in the article discussion topic in our forum, just click on the link below.
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