Yvonne Armstrong is a 48 year old Australian cyclist that recently toured southeast Asia solo via a Bike Friday. In Vonny's blog about her bike tour, she mentioned taking a Bangkok bike tour with Jason Williams, a bicycle tour operator in Thailand. (Photo right: Vonny & Jason after their tour.)

Curious as to how a tour company in Asia (where most folding bikes are actually built) could afford to rent pricey, custom crafted Bike Friday folding bikes made in the USA, I wrote Jason to learn whether Grasshopper Adventures led any tours renting Bike Fridays or other folding bikes. Following is his reply.

"I am the founder of Grasshopper Adventures and am the proud owner of a Bike Friday 'New World Tourist' which I use whenever I lead tours.

We don't use Fridays as rental bikes, they are just too expensive to use for tours in our price bracket (a Friday would actually cost more than the tour!). I would love to be able to do this though and perhaps when I by myself a new Friday I will make my old one available to people to try out. It is so hard convincing people that they are fantastic to ride and no you don't have to pedal harder :)

I used to use cheap Dahon folding bikes for a tour in Bangkok but they proved too cheap for the regular tours. I would love to by some of the better Dahon's that are now available here in Bangkok but I need all purpose bikes and these city commuter style ones cannot be used on long multiday tours so for now it's regular old mountain bikes...

As I lead many tours on my Friday I have managed to influence a few people into buying their own. The Friday in the blog you read is a "son" of mine plus there are a few others now be ridden in Australia that I inspired.

Here in Bangkok I am a member of the Thailand Cycling Club. A few years ago a turned up to a 6 day, 780km ride on my Friday - there were many funny faces being pulled but after the first day of me being near the front they started to come around. On the final 2 days which were all in the mountains I was easily out in front of everyone. Now there are many people riding folding bikes in the club. I (not too modestly) take part of the credit for convincing them :)

Regards
Jason Williams
Grasshopper Master"

Thanks Jason for writing back. I look forward to cycling around Bangkok with you one day.

For more info about Grasshopper's bike tours, visit GrasshopperAdventures.com. And if you've recently returned from an exceptional bike tour, email me at the link displayed below. Perhaps I'll feature your story.

Cheers,
Larry

Labels: bicycle tours thailand, Bike Friday, bike tours, folding bikes, Grasshopper Adventures, Thailand

by Larry Lagarde

In all the world's great cities, public transportation or mass transit is viewed as essential to the well being of the metropolis; yet, in many North American communities, mass transit is struggling. Case in point: Allegheny County's Port Authority.
(Graphic: Drive to work; work to drive.)

For years, the Port Authority (P.A.) has struggled with financial challenges. Created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1956 to plan and develop Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's port facilities, the P.A. grew to be responsible for all bus service and commuter light rail serving the region. As suburbia grew, the P.A. added routes and traveled further to meet the demand. Due to insufficient governmental subsidies, the P.A.'s struggle to remain solvent has lead to a slow increase in fares and cut backs in service.

The Port Authority's plan to cut services & raise fares is the result of a century of car culture blinding us to the obvious. We all know that oil supplies are dwindling, pollution is triggering global climate change and traffic congestion creates road rage; yet, we continue to drive our cars. Why? Because in our emotion driven psyches, cars symbolize mobility, mobility means freedom & freedom means bliss.
(Photo: Bikes add freedom to mass transit.)

President Bush once said we were addicted to oil. In truth, we Americans are addicted to our cars. Like changing any ingrained habit, breaking ourselves of driving everywhere will be painful.

Until mass transit becomes more appealing, people will continue to rely upon their personal motor vehicles. To be appealing, mass transit must be reliable, affordable, safe, frequent and available throughout our metro areas.

Using a bike that folds makes mass transit feasible to more users by making transit stops more accessible from greater distances. Because they fold, riders can take their folding bikes onto the bus, subway, etc. As more people discover the advantages of folding bikes, use of mass transit will rise; however, more must be done to make mass transit attractive to a wider base of users.

My thanks go to Ed Heath for drawing attention to Pittsburgh's transportation issues via his blog, Cognitive Dissonance.

Labels: Cognitive Dissonance, folding bikes, mass transit, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, public transportation