Thai Riding

These are scenes of riding in Thailand. Top is my first apartment in the middle of a small town where the road forms a loop. My place was in the middle of the loop. It had a carport where I am standing in the picture. Across the street is where there were different banana trees which people harvested occasionally. This is a photo of the reflection in the glass sliding door. The bike pictured is my utility bike which has the wide geared triple in the front, a large Carradice Camper saddle bag and a generator hub which powers my front and rear Cree LED lights. I've pulled up next to cars and my light output rivals theirs. It projects light quite a ways front and rear. The Busch and Muller system is recognized by the German government for the mandated light output.

Typical leg tattoo from the chain ring on the bicycle.

Below are scenes from my typical ride. First is the top of the mountain. The grade on this slope is very steep. It may be 10-12% or so. It's much more than any slope I normally rode in the US. This is facing north viewing the ocean on the west side of the island of Phuket ( no, it's pronounced poo - ket). Just sayin'. This is a beautiful island. Don't disrespect it.

This shows how beautiful and shady the route is in the morning. There's plenty of shoulder and not too much traffic. The drivers here are not very forgiving. I was hit by a motorbike on my third day. That was over a year ago now. This current entry is July, 2018.

This is a small ascent on the route again showing the abundance of shade at certain times of the day on this route.

This is on the far side of the ride looking back toward the hill I traverse. Often when the inclement weather comes in it gets stuck on top of that hill. The British International School is along here. There's also a park with a nice lake.

This is a shot facing the same direction toward the BIS but closer to the BIS near the lake and the park. The view is always extraordinary. It's a fairly popular spot for cycling. The road is much wider and very little traffic. My round trip ride is about 13 miles with that huge climb in the middle. At one point I was able to climb that hill on my racing bike without standing up or stopping. I've had some physical issues so I've been using my utility bike which has lower gearing like a mountain bike. I can stay in the saddle again. A few times on the racing bike I was walking. In the last 50 years of riding I have not had to walk a hill. This is a killer.