Riding Vs Riding
My favorite thing about Ramadan is that I get off work at 3PM. This allows me to have a ton of free time to do stuff I wouldn’t usually do like riding my bicycle.
Yesterday I went riding with Nat and the weather was surprisingly great. We rode from Marina Mall to Scientific Center, a short route since we didn’t want to take a longer one in case our bikes had developed problems after a year of storage. Imagine riding all the way to the Kuwait Towers and then finding out the bike has a problem and you have to walk back all the way to Salmiya. It would suck…
Riding the bicycle is really different from the motorbike. For one thing falling off a bicycle is no longer a big thing. Nat crashed yesterday when her bicycle slid on a curve and she just got up and continued riding. When the same thing happened to me with my motorbike I ended up with road rash, a fractured wrist and a large repair bill.
There are two brands of bikes I would recommend people getting, Trek and Cannondale. I personally prefer and ride Cannondale. When it comes to road bikes I would go with Trek but for mountain bikes Cannondale all the way. The Cannondale dealer is located in Shuwaikh, you take the first right after McDonalds on Canada Dry street and once you reach the small round-a-bout the dealer would be on your right hand corner. Trek on the other hand is available at GoSport in The Avenues and eXtreme Sports at Marina Waves.
If you are looking for a place to ride, the Gulf Road is a good place to start. For a short trail you can start off at Marina Crescent and ride all the way to Scientific Center and back. For a longer trail you can go from McDonalds on the Gulf Road and head all the way to Souk Sharq and back. Both routes use a sea side trail away from dangerous car traffic.
Cannondale have soooo many hot bikes to choose from, my favorite being the Gemini but the prices can get ridiculous with models costing KD1000 and up. You can spend a lot less of course, a member in the forum recently purchase a Trek for only KD148 and you can even get bikes for under KD50 even although I wouldn’t recommend them at all. The difference between the cheap and expensive bikes is usually weight, quality of parts, the frame and the finishing. Cheap bikes are usually heavy, equipped with the crappiest brands and handle like crap.
There used to be a riding club that met up every Friday at like 7AM to go riding but I don’t think they do that anymore. If anyone knows of another riding club please leave it in the comments below.
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23 Comments, add your own...
1. SWOS | September 17th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Nice, btw if u didn’t know Extreme Sports just opened a new branch next to Sana`a and near the old Swensens, their Ramadan working hours are 11-4:30 then 8-12,moreover they just got a lot of new gear (bikes,clothes,accessories..etc) and this new branch is much bigger than the Marina waves one.
2. SWOS | September 17th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
its in Salmiya(the store mentioned above by me) , i go riding everyday from 4:15-5:15 me and several friends(from Marina waves to the scientific center and back x2), some have Treks others own Cannondales.you are more than welcome to join us.
3. Mark | September 17th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
ah cool, i know the place, its in my area. will check it out thanks.
4. Kodder | September 17th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Dude, Ride your motorbike, I am so jealous that you have a motorbike, still waiting for some job so I can get a bike.
I am going nuts, I am aiming for a gsxr600 .
5. Mark | September 17th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
I want to ride my motorbike but i only ride with my full gear and in this weather no way on earth i am going to wear a jacket and thick layered pants.
6. fadibou | September 17th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
bought a trek for me and my wife 3 weeks ago and its our first bicycles ever. We have a great place to ride the bike with a bicycle only passage.
With a heart rate monitor you can track your weight and fat
1 hour on the bicycle varies between 450 and 600 kcal and 40 to 60 g of fat.
too bad we are in a different country :(
7. Kodder | September 17th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Mark get some summer full gear, with some gel inside that act like cooler and plenty of ventilation.
8. Mark | September 18th, 2007 at 12:42 am
fadibou: thats why i dont ride to lose weight. same with running. i used to run for an hour and be all tired and exhausted and i look at my monitor and it would say like u just lost 400 calories.
kodder: i am going to get ac for my motorbike if anything! hehe
9. Marzouq | September 18th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Motorcycle > Bicycle
That is all I have to say!!!!
10. Abdullah | September 18th, 2007 at 1:52 am
cool! I love the cycling classes in gyms but I would love to try a real cycling some day. thanks for the info
11. Hellraiser | September 18th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Mark the bike will not develop any problem after storage as long as you made sure your battery has been disconnected during summer or started the engine once a month.
Fadibou is a geek why the heck all this instrumentation when you dont carry an once of fat and you dont need to loose any.
12. Mark | September 18th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Hellraiser I was talking about my bicycle not my motorbike.
13. Hellraiser | September 18th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Ooops must be the fasting making me light headed. Anyways the weather is getting better at night with temperatures dropping to 25 degrees, its time to put on the helmet and goggles and start cruising.
14. s | September 19th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Hey, can anyone give me more details about bicycle prices? i’ve been meaning to buy one, but the thing is i’m not gonna use it that often (once every 3 weeks, if i’m lucky!) so i don’t wanna spend too much, but i still want a good one… does anyone know where i can get a decent bicycle for less than KD 75?
15. Anonymous | September 19th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Well, you can find a good range of bikes at Fantasy World. Check them out at their Souk Sharq or Alrai Outlet
16. SWOS | September 19th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
s, go to Ace,Sears or Sultan Center, they carry Huffy which is a decent American (begginer-level) bike brand, prices are around 35-45KD.
17. Mark | September 19th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Huffy is shit. Would not recommend it to anyone. They way a ton and ride like a elephant.
Fanatasy World is also a toy store so don’t expect any kind of decent bikes there.
Also there is no beginner level bikes unless u r talking about bikes with two tiny wheels on the side for the kids.
18. SWOS | September 19th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
of course there are begginer bikes , cannondale,trek ..etc all have begginer bikes… the low-end ones like the ones we have. Huffy compared to the bikes in sharg is like comparing a Lambo to a corola
19. Mark | September 19th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
if you can ride the kd50 bike u know how to ride the kd2000 bike. nothing changes, if anything its easier to ride the 2000kd bike.
20. Mark | September 19th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
My bike is not a beginner bike neither is yours. They are called entry level bikes because they are the cheap ones. Beginner bikes i told you are the ones for kids with the 2 extra small wheels on the side.
21. s | September 20th, 2007 at 9:27 am
thanks you guys!!
mark you didn’t help:s
but i’ll check ace, sears, and sultan…
22. Mark | September 20th, 2007 at 9:34 am
S, if you go to Salmiya, there are bike shops opposite Sana center. You can find second hand bikes there and I’ve seen Trek, Scott, Cannondale and other brands being sold there before. Does that help? :)
23. s | September 21st, 2007 at 8:15 pm
thanks mark! it does: )
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