coldfusionPaul

250 baht isn't bad. mine charges 350, worldbike (giant) used to charge 400 & that was 2 years ago (i've since divorced them).

is the chain actually making the clicking sound? sure its not a stiff link (no amount of lube will solved that)?

maybe the late great sheldon brown can help or this?

during the rainy season i try to get my road bike to the LBS for a thorough cleaning every month or so. failing that i use one of those chain cleaning widgets & before that i used a couple of old tooth brushes. are you cleaning the chain rings as well?

are you letting the finish line lube dry before riding, moving the chain, etc.? i've been told repeatedly by my LBS to make sure its completely "dry" before riding.

oops, forgot to add (for 28-aug-2010) that route 3312 west to lum lukka intersection with khlong 8 is in bad shape from about 5km out. the last 200m or so to the intersection is really bad.

rain delayed my ride start from 6:00am to 10:00am so i only dashed up to ongkharak.

seen 28-aug-2010:

• inbound route #305 is down to one choke point, around the km 38 marker. unfortunately it appears as if crazed monkeys did the paving work, riding over this quality pavement for 10km or so shook the blood out of my arms (and re-aggravated my shoulder tendinitis) . adding to the agony, some genius decided that the road needed drainage and cut runnels at random intervals across the road shoulder, then filled them with asphalt. ended up bang-bang-banging down the road ;-) really hope that this was just phase one of the "repair" (fiscal year ends in october, doesn't look good).
• rural route #2006 (lum sai-lum lukka pathumthani) is still an utter mess, going on 2 years now.
• on a more positive note, the roads along khlongs 11 & 13 are still in excellent shape. better hurry ;-)

i've never been able to find any helmet liners, padding, etc sold separately. LBS always try to sell me a new helmet.

thanks for the info about longdo. i'll have a look.

there's really no route that doesn't suffer from some road construction these days. best i think i can see is 3481 to prachinburi if you don't mind hoofing it around that boondoggle bridge or maybe scoot up north a bit around it via 3481 เดิม (old), i recall seeing a sign at an intersection just after i went past that "bridge". though i didn't go the last 20km to muang prachin along that route, so no telling.

the frenzy of road construction seems to mostly affect inbound routes, so one-way trips outbound ought to be fine.

seen 21-aug-2010:

• inbound route 305 is choked off around khlong 14, the rest is more or less passable on a road bike
• route 3481 (back route to prachinburi from nongchok/minburi) has a few construction sites including an amazing bridge over absolutely nothing that requires hoofing around
• inbound route 304 is ripped up in a few places (left lane of course) starting about 10 km from suan siam (there were two police checkpoints in & outbound near the 3481-304 sala daeng intersection, looked like local cops)

in all my years here have never seen such a frenzy of road construction.

as soon as a i can work up an app, try to put these on a map.

i thought it might be useful if folks would report locations of road construction/maintenance & save some other rider some grief.

seen 7-aug-2010:

• #305 southbound from south of ongkharak to around khlong 14 resurfacing work, reduced to one lane. MTB probably ok, not so good for road bike (north bound ok)
• #33 eastbound from whian dang to ban na ripped up in several places, not so good for road bikes (west bound ok)
• #3025 (khlong 12) road bikes might stick to the east side of canal, west side ripped up in several places as well as a 200-300 meter "gap" were the pavement projects didn't overlap ;-) need to switch to the west side just before sananrak municipality & road bikes have to hoof it last 1-2km no matter.
• #3312 (lum sai-lum lukka) is still ripped up in several places (i guess its been like this for 2-3 years). not so good for road bikes but passable if careful & don't mind the wear & tear on the tires.

depends on where you live in bangkok & what kind of riding you want to do.

i live in ramindra area & ride (road bike) north & east from there every saturday. trips along the north-south canals (khlongs 7-15) are pleasant enough & normally have very little traffic. khlong 11 from lum sai to #305 is pretty nice & has plenty of food places & a couple-three nice temples plus a golf course (rumored to have micro brewery, never verified). some of the roads along the canals aren't in the best condition for road bikes (khlong 7 north from lumlukka for instance) but are plenty fine for MTB.

you can see some of my rides here: here

best value beef i've ever had here is phon yang kahm from sakorn nakhon. there are a chain of dozen or so places selling this beef in & around bangkok. most of these will have a take-out shop where you can get beef to grill at home. sirloin tip from 300+ baht/kg up to rib-eye 1,000 baht/kg. it's all good. ko-khun website (thai)