Bicycle Shop In Samui?

[stevehaigh]

does anyone know if there is a bicycle shop in KS that has a good selection of mountain bikes? if not, what about Surat or do i have to look in BKK? how will the prices compare on the island?

thanks

[valentinoxxx]

The closest you'll get is...the Tesco Lotus on the main road between Chaweng and Bophut.

£30 upwards

[cutethaigirl]

i did not get my degree but i know that if a bicycle in BKK costs 50 baht and it cost 40 baht to take by ferry to an island it will cost at least 90 baht in the island!!!

Buy in BKK and take it with you.

[Khun Jean]

The closest you'll get is...the Tesco Lotus on the main road between Chaweng and Bophut.

£30 upwards

I think these are the bicycle equivelants of throw away cameras.

Bicycle up and down one small moutain and then throw away.

These bikes are terrible. Made of the cheapest material.

I know there is a good shop in Samui. I talked to an English chap there last weekend who was driving around the island as a daily exercise and he told me there is a small company that sells very good mountain bikes (imported) and organizes trips for tourists.

I will try to find their name and address and come back to you.

[valentinoxxx]

That's not correct in this case, Goodthaigirl. The prices at Tesco Lotus Samui are on a par with other Tesco Lotus, Makro etc

No longer necessary to travel to Surat Thani or Bangkok on shopping trips for household items.

KhunJean

That may be the case if you buy the cheapest model and know nothing about bicycle maintenance.

Point is, you can buy a bicycle inexpensively on Samui.

If you want a particular make of bicycle, you can look here; http://www.probike.co.th/v2/showroom.php

[Khun Jean]

That may be the case if you buy the cheapest model and know nothing about bicycle maintenance.

Point is, you can buy a bicycle inexpensively on Samui.

Only not at lotus.

And as always you get what you pay for.

Try driving down a mountain on a cheaper then 40-50.000 baht bike. You probably won't survive it.

Driving it around on the road is another story. But the first emergency brake and you might have some trouble.

And at lotus the most expensive models are still crap. But that's because probably i know a little about bicycles.

Looks like your link to probike is at least a shop with decent material.

A pity that their dealer list is in thai only

I saw two dealers with a telephone number that started with 77 so the chance is there might be one in Surat or Samui.

[elfe]

there are several good bicycle shops on samui, for example the one in nathon with bigger choice and more upmarket and quality ones. you surely can order through them as well. how the prices compare to the west I'm not sure though. in lotus i've only seen the cheap-cheap ones

[wix]

Red Bicycle Samui

http://www.redbicycle.org/

There is also a good bike shop in Surat Thani. they sell TREK and other leading brands. Don't have the address at hand, but it is near the Surat Thani hospital.

[tjo o tjim]

Does anybody know the current status of bike shops on Samui? Tesco won't cut it. There used to be a shop on the ring road near Mae Nam, but I couldn't find it last month. Checked Chumphon, but they don't stock any farang sizes. Looking for bikes in the 13-20k range (and realize what I should get for that). Would like to avoid Surat if possible.

(World Bike in Chumphon (077.502.530) will arrange delivery to Koh Tao/KPN, and carries GT, Mongoose, and LA Bikes; X-Phong 2 (077.502.040) carries Garry Fischer and Trek, but the owner speaks no English. Neither shop had anything bigger than 16".)

[tjo o tjim]

Just in case the next guy looks here for information, we ended up heading to Bangkok and buying our bikes there. Issues regionally: nobody stocks farang sizes; significant markups do not translate to added value; selection constraints; and... nobody outside of a "real" bike shop will let you test-ride.

We ended up buying two Trek bikes from ProBike in Bangkok, and ended up with more accessories than we know what to do with for the list price on the bikes.

Our findings: (thai) BKK shops will go 15% below list without asking, Chumphon will go 10% below list, and the good shop on Samui charges about a $100 premium over list or bkk prices. Not a big deal on expensive bikes, but if you are looking for a bike that should be 10k Baht it is a deal-killer.

So, my recommendation is to head to bkk. When it comes to looking for a bike.

[pennyfarthing]

Two weeks ago I bought a "mountain bike" from Tesco Lotus, 3,300 Baht, and it certainly wasn't as bad as Khun Jean suggests if you're looking for a straightforward bicycling solution for your stay on Samui. The price is half that of a month's rental from Red Bicycle. Of course it's not anywhere near the quality. I find it fine for going around the ring road, but there's no bicycle on earth that will get me up the mountain roads. For that I would need gears so low I'd be pedalling furiously, sweating like a pig and hardly moving an inch, so I might as well get off and push, or in other words would be better off not taking a bike in the first place. And I certainly wouldn't trust Tesco's brakes, even after my adjustments, coming down!

But to get back to the Tesco Lotus bikes, which is the point of my post here, the main thing that was wrong with it was that everything, really everything, was adjusted wrong (or not at all). In the store I pointed out that the brakes didn't work. So after I had called in more and more staff, in increasing order up the hierarchy, various guys spent about an hour tinkering with it until the brakes seemed to work and I paid and took it home. When I got it home I discovered that the brakes had been put on upside down, the gears had no tension at all, and oh yes the main rear wheel nut was loose (and later fell off). However now that I've adjusted it myself, which involved lots of Googling "adjust derailleur tenstion", buying a complete set of spanners, screwdrivers and hex wrenches, not to mention a rear view mirror, lights and a bell, and getting a new main rear nut put on and properly tightened at "Repair Motor Bike" just north of Na Thon (thanks guys), it has finally snapped into tune and now cycles like a dream. I am even keeping up with the mopeds on the flat between Na Thon and Bang Makham (where I'm staying). I'm sure it would have fallen to pieces after a year, but I only needed a bike for 4 weeks (only 9 days to go then it's back to Flangistan, sob) so all in all it was a bargain.

Oh yes, and the rear view mirrors at Tesco's are marked "Right" but actually left (and don't contain the alternative round-the-handlebars mount pictured on the pack) so no use here. The last real right r/v mirror, which I bought, turned out to be on a polystyrene stalk which duly snapped off yesterday.

So I'm giving no undue praise to Tesco, just explaining what in my now not inconsiderable experience is really wrong with their bikes, and adding that if you're looking for a "throw-away" at less than the rental price for a month, and prepared to do the work described above, the Tesco option is doable.

One more disadvantage, I tried to get mirror, bell and lights at the bicycle shop in Nathon (last shop before the turning into the one way system on the main road going south, turning west), to which their answer to all items was "finished, no have", even though there were lights all over the place and the guy was actually walking round pinging a bell in his hand. Pretty clear that they were peeved because I hadn't bought the bike from them, but not exactly the way to get new customers. Probably a Thai will post to tell me what an awful Flang I'm being, but I'd appreciate it if they'd also tell me correct way to say sorry, and would Na Thon bicyle shop please, please, sell me a decent rear view mirror!

PS, tjoh o tjim, I couldn't find the Mae Nam bicycle shop either, after spending an afternoon pounding along the ring road in the fierce heat. Na Thon bicycle shop had told me there was one there. There used to be one there in 2000, when I was last here, run by a French Belgian guy.

Cheers to all and happy tours!

Penny

[yetifella]

there you go , get what you pay for!

[steverino]

I would recommend LA bikes though the top model only. They got a website, sorry don't know the URL, but do a search on Google. The Two shops I know of that are OK are one in Nathon just after Thai Farmers Bank and one in Maenam just past the Post Office.

Bicycle repair man is in Maenam soi1 opposite Quad Bikes and his No. is 09 288 0527. Have your Thai mouth on when you call him.

The La bike cost me 8,500 baht and is brilliant, great value for money.

If you want to rent one the Beatles Bar in Bophut rent bikes, otherwise go to red bicycle near Lamai.