Shops stocking bicycle bags / paniers and racks?

[SooKee]

None of the places I visited hunting for bikes stocked them. Any suggestions for shops with the best range?

[rebo]

Did you try it here? Lek Bike: N18 47 00.9 E99 00 45.1 (Paste and copy in GoogleEarth/Maps)
Little bit chaotic but they have lots of equipment for long distance cycling.

[terminatorchiangmai]

Chaitawat has it all.

Good luck.

[CNXBKKMAN]

You have to visit a few shops because the the stock levels change. Lek Bike is a good choice and has a lot touring stuff. They sell Vincita panniers that are cheap and ok and also 6000 baht a pair Ortlieb. Tubus racks are great and expensive 4 or 5000 baht but i bought a Topeak super tourist rack from Chaitawat which is decent for 1500 baht ( i can't remember exactly maybe less). My Vincita panniers cost 1000 baht a pair. I have bought Merida waterproof panniers which look just like Ortliebs and are good quality from Chaitawat in the past. Ask Lek bike about Massload racks if he starts showing the Tubus stuff. I got a nice Massload rack for 1000 baht at Lek. Lek doesn't speak english so it helps if you know why you want.

If you were going to check out both shops between them is the LA Bicycle shop on the NE corner of the inner moat. LA Bicycle is only half of the shop, the other half sells the decent stuff. Mong bike is on the one way road going down to Kad Luang , Chang Moi road? Lek bike is hidden behind an old style mom and pop shop so look carefully for the small sign outside. Very easy to miss if you have never visited.

[SooKee]

Great. Thanks. Will give them a try. Will probably pick up some Oakley style sunnies as well. Polycarbonate and less likely to fall off probably safer than my aviator style Polaroid.

[SooKee]

Just by way of an update and to add some general bike bits info. Eventually bought the bags / racks from Chaitawat. Opted for the Topeak Super Tourist DX rack and also the MTX TrunkBag EXP. Nice system as the bag slides on to the rack and locks on (I do use a re-usable cable tie as a precautionary measure though - just in case I look round and "whoooooa - no bag!!!"). Bag has centre trunk and side pouches that can also drop down as panniers. Not cheap but not outrageously expensive. Total price was 5,100 discounted to 4,700. I also ordered the Topeak MTX baskets for the bikes at around 1,000 each. Bit of an extravagance I suppose but handy when stopping off at the market to buy fruit and veg which we often do. Baskets also slide and lock on to the racks. Saves putting dirty, possibly damp, veg / fruit in the panniers. Very handy for runs to the 7 to pick up milk or whatever where condensation can form once you leave the shop.

Interesting though about the price differences from shopping around and specifically about Chaitawat vs iBike. I was looking for the Bontrager RL water bottle cages. Interestingly iBike seems to have started to price stuff in the shop now. Anyways, price at Chaitawat for the cages - 490 baht. iBike - 350 baht!!!! 30% cheaper, Chaitawat normally being cheaper. In a reverse scenario Cateye Padrone computer at iBike - 1,950 baht. 1,750 at Chaitawat which they discounted to 1,500. So it's definitely a case of looking around on a per item basis I think. Not so bad if you're just gonna save 50 or 100 baht I suppose, but I wanted 4 water cages for 2 bikes. Savings soon add up. Plus, some of the shops I check first are closer to home.

On the subject of computers I did try a Sunding SD 576 from Lazada. I guess some folks get lucky with Sunding and have no problems but for me it was a cheap piece of crap that led to the 'buy cheap, buy twice' moral coming true. Worked OK at first but was then jumping round all over the place when reading average MPH and gave me a max speed of 99.23 mph for one trip. Thought I'd covered some ground but wow. I checked and double checked the sensor, magnet position and whatever but it was still far too erratic to be relied upon. There's a lot of negative reviews around the internet about Sunding, esp at Amazon that I maybe should have read first. Still, luckily it was only 500 baht not 5,000. Anyways the Padron ended up costing me 2,000 vs 1,500 if I'd just bought it in the first place. Padron has worked flawlessly since I've had it, good instructions and much easier to set up too.

Did pick up some nice water bottles at Bike Addict (Samoeng Road), the insulated Polar brand. Not expensive either, around 390 baht each. The Bianchi place at Mae Hia have the Camelbak brand, mostly the same I think, but the Camelbaks are double and even treble the price (for the Camelbak Podium Ice). Not worth the price diff IMO.

Of all the shops I visited, given some of the comments about Jacky Bike who I found to be fine, I found the most cliquey of the lot, and the least well stocked was Tommo Bike. No reason to ever go back there.

Edited March 25, 2016 by SooKee