Thank you Wheelians…

What began as an interest in electronic recreational wheels from a group of four friends earlier this year had evolved into a sizable online community site where people with common interest in electronic recreational wheels congregates. So far, we have garnered more than 300 Facebook likes in a short span of 3 months from people of all walks of life and many there are others who joined up with us in our weekly event over numerous locations in Singapore; West Coast Park, East Coast Park; Sentosa Cove; Esplanade.

While there were many fun and laughter along the way, the success is totally down to the hard work from dedicated volunteers and supporting friends giving us a helping hand. To generate funds to support our activities, we also started selling some products, namely the Wheelies Unicycle and Patgear. There was no paid advertisements or full time staff as it is our intention to keep our prices as affordable as possible. It was not all business for us. There were other involvements too by the Wheelies as we try to garner online donation support for Philippines, which was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in November. A little effort goes a long way and we hope we have directly / indirectly helped in the relief efforts.

As 2013 winds down, the Wheelies team would like to thank our friends and supporters for making this journey an exciting one. Your support serves as a motivation for us to do better. While we do not claim to be the best, we will try harder to make sure we reach there. We hope to see you soon in 2014. Wishing you a prosperous 2014 for you and your family.

Of food, gifts and.... Wheelie!

This time of the year is always the time for gatherings, parties, overnight mahjong/poker sessions etc.  And being Singaporeans, the topics during the parties usually revolves around food.  The Wheelies got ourselves invited to a Christmas party recently (read: gate-crashed) under the pretext of delivering a set of Wheelie to our first lady customer.

Not your typical Santa Claus

Arming ourselves with knowledge of where to go for best supper, brunch etc, we were pretty confident of not ending up as wallflowers during the party.  The party went on as per our expectation, with food, COE prices and property cooling measures being topics of the day until the gift exchange started.  All the guests were eyeing the “big, red, angry bird box-set” until our gracious host dropped a bombshell and announced that the angry bird box was a surprised Christmas gift for her partner. 

Knight with his shining White Wheelie!

After everyone exchanged their gifts, a “test-drive” of the Wheelie by the new owner is in order.  Off we go to the nearby playground and being a breezy afternoon that day, there were quite a fair number of people in the playground, from doting grandparents running after their grandkids to domestic helpers standing around while the children played catch with their friends.              

Our new owner zipped around in his new toy attracted a lot of attention and the afternoon suddenly turned into a mini demo day for the Wheelies. 

A typical day at the playground, that is until the Wheelies arrived

If you are organising a party and need help to keep your guests entertained, you know who to call.  Our charges are very reasonable – a cup of kopi, and lots of laughter.  That's all we ask for. 

To all who stopped and chatted with us during our weekly Sunday demo days, happy holidays and have a “wheelie” good one!  Hope to see you wheeling around soon!

Zhng my bicycle!

SINKAPO-RAN: “Wah, your ride zhng until so nice. Sibei Beng leh!”
Non SINKAPO-RAN: “Huh?? Zhng? Beng?”

Before you start scrambling to your Webster dictionary to search for the two foreign sounding words you had just heard, I must explain the two words are basically part of Singlish, an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore. Thus, it is unlikely you will find the meanings of them in a traditional English dictionary.

So what do they really mean? According to Wikipedia, Ah Beng is a stereotype applied to a certain group of young Chinese men in Southeast Asia who is typically a young Chinese man and usually lacks cultural refinement. Ah Bengs are also associated extensively with zhng-ed cars (modified), often in the boy racer style, and are stereotypically seen as excessively flashy and materialistic.

To a certain extent, being Beng is cool in local automotive aftermarket context. The culture of zhng-ing the car, or also commonly known as “Pimping my ride” has more or less reach out to the masses here. Zhng-ing the car is very popular in Singapore. If you look out on the streets today, there are many modified cars. They simply love expressing their individuality through the different modifications they did on their car; customised decals, disco lights, loud bass, soup up engine, shiny rims, racing seats, loud exhaust and many more. The automotive aftermarket products has more or less spawn into a sizable industry in Singapore. 

Style or Beng?

Big Furby fan?

All that glitters is gold

More power

What about zhng-ing my bicycle? Cycling has become increasingly popular in Singapore in recent years. Singaporeans not only cycle for recreation, but is also used it as an alternative option for short-distance within the neighbourhoods and MRTs. With the growing addressable market, there are too, many aftermarket products for the bicycle enthusiasts in Singapore. There are many things you can choose: changing the colours, brake pads, titanium frame, basket holder, air horn etc.

If you are still looking for something to individualise your bicycle, you might want to consider Monkey Light Pro. So what is a Monkey Light pro? In short, Monkey Light pro creates stunning images and animations within a bicycle wheels. 

How does it really work?

According to Technewsworld.com, Monkey Light Pro consists a set of four bars with 256 colours LED lights attaches with bolts to the spokes of the rider's bicycle wheel. The lights rotate along with the wheels, creating an image. It uses a theory called Persistence of Vision whereby an afterimage illusion is supposedly generated by the brain and eye, creating a complete picture from a series of images. Four magnetic sensors and a two-axis accelerometer track the speed, upwards position and rotation direction. A chip enables the light to create bright, still or animated images that fill the entire wheel. 

There are currently 3 different versions of the product available; M210, M232 and Pro. Based on the specs, the products are differentiated on number of LEDs and colours used. The more LEDs and colours, the more realistic and colourful images and animations you can create. Monkey Light Pro does not come cheap though as it cost USD895 (excluding shipping). 

Having a Monkey Light Pro installed on my bike will definitely increase my Beng-ness. As much as I like to zhng my bicycle, I would probably hold back the decision for a more competitively price product to be available. As there is still a ban on flashing neon lights since 1972 in Singapore, interested buyers should also check with the laws too before installation.