Being recently inflicted by a bout of cycling-mad-itus, these were two of my top questions, on prepping for a move from London to Jakarta:
1) Is it at all possible to cycle in Jakarta (i.e. traffic, road conditions, etc.)? and do people?
2) Should I ship my road bike (given the expense and difficulty) or should i buy a new one on arrival? What are the prices like?
Six months in, here are the answers:
1) Can I?
Yes, cyclists are a relatively rare and hardier breed here (verus the average cyclist in London, New York, Paris, etc) but they do exist and some people commute daily. I walk, rather than cycle to work, due to relative proximity of the office, but if i had a longer commute i would give cycling a long hard think.
Frankly, driving standards aren’t the best, neither is the condition of the roads. There are limited ‘parks’ of interest in the city, and no real cycling routes. Thus far my cycling has been limited to Sundays, AKA ‘Car Free Day’ (CFD).
CFD means the closing of the main roads in Central Jakarta to vehicles on Sunday morning from 6am – 11am. Hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets and have a big party alongside joggers, bikers and other groups trying to satisfy their exercise urges. The cycling can be a bit haphazard, but you can get a good work out while taking in the city. It’s overall brilliant fun.
My route on CFD capture on Strava
2) Should i ship or buy on arrival?
It depends.
Cycle shops here don’t seem to offer the kind of discounts i’m used to back in the UK (wiggle, etc), but there is a good local brand called Polygon, which sells nice bikes at fair prices (albeit little or no discounts): http://www.polygonbikes.com/id/
I use a racer back in the UK. You see people on road bikes in Jakarta, but I don’t think this is wise:
(a) too many pot holes – suspension needed!
(b) too much glass / rubbish on the roads – puncture proof tyres please!
(c) too much change in surface: gravel / cobbled / road – wide rim tyres needed!
(d) you may need to slow down quickly in tropical rain – disk brakes!
I ended up getting a ‘polygon heist 5.0’. The price was IDR 6.8m (c. USD 530) at Rodalink in the SCBD. The bike comes with suspension forks, durable road wheels fitted with wide tires and powerful disc brakes . I asked the bike store to take 4cm off both ends of the handlebars, to narrow the bike for passing through tight traffic. I think this was a wise move.
Polygon Heist 5
Some shots from CFD
