mrbrown

I, mrbrown, am the accidental author of a popular Singapore website, mrbrown.com, that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997.

When not writing, I play Xbox Live, PC games, World of Warcraft, DoTA, Team Fortress 2, Soul Caliber 3, Street Fighter IV on PS3, watch too many movies and anime, buy too many gadgets, rear fish, make photos, and ride my bikes.

I have known my wife for more than 20 years and we live in an HDB Flat (apartment: public housing) in the heartlands of Singapore. We have three children, Faith who is nine and autistic, Isaac, who is seven years old, and Joy, five, the littlest.

I ride to work daily. I own four seven bikes.

My main bicycle is a blue Dahon Mu P24 folding bicycle. I ride it most often and it is a workhorse. It has a Radius VRO handle post, Syntace VRO clamps, Syntace alloy handlebar, Pazzaz carbon seat post, and Ergon grips.

I also own a 1960s vintage Columbia Sports tourer frame (green, Made in Birmingham, England, found brand new) built up with new old parts like a 1978 Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub, 1970s MKS Quill 2k pedals, Cherry brakes, Brooks B-17 Special green saddle and Brooks D-Shaped Bicycle Tool/Saddle Bag.

And also a 1970s vintage Kuwahara 12-speed racing bike (silver) built up with new vintage Shimano parts, Brooks saddle and white Maxxis Re-fuse tires.

I have a silver Scott Sub 20 (2007) hybrid. It has been upgraded with a carbon handlebar, a 2008 Shimano SLX crankset, 2008 XT Shadow shifters, 2008 Deore front derailleur, and Ultegra 9-speed cassette.

My newest bike is a Raleigh MV-7 mini-velo (red), upgraded with Brooks B-17 Special brown saddle, inverted handlebar, Tekto brakes, Dia-Compe brake levers, and 1-inch-wide Maxxis Overdrive Elite tires (20-inch).

My other foldie is a Pacific Cycles CarryMe Dual Speed (silver), upgraded with Dahon Biologic saddle and grips.

Lastly I own a 1960s Phoenix China gentleman's bicycle aka the Rustbucket. Added leftover Specialized pedals, a mirror and a rack-mounted basket. Rides totally fine. The only bicycle I will lock up outside and even then with a Krytonite lock.

Most of my bicycles have racks, and I own 2 sets of panniers (a pair of cheapo Lotus ones and a pair of yellow Ortlieb Back Roller Classics). I also have a huge Topeak MTX Trunk Bag DXP and a spare Lotus trunk bag. My bicycle luggage pretty much covers all my carrying needs. I usually strap a Domke F6 sling bag to my rack now.

My primary lighting comes from a pair of Fenix L2D Premium Q5 flashlights which give a maximum of 180 lumens of light each, and a helmet-mounted Fenix P2D flashlight which can crank out another 180 lumens. My rear red blinkers are mostly Cat Eye TL-LD610s and Smart Superflash rear blinkers. My helmet has a Sigma Micro red blinker attached behind.

Most of my bicycles have mirrors mounted on them. I also have an eyeglass mounted mirror I use sometimes.

Yes, I know. I am a bicycle commuting geek.



Site Details:

The original version of this site is now in the process of being migrated.

And I USED to have a regular Friday column for TODAY newspaper.

The WAP edition to this site is winksite.com/mrbrown/mobile. If you still use WAP, this is one way to read the blog.

Comments on this blog are moderated. This means that that when you post a comment, it goes into a holding area for me to approve. So if your comment does not show up immediately, do not fret. I assure you I will be very liberal in approving comments, but I will not tolerate spam, personal attacks, gratuitous profanity and racist attacks. My blog, my rules.

The RSS feed for this site is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/mrbrown, and the RSS feed for the Comments is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/mrbrowncomments

My Flickr site is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-brown (Flickr username: mr brown)

My podcasts are found at:

http://mrbrownshow.com (RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/mrbrownshow )

http://wtfshow.com (RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/wtfshow )

http://seewhatshow.com (RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/seewhatshow )

Twitter: @mrbrown

Instagram: @mr_brown


Disclaimer: All opinions expressed herein by the author remains the sole responsibility of the author, and not representative of any third party, except where otherwise attributed. Further to this, the author does not endorse nor take responsibility for any information or opinion expressed by any third party in any comments, trackbacks or links external to this website.


Computer Details (because I am geek)

I have been an Apple user since 1990. During that time, I have owned a Mac SE, a Mac SE/30, a Mac IIcx, a Mac LCII that became a Mac LC475 later, a Mac IIfx, a Performa 550, a Mac Centris 660AV, a Mac Quadra 840AV, a Mac PowerMac 8100/80, a Powerbook G3 Pismo, and an Aluminium 15" PowerBook G4. There are probably some Macs I missed in that list, because there was a time I had a new Mac every 3 months. I even owned a Newton 110.

My podcast studio currently has an 27-inch iMac i7 and a 20-inch iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz, a white Macbook Intel Core Duo 2GHz. I use a green Razer Copperhead mouse with a white eXact Mat.

At home, I game on an HP HDX Dragon 20-inch laptop with a Razer Diamondback Plasma Limited Edition mouse with Razer eXact Mat. The PC is for games only, and yes, it is getting old.