Let’s check out the Shimano Cycling world, a bicycling lifestyle shop and museum at the Singapore Sports Hub at Kallang. Located at the OCBC square open, the museum sits at a building space adjacent to the Kallang wave mall at the Kallang MRT west exit. Also, it is notably sited where the entrance to the Indoor stadium and Sport museum and library reside.
A bicycle lifestyle hub
Furthermore, in a nutshell, Shimano Cycling world is tad like a showcase, activity, educational and museum all rolled into one conducive space. The entrance lobby of the store is decorated and clad in light-brown wood. Also, these wooden accents continue onto the side walls of tall shelving’s adored with cycling gear and books.
In addition, a service counter situated at the center of the space serves as a central control node, besides being a point of sale and a spot to ask for assistance. Helpful staff here would tend to your needs or requests. The galleries have an open concept feel and you are free to roam about and check out the various displays, videos screens and technology museum area. There are tools to measure your ride height for bike-sizing as well as cycling gear and parts.
Additionally, you can see Shimano Cycling world an establishment introduced in response to riding the tide of rising cycling interests here in Singapore. Still, in Singapore, bicycles are still largely used primarily for recreational purposes. Also, you can bet there would be renewed interest in cycling as a sport with the Tour de France Criterium event coming into Singapore for this October sports calendar season.
Furthermore, the establishment conducts in-house activities catering to beginners to even advanced riders. Examples includes bicycle 101 Talks, Introduction to Bicycle Components, basic bike maintenance workshops targeted at people starting out cycling as a recreational hobby. Also, notably, there is even a small stadium style seating area and resistance mat area presumably used for cycle or maybe even Spinning classes.
Museum gallery
Moreover, leading on adjacent to the activity area is the Shimano world museum. The galleries here cover a range of Shimano technological achievements through a showcase of informatics displays and a ride through time.
Here, you can find an array bicycles through the evolution of time though not necessarily built by Shimano. It is tad like a collection and stocktake of notable trends and design revolution of bicycle history. This starts out with a wooden iron monster. The lack of pneumatic tires does possibly make for a rather rough ride. You can view these bicycles through slide-out drawers housing various bicycles of Shimano technological history
Furthermore, you can also find a Retro chopper-style bicycles popular in the 80s. They are decked out with bucket saddles and ape handle livery. Then there are the 90s-era BMX bicycles (complete with Handlebar Ribbons), city bike, early road and mountain bikes. Notably, with the exception of some tricycles, the design of the bicycle has been largely unchanged over the decades.
Interactive displays
Additionally, the galleries, with its white flooring and walls gives the halls a rather sterile and precise ambience which goes well into teaching how Shimano upholds precision in creating their cycling technologies. Here, you can find elaborations of road bike shifting technologies, including Shimano Invention of their 3 Speed-hub on 1957.
Moreover, there is also an interactive display piece which operates on horizontal slide out screen. The screen updates and changes it content as you roll it over a display item of interest. Pretty niffy. Also, there is also a handy hand crank area for you to have a go at trying out the different resistance of traditional dynamos roller and Shimano hub dynamos.
Wrapping up the museum is an array of used whole Shimano bikes on sale too. You can snag pretty good finds for demonstration bicycles. These are usually still in good condition second hand, which are off-season, out of date, previous years models. Also, these bikes have relatively low wear and tear on the components which going for bargain even a third of their regular retail prices.
All in all, you are good Shimano Cycling world for under 30 minutes tops, it is not a large museum or establishment to begin with. The establishment is open till 8pm daily. One to check out if you are a cycling fan in the Kallang sports hub, a place of Fireworks and Monster Trucks.
