Bike shops are everywhere in Thailand. You’ll find high quality bicycle stores in all the major centres and simpler affairs in most towns. Service charges are tiny so take the chance to get your bike serviced and cleaned (a thorough job costs about $10) and replace any worn parts.

In Bangkok, you’ll usually find at least a little English is spoken in the bike shops. For flat tyres, you should be able to get air from electronic pumps at any service station and most motorbike shops will have pressurized air as well.

• Bike Zone in the Amarin plaza (2nd floor), near Chidlom skytrain station, is our top pick among Bangkok bike shops. Fausto, the friendly Venezulan owner, is fluent in English, sells bike parts, accessories and does servicing. He’s a great guy and we really appreciated his good service. A cleaning goes for 300 Baht here.
• Outdoor Specialist is next door to Bike Zone and sells things like Ortlieb panniers, tents and other goodies at. They have outlets in Krabi and Chiang Mai as well as other key Thai cities.
• Velo Thailand, not far from Khao San Road, are another good pick. They did an excellent job repairing and cleaning our bikes (cleaning 330 Baht) the first time we were in Bangkok. They have some accessories for sale. The only downside is that their English isn’t great.
• World Bike are on the city outskirts. It’s a hike to get here but they have a good selection of things and touring shoes, in your size if you’re lucky. Calling first is not a bad idea.
• Probike are perhaps the best known bike shop, near Lumphini Park. They do have plenty of gear and shoes but we find their prices expensive and the service varies from patchy to just plain non-existent. If you just want to fly in and buy a bike though, they have the best selection and on bikes their prices are competitive.

Chiang Mai also has a few bike shops, including Top Gear – run by a Canadian and in the central downtown area.