Life Cycle

NINE years ago, Poon Kng Joo took part in OCBC's inaugural mass cycling event and was awed by the 11,000 crowd. "The turnout was impressive. I saw potential there," he recalls. The 62 year-old had already been in the vintage car building and body repainting business for over 40 years - well-known for repainting all the top marques like Porsche, Rolls-Royce, BMW and Mercedes-Benz - so why not venture into restoring old bicycles?

He started collecting old bikes which were often scratched and discarded, doing the repairs himself at his Sin Ming workshop and repainting them. He's restored hundreds of bikes since - about a dozen of which can be seen at Soek Seng 1954 Bicycle Cafe at Seletar Aerospace, which he opened last year.

The bike-themed cafe has an air-conditioned dining room which can seat at least 50 people, and an al fresco section, which takes about 30. The menu is casual and clubby, with a mix of Western and Asian favourites like fish and chips and one-bowl rice dishes. Soek Seng is the name of his father's car workshop business, registered in 1954. "I think my Dad would be happy to see his name in another venture," says the affable businessman, who had been looking for a suitable space for a few years, when this space at MAJ Aviation Centre became available. He loved it because it is right next to the runway of Seletar Airport, where there are a handful of planes parked in full view of the cafe, and he can see light aircraft taking off almost daily.