Introduction Last updated: 2024-02--01

Riders Assist Bot a.k.a. RABS, is a Telegram based bot that provides rrange of functions to riders in Singapore to improve and prepare their rides. It was build on the needs of a rider Glenn Ng , and slowly grown into a full suite of features that riders and contributed.

Origin and History

RABS was developed over a procrastination run on the bench outside his examhall. It started in 2019 where Glenn, was hugely annoyed with facign rain on his ride to and fro school.

After which, he started a telegram bot called SG Rain Areas. It was a very bare telegram bot that only provided rain alerts and had interval functions. Not only does it crashes frequently, it wasn't properly refactored for mass uses.

It was after stablizing the telegram bot where the bot started to take attention of riders around Singapore. Features were requested, and slowly more and more riders are now using the bot.

RABS has now evolved not just as a Rain Checker before every ride, but also plays an important riding prep for many riders in Singapore. This includes features like Customs Checkpoint Traffic status to Rain warnings during the heavy downpours.

What functions are there?

Functions
  1. Rain Checks - Provides you with a range of Rain status and Animated checks.
  2. Meet Rides Manager - Provides you with a simple and easy tool to manage group rides.
  3. Border Checkpoints Traffic Checks - Provides you with Traffic Updates on the Checkpoint Jams.
  4. Lottery (Singapore only) - Provides you with the latest Lottery results.
  5. COE Bidding and Prices - Provides a current bidding prices or latest prices.
  6. Craft Deals - Provides you with the crafted deal that RABS team put together.
  7. Support Riders, Support RABS

See a function that's useful for you?

How does it work?

Functions in telegram are mostly worked through a / prefix before the function name.

RidersAssistBot Functions on Telegram

Note

Call it like this: /raincheck, /meetride, /checkjb

Rain Checks

Rain checks functions is mainly to provide you with the ongoing rain status. It will allow you to make decision as to how the rain is moving to avoid or consider delaying your ride.

/raincheck

/raincheck> will fetch you the current and on-going rain clouds in Singapore. Rain radars are fetched from Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS).

/raincheck on RidersAssistBot

/rainpattern

/rainpattern will fetch you an animated historical view of the rain clouds over a span of an hour. This will provide you with ample information on where the rain clouds are moving before you take your ride out.

/rainpattern on RidersAssistBot

/raincheck240

/raincheck240 is similar to the /raincheck. However, is catered for our border crossing riders looking to cross over to Malaysia. It provides a wider view of over 240km radius around Singapore.

/raincheck240 on RidersAssistBot

/rainpattern240

/rainpattern240 is similar to the /rainpattern. However, is catered for our border crossing riders looking to cross over to Malaysia. It provides a wider view of over 240km radius around Singapore.

/rainpattern240 on RidersAssistBot

/raincheckmy

/raincheckmy is similar to the /raincheck. However, is catered for our riders across the border. It provides a wide view of the Malaysia Peninsular.

/rainpatternMY on RidersAssistBot

Meet Rides

/meetride is a function catered to group chats, it helps group to organize rides by providing a list of attendees attending the meetride and also sync up the details of the events to all riders.

Here is how you read the meetrides details:
  • Venue
    • This is the point where all attendees will meet.
    • This is also a clickable link that links to Google Maps to make sure the location is the same for all riders
  • Date and time
    • Date and time is made with Free Text, so be sure to use a format your group is familiar with
  • Itinerary
    • Itinerary is where you can describe your meetride to the other riders. Some uses this space as a way to chart their stops, some uses it to describe what you'll be doing. Go crazy.
  • Join & Leave button
    • This is where riders in the group can RSVP themselve to the event.
    • This is important especially for any overseas rides. It acts as a historical backup to who were in the event, or if there's a missing rider that did not reach your rally spot.
    • Though this can incite many riders to be curiously click, so do educate them on the functionality of the buttons.
/meetride on RidersAssistBot

Creating meet rides

Creating a meet ride is easy. The template is as follows:/meetride VENUE, DATE, TIME, Itinerary/Description

Values and Types:
Value Name Value Type Value Description
VENUE STRING/TEXT This is a Google searchable link. Hence, avoid using generic names like KFC (there are alot of KFCs in Malaysia and Singapore). Preferably, Kallang Stadium KFC.
DATE STRING/TEXT This can be in different formats to cater to your group's need. For example: 3rd February 2023 3/2/2023 3rd Feb...
TIME STRING/TEXT This can be in different forms of how you enter your time of assembly. Similarly to the DATE, there is no strict guidelines.
ITINERARY STRING/TEXT This is basically a description of your meetride. However, please avoid the use of , as it will mess up the inputs of your meetride details! You should be brief and detailed with your itinerary so all riders will be aware on what is to be expected of.

Example

An example to creating a meetride at Old Airport Road on 3rd Feb, 3pm would be as follows:
/meetride Old Airport Road, 3rd Feb, 3pm, Dinner > Rounding > Chill and Catchup

Note

Do note that the , is a divider, that splits the values you enter. So please avoid using additional , when you create your meetrides!

Editing meet rides

Editing of the /meetride is similar to creating of meetrides. However, the command is slightly different with /editevent

You can refer to this for how the format is to be done: Click here

Join & Leave meet rides

Each meetride that had been created will be given 2 buttons for easy joining and leaving. Should any riders would like to join, they can simply press the JOIN button.

/meetrides button

Note

Spamming the Leave button when a user is not in the list will reflect a warning to the user. This is to prevent the user from unknowingly spamming the bot as it can affect the quality of the bot's service.

Checkpoints Jam

It will be hard to stay away from the temptations of crossing the border on a bike. Hence, we do our best to ensure that you know the traffic's status like right before you reach the Customs at Woodlands and Tuas!

/checkjb

/checkjb will immediately fetch you the latest status as provided by the Singapore Land Transport Authority. As of writing this documentation, we have yet found reliable source from the Malaysian Authority to provide their side of the the traffic situations for bikers. Hence, if you do, please let me know!

/checkjb RidersAssistBot

/checktuas

/checktuas will immediately fetch you the latest status as provided by the Singapore Land Transport Authority. As of writing this documentation, we have yet found reliable source from the Malaysian Authority to provide their side of the the traffic situations for bikers. Hence, if you do, please let me know!

/checktuas RidersAssistBot

Lottery (SG only)

Lottery is part of every Singaporean and Malaysian lives. I'm sure it's hard to play a bit of betting sometimes....

/4dnow

/4dnow will fetch you the latest results available from the Singapore Pools website. While during the drawing process, we're unable to know the numbers as per radio's broadcast, we can at least know the finalised results and prize pool.

/4dnow RidersAssistBot

/totonow

/totonow will fetch you the latest results available from the Singapore Pools website. While during the drawing process, we're unable to know the numbers as per radio's broadcast, we can at least know the finalised results and prize pool.

/totonow RidersAssistBot

COE Status

Certificate of Entitlement, the paper that cost you more than the bike itself.

/coenow

/coenow will fetch you the current results including the ongoing bidding. This is to allow users to keep track of the ongoing bidding prices, and status of the bidding stage.

/coenow RidersAssistBot

Craft Deals

Craft Deals is a place where the RABS team will occassionally secure deals for riders on behalf. Customers of the bot that is interested in the deal can do so by transacting on the Telegram interface directly and have the product shipped or voucher issued to you.

/craftdeals

/craftdeals will fetch you the latest deal or a placeholder for businesses to consider working with us.

/craftdeals RidersAssistBot

Support Us

It isn't easy to develop and maintain the bot without some appreciation. It helps if you can consider even donating a dollar or 2 for my chocolatey desire.

/supportriders

/supportriders will invoke the donation page where you can place a donation. Each donations will then be announced to the group you invoked the function from.

/supportriders RidersAssistBot

Frequently Asked Questions

So you must have some questions as to how to use or what's the bot about? Here are some key questions over time that had been asked!

Meetrides

Can you create multiple meet rides in a group chat?

Unfortunately, you cannot create multiple meet rides concurrently in a group chat. Each group chat is only allowed to have one meetride on-going at any time. However, that doesn't refrain you from creating another meetride on other group chats. Should that ever be improved to create multiple meetrides, we'll announce it on the RABS Info Page and on the documentation.

Are the meetrides created safe?

Yes, each meetride details are safely created and not meant to be disclosed. Each meetride information is also delete upon cancelling of the events.

How often are the meetrides reminder being sent?

According to the peak use time of the bot, we have designated the reminders to be sent on

  • 7am
  • 1pm
  • 5pm
  • 8pm
  • 10pm
  • 12am
This is to remind the group of an ongoing meetride and solicit them to join.

Can we disable the reminders?

Not at this point of time.

Will the bot need administrator access?

Yes, and no. The bot minimally needs to have access to Message Pins. That alone will be sufficient.

Are there a limit of how many riders can join a meetride?

Nope, there is currently no limit set. However, we do suggest that you abide the local regulations in riding in a convoy.

Information Sources

Where do you source for all your information?

Depending on the information fetched, it can be pulled from various sources. However, the credits goes to the following organizations:

General Questions

How can I reach out for any partnerships?

You can contact me via LinkedIn or via Telegram .