night riding in the rain pasir gudang

19.11.2008 Wednesday

We have been night riding from Plentong to Danga Bay once a week for 2 weeks in a row. Time for a change in scenery. Also, considering that most of our riders come from Pasir Gudang area, I proposed to ride around Pasir Gudang this time. With Panjang's help (as always), we charted the route. A change in scenery indeed, we had a short offroad section this time. Riding in the rain. And with few new faces.

Jai has always been the earliest rider to arrive at our rv point (even earlier than me, though the rv point is at my own house). Partly enthusiasm, partly discipline, but mostly because of his personality. The rest of us have to catch up in this area. However, he was waiting for us at the different Ruza. He went to Restoran Ruza in Nusa Damai, while we have agreed to meet at Cafe Ruza in Taman Scientex. Not too far the distance between the two, anyway. But a relief for me, as I was 5 minutes late. So technically I'm earlier than him this time. Yay!!
;)


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Cafe Ruza Jalan Kijang Taman Scientex

6pm when I was driving home from office, the road was dry. By the time I hopped onto the Pasir Gudang highway, the road was already wet. And as I parked my car in the parking lot, it began to drizzle. Errkkk... no wonder Yad who lives in PG texted me asking whether the ride is still on.

As I walked up to a table at Cafe Ruza, I saw 2 new faces - Wan and Shahrul. Wan is a roadie, but rides mtb to work in Pusat Bandar Pasir Gudang. Shahrul is on a short stint in Pasir Gudang, working on a project site only next to my workplace. He bought a new bike very recently, and was looking for riding mates. He searched on the internet and found this blog. Aha... so there is a good use of this blog.

Other riders came one by one - Mizi, Panjang, Yad (and Jai, arriving from Restoran Ruza). While waiting and hoping the rain to subside, we filled our time with a round of teh tarik, limau suam, otak-otak and stories.

9.30 it looked that the rain has subsided (or going to subside), so we went on to our cars and got our gears ready. It seemed that as soon as we were getting ready, the rain started pouring again - a bit more than drizzling. But we moved on. Isaac and Dafi joined us too, they cycled from their house nearby.

So the 9 of us rolled out in the rain heading to Flora Heights. In doing so, we have to cut through an offroad section - a shortcut from Nusa Damai to FH. A few hundred meters, we had the first casualty - Shahrul's front Tektro IO brake caliper a goner. The excess cable apparently is a bit too long, and it was caught between the rotor and the brake pad, bending the outer arm of the caliper inwards. So that's why Avid's BB7 manual warned about leaving not more than 3cm of excess cable, I thought. Still usable, but I guess he was a bit concerned about the safety of riding his bike. Perhaps more so about the $ that he's about to spend for a new caliper - or a new set of hydros?

After battling the climb uphill at FH, we rolled down and reached Seri Alam at Jalan Tasek area. Cut through Jalan Suria area and dashed another climb en route to Masai. Went to Pasir Gudang from there via a couple more climbs - the one next to Masai Bus Station towards Jalan Masai and also beside TNB at Pusat Bandar Pasir Gudang. My bike and I seem to like this ride.

We made a stop at Ontot's burger stall, and after the briefing by Naz about the bike to parliament thingy over burgers and drinks, we continued. Still raining. Time to go home, as we were already about halfway the total route.

We rode through Jalan Keluli and turned right to Taman Pasir Putih, to go to Kota Masai. Another long, hilly climb awaited at Kota Masai on the way to Taman Scientex. As usual, Dafi and Yad would battle and left us trailing them. Reached Cafe Ruza shortly afterwards, and we headed home - past midnight.

Total distance 32km.
Riding time 2 hours.
Riders 9 pax.
Nobody remembered (or bothered) to snap any photos.

I liked the ride. Hilly, cool, not too long, and more riders than our usual.

Wan & Shahrul - nice riding with you guys. Join us for the next one.
And bring yer headlights, matey!