Kayuh Malam Pasir Gudang

Come to Pasir Gudang with your bikes!
We'll be having a night ride

06.02.2009 | Friday | 9.00 pm
Café Ruza to Lower Dam

essentials:
bicycle (road/mtb/tandem/etc.)
helmet
headlight
tail light

have fun with the night ride,
then head out to Mount Austin the next day for the 10 buck race

organizer: Panjang | poster: Panjang | model: Pabekang

10 buck race in JB

I'm no downhiller, but this is gonna be great.
Hope not to miss the spectacle, around the town I live in.

Y'all, come down to JB and soak in the fun.

Organisers: no poster ahh?

More info here

Sunday Ride with Naza

It has been a few Sundays since my last offroad ride with the guys in Pasir Gudang.
Albeit, I clocked about 150 kms on road riding to and back from work.
Not bad at all, but on Tuesdays usually I'll get the urge and longing for an offroad ride.

Last Sunday my neighbourhood organized a gotong-royong, so I cancelled my offroad ride with Panjang to revisit the 2007 hash route.
Turned out that it was only sendiri-sendiri gotong-royong, and Southern Waste Management would only come in the evening to pick up the trash.

Anyway, early morning that day Naza and I did go out for a short ride to Tasik Seri Alam. We checked out the newly re-opened Cactus Inn - basically to see the horse ranch over there and see what they offer.

The road leading to it is a long hill. Naza pedaled to the top quitely and gracefully, she appeared almost relaxed and like riding on flats. Finally when she got to the top, she uttered
"Terer I kayuh naik bukit tau. Sekarang dah tak penat dah macam dulu"
A milestone for her.

So guys, if you're panting riding up to the 'kandang kuda', my missus could easily beat you to it.
How's that for a motivation?
:)

We went in to Cactus Inn and looked around. After a few photos, we went home with 10 kilometers journeyed on our bikes.


essentials - helmet, and mirror


bikes ready for the ride, with Depp the cat


raring to go, after a long hiatus


Naza on the fire road


nice cockpit there!


graceful


Cactus Inn reception


rooms available for rent, with swimming and wading pool


café. halal? didn't check


the Indoor Arena


fees schedule for the horse riding lesson , if you're up for it.


horse riding practice


rollin round the roundabout


Seri Alam panorama at the top, view from Cactus Inn


Naza at The Valley Seri Alam, with a sleepy lazy doggy


self portrait

RTW 22.01.2009

Wow... alhamdulillah it's a personal RTW record for me so far.
Three days straight starting from Tuesday, I rode to work.

This morning I went out the earliest so far - 0637 hours.
Took some time to take some photos.
One good thing about not having my Velo8 on board is that I don't seem to bother about the stats. I pedaled gracefully, relaxed and enjoyed the whole ride.


sunrise behind Kip Mart Masai towards Taman Bukit Dahlia. No vehicles at sight, plus no dogs!


another attempt to capture the beauty of nature at Taman Bukit Dahlia.

Arrived at the office at 0721 hours. About 45 minutes of sweet ride.
There are not as many vehicles on the road as my usual 'late' rides. Less traffic means much safer and less smoke (BTW, I intend to get one of those smog mask). Also, the dogs are nowhere to be seen. Ha!

my favourite part of the route - from Stadium Pasir Gudang leading to Pasir Gudang Highway (towards MMHE/Johor Port).

Bike To Work eBook

I found this:
http://www.xtracycle.com/bike-to-work/

For people out there who are still contemplating on whether you should RTW, when to RTW, and other obstacles that you may have now, flip to page 18 and beyond.
I hope you find your answers and revelations.

RTW 20.01.2009 - with Schwinn Mesa

Tuned my re-built Schwinn Mesa last night. Okay, technically very, very early today at 0005 hours.
It's a bike dedicated for RTW. Tried to fit a rear view mirror, but to no avail. The handlebar hollow is too small to fit the mirror holder.
Tried a first run right away, and it felt really different. I'm using an old Ø25.4 handlebar with 50mm 0° stem. Awkward.
Ehm ehm... upgraditis started to make me itch. Anybody wants to let go a wide aluminium handlebar real cheap? And a mounting bracket with sensor for Cateye Velo8 as well.

I went out at 0658 hours. Without my Velo8 attached, I could not log any data. Except that I started a stopwatch on my ultra versatile handphone.

Stats today (to):

• Riding to work, distance covered 12.6 km. More or less, as usual.
  
• Average speed: no data.
  
• Max speed: quite fast.
  
• Travel time: not sure. My stopwatch clocked 42:15:91. Including the waiting at traffic lights, etc.
  

Number of good doggies: 2. No signs of those Rottweilers. I wish they are fine.

MMHE bike park

MMHE main bike parking lot

On the way to my office in the yard, there's a designated bike parking lot.
There's a number of reasons, however, to why I'm not keen in leaving my bike there:

1. It's located halfway from the yard entrance to my office.
2. I don't think my bike would stay intact after a few hours left by itself.
3. My bike more than 20 meters away from me? No way!
   

Mimpi Manis 2. No idea what happened to the first one.

photos both by Kadafi

RTW 16.01.2009 + night ride

Anticipating extended working hours, I packed an extra headlight unit as a preparation for a night ride going back home from work last Friday. Usually I would only use my Cateye headlight in blinking mode if riding during the day.

It is good to be prepared and ready. It eliminates the irritating feeling of being uneasy. On the other hand, if you're caught off guard, there are always other alternatives that can be explored and you can put your creative thinking cap on (mine is dusty... uhuk uhuk...).

The ride home was uneventful. From the many night rides, I gathered some valuable experiences, and that particular ride was like a normal one. Still, I'm recording it here as my first getting home from work riding a bike at night.

I'm getting a pair of tire reflectors (the one that you put on the spokes) and pack it in my bag just in case if I do have to ride home at night again. Oh, and a tube valve LED light too... just for the fun of it.
:)

for the love of cycling

Ng Joo Ngan
An article I found in the net, by Sharmila Valli Narayanan.
Published March 1st, 2007 in Malaysian Business.

Shaharudin Jaffar
by Ng Wei Loon, The Star, January 8th, 2009.

I couldn't find the article I read about Daud Ibrahim in a newspaper many months ago. A former cycling great, I think he cycles from Muar to KL on weekends just for kicks.

Old skool!

The big S

S A F E T Y

I work in a heavy industry, steel fabrication establishment. The level of safety, and safety consciousness among workers are very high.

Around the yard, there are many safety initiatives being implemented. 25km/h speed limit, wearing seatbelts (front and rear passengers too) in cars, no handphone usage while driving, wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) if you're in the yard, etc. etc.

Thus, alertness to unsafe act is sort of ingrained within. I'm a paranoid at home when it comes to safety matters, to the point of annoying (eitt.. macam Yasmin Ahmad pulak). This, also when I'm riding my bike on the road (albeit, I try to ease it off when offroad - not so enjoyable if 'too safe').

That's why I'm really into the big S when I'm doing my RTWs. Especially in finding the safest route. Alhamdulillah, so far I've found one safe route to work from my home.

Another concern is to be seen by other (faster) road users. I ensure that I have enough blinkers and in addition, having reflectors on my clothes. Tesco used to sell yellow reflector strips that you can wrap around your ankles, but I found none nowadays. It's a very good S item for bikers. If you're wearing long pants, you can use it to securely wrap your flapping trouser hems. One of the common safety motto: 'Be Seen, Be Safe'.

My dear biking brothers, be safe. Always.

RTW 16.01.2009

It's a Cycle Friday again!

Went out at 0652 hours.

Stats today (to):

• Riding to work, distance covered 12.6 km.
  
• Average speed is at 21.0 km/h.
  
• Max speed 37.7 km/h
  
• Travel time 37 min 7 sec. Bringing down the average of 6 RTWs to 36:52. Was 37:05 (ave of 5 rides).
  

Really thinking about rebuilding Schwinn Mesa, dedicated for RTW. Bought a few safety items yesterday to be fitted to it (well, that's a start).

Number of good doggies: 3 sleepy Rottweilers. Penat bang, semalam kan malam Jumaat.

65kg today

I am not that particular about my weight.
However, I noticed that beginning from Ramadhan I lost a few kilos from my normal 70-72kg.
This morning I stepped on the weight scale and whoa! I weigh 65 kg now.
Definitely it's because of the weekly night rides and also RTW, plus weekend offroad rides.

During these past couple of months I also noticed that I could not use my belt anymore. I could, if only I punch another hole to make it fit my slender waistline. Not too fond of doing that. So I resorted to using my 9 year old belt - part of bride's wedding gift for the bridegroom. Also, my pants appear baggy and loose.

I have not seriously given the thought of buying a couple of new pants to suit.
This, my friends, is a prove that the outcome of losing weight, keeping fit and healthy is also a bit expensive :)
On the other hand, I'm happy to report that I could wear my old jeans again (my wife likes this - I appear sexy in them).

Anyway, no signs of my 6-pack emerging yet.
:)

I'm not sure what my height is, so I couldn't check my BMI.
Heck, I'm not even sure what my waist measurement is.

Singapore MTB Carnival

www.singaporemtbcarnival.com
28 Feb - 1 Mar 2009
Tampines MTB Trail

Attraction: Tinker Juarez will be there!

RTW 13.01.2009

Went out at 0651 hours.

Stats today (to):

• Riding to work, distance covered 12.7 km.
  
• Average speed is at 20.4 km/h. Not really pushing for my speed this morning. Rather, more to enjoying a smooth ride.
  
• Max speed 38.4 km/h
  
• Travel time 37 min 12 sec. I'd say the average for past few rides is about 37 minutes.
  

Tires kept at 50 psi.
Changed the rear tire to Larsen TT last night (finally!).
Real smooth rolling. I'm beginning to like it.

I'm starting to think about rebuilding my Schwinn Mesa for RTW.
8 speed SRAM SX 5, LX V-brakes.
Coupled with Larsen TT's, it would be a lighter bike setup.
Problem is, where would I stash it at home?

Number of good doggies: 5 including 2 Rottweilers. Scary.

RTW 09.01.2009

Huhuhu...

Last night Mak asked me to send her to Post Office on Friday morning. A better (and much safer) way is for Mak to have the car for herself so that she wouldn't have to get a taxi to get back home from PO.
And for me, I can Cycle Friday.

Wow...
Three days in a week RTW this week. Tomorrow's a working Sat, so another one insyaAllah.

Unfortunately I didn't reset my Velo8, and so no stats for today's RTW.
Oh, but there were 2 good doggies. One appeared injured, limping. Pity her.

One more thing to add: My Velo8 will hit millennium in a short while. At the time of typing, it's already 995 km total. Woohoo!

RTW 07.01.2009

Stats today (to):

• Riding to work, distance covered 12.6 km.
  
• Average speed is at 21.2 km/h (the fastest ever so far)
  
• Max speed 38.3 km/h
  
• Travel time 35 min 39 sec (shaved another 1 min 16 sec, as the average speed gets higher now)
  

Tires inflated to 50 psi.
Too lazy to change the rear tire to Larsen TT last night. Perhaps for the next RTW.
Add another wheelset, maybe?
*grin*

Number of vehicles encountered: didn't bother to count this morning.
Number of good doggies: 2. Mating season now. That's why, I guess.
Huhuhuhu...

RTW 06.01.2009

My first RTW for 2009.
A normal day. Tuesday. School day. Road traffic at its normal flow.

I went out at the same time as Naza and kids off to school - 0645 hours.
Traffic a bit busier than the last RTW, being a normal day. Albeit, the traffic flow was smooth and not much interruption to my rhythm. Perhaps it's due to the early hours.

Stats today (to):

• Riding to work, distance covered 12.62 km. Ehh.. how come it's 0.19 km shorter?
  
• Average speed is at 20.4 km/h (makes the average of 3 RTWs at 20.4 km/h)
  
• Max speed 36.3 km/h
  
• Travel time 36 min 3 sec (shaved another full minute)
  

Tires inflated to 40 psi.
Front tire changed to Maxxis Larsen TT 26/2.0 - can feel the tire rolling fast. After this I'll change the rear too insyaAllah, and see the results.

Number of vehicles encountered: didn't bother to count this morning.
Number of good doggies: 2