Howdy everyone, we took a long break before we start to join rides and started riding again! Haha! Mostly because of me actually, I’ve been tied up mostly with family & work commitments. Anyway, we just joined the Togoparts/OCBC Cycle Singapore Charity Mass Ride which took place on the 31/01/2010! It was a 34Km ride, 25kmph causal riding and no chionging kinda ride. The entire ride was supervised and very properly done by Togoparts, the ride leaders are adequately polite and friendly to us, when certain riders are stuck at the red lights, the ride leaders immediately inform those at the front that there’s riders being stopped by red lights. Overall experience: Cool!!! These are the few images taken at Marina Barrage:

As well as one little video taken when we were taking a really quick short break at Marina Barrage (only 17km away from ECP)…. LOL!!!

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Cycling Route Distance
Should be comfortably between 30-40km to and from East Coast to Changi Village and back
Or more since we have season riders for the first ride… maybe can do a simple round island…. biggrin.gif

Attendance

Description of the ride..

It was a nice and cooling weather, started off from Hougang for me, supposed to meet Vicky (xIaoviiCk) but was informed by her earlier that she’ll be meeting her friend Johnathan so I set off alone to meet Jayme (iamtired) at Jln Eunos before heading off to East Coast to meet perly.

Less than 1KM from my place, my rear tube went bonkers, luckily the nearest LBS Kian Seng Heng is not closed yet at 9.15pm so I pushed my bike to them for immediate fast replacement so I did not have to utilize my own spare tube. After changing my tube, I tried my best to speed to meeting location at Jln Eunos averaging at 35-45km/hr… Less than 15 Mins I reached and continued the journey to East Coast after a short introduction of myself to Jayme.

We took a breezy ride straight down from Still Road and perly was waiting for us at Mac Donalds patiently so the three of us had a good time chatting with Jayme while waiting for the rest to arrive.

At about 11.30pm, Vicky and Johnathan called me and as usual, we briefly introduced to each other before heading down to our pre-planned location – Changi Village. Johnathan was having a bad rear tire as well but it didn’t seemed to be punctured situation so my portable hand pump came into usefulness. :D

After refilling air for his rear tire, the five of us started our 17-18km route from East Coast towards Changi Village riding at a comfy speed of 15-20km/hr. Along the way, we were having some nice intermediate chit chatting and took a short pit break at just outside Safra East Coast Resort, top up our water bottles and replenished ourselves with H2O. It wa 7.7Km from Mac to the resort water point and we estimated approximate 10km ride to reach Changi Village.

We continued the route with the same previous casual slow ride, non pressurized and easy riding condition as we were riding on PCN paths most of time. It didn’t take us too long to reach the Changi Village hawker center and guess what? Haha… there were some very beautiful and sexy “Ah Guas” (Transvestites) “doing business” at the public carpark area. We rode past them before taking our long pit break at the coffeeshop which was jam packed with soccer fans.. Match on this happening was: Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur. It was just the beginning of half-time when Man U was behind Tottenham at a shocking score of 0-2. Not long after we were having our round of drinks, Man U got their first goal with a penalty scored by C. Ronaldo at 57 Minutes. The 2 coffeeshops’ soccer fans cheered like thunder and we joined in the cheering fun and shouted the first “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL” with them… ROFL!

Astonishingly, when we happily chatting about how lucky we were to ride on night with such an exciting match going-on, W. Rooney pumped in the 2nd goal in just less than 10 minutes after the first goal… Again, the goal cheering was super fun! Haha… That was NOT ALL… just a minute away from the 2nd goal, the super hero C. Ronaldo scored the 3nd goal of the night!!! Can you imagine how hyper the massive crowd was having when all these flying goals started to roll in one by one by the offensive Man-U players! It was totally AWESOME!!! Well, it appeared that Mr. fast acting W. Rooney didn’t want C. Ronlado to steal away all the limelight, he contributed his 2nd goal at 71 minutes!!!(3rd goal 68 minutes)

It must a terrible night for the Tottenham players as they were leading 0-2 at first half but at 71 minutes the score was at their huge disadvantage of 4-2. We were comtemplating that 4-2 should be final score and that would really be finalized. Lol… Soccer ball is round, we didn’t see D. Berbatov was the final goal scorer as he made the 5th goal for the night that truly finalized the score at 5-2. What a glorious victory by Man-U, good job!!!

Shortly after very exciting soccer match, most of the crowd from the coffeeshop started leaving and I took sometime out to take a look Vicky’s bike which was making constant unpleasant noises when cycling. I came to realized it was her lengthened chain was causing all the noises and advised her to replaced it to shut the noise up… Vick & Johnathan took a trial ride on Jayme’s Wheeler… In fact, I tried the Wheeler too! It came to our surprise that the Wheeler was in extremely good condition except the rear brakes but other than that, it is definitely one of those good bikes that should not take you long to fall in love with it…. Lol! Ok, I’m exaggerating… hehe…

We had rested enough and calling it a “night” since Vicky & Johnathan’s bikes weren’t too appropriate to travel further so we rode down towards Pasir Ris via the “Loyang TPG” temple and headed towards Downtown East where we parted with perly. We gradually traveled towards Elias, IKEA/GIANT, cut across the Chartered route, Old Tampines Rd and all the way till we say goodbye with Jayme (towards Jln Eunos via Defu Lane, Ubi, Jln Eunos) and Johnathan towards Kovan. Jayme and I turned in separate ways at Hougang Ave 7 and was given the honor to send back her… (less than 800 meters from my place)

Yeah, that we called it a night, I’m pretty looking forward for the next ride on May Day 2009 Friday night. :)

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This was the day that I am attempting the try out cycling in Malaysia, across the border and most significantly ALONE, destination – Desaru situated at the East Coast of Malasyia. Some of you may think that I’m crazy or out of my mind, because as a first timer, shouldn’t I try some places nearer? Yeah, I thought this too… What was on mind? I thought if it’s going to be really tough, perhaps I should just head to Kota Tinggi and return if I can’t take the challenge. But it was all good by the time I reached Kota Tinggi, so I carried on. Following are the details of my solo ride to Desaru, images taken can be found on > Here (click on inages for 1600×1200 resolution)

Registered users can watch slideshow @ Here

Time: 3am, I woke up and started to prepare for the trip and I didn’t catch more than 3 hrs of sleep, I normally sleeps around 3am. Dang! Lack of sleep… But that’s not gonna push my thoughts off this trip. Started for the preparation, my gears, checked the bike’s tyres and parts thoroughly, ensured my spare tube is 100% good. Printed out the maps and passport is with me.

At 4.30am, put on my gears onto my bike and getting ready. By 4.45am, was set to go off to start this exciting journey. How was I feeling??? Thrilled! hehe…

To get to Woodlands Checkpoint, I rode the usual rode that most cyclists would, that is through Jalan Kayu, Seletar Dam, Yishun then Woodlands by riding through Gambas Ave towards Woodlands checkpoint. It was a cooling smooth and relaxing ride to Woodlands as I do not wish to tire myself out from this ride. At 6.05am, I made it to the hawker center, and looked for a coffeeshop for breakfast. Wanted to eat breakfast in Johor Bahru, but worried that I might lost my way within the area so I think I better eat in Singapore. Lol!

From my cycling computer, when I reached Woodlands.

Trip Distance – 26.28
Trip Time – 1.05.10
Avg Speed – 24.52
Max Speed – 39.81

Ate a light breakfast, and slowly waiting for the sun rise as I’m not risking myself riding in the still dark Johor Bahru right?

7am, the sun rise started, looked for a money changer and made a change of SGD$20 to Ringgit and headed towards BKE expressway where the motorcyclists rode through the checkpoint and by the time I made through customs, it was already 7.30am. I took some sun rise images the moment I got across the border.

7.30am, it marked the beginning of the unforgettable cycling journey of my life yet. Rode up the flyover and looked for the route no. 3 started on the map… found the route and ride towards Kota Tinggi which I’d set to be my first pit break point. :) There was a petrol kiok where I took the signboard that shows towards Kota Tinggi and used the toilet before the 38km ride. Yeah, 38km no pitting in between… just all the way… and reset my cycling computer’s trip distance.

Within one and a half hours, at 9.05am, I reached Kota Tinggi at Jalan Kermajuan by using Route No.3.

Trip Distance – 34.18 (Was reset at Johor Bahru, so this is the actual distance from Johor)
Trip Time – 2.40.26
Avg Speed – 23.07
Max Speed – 61.56

Had a good rest and bought 2 cans of 100 plus from the store that I was pitting. They were showing pirated High School Musical 3 on their TV… Lol! I was feeling ok and should be able to travel further down to Desaru as the estimated distance from Kota Tinggi to Desaru was almost 60+KM.

Continued my journey at 10.00am and at about 11am, I was hungry and found a nice village where I can get some food. But the village did not have anything much to my likings, so I proceeded to one of the stores where they sell Roti Prata as I found there were many locals eating there, so I deemed the food to be above average or popular among the local villagers. As I stepped into the eating place, the locals presented me with weird looking faces.. wondering why this cyclist was all by himself I guess…. Took my time, enjoyed the piece of prata with egg very much, curry was testy and guess what, there were onions in the prata which only cost like a few ringgits, bought a pack of ciggies there so didn’t bother how much was my meal.

Check the rest of the nice images I took along the journey towards Desaru…
Click Here To View Them (Opens In A New Tab/Window)

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Please don’t ask me whom is whom from the two runners, I’m unable to tell them apart, you know why…. they are pacing so fast together, and same color…. Lol…

Kibet’s win at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan, where he completed his run in 2:15:59 hours, made him the first Kenyan in 20 years to win a marathon gold medal at the World Championships.

Watch Video, Click Me Now… thank you! :D

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Being Visible and Predictable

Proper bicycle lighting is important for two reasons:

1. It makes you visible and predictable to other road users

2. It can help you see well enough to avoid hazards and navigate your way

Many cyclists ride in urban environments where they feel that they can see well enough to navigate, so they don’t bother with headlamps. This is terribly dangerous, because without a headlamp, motorists often do not see them, even under street lamps. Reflectors provide good visibility for overtaking traffic, but most dangers of car-bike collisions come from the front or side of the cyclist.

Tail Lamps

Inexpensive tail lamps, typically employing red, energy-efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs), don’t rely on a motorist’s headlamps to be visible, and can be seen clearly from the side as well. These lamps will last many hours on a pair of disposable batteries. However, they often glow dimly long before they fail; it’s important to inspect them before each ride and change the batteries regularly especially before you set out for a cycling trip.

I bought this reasonably cheap and useful LED tail lights from Carrefour today, only at SG$15.50. The LED tail lights set has not much of difference from those you can find from most cycling shops except that it has a an extra switching device where you can secure it to the rear brakes wire. This little gadget runs on 2 x AAA battery and has a rubber lining around the cover hence made it weatherproof. For its price, it has served its purposes well and you can watch the following video to see the braking LEDs in action…

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