Upon reaching Mac Donalds, we didnt really take a break except buying some drinks at the 7-11 and a quick smoke break… Yeah, we have some heavy smokers on this cycling group, so if you are non smoker, you’ve been warned here… lol…

We continued the journey towards Fort Road, passing Mountbatten and cut through Stadium Drive so we can ride on Nicoll Highway and cycle to our first pit break point at Keppel Bay. Nice night scenery there.

How beautiful? Well, words alone cannot describe this piece of night scenery at Keppel. A picture is always worth a thousand words right? Here’s an image I grabbed from the Flickr.

This is a nice picture doing justice with nice colors coming from the auto-changing bridge lights, I’ve got better links to share with everyone. From these links, you can see a 360 degrees view of Keppel Bay as though you are there!

Wait no further people, click on the images now… IE users may get the yellow notification under the address bar informing you to install the “DevalVR 3D Browser plugin” Ignore that and wait for the page to load fully. It may take a while to load depending on your broadband speed…

360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay 1

360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay 2

360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay 3

360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay 4

Source of the 360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay: http://moonshine.homedns.org:2655/pano/
View more 360 Degrees View images of other locations from there if you like them. :D

4 of us spent estimated good 30 mins of rest at Keppel Bay before continuing the route to West Coast Highway and riding towards West Coast Park Mac Donalds as our next pit break destination. This time we rode all the way to the designated point with no intervals.

After refreshing/relieving ourselves at West Coast Mac, the continuing journey will be tougher. (Estimated 28 to 30km) Next destination was Kranji Reservoir.

Cycling along West Coast highway can be dangerous sometimes because there are often big trucks or trailers driving towards Jurong Island & Tuas area.

Areas we passed by are: Jalan Buroh, Jalan Boon Lay and the nice riding long road -- Lim Chu Kang road. Where is Lim Chu Kang road located? (click to view)

Along LCK, the moment we passed the chicken farms… yeah, the chicken shit smell was uber power…. =.=”’ thats the only thing I dislike about LCK, else its a really fantastic place to ride on but you must be cautious at all times, open up your ears to listen for roaring engine revs from speeding cars racing on this road. Beware…

Alright…. Its Video Time! :D

Jayme must be !$%#%%$^* at me now, why must post that malu picture of her online… Oh no, I’m not trying to get you embarrassed ok… I meant well to educate everyone, please drink more h2o during the before riding at night…

We reached the Kranji Reservoir park soon and visited the public toilet there for quick relief then we rode to the next pit break point at the 24/7 mini-mart along the Kranji industrial estate at Kranji Road. We took a long break there as Jayme’s muscles were still pulling. We should be riding the ever challenging Mandai Road for newbies on road especially when they’d never experienced much up-hills in Singapore plain terrains but due to Jayme’s pulling muscles, we switched our route to accommodate to the situation. The route we took was:

1. Exit Kranji
2. Woodlands Road
3. Upper Bukit Timah
4. Dunearn Road (took a break at bus stop, lots of dawn roadies to watch)
5. Newton Circus

We reached city and decided to take breakfast at Crawford hawker center. After breakfast, when we were started riding in less than 10 meters, the weather turned foul and begun to rain heavily. The lucky four took shelter at the housing estate area just around the corner. hehe… another long break soothing the nasty pulled muscles on Jayme. :p

It took quite a while for the rain to simmer and we took a turn at Jalan Sultan, riding through Java Road before the good old Concourse, back to the usual Nicoll highway, Fort Road then back to East Coast Park. Total clocked distance ridden by Vickie and me was approximately 90km by the time we reached Fort Road. We took the underpass after Mac so we can start the journey back home and call it a “night” but the irritating rain came back forcing us to take another break under the HDB void deck at Marine Parade housing estates.

After the rain stopped, Perly rode towards Bedok South for his home in Pasir Ris, Jayme, Vickie and I rode on Still Road, sent Jayme back along Jalan Eunos and head to our start point Hougang. Nothing particular happened along the way except that owning shag face on Vickie… we didnt sleep a wink since 9pm when we started riding…

Congratulations to Vickie for being able to complete a Century Ride -- 100km! Well done man, its not an easy task for a girl who had never done this before, perhaps your old bike did really “trained” you well…

Perly clocked 120km, Jayme should clocked an estimated 90-100km as well.

Watch out for the ride next week, see ya soon! The END.

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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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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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the ride started out from my place to East coast rd, where i met eric at rodalink to get our bikes tuned as the chains have stretched since we got our bikes.

this trip, we had 2 more riders going us, space n his friend.

after getting our bikes tuned n browsing at roda’s display of accessories (eric got a bento box, but i refrained from geting anything….yet…kekeke).

we proceeded to ECP to burn some time as we were only scheduled to meet space at 9pm. crossed over at the underpass below mandarin gardens and headed to ECP hawker for some food.

after some food n catching the sea breeze, we proceeded to 85 mkt to wait for space n co. topped up our bottles with 100+ in NTUC.

space n co reached at around 930 and we first proceeded to the nearby petrol kisok to pump up the inner tubes and visit the loo.

we crossed over to ECP via bayshore and traveled along ECP till fort rd, then went along cosy bay route b4 taking a rest stop at indoor stadium. along the way both eric n me had the chance to try out the space’s SPECIALISED hopper n a kona fire, the 2 bikes allowed us better understand the differences in the grade of drivetrain, acera vs decore vs SLX.

from indoor stadium, we proceeded along nicoll up to shenton n keppel to vivo. then it was up the west coast highway till west coast mac where we took a 2nd stop. by now i had clocked up to 55k on my speedo for the day. we duly got some chow n contemplated if to take the clementi loop down east or head further west to jurong b4 looping.

after the general direction was decided, we moved off again and took a short detour to view the coastline. mabbi i was too tired or my mind was off, but i took a tumble at the coast while doing a sharp turn n scratched my knee, lucky my bar ends n watch took most of the impact n spared me from more repair costs to the bike n my body =p

shaken but not broken, we applied some spray bandage on the wound and off we went again.

*side note: earlier on, space came my n ask me about my knee, saying eric told him i got an old knee injury which i myself din know i have?!?!?

WTF… then with 1 hr i tio injury…. was i jinxed or is eric or space an oracle?

we loop back to clementi by the NUS/SP route. and took a stop shortly b4 sunset way as space’s friend tio a bad case of thigh soreness…

eric went to hunt for drinks n marlboro while we administered some massage/trigger pt release/SMFR on the casualty (with space’s permission of course, else later tio hoot =p)

but mabi the ride was too overwhelming and she decided to call it a day n we had our first taxi casavac…=p

after the casavac left for the comfort of bedok, the remaining folks pushed on…

we went via maju to beauty world, then down bukit timah all the way to selegie for some tau hwe. dunno the auntie tot i badly need insulin spike or wat, but we got double sweet curds n drinks….after some diverse conversation abt gear/future rides/getting HDB flats, etc we sent off for the last stretch back east.

instead of the usual geylang or the hilly sergangoon route, we rode the macpherson/tannery rd route, its a no brainer tat we will stick to this route in future, no hills, low traffic, straight down all the way. hehehe….

we broke off at kaki bukit, with eric heading to hougang, while space n me headed to bedok, my speedo was reflecting nearing 90k now…

rode via jln tenaga, to bedok res. shengsong b4 going under PIE and turning at 85 mkt to tanah merah. broke off with space at tanah merah n i proceeded solo up sempang bedok, to CGH up simei to tampines via TPJC. as i rode up loyang to turn into PR drive 1, i took a glance at my speedo n noted that it was reading 95k, WTF?!?!?

5k more to my first century n i was not going to let this go, i decided to take a loop around elias to clk the additional 5km, finally reached my void deck with a trip reading of 100.43 in 5h 50mins, most of the time wasted was at tampines when i tried to cut thru from TPJC to simei thru the HDB blks but got holland instead =p

Here is an image of the route we took.

Next up:
northern loop via yishun dam – woodlands – mandai – lentor, if weather good, may stretch to lim chu kang then west coast highway back east.

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