I had been home for two days. The jet-lag made it feel like I hadn’t slept in all that time. The default action would have been to hop on a bike and go for a ride. If I had had a bike to hop on to.
I had not heard about when my bikes would be delivered. My Cyclistis friend was travelling on business. It was starting to look more and more like I would not be riding on the weekend.
The bright spot in the day was dinner with BP alumni friends at Cava. We are a group of about a dozen who manage to get together once or twice a year for good food and lots of laughter. A number in the group keep up with my cycling addiction via Facebook. Alice K mentioned that her brother had been similarly stricken, and that she would send my contact details to him.
I was hardly back at the hotel when Alice’s brother Albert K messaged me. There was a ride on Sunday. Was I interested?
Was I ever! I had to calm myself though. It would all depend on whether I had possession of my bikes by Saturday evening. SMSes zipped between us as ride location details and so on were exchanged. I was invited to join the Racun Cycling Gang group on Facebook. Natuurlijk! Especially when I read the group’s ‘About’ statement:
A Cycling Group which always takes care of each other…. no one will be left behind!
We ride not for the best time
But we ride for a good time
That in essence is what I really liked about my previous cycling groups: West End Bicycles in Houston and The Not Possibles in Den Haag. That and the fact that we ate breakfast tacos every Sunday in Houston and apple pie at every opportunity in Den Haag.
The final piece fell into place on Friday morning. Allied Pickfords called to say that our air freight would be delivered the following morning. Well, in reality the final piece fell into place when the Allied Pickfords guys handed my bikes to me at 10.30am on Saturday.
My first ever road ride in Malaysia was imminent.
Old Roots, New Routes 
Glad you found a group so quickly! Given the rapid economic growth in KL, I’ll be interested to hear how you find sharing the roads over there, and also what you find when you venture outside the city.
Hi Bill. A belated Happy Birthday to the girls.
I have had two rides in KL so far. I’ll write a post about the second ride, a night ride incidentally, in the next day or so. There was less traffic to contend with than I remember having on the Tuesday and Thursday evening rides in Houston. I am sure I will run into heavier traffic soon enough though. You’ll read all about it.
I have signed up for a three-part event. 100 kilometer or so rides in KL, Penang and Ipoh, spread over a couple of months. You’ll read about those too.
Best wishes,
Johan