Category Archives: Cycling in Malaysia

Two Degrees of Separation

Posted on October 12, 2012 by alchemyrider

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.

2 Comments

Posted in Cycling in Malaysia and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

“Welcome to Kuala Lumpur International Airport.” Now What?

Posted on October 11, 2012 by alchemyrider

The wait at the KLIA baggage carousel gave me time to turn on my mobile and swap my Dutch SIM card for my Malaysian one.  Electronically reconnected to family, friends and the World Wide Web in moments.  Could I get organised enough to be able to ride on the weekend?

Our air freight was scheduled to leave Amsterdam on the same day that we boarded our flight to Kuala Lumpur.  Perhaps my bikes had been on KLM 809 as well.  Delivery was expected by the end of the week.

I already knew that road cycling had taken off in a big way since I last lived in Malaysia 4 years ago.  Seeing copies of Cycling Malaysia and Cycling Asia magazines on news stands was the first clue.  Being invited by a Malaysian friend to join the Cyclistis group on Facebook was another clue.  Seeing a cyclist pedaling along the Maju Expressway as we drove to our hotel merely confirmed it.

My first purchases after getting settled in the hotel were the latest issues of Cycling Malaysia and Cycling Asia.  It was a bit disconcerting that the first articles I read were titled “Safe Roads?”  and “Are Cyclists Free From Mugging?”  Riding in a group rather than riding alone seemed like the smarter option.

So job one was to get connected with a cycling group in KL.

Leave a comment

Posted in Cycling in Malaysia and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Listen up bikes! We are moving to Malaysia.

Posted on October 10, 2012 by alchemyrider

It was time for final rides and farewells with friends in Den Haag.  Time to imagine what it would be like to ride in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere in Malaysia.  The country of my birth and upbringing.  A country where roadies were a rare breed when I left it four years ago.  A country where the past few years have seen an apparent explosion in the number of cyclists of all persuasions.

It was soon time to prepare for the move.  I ordered a South East Asia map card from Garmin for my Edge 705.  A few days later Ride With GPS announced the availability of an OpenStreetMap (OSM) map for South Asia at a quarter of the price that Garmin was asking.  Ain’t that the way?  Perhaps I’ll write up a comparative review of the maps one day.

The week before my departure my friend Richard B asked me to go with him to Rose BikeTown in Bocholt, Germany.  This is reputed to be the largest bike shop in Europe.  More than 20,000 items spread over 6,000 square metres of floor space.  A literal Aladdin’s Cave for cyclists.  Needless to say I succumbed to temptation and came away with a Ritchey WCS 4-Axis Stem and a WCS Evo Curve Carbon Bar to replace the Comp Stem and Road Logic Bar that were on my steel bike.

There was no question that the bikes were going to be air-freighted to Kuala Lumpur.  I assembled a collection of tools, a couple of pairs of bib shorts, some jerseys, socks, shoes, a pair of gloves and a helmet to travel together with the bikes.  It was touch and go to get the new stem and bar mounted on the steel bike and get the rear wheel bearings replaced on my titanium bike before the packers came to box them up.  I had until 3pm on Wednesday.  The bike with the new wheel bearings came out of the shop at 1pm that day.

A few hours later everything was boxed and in the back of a truck.  Hopefully to be seen again, intact and looking like they do below, in ten days time.

My steel bike:

My titanium bike:

4 Comments

Posted in Cycling in Malaysia and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
←
Newer Posts →