Old Roots, New Routes

My last post looked at my Strava history, which started on 31st January 2010. I still own the bicycle I rode that day. But that is not my oldest cycling-related possession.

I started cycling on a Trek FX7.5 in May 2009. In classic newbie style, I was oblivious to the possibility of a flat tire. It didn’t take long for that possibility to become a reality. When I did have a flat, I was totally unprepared. No tire levers. No pump. No spare tube. I didn’t even know how to get the wheel off the bike.

Fortunately, someone stopped and asked if I needed help. “Yes, please!” That gentleman has remained a good friend.

The next day, I was in West End Bicycles to buy the basics to deal with flat tires. I walked out with a pair of Pedro’s tire levers, a Genuine Innovations Ultraflate Plus with some CO² canisters, and a Park Tool MT-1 Multi-Tool.

I have different tire levers and CO² inflator in my on-bike tool kit today. The Park Tool MT-1 has also been superseded. They are backups now. Note: I’m sure that the CO² canister that is still inside the inflator does not date back to 2009 😄.

My collection of bike tools continued to grow. A pedal wrench. Various screwdrivers. Some bigger ticket items like a Feedback Sports Pro-Classic Work Stand and a Guistaforza torque wrench. Almost all of which I still have. But enough about tools. Unless you want to read more about the tools I have.

Back to the bike I was on when I started my Strava history. A steel bicycle custom-built by Alchemy Bicycle Company. Alchemy was based in Austin, Texas, then. I visited Austin a few times during the build process, which began in early November 2009.

During one of those visits, I went to Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop. Mellow Johnny’s belongs to Lance Armstrong. At the time Alchemy was building my steel bike, Mellow Johnny’s was a must-visit for cyclists. The U.S. Justice Department’s investigation into possible crimes conducted by Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team had not started. Armstrong’s name was still golden. His seven Tour de France-winning bicycles were on display in the shop.

The story is that Mellow Johnny’s got its name from Lance’s young son’s mispronunciation of Maillot Jaune, or Yellow Jersey. The Yellow Jersey is the symbol of the Tour de France, bestowed on the overall winner.

My souvenir from that visit to Mellow Johnny’s is this jersey. Made by Giordana, it has outlasted many other brand-name jerseys. It is my oldest jersey and is my second-oldest cycling item.

By mid-November 2009, the frame builder and I had confirmed the build kit and the paint scheme. By mid-December, tubes were being welded.

I drove from Houston in early January 2010 to collect the finished bicycle.

This frame, with its Easton EC90 SLX fork, is my third-oldest cycling-related possession. Apart from the fork, every other component has been replaced since I took delivery of the bike 14 years ago.

The next oldest item is a cycling event finisher’s token I received on 19 March 2011.  The Joop Zoetemelk Classic was a 150 km anti-clockwise loop from the Swift clubhouse around the Groene Hart (Green Heart) between Leiden and Utrecht.

I did some organised rides in Houston before moving to Den Haag, but none gave out finisher’s ribbons or medals. The Joop Zoetemelk Classic was one of the few organised rides in The Netherlands with a finisher’s token. Once I got back to Malaysia, my medal collection grew substantially. It was a given that the entrance fee for a century ride in Malaysia included a jersey and a finisher’s medal.

After that Mellow Johnny’s jersey, my next longest-lived item of apparel is my Rapha Climber’s Shoes. I bought these in November 2014.

I regularly wear these shoes. The uppers are still in good condition. Both uppers partially separated from the carbon sole in the past couple of months. You can see traces of the rubber cement I used to glue uppers and soles together again.

Rubber cement also glued together the velcro straps that separated into two layers.

I am on my third set of heel pads. That is the part of the sole that gets the most wear. Rapha sent me the first replacement set free of charge. When Rapha discontinued this shoe, that service stopped too. Giro, who made these soles for Rapha, still carries spare heel pads.

There are no replacement toe bumpers. A piece of inner tube is a good stand-in.

The tools, the steel Alchemy and the medals will continue to age well. The Mellow Johnny’s jersey looks like it has more years of life. As long as the uppers stay glued to the soles, the Rapha shoes will continue to get regular use.

I wish other cycling consumables lasted as long.

Life hack means any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency in all walks of life.

Naturally, bike hacks are a thing. For example, temporarily patching a large hole in your tire with a gel packet or a dollar bill. A process called booting. 

I saw some arm screens while walking through a Decathlon store. These ones have a thumb hole on one side.

Using the thumb hole, the back of your hand gets protection from the sun.

Using the thumb hole doesn’t work for me. I don’t want slippery fabric between my palms and my handlebar.

I was still attracted these good quality arm screens because their price was amongst the lowest I have seen. RM29 for a pair with a UPF50+ UV protection rating. I have seen similar quality arm screens costing RM80 a pair and more.

A hack came to mind as I wondered whether I would use arm screens with holes in them. 

I am the owner of a smart watch. Like with other smart watches and fitness trackers, there are sensors on the back of the watch. The watch must be worn under an arm screen for those sensors to have skin contact so that they work.

Which means having to pull the arm screen back to reveal the watch or leave my wrist uncovered.

The thumb hole is the solution. I wear these arm screens with the thumb hole uppermost on my wrist. My watch fits snugly in the hole.

Now I ride with my watch face showing through the hole on one arm and my Lifeline-ID tag showing through the hole on the other. A new bike hack.

I last rode to the Paya Indah Wetlands in June 2021. That time, it was in the company of about a dozen others.
You can read about that ride here:
Today, I had three others for company. We started from Rimbayu, after a few nervous minutes waiting for a shower to blow over. The rain cooled the air. We had a pleasant ride to the Wetlands.

We got to the entrance at 8:00am, when the park opens.

Our first stop was at the Belibis restaurant for drinks and curry puffs.

It is clear that the park has seen better days. While clean (the toilets were spotless), the facilities are run-down. The restaurant kitchen is closed and replaced by a stall at the edge of the seating area. All the chalets are closed. Some advertised activities, such as kayak and paddleboat rental, are no longer offered.
The restaurant staff told us that Gamuda Land, the developer of the adjacent Gamuda Cove, has taken over the park. Hopefully, better days lie ahead.

After finishing our drinks and curry puffs, we explored a small section of the 450 hectare park grounds.

Our first stop was at the Crocodile Lake. This specimen is certainly not the largest crocodile there.

After oohing and aahing at the crocodiles, we went off-road.

There is a jetty at the western end of the route we rode.

The views over the water are spectacular.

On to the Menara Tinjau, or Lookout Tower.

The tower was closed the last time I visited. It is still closed. A thick layer of dry leaves covered the road leading up to the tower.
We went up there anyway. To be greeted by quite a frightening sight. Dozens of dolls looking like Chucky from the horror film series “Child’s Play” were hanging from branches over the road.

Voodoo? Black magic? Whatever the reason for those dolls, I wrote to the Department of Wildlife Protection and National Parks, and to Gamuda Cove, to tell them about the dolls.

I received replies from both within a day. The dolls are props for an ongoing film shoot at the location. Those dolls will be removed once the filming is finished.

So much for our theories!

The Nile hippos are a highlight of any visit to the Paya Indah Wetlands. The hippos are a gift from the Government of Botswana.

We considered waiting thirty minutes to watch the hippo feeding, but it was getting hot. It was time to ride back to Rimbayu.

Our route intersects a section of the West Coast Expressway under construction. This 233 km toll road will connect Banting in Selangor with Taiping in Perak.

A flyover taking Jalan Bukit Perah over the WCE is built but not open to traffic yet. This Google Maps photograph shows the flyover under construction.

Naturally, we couldn’t resist riding up and over it.

It will be a while before this section of the WCE is open.

We might have been the first to cycle on that flyover. That was a highlight.

The lowlight was the ever-present gusting wind on the way back to Rimbayu.

We definitely felt those 28 kph gusts. Talk about a block headwind! What a relief to see the bridge over the South Klang Valley Expressway. Only a kilometre to go to the end of the ride. And an ice-cold drink.

It will be nice to go back to the Paya Indah Wetlands again. Perhaps in less than two years time 😆.

Nine R@SKLs rode to Port Dickson in June 2020. You can read about that trip here.

Talk about another ride to Port Dickson started in June this year. By 7th July, we confirmed accommodation at the same place we had stayed in 2020: The Regency Tanjung Tuan Beach Resort.

There was some trepidation about this trip amongst a few of us. Our cycling habits have changed. We don’t ride as often or as far as we used to. So a few ‘training rides’ were organised. Some were more successful than others.

One ride in July was rained out. We had breakfast instead.

Our final warm up ride the weekend before Merdeka (Independence) Day was interrupted by a lady who needed help with a flat tire. Whether we did, in fact, assist is debatable.

We celebrated our Good Samaritan deed with breakfast anyway.

TH snuck in a last-minute solo ride a few days before Merdeka Day.

In 2020, we cycled from where I live to Port Dickson. That was possible because we rode on the Maju Expressway to Cyberjaya. That expressway is now closed to cyclists.

This time, we took the KTM Komuter train to Pulau Sebang station, and rode from there to Port Dickson.

It was cool and overcast at dawn on Merdeka Day. The roads in Kuala Lumpur were wet from an overnight storm, but the rain had stopped. The KL Tower was lit in the colours of the Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian flag).

Woo was in the middle of the ride from his home to Bank Negara station.

Martin was waiting for Leonard at the Publika traffic lights. They would meet us at Bank Negara station.

Eight others were either on their way or already at my home.

On the way to the station at 7:30am.

Woo was already at the station when we got there. Leonard and Martin arrived a few minutes later.

I got told off for riding my bicycle into the ticket hall!

Waiting on Platform 2 for the 8:02am departure to Pulau Sebang.

What is in the bag?

Zaryl, Dan and Marvin boarded the train at Sentul station. Two stations before Bank Negara station.

All together in Car 6.

It takes two hours forty five minutes for the train to get from Bank Negara station to Pulau Sebang station. That explains this pose.

SSSSSHHHHH!

Thanks to Geetha, we all had Malaysian flags on our bikes when we got off the train at Pulau Sebang station in Tampin.

Everyone was hungry. This gentleman at Restoran Nasi Kandar Impian made our roti canai, naan and tosai. Do you think we could be related?

I plotted a scenic route rather than a direct route from Tampin to Port Dickson. To give us a longer ride and to keep us off trunk roads.

5km from Tampin, at the Freeport A’Famosa Outlet, is this unusual sight. A Boeing 747 has been converted into a retail concept store and café by Coach, the American luxury fashion house.

The back roads were lovely to ride on.

We arrived at the beach after two hours of cycling. We needed a rest and to refill bidons. It is just over 40km / 25mi from Tampin to Pantai Tanjung Bidara. Almost all of that distance is over rolling terrain. We had 385 metres / 1,260 feet of climbing in our legs.

The first place we stopped at didn’t have any bottled or canned drinks. D Pantai Penyu is a kilometre down the road from that dry place. I think we wiped out their stock of bottled water.

The next 12 kilometres / 7.5 miles were along the beach. The views were nice. Unfortunately, the sun was upon us. It was 33ºC / 91.5ºF. The high humidity meant that the “Feels Like” temperature was considerably higher.

We did stop again less than a kilometre from D Pantai Penyu. Most of us downed brain freezingly cold coconut shakes at D’Ribut Pengkalan Balak.

Then it was back out into the 2:30pm heat.

We split into two groups upon leaving Tampin because the six who opted for lunch at Old Town White Coffee were still eating when the rest were ready to roll. Having come together just before the beach, we were soon in three groups. I was in the middle one and secretly relieved to hear that Marvin in the group behind us had a flat tire.

We four rested in the shade while waiting for Marvin’s group to catch up to us. After 50 minutes, we heard from Marvin that he couldn’t fix his flat, that he had been sipping a coffee in a café for the past 30 minutes, and that the others were on the road.

In 150 metres from our spot in the shade, we were on Federal Route 138. This trunk road links Sungai Udang and Linggi. I had plotted some diversions to get us off Federal Route 138 and later off Federal Route 5 as we got closer to Port Dickson. It was hot, and we were tired, so we decided to skip the diversions and stay on the Federal Routes.

30 minutes and 14km later, we pulled into the 5 Petrol station in Pasir Panjang. We needed cold drinks.

The fast group were in a restaurant ahead of us. They had 14km left to ride. We thought a group was still behind us, so we waited at the petrol station for 15 minutes. With no sign of any other R@SKLs, we pushed on.

It turned out that we were the last group on the road. The others must have ridden past on the trunk road while we were waiting in the shade by the beach. Everyone arrived safely. Most with some degree of sunburn 🌞🌞🌞.

Zulfa had arrived earlier with our bags. The guys in the same apartment as her and I had it good. The A/C was on, and cold drinks were in the fridge when we arrived.

There was time for a nap before dinner at Yun Long Seafood Restaurant.

We left it to food connoisseur TH to order. Every dish was delicious.

I can’t speak for the others, but I was asleep by 9:30pm.

My alarm was set for 7:00am.

Others were up, too. Plenty of time for a cigarette or a coffee before meeting in the car park at 8:00am.

Bags loaded in the car for Zulfa to transport back to KL and ready to roll.

It didn’t take us long to find a place for breakfast. Medan Selera Sri Bayu had a good selection: nasi lemak, roti canai, lempeng, roti jala, a few curries to go with the carbohydrates, curry puffs and Malay kuih.

We rode to Sungai Gadut station. That was half the distance of the ride to Port Dickson. I think many appreciated the shorter and more relaxed ride after the exertions of the previous afternoon.

We didn’t do any back roads riding. What we did cycle on were well-surfaced. Outside the built-up areas of Port Dickson, Ayer Kuning and Rantau, there was very little traffic. The rolling terrain gave us 360 metres / 1,180 feet of elevation over the 42.5 kilometres to Sungai Gadut station. Thank goodness for the slower pace.

We got to Sungai Gadut station at 10:35am. We had lots of time before our train departed at 11:53am.

We definitely had enough time for an impromptu yoga session led by the queen of flexibility, Zaryl.

Bin Soo carried a 360º video camera with her. She put together a wonderful video clip of our rides to and from Port Dickson.

View the video here.

The train rolled out of Sungai Gadut station on time. I must say that the Komuter trains are very punctual. I must also say that this train was quite cold.

I was glad for the warm air coming into the train every time it stopped at a station.

It was drizzling while we rolled through the two or three stations before our stop. The rain stopped as we rode from Bank Negara station to Kwong Cheung Loong Kopitiam Bar on Jalan Doraisamy. The others either got off the train before or after Bank Negara station, or didn’t have time for lunch before having to be at home.

They missed a yummy lunch. They also didn’t get a piece of Maresa’s home-made banana bread.

It was pouring by the time this group got to the car park at my home to pick up their bags. I hope no one got too wet leaving the building.

It would have taken more than rain to spoil anyone’s enjoyment of our two days together. It was broiling hot on the way to Port Dickson. I wasn’t the only one with cramp. We shared enough laughs amongst good friends to compensate for those and any other inconveniences.

Thank you, everyone, for making this trip so much fun.

Several R@SKLs had not ridden recently. In some cases, not for months. So I organised a “Welcome Back to Cycling” ride.

Seventeen R@SKLs met in Damansara Heights for an 8:00am start.

The ones who had been off their bikes for the longest time chose the route. We all wanted a short ride at a relaxed pace. But we couldn’t avoid having to climb. Hills came with the territory.

The ride was short at 16km. The pace was relaxed at about 15.5kph. And there were 340 metres of climbing.

We paused for a photograph after climbing 65 metres in 1.1km.

We made two more photograph stops at the top of climbs. This one on Jalan Setiabistari.

And this one on Jalan Beringin.

Then it was back down Jalan Beringin to the Ali, Muthu & Ah Hock outlet at Plaza Zurich for some food and drink.

We chatted over coffee, teh tarik, kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs and nasi lemak.

Some of us had cycled from home to the ride start point. By 10:30am, the day was warming up. It was time to head home.

12km and 210 metres of climbing later, I reached this BLVCK coffee van, a regular weekend fixture on the corner of Jalan Tunku and Jalan Tun Ismail. It was a good time to stop for a Butterbeer.

The Butterbeer was a nice way to end a very pleasant morning. I hope it is not months before this group gets together for another ride.

In early January, V asked me if I was planning to do the 2023 Pink Ride. She had registered for the Permanent 100. Having just completed the Rapha Festive 500 Challenge, I felt I could manage a 100 km ride. So I registered for it. Some other R@SKLs registered for the BRM 200.

Both events would start at the same time. Pre-dawn at 5:00 am. I decided to spend Saturday night as close to the start location as possible, so I would have more sleep time before the very early start.

I was late looking for accommodation. All the homestays, of which there aren’t many around Kota Kemuning, had already been booked. My Biker Chick decided to make a weekend staycation out of the event. She booked a two-night stay at the Hilton Garden Inn Puchong, 10km from the ride start in Rimbayu, Kota Kemuning.

Puchong used to be tin-dredging territory. We had a nice view of one of the old mining pools from our room.

Since I was going to be in the area on Saturday afternoon, I volunteered to collect goodie bags for the R@SKLs. Pick up was at the Gamuda Land twenty-five.7 Experience Gallery.

It didn’t take long to collect about a dozen goodie bags.

In addition to discount vouchers from the event sponsors and optional additional-cost tee shirts and cycling wallets, each bag held an event-specific brevet card and bike tag.

The brevet cards get stamped at each checkpoint along the route. The bike tags identify differentiate registered participants from unregistered ones, known locally as “ghost” riders.

The giant lakeside flamingo behind the Experience Gallery was where I met the other R@SKLS at 4:30 am on Sunday morning to hand out brevet cards and bike tags.

Everyone ready to roll. Four of us doing the Permanent 100, and the rest doing the BRM 200.

The Permanent 100 and the BRM 200 shared the same route for the first 20 km. At Taman Periang, the Permanent 100 riders turned right towards Banting, and the BRM 200 riders turned left towards Kampung Sungai Manggis. Although the two routes reconverged at Asam Batu Laut, we would not see the BRM 200 riders again. The Permanent 100 riders got to Asam Batu Laut after a further 20 km from where the two routes split. The BRM 200 riders had 130 km to cover before they got to Asam Batu Laut.

The only checkpoint for the Permanent 100 was at KM 56 at Dataran Morib. We got there at a few minutes past 7:00 am.

One of the event sponsors was Boom+, which is an isotonic beverage. There was an ice chest full of all four available flavours at the checkpoint. I had a lemon one. Very nice!

It was also time for something to eat. A kilometre from Dataran Morib is Delicious Bread Coffee Shop.

Soft-boiled eggs, charcoal-toasted bread with kaya (coconut jam) and coffee hit the spot.

The R@SKLs doing the BRM 200 would have been riding towards Port Dickson from Sepang while we were enjoying our breakfast.

The finish at twenty-five.7 Experience Gallery was less than 50 km away for the four of us.

We got to the finish at 9:30 am.

There was more Boom+ available at the finish. As well as a very nice photographer in the shape of Sam Tow.

The finishing checkpoint was at one end of the row of shops behind the Experience Gallery, facing the Central Lake. One of those shops is a café.

Rewind is a very nice spot for a post-ride latte and a sandwich.

The neon sign inside is very cyclist-appropriate 😂.

All the R@SKL BRM 200 riders finished safely too.

We all got medals. The Permanent 100 was not an official Audax event, so the ones we got for riding 100 km are not the same as the Audax Club Parisien-issued medals that the successful BRM 200 riders could purchase.

Congratulations to all the R@SKLs who rode the Pink Ride 6.0 Permanent 100 or the BRM 200.

P.S. The Pink Ride 6.0 is the third Pink Ride that the R@SKLs have participated in. You can read about the others by clicking on the links below:

Pink Ride 2.0 2019

Pink Ride 3.0 2020

The Rapha Festive 500 challenge is to ride 500 kilometres between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. I completed my first Rapha Festive 500 in 2014. The reward for completing the challenge was a woven roundel that Rapha posted to you, free of charge. The 2014 roundel is the one on the upper left.

You can read my post about the 2014 Rapha Festive 500 by clicking here.

The roundels I earned in subsequent years are shown in clockwise order.

In 2020 Rapha stopped sending roundels to successful participants. The number of participants ballooned from 84 in 2010 to 240,991 in 2020. Perhaps the cost of producing and posting woven roundels became prohibitively expensive.

2020 was a year of great upheaval. The first COVID-19 lockdown started in Malaysia on 18th March. Restricted to our homes until early May, I didn’t ride at all in April. After April 2020, restrictions on outdoor exercise were relaxed and reimposed as each wave of COVID-19 infections came and went. Despite not riding much in October and November 2020, I did complete the Festive 500 challenge that year. That year’s digital roundel is the one on the bottom left.

You can read my post about the 2020 Rapha Festive 500 by clicking here.

I broke my Festive 500 streak in 2021. A variety of restrictions on cycling and surgery on a knee I injured while jogging meant I rode very little in June, July and August 2021. I wasn’t fit enough to give the 2021 Festive 500 a go.

Until mid-December this year, I had given no thought to attempting the 2022 Festive 500. As you can see from the chart above, I rode very little in 2022. Including none at all between March and July. I came out of that period very unfit and carrying more kilos than is good for me.

I covered 118 km in August, 281 km in September, 563 km in October, and 666 km in November. Not the distances that made me confident that I could ride 500 km in eight days. Especially as only five out of the forty-two rides I did in those months were longer than 62 km. The average distance I would have to ride every day to cover 500 km in eight days.

As Christmas Eve, the first day of the Festive 500 challenge, drew closer, I considered giving it a go. I had lost some weight and was feeling fitter.

The clincher was Kieren asking if I was doing the Festive 500 this year. After a few days of mulling it over, I decided to go for it.

Kieren and I rode 102 km on Christmas Eve morning, from Bukit Jail to Jenjarom and back. I hadn’t ridden more than 100 km in a single ride since January 2022.

Knowing I needed to front-load kilometres in case I couldn’t ride on one or more of the allocated eight days, I added a 27 km ride on one of my regular city routes that afternoon.

I felt shattered on Christmas morning. There was no way I could get out of bed for an early ride. I did manage a 45 km city ride in the afternoon.

I was already glad I was ahead of the minimum daily cumulative total kilometres required to get to 500 km on Day Eight.

Ride number four on Boxing Day was a very pleasant and relaxed 72 km ride to Elmina and back to TTDI with Vanessa and Kieren.

The relaxed pace in the morning meant that I was able to add a 42 km ride that afternoon to my total distance.

I roped Mark in to ride with me on Day Four. This was a 73 km ride to Kuang and back via Elmina. My legs were starting to feel the strain, and I certainly didn’t break any speed records.

With 360 km in the bag, I felt good about completing the challenge.

I rode solo on Day Five, from Batu 14, Hulu Langat to Batu 18 and on to the Semenyih Dam and back to Batu 14. With detours toward Kampung Lubok Kelubi to the north and around the kampungs on the way to Bukit Hantu. That added 86 km to my cumulative total.

Day Six was spent together with KS and TH, riding to the Hospital Orang Asli and back to the city.

Those 66 km on Day Six earned me this year’s roundel. Relatively plain, as Rapha Festive 500 roundel designs go, but I will take it.

To say that I am pleased to have ridden a total of 500 kms in six days is an understatement. I am absolutely delighted!