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Longer Than Planned

Posted on March 31, 2014 by alchemyrider

I have a full-time job now.  It is lots of fun, but it does cut into my cycling time.  I can’t get to all the weekday evening rides.

My job also cuts into my bike-fitting time.  Sometimes I have to forgo a Saturday morning ride to do a bike fit.

So it was very nice to meet up with the Flipsiders yesterday morning at Bukit Jelutong.  Mark had planned an extension to our usual Kundang route.  Perhaps an additional 20 or 30 kilometers on top of the usual 60 km.

The first stop, as usual, was for food and drink.

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Photograph courtesy of Marco Lai

After teh tarik and roti canai or nasi lemak, we continued along Jalan Kuala Selangor past the Sungai Buloh Prison and onward to Ijok.

Kampung Kuantan Route

 

On the other side of Ijok we turned right onto one of the longest arrow-straight roads I have ever been on.  8 kilometers in all.

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Photograph courtesy of Mark Lim

This is a rarely-used road, so we took the chance to lark around.

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Photograph courtesy of Marco Lai

Our next stop was for photographs at a popular tourist spot.  The location of what is reputed to be one of the biggest firefly colonies on the world.

Photograph courtesy of Mark Lim

Photograph courtesy of Mark Lim

We didn’t ride quite as far as Kuantan.  It was fun pretending minus Danny who was behind the camera.

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The anti-clockwise loop from Ijok brought us back to the LATAR Expressway.  From there we were on familiar roads.  That is until we got to the interchange with the Guthrie Corridor Expressway.

The LATAR Expressway is 32 km long, and it runs between Ijok and Templer’s Park.  We have ridden the 21 km from the Guthrie Corridor Expressway interchange to Ijok and back many times.  We had never done the 11 km from that interchange to the other end of the LATAR at Templer’s Park.

By that point in the ride we were on track to cover about 110 km.  Marco and I couldn’t convince Cedric, Chris, Danny and Mark to ride an extra 22 km.  They headed back to Bukit Jelutong, and Marco and I rode toward Templer’s Park.

There wasn’t a u-turn at the Templer’s Park end of the Expressway like there is at the Ijok end.  So we had to get across four lanes of traffic to head back to the Guthrie interchange.  Fortunately there were roadworks in progress, so traffic was forced to slow down enough for us to turn around without getting run over.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, except for the puncture I had about 10 km from Bukit Jelutong.  A piece of wire was the culprit.  The edge of a drain at the El Mina R&R stop was a convenient place to perch as I replaced the inner tube.

Photograph courtesy of Marco Lai

Photograph courtesy of Marco Lai

Marco and I rode about 130 km.  Certainly more than planned.  It is a route worth doing again though.

 

 

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Riding into the Year of the Horse

Posted on February 3, 2014 by alchemyrider

8 Horses

Friday 31st January marked the start of the Year of the Horse.  The horse is the seventh of the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac.

Federal Territory Day was celebrated on Monday 3rd February.  So we had a four-day weekend.  My riding buddies planned to ride on each of those days.

Four of us started the Lunar New Year with a morning ride along the KESAS Highway.  We did one and a half of the Bandar Sunway to Bukit Jalil Sports Complex loop.

Now that I think about it, four was not the most auspicious number of riders.  In Chinese tradition, certain numbers are believed by some to be auspicious or inauspicious, based on the Chinese word that the number name sounds similar to.

4 is considered the unluckiest number of all, because it is nearly homophonous to the word “death.”  Despite being a quartet, we had a fun ride.

Photograph courtesy of Shahfiq Abdul Manap

Photograph courtesy of Shahfiq Abdul Manap

We did much better, numerologically speaking, the next morning.  Eight of us did the climb to Genting Sempah.

8 is an extremely auspicious number, because it sounds similar to the word “prosper” or “wealth.”

Photograph courtesy of Gary Wong

Photograph courtesy of Gary Wong

As always with our morning rides, this one ended with breakfast.

Photograph courtesy of Eric Siow

Photograph courtesy of Eric Siow

Sunday was a “Go Green Car-Free Morning.”  On the first Sunday of the month, some roads in the city center are closed to motor vehicles from 7.00 am until 9.00 am.  Giving walkers, joggers, skateboarders, rollerbladers and cyclists a chance to use these stretches.

About ten of us met here for a wake-up coffee or a teh tarik before cycling to the start.

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There was already quite a crowd in front of the City Hall building.

 Car Free Day 01

Including some on vintage bicycles and in period costume.  The infantrymen were a reference to the Japanese invasion of Malaya and the capture of Singapore.  One of the keys to the success of that invasion was the use of bicycles by the Japanese troops to move swiftly down the Malayan peninsula from Kota Bahru in the north to Singapore in the south.

Photograph courtesy of Tengku Nash

Photograph courtesy of Tengku Nash

Marco, Shahfiq and I did three loops of the 12 km route.

The highlight for me was cycling past my primary school.  Batu Road School.  In the 1960s a narrow access road ran in front of the school.  I remember walking out of the school gates into a group of ice cream vendors, standing next to bicycles with cold boxes mounted on rear racks.

That access road has become Jalan Raja Laut, a five-lane thoroughfare.  The school is still there.  Sadly the ice cream vendors are no more.

Batu Road Boys School Panoramio Kunawi Sokaguro

The route also took us past the PETRONAS Twin Towers.  They must be the most posed-before buildings in the country.

Car Free Day 04

Here Shahfiq and I are rolling away from the Twin Towers, along a deserted Jalan Ampang toward the junction with Jalan Sultan Ismail.

Photograph courtesy of Marco Lai

Photograph courtesy of Marco Lai

I had a bonus ride in the afternoon.  Ronnie held a Chinese New Year open house.  Complete with chinese tea prepared with water collected from a natural spring that comes to the surface in Kuala Kubu Bahru.  Which is an hour’s drive from KL.

Photograph courtesy of Ronnie Khoo

Photograph courtesy of Ronnie Khoo

Three-quarters of the residents of KL appeared to have left the city for the long weekend.  So I took a chance that the roads to Ronnie’s place were relatively traffic-free.

Ronnie CNY Route

I stayed off the main roads as much as I could, although there were some stretches where I had no other choice.  Up the hill on Jalan Semantan for example, which was bit tricky because of the construction of the new MRT line and station.

Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia

Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia

It was worth the effort though.  The chinese tea and the company at Ronnie’s was great.

The plan for the Day Four ride had to be changed.  Some of us had to be back home by 11am.  That ruled out a long ride along the Guthrie Corridor Expressway and beyond.  Seven of us did the climb to Genting Sempah again instead.

It was probably good that we didn’t ride from Bukit Jelutong.  It was a public holiday in Kuala Lumpur but not in the state of Selangor.  The motorcycle lane along the Guthrie Corridor Expressway would have been crowded with people getting to work.

The road up to Genting Sempah was very quiet.  We had long stretches where we were the only ones on the road.

Photograph courtesy of Marco Lai

Photograph courtesy of Marco Lai

There was only one other person at the summit when I got there.  Marco soon joined me at the sign marking the border between the states of Selangor and Pahang.

JGL Summit

Once the rest of the group got to the top of the climb we all turned around and shot back down the hill.  Breakfast was waiting.

Chinese New Year social obligations prevented us from doing any long rides.  Even so I rode about 160 km over the extended weekend.  Which was a good start to the Year of the Horse.

Though not as good as it would have been if I had been on one of these.

Photograph courtesy of cmybacon.com

Photograph courtesy of cmybacon.com

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Kilo Months

Posted on October 3, 2013 by alchemyrider

I started keeping track of my rides in January 2010.  I had a new road bike, and an even newer Garmin Edge 705 cycle computer.  Uploading the details to the Garmin Connect web site after every ride became standard practice.   That year I rode 3,173 kilometers.

The heat map below shows where I rode for the first six months of 2010.  The most-ridden routes are depicted in red.  Click on the heat map to open the image in a new window.  You will see that most of my kilometers were accrued on the West End Tuesday and Thursday evening rides, and the Sunday Taco rides through Houston.

2010 Heat Map

Heat Map courtesy of Strava

I had some big rides outside metro Houston:  The Humble Lions Club Ride, The Space Race, and the BP MS150.  But I didn’t have a kilo month, which is my term for riding more than 1,000 kilometers in a month.

In mid-2010 I moved with my biker chick to The Netherlands.  The excellent cycling infrastructure there gave me more opportunity to ride, albeit on my own as I didn’t connect with a cycling group until the following year.

I started riding with the Not Possibles in March 2011.  The Saturday and occasional weekday rides with them boosted the distance I rode in 2011 to 6,985 kilometers.  In 2012 that number increased to 11,054 kilometers.  Almost of those kilometers were around Den Haag, with the 2011 and 2012 Ronde van Vlaanderen sportives, and the 2012 UCI World Championships sportive in Belgium thrown in for good measure.

Heat map courtesy of Strave

Heat Map courtesy of Strave

I racked up my first kilo month in August 2011.  The fine summer weather allowed me to ride eighteen times that month for a total of 1,085 kilometers.

Somewhat surprisingly I didn’t have another kilo month until January 2012, when I rode 1,091 kilometers.  I then had four more kilo months that year.  March, and three in a row from June to August.  My Not Possibles friends and I had a good summer that year.  My biggest ever kilo month was in July, when I rode 1,718 kilometers.  I had the luxury of being able to go on twenty five rides that month.

In October 2012 my biker chick and I moved home to Kuala Lumpur.   My ride frequency and average distance dropped dramatically for some months before slowly increasing again.  So it took more than a year before I had another kilo month, in September 2013.  Helped by five rides of at least 100 kilometers each.

My 2013 heat map looks a lot like my 2010 Houston heat map in that most of my rides are limited to a couple of routes.  Int his case KESAS and the Guthrie Corridor Expressway, with Putrajya and Genting Sempah thrown in for variety.  Scattered around the map are the one-off events that I rode in Johor Bahru, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan and Penang,  My Racun buddies and I also rode to Fraser’s Hill, and I joined Dave Ern on a ride to Cameron Highlands.  You can also read about the Bike X and Broga 116 rides.

Heat Map courtesy of Strava

Heat Map courtesy of Strava

It looks like I will ride about 7,300 kilometers in 2013.  And perhaps have another kilo month this quarter.  Garmin Connect will reveal all.

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A Landmark Ride

Posted on September 2, 2013 by alchemyrider

The Racun weekend group rides are usually not longer than 60 km.  If we start at 7am we can get to Kampung Kundang for breakfast and back to Bukit Jelutong by about 9.45am or so.  Before the day gets too hot.  The temperature is the limiting factor when it comes to ride length.

As a result a number of the group have never done a 100 km ride.  We decided to rectify that yesterday.  Mark planned a route that would take us from where he lives in Damansara Jaya to the Ijok exit on the LATAR highway and back.  About 110 km according to Google Maps.

Nine of us met at the car park in front of the Damansara Jaya post office.  Marco, Marvin, Peng Soon and Shahfiq were the 100 km ride neophytes (although Marco came close with a 95 km ride last weekend).

The route from the start to the Guthrie Corridor Expressway took us past the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport.  From 1965 to 1998 this was Kuala Lumpur’s international airport.  When it opened the runway was surrounded by jungle and plantations.  This was still the case when the Saujana Golf and Country Club  opened its doors at the south end of the runway some twenty years later.

As you can see from the route map below it is hard to justify the “Country” in Country Club these days.

Century Ride Route

The airport and club are now hemmed in by urban sprawl.  Where there was once jungle and plantations there are now Ara Damansara, Kampung Bukit Cherakah,  Taman TTDI Jaya, Taman Subang Perdana, Kayangan Heights and a host of other residential and commercial developments.

Jet-engined aircraft now take off and land at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which is about 80 km from the city centre.  Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport is still used by commercial carriers operating turboprop aircraft.

The roads in the area have expanded to cope with the increased traffic.   The flyover at the north end of the runway was new to me.  And when did Jalan Lapangan Terbang Subang and Jalan Sungai Buloh become four lane divided highways?

Jalan Sungai Buloh took us to the the familiar surroundings of the Guthrie Corridor Expressway.  We stopped at the little rest area behind the Lagong Toll Plaza to regroup before turning onto the KL – Kuala Selangor Expressway.

Lagong Toll Plaza

Photo courtesy of Shahfiq Abdul Manap

Our turn-around point was 20 km down the road at the Ijok exit.  Marvin looks ready for the return leg.

Photo courtesy of Shahfiq Abdul Manap

Photo courtesy of Shahfiq Abdul Manap

Marco, Peng Soon and Shahfiq (pointing skyward) look happy to be at the turn-around point too.

Photo courtesy of Mark Lim

We chose a hot day for this century run.  It was already quite warm by the time we got going again at about 9am.  Everyone was getting hungry as well.  Good thing a visit to our favourite breakfast spot was on the agenda.

Photo courtesy of Marco Lai

An hour later we were seated at Sharif Roti Canai.  The corrugated iron roof was radiating heat.  We were grateful to get a table under a fan.

We lingered under that fan for an hour.  Fortified by roti canai, teh tarik and soft-boiled free-range eggs we headed out to cover the 40 km back to Damansara Jaya.

The midday heat and a headwind made the going challenging.  We were all glad to get to the Elmina Rest & Recreation area where we could wash the sweat off our faces, pour water over our heads and sit in the shade for a while.

Congratulations to Marco, Marvin, Peng Soon and Shahfiq on their first 100 km ride.  Additional kudos go to Peng Soon, who hadn’t ridden more than 40 km in one go before.  He persevered despite aching legs and the heat.  In sneakers no less.

We will all be telling stories about this ride for a long time to come.

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Ramadan Rides

Posted on July 19, 2013 by alchemyrider

We are in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.  Ramadan.  Which for Muslims means fasting during the daylight hours from dawn to dusk.

The Islamic lunar calendar year is eleven or twelve days shorter than the solar calendar year.  There is no intercalation, or insertion of a leap day, week or month, to realign the lunar calendar with the solar calendar.  So Ramadan migrates through the seasons.

My biker chick and I spent the last two Ramadan months in the Netherlands.  Where the summer daylight hours extend for eighteen or more hours.  There are advantages to being back in Malaysia where there is little variation in the length of the day throughout the year.  Here we have only about fourteen hours between sahur, or the pre-fast meal, and iftar, or the fast-breaking meal.

The length of the fast at this time of the year in northern Europe means that iftar is not until almost 10pm.  So rather than spend the last hours sitting at home thinking about food I would go for an evening bike ride.  Sometimes on my own and sometimes in the company of David or others from the Not Possibles.

Ramadan Ride 1

After a loop like this one, and a shower, I was very ready for that iftar drink and meal.

I did the Saturday morning Not Possibles rides as well.  Those rides were too much fun to miss.  A very large banana and blueberry smoothie at sahur set me up nicely for the ride.  I must admit the post-ride koffie verkeerd and appeltaart at The Coffee Club were tempting.

Ramadan rides in Kuala Lumpur are a bit more challenging because of the heat and humidity.  Fortunately with iftar being at 7.30pm or so there is no need for evening rides to divert the mind from food and drink.  So rather than riding late in the day on an empty stomach, as I did in the Netherlands, I do the Tuesday and Thursday night rides in Kuala Lumpur on a very full stomach.  I am usually eager to get started at 9pm, but during this month I am happy for any delay that adds to my digestion time.

Weekend rides will continue here as well during Ramadan.  The heat and humidity mean that I have to be selective about the routes, and the pace.  The Guthrie Corridor Expressway route is very open and gets too hot for a ride sans hydration.  Which leaves Genting Sempah as the ride of choice.  That route winds though forest so is shaded and breezy.

Photo courtesy of abuomar at http://basikalgunung.blogspot.com

Photo courtesy of abuomar at http://basikalgunung.blogspot.com

Having lots of scenic spots for rest stops helps too.

Photo curtesy of Mark Lim

Photo courtesy of Mark Lim

There is the elevation to deal with, but if taken at a relaxed pace that isn’t a problem.  Most importantly for my non-fasting riding companions, the nasi lemak shop at the end of the ride is open during Ramadan.

I get to ride during Ramadan, and my non-Muslim friends get their teh tarik.  Everyone is a winner!

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My Name is alchemyrider and I am a Bikeaholic

Posted on June 8, 2013 by alchemyrider

Rain has returned to Kuala Lumpur with a vengeance.  The Tuesday KESAS ride was called off because of it.  We managed to squeeze a make-up ride between downpours on Wednesday night.  We did get caught in a sprinkle, but escaped getting soaked.  The  Thursday night KESAS ride was cancelled.  The inaugural VUBC Setia Alam evening ride on Friday night was washed out.

My bottles were in the fridge.  My bike light was charged.  My tires were up to pressure.  My cycling kit was ready.  Since Thursday.  I was suffering withdrawal symptoms.  That is the only explanation for the number of cookies I have eaten over the past few days.

I was looking forward to a ride this morning.  None of my buddies could ride today, so I could choose the route.  It has been a while since I have pedaled up to Genting Sempah, so at 6am I pointed the car north toward Gombak.

The roads were damp from the previous night’s rain.  I didn’t know it when I left home, but the roads were about to get a lot wetter.  Here is this morning’s weather map for peninsular Malaysia.  Dark blue = heavy rain.

KL Weather

10km / 6mi into my drive the skies opened.  It was immediately clear that if I did the Genting Sempah ride it would be in a deluge.  I don’t mind getting caught in the rain, but I am averse to starting a ride in the wet.  “Hard-core” must not be in my genetic makeup.

What were my options?  I could give the Batu 18 to Genting Perez route a try.  But that was also to the north of Kuala Lumpur.  And probably just as wet.

I could go home, eat more cookies and go back to bed.

Or I could head south-west toward Bukit Jelutong and see if it was dry there.  I may not be a hard-core cyclist, but I do like my bike rides.  A lot.  So I did a u-turn and headed back the way I came along the DUKE Highway and then on the North Klang Valley Expressway towards Shah Alam.

Drive to Ride

After 50km / 31mi of driving I was at D’Bayu in Bukit Jelutong.  The skies looked threatening but it wasn’t raining.  So I took a chance and rolled out of the car park and down the hill toward the Guthrie Corridor Expressway.

Tomorrow’s ride will be along the same expressway.  So for some variety I turned left at the first intersection onto Jalan Batu Arang.  Jalan Batu Arang is nicknamed Dragon’s Back.  The ride profile tells you why.

Dragon's Back Profile

It isn’t Genting Sempah, but it does have more climbing than the Guthrie expressway.  Especially if you do an out-and-back ride.

Dragon's Back

Driving all the way to Bukit Jelutong turned out to be a good call.  I was able to scratch my cycling itch.  It drizzled a little bit as I got onto the first climb on Jalan Batu Arang.  The clouds quickly blew over though, and I rode in sunshine after that.

I was the only cyclist on the road.  Perhaps everyone else had more sense than to be on a bicycle at 7am.  A big plus about being out that early was I didn’t have much traffic for company, at least on the outward leg.  Once the hills were out of the way I got to the Jalan Meru Tambahan intersection, where on previous rides we have turned right.  This time I kept going.  The road changes its name to Persiaran Puncak Alam 6, and comes to an end in Bandar Puncak Alam.  Exactly 25km / 15.5mi from the start.

I hit my top speeds for the day on the way to Puncak Alam.  Which meant I had some long uphill slopes on the way back to Bukit Jelutong.  I certainly got to do some climbing this morning.  In relatively cool conditions too.  I was back at my car at 8.40am.  Well before the day really heated up.

Drive 50 km / 31mi one way to ride 52.7km / 32.7mi.  Sounds reasonable to me!

P.S.

We got caught in a proper storm on the Guthrie Corridor Expressway this morning.  The monsoons must be here.

IMG_1296

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Solo Saturday

Posted on May 12, 2013 by alchemyrider

My regular Saturday riding buddies had other things to do yesterday morning.  So I rolled out of the D’Bayu car park in Bukit Jelutong on my own just as it was getting light.  There wasn’t a lot of color in the sky as the sun came up, despite all the clouds.

Sunrise

I got to the motorcycle lane alongside the Guthrie Corridor Expressway before 7am.  Not surprisingly the motorcycle lane was very quiet.  Riding alone always gives me the opportunity to notice things that I miss while on group rides.

Roadside Color

While I was the only cyclist on the motorcycle lane that early in the morning, this ride is a popular one.  The lane is well surfaced and relatively wide.  Most of the tunnels under the on and off ramps are well-lit, although there are a couple that provide an unnecessary  moment of concern as you pass from bright sunlight into darkness.  Especially if the tunnel comes immediately after a sharp turn.

Into a Tunnel

I took the slightly longer route to Kampung Sri Kundang.  Instead of taking the Jalan Kuala Selangor exit I rode further down the Guthrie Corridor Expressway to the KL – Kuala Selangor Highway interchange.  This option means riding about 3 km / 2 mi along the KL – Kuala Selangor Expressway.  That expressway, also known as the LATAR Expressway, does not have a motorcycle lane, but the  road shoulder is wide enough to accommodate cyclists.

KL _ Kuala Selangor Highway

I left the highway at Kundang Lakes Golf Club.

Kundang Lakes GC

From there it is a short 3 km / 2 mi to Sharif Roti Canai.  Breakfast there is the reason for riding this route.

Sharif Roti Canai

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Another Place to Eat

Posted on March 24, 2013 by alchemyrider

Life in Malaysia is all about food.  So it stands to reason that cycling revolves around finding new places to eat.

Last week Mark had noticed a particularly well-patronized stall on the Kampung Sri Kundang route.  So we set out from Bukit Jelutong just before dawn to check that place out.  Our hope was that we would get most of our riding done before it got very hot.  The sun had other ideas.

IMG_1211

So we kept the pace relaxed along the Guthrie Corridor Expressway and Jalan Kuala Selangor.  Mark slowed down as we made the left turn at Kampung Sungai Pelong.  He thought we were close to the stall he was looking for.   Sure enough, it was 300 meters down the road.

IMG_1208

Sate Sri Subang has made a name for itself as a place to get good satay.  Satay is an archetypal Malaysian dish.  In my days of business-class travel on Malaysian Airlines, courtesy of my employers, the beef and chicken satay served onboard was always a highlight.

The satay grill comes to life in the evenings.  In the mornings the offerings are nasi lemak and nasi dagang.  Nasi lemak is available everywhere in Malaysia.  Nasi dagang is a dish more commonly found in the northern states of Kelantan and Terengganu.  It was no surprise that the ladies running the stall this morning were from Kelantan.  Immediately identifiable as such by their Kelantanese dialect.

Having been denied our nasi lemak last Sunday, we had our minds set on some today.  As we waited for our nasi lemak to be plated up we were tempted by a range of savory and sweet items laid out on the table.

IMG_1206

Being weak-willed when it comes to food, we added curry puffs, pulut panggang, and kuih koci to our plates.

We will be stopping at Sate Sri Subang again.

So now we have two breakfast options during our Guthrie Corridor Expressway rides.  A stop at Sharif Roti Canai in Kampung Sri Kundang is compulsory though.  We haven’t found a better teh halia anywhere else.

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Thirsty Work

Posted on March 4, 2013 by alchemyrider

Nineteen of us set off from outside the 7-11 at Bukit Jelutong on the Van’s Urban Bicycle Co. group ride this morning.  We were a roughly 50-50 mix of folding bikes and road bikes.  Our route to Kampung Sri Kundang was a bit different this time.  Instead of heading north on the Guthrie Corridor Expressway we took the hillier option along Jalan Batu Arang to the west.  Hillier to the tune of  200 meters / 650 feet of elevation in the first seventeen kilometers.

Kundang Route

We made regular stops to regroup and to ensure that no one got lost.  This was our first break at the bus stop outside the UITM Puncak Perdana campus.

Reverse Dragon's Back to Kundang 05

Photo courtesy of Van’s Urban Bicycle Co.

From here it was five more climbs before the right-hand turn toward Sungai Buloh and Kuala Selangor.  Everyone was relieved that the rest of the way to Kampung Sri Kundang was flat.  Hence the smiles at the traffic light at the junction with Jalan Kuala Selangor.

Reverse Dragon's Back to Kundang 02

Photo courtesy of Van’s Urban Bicycle Co.

Reverse Dragon's Back to Kundang 04

Photo courtesy of Van’s Urban Bicycle Co.

It was a warm morning, but there were lots of clouds in the sky.  So we weren’t in direct sun.

Reverse Dragon's Back to Kundang 03

Photo courtesy of Van’s Urban Bicycle Co.

Even so the humidity was high so the ride was sweaty work.  We were all glad to get to Kampung Sri Kundang.  As always the roti canai and teh tarik was worth the ride.  By the time we saddled up again the sun had come out in full force.  It was at least 35°C / 95°F during the 33km back down the Guthrie Corridor Expressway.  And a tough 33km for those who weren’t used to riding as far or climbing as much as we did today.

We were all hot and thirsty by the time we got back to Bukit Jelutong.  I had emptied both my bottles in addition to the two teh tarik I had with my roti canai.  I went straight into the 7-11.  Firstly because it is air-conditioned, and secondly to buy a 1.5 liter bottle of 100 Plus.  I had never drunk a liter and a half of anything in one go before.  There is a first time for everything.

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I Know What To Buy You For Your Birthday

Posted on January 12, 2013 by alchemyrider

It rained hard in the early afternoon before the Putrajaya night ride yesterday evening.  So for the first time since I got home I clipped on my SKS Raceblade Long mudguards.  As it turned out the roads had dried out by the time we started the ride.  The mudguards attracted the interest of my riding companions but were excess to requirements.

The Raceblade Longs came off my bike last night.  Their place in my kit for this morning’s ride was taken by a tube of sunscreen and a couple of bottles of frozen drink.  The plan was for Syihan, Azhar and I to ride 20 km /12 mi or so from Bukit Jelutong along the familiar Guthrie Corridor Expressway.  Then would come the “Uncle Wiggily” bit for me.    A 25 km / 15 mi blast along the Kuala Lumpur – Kuala Selangor Expressway to the Ijok interchange before following our wheel tracks back to Bukit Jelutong.

Naturally it started raining as we got onto the Kuala Lumpur – Kuala Selangor Expressway.  It started raining hard.  Right about the time Azhar thought it would be fun to ride at 40kph plus.

I spent a lot of time in Azhar’s rooster tail of spray.  And Syihan’s.  I quickly learned that I was better off being right on the wheel in front rather than 3 meters behind.  Somehow the volume of spray increased exponentially the further back I was.

Needless to say we all got soaked to the skin.  Not that we minded in the least.  The rain and the overcast sky made for a cool morning.  I didn’t need my sunscreen.  The only downside was that my frozen drink wouldn’t melt fast enough.  I know I know.  Complain when it is hot.  Then complain when it is cool.

My Raceblades wouldn’t have helped me this morning.  I wish Azhar and Syihan had a set each though.

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