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Your Country Very Hot

Posted on November 12, 2012 by alchemyrider

My biker chick ZAZ and I have moved a number of times from our tropical home to more temperate climes.  Each time we struggled initially with the cold but we did get used to it.  Almost without noticing our increasing tolerance for low temperatures.  Until we got home again.

We have a catchphrase that we use with each other a lot in the first few months back home.  “Your country very hot.”  I shouldn’t be surprised that we have to reacclimatize to the heat and humidity.   It does take a few months before I don’t feel the need to take four or five showers a day.

Yesterday’s ride confirmed that I am not yet used to being back in a hot and humid country.  I was invited to ride the Broga 116.  I had expected to be part of a group ride.  What I hadn’t expected was that I would be part of a highly organized group ride.  A group ride with two SAG support vehicles, three water stops, photographers along the route, lunch at the finish, a t-shirt, and in a first for me at any organized ride, a route ‘tulip‘ sticker for my top tube.

All put together by a cycling club, without commercial sponsorship, for anyone who was willing to pay RM 30 / USD 10 to participate.  At least fifty of us stumped up the cash and were ready to roll from the car park at the Sungai Tekala Recreation area at 7.30 am.
I had three 25 ounce bottles of Nuun-treated water, a layer of sunscreen on every bit of exposed skin, and a cap under my helmet to soak up sweat.  In other words I was unprepared for the heat and humidity.

On previous rides I had noticed that my average pulse rate was 10 to 15 bpm higher than it had been in the Netherlands.  I knew that was because of the higher ambient temperature in Kuala Lumpur.  It was about 28C / 82F with a relative humidity over 80% at the start.  It would get considerably warmer as the sun rose in the sky.  That fact should have been my first warning that I would have a tough day.

Graph courtesy of The National Weather Service at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/heat/index.shtml

The second warning came 35 km into the ride, in the form of the first climb of the day.  The Bukit Mandom 1 climb is only 1 km but it has grades of up to 10.2%.  By the time I had crested that climb sweat was dripping onto my top tube and I was already into my second bottle.  The descent at 60 kph plus cooled me off a little but that was scant respite.  After 1 km the road tipped upward again as Bukit Mandom 2 presented itself.  By the time I completed the 1.8 km to the crest of that hill I knew for certain that it would just get tougher as the ride progressed.

As indeed it did.  Bukit Tangga (literally Stairway Hill) was bigger and badder than the previous two hills.  I started cramping in both quadriceps on the lower slopes and had to stop 3 km into the climb to stretch.  If nothing else that gave me the opportunity to take this photo of my fellow cyclists grinding up the hill.

The spasms from heat cramps in my quadriceps were my constant and faithful companion for the rest of the ride.  Whenever the grade kicked up above 6% I had to slow down to below 10 kph.  I found that if I rode in my inner ring /  largest cog combination (why oh why didn’t I have my compact crank?) and maintained a very slow cadence I could continue to pedal without completely cramping up.  The observant among you, dear readers, will have noticed from the route tulip that the planners had saved the biggest climb of the day for the end.  13 km long and a total of 470 meters upwards.  I have never been so glad to to see the back side of a hill.

Nevertheless I took several positives from this ride.  The organisation was excellent.  Which was a very good thing.  The water stops saved me from becoming severely dehydrated.  I had 75 ounces / 2.2 liters of fluid in my bottles at the start of the ride, which turned out to be woefully insufficient.  I picked up at least another 2 liters of water at the stops, along with, pardon the pun, a bunch of bananas.

The views, when I wasn’t staring fixedly at my front wheel so that I wouldn’t have to look up at the never-ending slope ahead of me, were lush and verdant.

I learned that Aesop knew what he was talking about.  My slow and steady 6 to 8 kph up Genting Peres meant that I caught and passed a number of other riders who had started the climb at speed but then had to stop for a breather before the top.  And I finished the ride on my bike and not in a SAG support vehicle.  Not that I am competitive or anything!

Our sea freight had been delivered so I was able to do the ride in my Not Possibles jersey.

Best of all I made new friends, courtesy of Syihan Nik, who invited me to do the Broga 116.  By the way I still haven’t decided if I should thank him or thump him.  Here are Syihan and I early in the day, looking and feeling considerably better than we did at the end.  As you will soon see.

I finished the 114 km soaked in sweat but my cooling mechanism hadn’t coped very well with the conditions.
Despite cold showers and iced drinks my core temperature stayed elevated for the rest of the day.  So there is no doubt about it ZAZ.  Your country very hot.

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Reverse Dragon’s Back

Posted on October 21, 2012 by alchemyrider

I was so excited to finally do my first long ride in Kuala Lumpur today that I could hardly sleep last night.  So it was no hardship to be up at 5.30am for breakfast.  That gave me time to drive the 27 km to Bukit Jelutong.  I got to the rendezvous point at 6.50am.  Mark L. arrived shortly thereafter, followed by Wan A.  By 7.30am we were a Racun Cycling Gang of four roadies and three foldies, ready to get on the road.  We weren’t the only ones heading out for a ride this morning.  The car park quickly filled up with all sorts of vehicles that disgorged all sorts of bikes and riders.

Mark led us on what he described as a Reverse Dragon’s Back ride.  Which meant tackling the six hills that make up the Dragon’s Back at the start of the ride rather than at the end.  A wise choice in my book given the potential for roasting sunshine by midmorning.

As it turned out we were lucky with the sun.  It was humid and fairly warm, but it stayed overcast for most of the morning.  I was glad that I had sunscreen on though.  I picked up some color in spite of the cloud cover.

Riding in Kuala Lumpur reminds me of riding in Houston.  The Houston weather, at least in the summer, rivals Kuala Lumpur’s for heat and humidity.  More to the point, riding in Kuala Lumpur requires cycling alongside all manner of motorized vehicles.  Fortunately I had a gentle reintroduction to sharing the road.  The Sunday traffic was relatively light.  This is Mark coasting down one of the humps on the Dragon’s Back with just the occasional car for company.

Some of the major tollroads have separate motorcycle lanes.  Which of course make excellent bike paths.  Almost like the ones in the Netherlands.  After the Dragon’s Back and a stop for a drink we rode for 30 km on the motorcycle lanes alongside the Guthrie Corridor Highway.  The road surface is excellent and as it was a Sunday there were very few motorbikes out.

What is different here as compared to Houston and Den Haag is the lush and verdant foliage that covers everything beyond the shoulders of the roads.  Vegetation quickly reclaims any cleared land.  In just a few years secondary jungle takes hold.

The route that Mark chose was one that few other riders were on today.  We had long stretches to ourselves, including one 5 km section where Mark and and I were able to cruise along at better than 40 kph.  We stopped at regular intervals to regroup, including at the point where we would leave the highway.  Once back together again we returned to the urban roads.  From there we gently pedaled the last 2 km to where we had parked our cars.  Which just coincidentally was right in front of a ‘restoran mamak.’

These are very popular restaurants run by Indian Muslims.  These restaurants grew out of the roadside stall equivalent known as ‘gerai mamak.’  Some gerai and restoran mamak are open 24 hours a day.  All serve a variety of food and drink, including the ubiquitous roti canai and teh tarik.  Those make up the standard order at the end of a ride in Kuala Lumpur, in the same way a koffie verkeerd and an appelgebak met slagroom put the finishing touch to a ride in Den Haag.

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“Toto, I Have a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore.” *

Posted on October 13, 2012 by alchemyrider

My last urban night ride was in Houston in April 2010.  The Six Thirty West End group still does a Tuesday evening and a Thursday evening ride through downtown Houston.  I can still hear Juan R’s “Two Minutes” call at 6.28pm.  And I can still taste the Tex-Mex at Jax Grill where we had regular post-Thursday ride meals.

I was delighted to hear that Van’s hosts urban night rides in KL.  They start at 9pm so lights are essential.  Of course when I was packing up my riding stuff in Den Haag I didn’t think I would need lights right away.  My Niterider MiNewt Mini and Planet Bike Super Flash are in the sea freight, not to be seen until November sometime.  So if I was going to ride on Tuesday evening I needed lights.  When I was at Van’s on Monday, creak hunting with YC, I bought a Cateye Rapid 5 tail light.  Raymond T at Van’s kindly lent me a headlamp.  Good to go!

The Racun Cycling Gang met at the Decanter restaurant on Jalan Setiabakti in Bukit Damansara at 8.45pm for a 9pm start.  We were a mixed group of nine riders.  As was the case with the Genting Sempah ride the majority were on folding bikes, although Wan A was on a rather tasty looking yellow Specialized  S Works Tarmac SL3.  We headed out onto quiet residential streets with YC following behind in a car.  The roads were still a bit damp from the afternoon rain.  And my bike was still creaking!

Those were the least of my concerns though.  Here is the elevation profile for the first twelve kilometres from my last ride in Den Haag:

Here is the elevation profile for the first twelve kilometers from the Tuesday night ride:

We weren’t even two kilometres into the ride and my heart rate was pushing 150 bpm.  Which is not far short of my maximum heart rate.  The rest of the ride was more of the same.  A series of  7% to 9% gradients packed fairly together.  Those low-geared folding bikes were starting to look good.

We were fortunate to have YC in a car following behind us.  At the 4km mark we were all descending at some speed.  I heard the unmistakeable sound of a bike hitting the pavement behind me.  The damp road surface, wet leaves and speed had brought down one of our group.  Fortunately he came away with only scrapes and bruises.  YC took our unlucky rider to get his road rash cleaned up.  The rest of us looked around for my headlight, which had fallen out of its handlebar mount at about the same time the accident happened behind me.  We found the batteries and the light, less the battery cover and lens cover.  The LED was still working so I stuck it back in its mount and rode on.

We made it safely up and down the rest of the climbs that made up this ride.  We regrouped at the Decanter, loaded our bikes into our cars and drove down to a roadside stall for a lime juice and cycling chat.  Which stretched to another lime juice and more chat.  And a third lime juice and yet more chat.  I’m not sure that “I was just out for a bike ride” worked as an excuse for why I got home at almost 1am.

* Title courtesy of The Wizard of Oz.

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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:

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