StreetCowboy

Young H had invited me out for a pub lunch with elderly B, and it seemed rude to decline. It was a great lunch, marred possibly by stressing the ‘pub’ and less so the ‘lunch’ part, but I put it to you that I was clearly fit to cycle home after going down Science Centre Hill, up the Highway, and the climb to the tunnel, through the tunnel and into the village.I did take a tumble pulling over to the side to allow a car driver to pass in the village - the roads in the village are not really suitable for motor vehicles, but we do our best to accomodate them. Anyway, the tumble appears to have stripped the thread on my headstock steering clamp, which my buddy has taken as a personal challenge to repair, and in the meantime, I am on the shopping bike. I had not planned a ride for today, and Young J confirmed that in the absence of a ‘cycling plans for the weekend’, he had Other Plans. An acquaintance of mine, whom last I had seen riding his motorbike on the Federal Highway Bike Lane, had on Saturday posted a ride on the road we had missed a couple of weeks ago - it’s the first right turn after the. Viaduct crossing from Jalan Ampang - not these lights, there’s no right turn here, nor these lights…my buddy was all set for a bit of complaint about riding so far alongside the central reservation, but the turning we wanted was pretty <deleted>, and given the choice,I think I would ride that route in reverse. Anyway, we got back in to town by some misrouting and retracing, and I was counting down the kilometres to the pub when he reminded me that his sister was here and keen to join us for a short bike ride. So we stopped past my apartment to pick up the mountain bike for his sister, and while I was pumping up the rear tyre he took the headstock for work. I’d had enough, and let them Go Their Own Way. I did walk home to get the Shopping Bike (I’m not sure I’ve ever walked home drunk, and I don’t want today to be another adventure into the unknown) and while I was about it, there was no harm in stopping by the pharmacist for some antiseptic cream for yesterdays mishap.

It’s clear to me that faith in God, and his willingness to help us, can achieve great things. If you’re an agnostic, then accept the faith, at the expense of pious honesty; your faith can achieve great things, regardless of the physical existence or otherwise of God, The pious amongst us might disagree, but the way I see it, faith is the key; believe God will make it so, and so it will be; you can look ok back, and the pious will say “God made me do this” and the agnostic will say “I did this” , but faith in a Higher Power takes you through the abominable self doubt of your experience to date.

We’re coming round to the draw for the first round of The Challenge Cup Final, and once again, Edinburgh Eagles set off on the Road to Wembellee, Wembellee!

Pubcycle IX has passed, and the Christmas break; I took the young lad out for a ride while the family were here, but his sister declined to join; my buddy has been off the cycling for a while with ill health and some arterial plumbing work, so it’s been a quiet couple of months. we did manage a ride the Sunday before Christmas - I’d planned it meticulously, I knew there were some challenging sections navigationally out towards the zoo, but I missed the turning at the roadworks and it was 2 km before I realised we were on exactly the same road as last time we went to Wangsa Maju. my intention had been to join the Middle Ring Road (MRR2) at Batu Caves Roundabout, but the diverging slip road to Jalan Ipoh was too busy to cross, so we headed down Jalan Ipoh, right at the roundabout to Kepong, and then some misnavigation (I think ‘off-road rampage’ sounds more intrepid - I am not entirely surprised I don’t have a photo, it was a future development site adjacent to the pylon reserve; anyway, I wasn’t lost, I knew where I was, but I didn’t know where I was going, and my buddy wasn’t lost - he was following me; Young J might have been lost, but he’s both stoic and courageous - the two most important attributes for a cyclist, and we were able to find a small bypass gate to get off the construction site, and before you could say “There’s no through road here” we were lifting the gate off its hinges to get between two suburban developments, riding boldly past a security guard house confident we were en route to the highway, and again, in the reverse direction, confident yet slightly sheepish that we were now en route to the highway, down the highway and onto the diabolical new DASH highway slip road that throws high speed highway traffic into the middle of Kampung Penchala village, and at last to the pub, no sooner than we deserved.

Don’t cycle when you’re paralytic with drink. If I were you, I would listen more to the people who have had accidents than those who have not… Good habits are hard to emulate, but with advice, you can spot bad practice before it becomes a habit.

Some people have nothing better to do with their lives than look for examples of political correctness over which to be outraged. It is how they reinforce their prejudices and build up their own self-image. You don't need a magnet to see the irony of it. SC

Please replace "bland" with a less pejorative term

Back in the day, people would have had the common sense to not rise to the click-bait.

I think if you are happy and diligent about doing your own maintenance you will have no complaints, and you will be able to give great advice like (this bike - x km between pedal replacement, that bike, y km and not yet). Despite all my complaints above, I would not condemn Giant bikes. If you trust the advice of strangers on the internet, maybe you deserve what you get. The best that you can expect is guidance on where to look

And one of the pedals failed after less than a year. It was on the way home from the office, and I was able to get home. Next day, down to my local bike shop: ”Flat pedals, please “ ”These one’s are really nice, “ he showed me some mountain bike pedals. ”No reflectors. Do you have any with pedal reflectors? Where I come from, they’re a legal requirement” ”Ok, we have these, for Ten ringgit” ”I’ll take two pairs, in case you’ve none left when the first pair fails. I don’t care how long they last, so long as they’ll get me 10 km home when they start to fail”.

Take some advice from a Scot

There's, like, no harm in giving a "like", bytheway, like, eh?

Maybe lsd should not have been capitalised - that's really before my time.

I am glad that I bought it, because I needed a shopping bike, and I did not see anything else suitable. it was to replace a Fuji Absolute 1.5, which was sadly misplaced, and it is inferior to the Fuji; and also significantly cheaper. I have been consistently disappointed with the Giant dealerships - the Fuji came from an independent neighbourhood bike shop. Thailand may be different. Generally, I think dealerships do not give the same service as neighbourhood bike shops, although before they closed, the Trek showroom staff were great, and there is one local neighbourhood shop that is mechanically incompetent. I bought a Giant in Taiwan, back in the day, and it was the cheapest bike I ever owned, and never let me down. the Fuji suffered from broken spokes as well, and shortly before it was misplaced, I had taken it in for a 100% spoke replacement on the rear wheel.

That's fair.

I recently bought a Giant Escape 2 as my replacement shopping bike. The rear mudguard broke fairly quickly, and they did not have a replacement part available as a warranty repair. I suffered a second broken spoke, after about 1,000 km, and again the shop did not have replacements in stock, but assured me they would call me when they arrive. The frame is too small, but I knew that when I bought it, and I am used to that. It's not as much too small as my mountain bike frame. SC

Anacronyms are like LSD

You might say that traditional characters are romanticised, while simplified characters are functional, but in the days of computer typescript, I believe that simplified characters are archaic, parochial and revisionist.

The cuts don’t go all the way through, (not yet) and there’s still a few thousand km life left in the tyre otherwise.

Young J has joined us on our weekly explorations, and he rides a proper road bike with road bike tyres. Despite his youth, he’s good natured and stoic - he must have some mettle to come back after his first ride - knocked off his bike and poisoned, but still cheerful! Unfortunately, many of our rides involve a bit of - not off-road, but maybe ‘other road’ - sometimes, nearly-new roads… we’ve been on DASH highway prior to opening, prior to surfacing, prior to final concrete pour and at the hardcore formation stage. And sometimes roads that fall below ‘alternative recommendation’ on Google Maps. Summnday was one of those. It was definitely road gravel, and not river gravel, but it was still pedal-deep in places.” And this morning he mentioned the cuts that his tyres had suffered. Not through to the tube, no punctures, but I worry that the slits will pick up muck that will work it’s way into the tyre and make the cut deeper until it results in disaster. So what do you recommend, to keep the tyre in faithful and reliable service? Maybe fill the crack with a rubbery adhesive? Anything hard would probably fall out as the tyre flexed… IMG_4195.MOV

222b. Who knew Sherlock Holmes had a stutter?

Do you bark at cars?

Better an anarcho-cynicalist commune.

At risk of diverting the topic, were I to suffer an interminable repetition of the same day, I hope it would be one of those dreadful hangover days of which you recall little, and nothing of the day before. The headache may be hellish, but better an interminable moment of pain than the tedium of eternal repetition without hope of alternative.

Yossarian did not subscribe to that theory. And he is the most successful bomber of whom I have heard, despite his fictionality. SC