Photo-story - Where my bike’s been

[StreetCowboy]

1 hour ago, ravip said:

I just found this website by accident. Has the 'chain-less bicycle' era finally arrived?

 

 

Nubike

I hope you push the two pedals in synchronisation, like a kangaroo.
I can see that a whoopee cushion would also be a boon for the all-important first impressions.

[StreetCowboy]

I'd gone down to the railway to listen to our trains, and I was quite pleased that the ride there seemed to have cleared the hangover that I had incurred Working From Home due to a positive COVID case on our floor earlier in the week.

 

Unfortunately I'd not bothered to get a Work Permit to go on the trains (and if there is one thing that we should have learnt from over a year of COVID 19, it is that pointless bureaucracy trumps common sense but more of that later) and after he'd checked at the control centre, the supervisor on the second train recommended (maybe instructed) me not to proceed; since he was in the right, and I was in the wrong, I acquiesced, unfortunately without seeing the train about which I had suspicions.  Nevertheless, I'd got my ride out to the railway, through the police road block, so I was happy.  Segambut Village is under barbed wire EMCO, but luckily my route did not pass that way, as n the way home, I detoured via Sid's for some takeaway food and drink.  If I'd been in and out like a burglar, I'd not have been still there when the police came round.  Anyway, an apparent willingness to settle this officially at the station saw them leave us with a "final warning", and I promised Mr Sid I would not stop so long tomorrow when I bring the empty bottles back.  I didn't ask the policemen "Look, lads, it's started raining while we've been talking, do you mind if I order one more cider while it abates?"

[StreetCowboy]

Selangor has been put under "Enhanced Movement Control Order", albeit a wishy-washy peely-wally EMCO, which will give our staff trouble getting to the office tomorrow.  

I checked that there were no road blocks near the office, but that was Sunday, and tomorrow's Monday.  We've been told we have PCR testing at the office, following a confirmed case on the floor, so I will soldier in to see what is happening.

After my flagrantly non-essential venture across the border ('checking on road blocks' is not listed in the Essential Journeys category) I carried on to get some dinner at Sid's, taking care to get away before the coppers came round...

My buddy had got out for the first time in weeks thanks to a medical appointment.

Desperate times, desperate measures....

[StreetCowboy]

I’d popped down to my local burger shop for a take-away, but there was a 30 minute line of Grab riders sat outside.  So I carried on to OK Restoran for a regular Chinese, and a Tiger while I waited.

”I wouldn’t mind waiting half an hour”, I explained to Steve, the boss at OK, “I wouldn’t mind waiting, if they sold beer”. I didn’t have time to finish my bottle, and tucked it into my bottle holder for the ride home

[n210mp]

Your posts and pics are great Jon lad, remind me of so many happy memories where the only thing that mattered was , whatever it was at the time Ha ha  Its 0120Hrs here and I was just doing an essential tablet imbibement with a glass of milk! 

[StreetCowboy]

15 hours ago, n210mp said:

Your posts and pics are great Jon lad, remind me of so many happy memories where the only thing that mattered was , whatever it was at the time Ha ha  Its 0120Hrs here and I was just doing an essential tablet imbibement with a glass of milk! 

I hope you are keeping well.  I am always happy to see you out and about in the fresh air. 

[StreetCowboy]

I’d clandestinely agreed to a surprise birthday dinner for my buddy on his 60th.  So I was not short of an “ummm” and an “ehhhh….” when I ran into him on my birthday-cider-purchase ride to Sid’s…

[StreetCowboy]

It's not often that you see an advert that makes you sit up and take notice

https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a37081858/tested-bivo-one-water-bottle/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=socialflowFBBI&utm_medium=social-media&fbclid=IwAR26hR7YL4wE0OBK_srXSuKFeqe3uQQ-3nJTOty9dmlwq9mzayXirJTukr8

[StreetCowboy]

I mentioned last weekend that leisure cycling is now allowed, so I took the road bike out for the first time since May, and did two laps round through the tunnel.  It was a hard ride, even if it was only 34 km (we're not supposed to stray out of our "neighbourhood", but since I was never more than 4 km that doesn't seem an unreasonable route.  My clicking pedal is now a grinding pedal, so I will need to swap that out before my next ride...

 

[StreetCowboy]

I finally got round to swapping the pedals, and sure enough, it must be the bottom bracket bearings that are grumbling and groaning.  I can't see the bike shops opening in the next year with this COOVID going on,  so my buddy and I are going to set about it on Sunday.  The shopping bike is developing the same complaint, but it is a quite different, more old-fashioned bottom bracket.

 

I got my second dose of COVID AZ vaccine last week, and the side effect were much less, thanks to not cycling 90 km the following day.  Sid's is struggling for take-away beer bottles, and the brewery has declined to provide more, as their minimum order is 140,000, so they are selling cider in jam jars now.

[StreetCowboy]

Take-away cider in jam jars

 

[StreetCowboy]

If I'd stopped to take a photo before we left, I'd not be posting this now.

 

We'd done 60+ km - slightly longer than target - as our first ride after the strictest part of the MCO, and I felt much better for having left it a week since my second COVID jab, unlike last time.  Anyway, we were glad to get to Sid's for a bit of refreshment, and we opted to loiter outside the shop next door, rather than looking like we were hanging around drinking outside the pub...

There were a few others hanging about, slowly collecting take-aways and pausing for a bit of banter and some drink that could have been taken away, but was not.  I re-checked-in en route to the wash room when my bladder was full, and while my buddy was taking his turn to go indoors, the police arrived.

 

I'd left my bike on the other side of the street, not visible from the main road, but someone had kindly brought my buddy's bike into the pub forecourt.  Since I had a check-in dated only a few minutes ago, I volunteered to retrieve his bike, although as I browsed the app I struggled to get a display that showed only the last check-in, rather than "Sid's: 1805; Sid's 1455..." anyway, I wasn't questioned, and I made a sHarp Exit.  His bike is spectacularly light, compared to mine, only partly due to its small size.  He brought my bike "I'm glad it was downhill all the way, I couldn't get my leg over the saddle".  anyway, to get back to the point of the story, I could have taken a picture of all the coppers in the pub, but for sure he would have lost his licence for a crowd like that in these covid times, there was... - ok, maybe not dozens, but literally several of them, with no apparent attempt at social distancing, and I am sceptical whether they all checked in with the QR code as well.

 

Anyway, I think the police did us a favour, as I was slightly dismayed to see on Strava that I had breached 60 kph down Science Centre Hill, which has a sharp left turn at the bottom, and the light was fading like an old pair of jeans when we left, so we were lucky to avoid the temptation of adding excess to sufficiency. 

[StreetCowboy]

I took a ride down to Gasing Seafood for wild boar curry for my dinner, And a bottle or two of Tiger while I waited.  I had daydreamed past my exit off the Federal Highway bike lane, but there’s always another, and I followed the same route we’d taken last Sunday, past the Cobra club and the Thai temple.

The food took longer than one bottle to arrive, but substantially less than two, so I tucked the half empty bottle into my bottle holder for sustenance on the way home.

It was not till the traffic lights on Jalan Damansara that I had time to take a guzzle of it - the beer bottle is a tight fit in the holder, and I’d not want to wrestle with it rolling down the road.

Last Sunday’s route has two tricky crossings of the PJ Gyratory, and I had to stop at the central reservation for a gap in the traffic; then you have to alight to get past a barrier across the road. With the shopping bike mountain bike gearing, I could get straight back on- on Sunday, we had had to walk to near the top of the little crest.

[StreetCowboy]

In another forum I have developed something of a stammer, which is coming out a bit like "S S Cliff Richards' Summer Holiday", so you may miss me for a while.
In addition to that, we breached CIVID SOPs when we stopped for a moment's chit - chat with Big G and his neighbours on our approach to the Chinese cemetery. I can see that passing motorists might have worked themselves into an intolerance at us stopping to chat at the side of the road, but the fact of the matter is that the carelessly parked Landrover Defender forced them to pass alternately in single file in any case.
As we were passing where Sid's in Bukit Tunku used to be, many years ago, we caught up with a bunch of young boys, the rearmost two of whom were riding what looked like mountain bikes (with wide tyres and disc brakes) with flared drop handle bars and bar-end gear shifters.

Edited August 15, 2021 by StreetCowboy

[StreetCowboy]

The bike shops reopened a few weeks back, and I took the shopping bike in for a long-overdue service.  It had had trouble with the chain slipping very infrequently when I tried to pull away at traffic lights, so I assumed that the chain was completely shot.  Unfortunately the worn chain has done dreadful things to the rear cassette, and it is still slipping with the new chain (he did not have a new cassette in stock), so I took a rake down to Decathlon to get a replacement.  I should have bought the tool as well, as my buddy is away on holiday next week.  In the meantime, I struggled into the office once, and managed up Science Centre Hill keeping the chain on the big cog at the back, that I rarely normally use.

On Sunday we took a ride out to Batu Arang - you can spin that out to 105 km.  I was finding it a bit of a chore, and unhappy with my  fitness, but when I uploaded the ride to Strava I was surprised to see yellow PRs all over the place.  But the whole ride had been called into jeopardy on Thursday night: "There's no cider in Sid's! I've been up and down the whole street, and there's none".  I was all for calling the ride off, as I did not fancy traipsing round the Social, the Green Man, Bukit Damansara, searching for cider and adding another forty km on to a ride like that.  But Sid assured me on Saturday that he had re-stocked, and good as his word, two pints of cider arrived no sooner than we had finished COVID-contact-tracing-check-in on Sunday. 

[StreetCowboy]

Sunday saw us taking a trip to The Palace Of The Golden Horses;

As usual, the security guard wouldn’t let us in for a ride round the back of the race track past the stables, and the traffic was maybe heavier than usual as the National Stadium is being used as a vaccination centre.

 

The route joined up various sections of route we had ridden (or missed) before; I was not unhappy when spots of rain encouraged us to shorten the route plan for a cider stop in Gravy Baby, Bangsar, and my buddy said nothing when the rain stopped before we got there.

 

Sadly, not only was it not raining, but it was dry, in the sense of “bereft of cider”; there’s a bit of an ongoing drought at the minute, but Sid’s can still be relied upon.  If we’d stuck to the original route, it would have been a long and parched 6 km cycling back from The Social thirsty and disappointed at the end of a 90 km ride…

Edited September 21, 2021 by StreetCowboy

[StreetCowboy]

I'd dropped the road bike off at Johnny's (My Bicycle Shop) for a service - it's riding beautifully, but it's 5,000 km since its last service, so I am sure it needs a new chain, and probably rear sprockets as well.  I told him - don't touch the bottom bracket, it was lubricated recently and I've got a new set of bearings at home to go in soon; the head bearings are new as well, but the wheels are not running smoothly.  Anyway, he never wrote any of this down, so I've got no idea what he's going to do.

He put a bit of grease on the seat post of the shopping bike, and I was riding like Charlie Chaplin with my knees round my ears; I'd reset the seat post, and flogged it up with a long Allen key on Sunday morning, but tonight it had sunk back down again - a bit of cleaning, and possibly a bit of emery paper might be in order to get a grip on the situation.  Sunday saw us on a route check for Pubcycle 2021 - it's no longer Le Tour de Sid's since he only has two pubs left...

 

So we went off to the orphanage for the start.  

and from there its a short jaunt along the Federal Highway to Gravy Baby in Bangsar.  We'll go over Bukit Pantai, and we'll be sure to tell everyone that we're turning right towards Bangsar.  The enthusiastic boys will race to the top of the hill, and we'll turn off just after the hospital, down through Lucky Garden and see them back at the bottom.  Gravy Baby have been great hosts the last couple of years.

 

Anyway, Sunday saw us on a route check for Pubcycle 2021.

We'll go a different way through town, using the pedestrian crossing to get across Jalan Bangsar / Travers, and up through the backstreets past the backpackers'  hostels to The Green Man, which has been there since back when we were young - more young than we are now.  As a caveat, I wold warn that they don't open till noon on a Sunday.

On Sunday we rode from there to the Social in Desa Park City - it's a lovely ride down Jalan Ceylon, past St Andrew's Cathedral, across Parlimen Roundabout, up through Bukit Tunku by the flattest route, past the Mitec Centre and the government offices, into Segambut - well, you can see the obvious problem - it's a very long stage!

As we came through town and Bukit Tunku, I'd never seen so many cyclists (possible exaggeration) but really, it was like something out of a Hitchcock movie

There must have been some event, as the traffic through the quiet suburb of Bukit Tunku was jammed as well. 
From Desa Park City its a short ride down the highway back to TTDI, but we diverted through the Penchala Tunnel to head down to Bar Roca

I'd have gladly stopped to wipe the sweat from my brow and quench my thirst, but we persevered up the hill to Sid's in Bukit Damansara 

With uncanny foresight of Michael Fish, no sooner had we paid our bill than Sid came out with some pizza "on the house" to accompany our final pint, and sure enough, by the time that was seen off, the thunder and lightning and rain had started.  So we stopped for another.

"It looks like it's stopped raining"
"Are you sure?"

... stands outside "Aye, more or less..."
"But is it going to start up again in a few minutes?"
(there is no 'shrug - je ne sais quoi' smiley)

"Better safe than sorry; two more"

A few verses of this, with choruses of thunder and lightning very very frightening, and we had to call for rescue - not because of the weather, but the perils of trying to cycle in that condition.

So I think if we go to Healy Macs instead of the Social, we should be able to make it back to TTDI before the bad weather sets in, and people can get caught in the rain safely on their way home, rather than being rained in beyond prudent cycling limits.

[StreetCowboy]

I had to pick the road bike up from Johnny’s this morning, but he doesn’t open till 10, so to get the benefit of the cool morning air and a light drizzle I went out on the shopping bike to do a bit of exploring.  I fitted a speedometer to it first, so I’ll probably be a bit more competitive on it now. Anyway, I located another bike shop not too far from home, but not easy to get to, unless you like riding on the LDP Highway.

Anyway, I got a taxi out to My Bicycle Shop and the bike feels all light and sparky again, now all the clart has been washed off, and a new chain and sprockets.

Depending on how long I sit here on the way home, the last few hundred metres might be slightly less exuberant.

[StreetCowboy]

We managed a longest ride on Sunday, out beyond Kuala Selangor, but fortunately it was a difficult right turn to get to Bukit Melawati park and lighthouse, so we were able to bypass the only hill on the whole route.   (pictures from a previous visit)

 

The only hill except for the Dragon's Back, a series of about five crests that had me wheezing and gasping for breath - but quicker than ever before.  It's not a photogenic road - three lanes of dual carriageway in each direction.

 

163 km does not leave much drinking time when you get back to the pub, so we made the return leg slightly faster than outbound, with only one drink stop on the way home.  I'd been nervous about drinks on the outward leg, to the extent of fitting my second bottle holder.  And sure enough, we didn't pass a petrol station or a convenience store from Sungai Buloh to Kuala Selangor.  Had there not been a lady selling coconuts just at the start of the 20 km straight road, I'd have been glad of the second bottle, but as it was, it was hardly touched by the time we got back.

The road back from Kuala Selangor is lovely.  You come out of town down the busy Highway 5, then turn off to take this quiet back road about 500 m away.

  

(from the same previous visit, but the road is not much changed, except that the rubbish at the end has been cleared away, and the traffic lights to get across the KL - Kuala Selangor road might be new since last time we were there).

After the turn where the rubbish has been cleared, you're back on to the main road for less than a kilometre and Wooaah! Left! straight onto a back road past a modern art sculpture gallery opposite a Chinese temple, and then into the kampungs and fields, on flat, quiet roads, until the small hills around Puncak Alam, and then the Dragon's Back, whose hills are sufficiently unpleasant to not be tediously straight, but short enough not to be tediously exhausting.  One more crest would be enough to be tediously repetitive. 

By this time, the road is definitely highway standard, to cope with traffic from the future DASH highway, but fortunately, if you are turning off right at the end towards KL, you diverge first for a fly-over, and we could safely have gone the other way to turn left, for a shorter route home, but we were keen to make 160 km.  We were now on familiar roads, and I was taking the dividers and rule to my mental map to be sure we would get to 160 km without needing to detour; I relaxed when we turned off the Federal Highway Bike Lane, and I knew we had exactly 10 km to go, but I am sure it was a longer 10 km that it usually is.  I am sure that the first couple of pints of cider were smaller than usual as well - they certainly didn't last long.

 

My buddy's now saying he wants me to plan a 200 km route, but that's for next year; first, we have Pubcycle 2021.  Next week's task will be to confirm the pubs that are supporting us, then a poster drop, and drum up sponsorship.

SC
 

[StreetCowboy]

The public holiday saw me on a samosa run to Brickfields along the Federal Highway and the Never-ending River of Life

It’s a lovely ride, though it will be nicer when the kiosks are tenanted, and I hope that the developments in progress alongside will favour it.

You get a good view of the monorail depot extension

and then you are onto a slightly baffling bike lane through Brickfields

 

- baffling to motorists, as well as cyclists.  I looped round via a drive-on-the-right street to the Sentral Chapatti Shop

but they had no samosas, so while I waited, I had some vegetable curry and chapattis.

I had to wait for the chapattis as well.  The shop seems to have changed hands….

En route to The Green Man, I passed a couple of blokes on rental e-scooters, which are apparently now banned in Malaysia

though I am not sure that such a ban is within the bailiwick of the police to enact.

I did not have to wait long to get rained in at The Green Man

and fortunately the rain eased in good time to get home in daylight.

 

I took the train back to The Green Man on Saturday, and confirmed (by observation of others) that you could bring your bike on the train at weekends.

 

As I explained to my buddy when we met as usual at TTDI station

”I thought about setting out early to get the train here, but Bandar Utama station entrance is not convenient for bikes, nor is Mutiaraa Damansara, so I would need to cycle all the way out to Surian Station; or cycle past here down the Highway to Phileo Damansara station.  It might be easier to get the train here, go one station and come back, but with a 15-minute service on a Sunday morning, that could easily take half an hour or more”

Edited October 27, 2021 by StreetCowboy

[StreetCowboy]

I’d agreed to meet a former colleague for a rake up and down Guthrie Highway; New G, who has been here forever, and almost as big as Big G, who’s gone to the Philippines, dropped out, and M with the model son turned up at the station, instead of outside the estate  where we both live.  So we had to race to the rendezvous, and M coped admirably, considering he’s not been out cycling since May.  
We raked quick enough up Guthrie Highway, u-turning at a future junction rather than the clover-leaf (‘butterfly’ on Strava) junction where Guthrie turns onto the North South Highway and LATAR crosses.  
It was a hard and quick 56 km, with the race to the start because we were late, and the others being fit youngsters in their forties - and fresh at the start…

On the way home we took a shortcut along Jalan Montfort

The rough road took it out of me, and I was struggling to find justifications for stopping in the pub on the way home.

What more justification do you need than “The white van was there with a mate”?

[StreetCowboy]

I took the shopping bike to Bukit Kiara forest park, which is the other side of my suburb.

On the way, I noticed a new grocer's, with a bike rack outside, next to where Cycle Studio used to be, and behind Vin's.

 

I had always shied away from Bukit Kiara, due to unfamiliarity, gradients, and crowds of walkers, and I doubt I will be hurrying back, but with the mountain-bike gearing on the shopping bike, the gradients are manageable, and at least I can keep up with the walkers.

 

I can see my house from here!

 

I noticed that my front gear shifter must have taken a knock, and the thumb pad was broken.  Only the plastic thumb pad - the metalwork is intact and still works, so I ordered a new shifter off the internet; it's coming from a local shop, and I called up to see if I could pick it up, but they'd already passed it to the courier, and it arrived the next morning.  I've not fitted it yet, though...

 

I took the shopping bike out again for a bit of off-road exploring - first of all round a detention pond that had a nice path - albeit with some steps, and a bit of a subsidence discontinuity that came as a surprise.  There is a very nice gazebo for sitting out and enjoying the sunset in the middle of the mosquito farm - I doubt it gets a lot of use.

There's a grille across the stream to stop rubbish washing into the pond

 

I did not notice the entry to the gravel roads in the old Rubber Research Institute, so I carried on down to the Guthrie Highway Works, and followed the construction roads round the outside of their fence.  It starts off very smooth

 

and this is still fine

 

but it got rougher, and I turned back eventually.

So I am getting good use out of the shopping bike, as well as the occasional trip into the office.

 

SC

 

[StreetCowboy]

Last Saturday was our 20-20 ride, 2021; on the ladies’ folding bikes, 20 km on20” wheels at 20 kph.

we got to the pub at about km20.5 and on target speed 20.0, if Strava is to be believed.

I was surprised we achieved the speed; we had one particularly challenging, though short, hill where I struggled to stop the front wheel lifting.  Then past the office, racing the traffic past IKEA, and then through the suburbs to the LDP - not the main expressway, only a slip road, and back on familiar roads to Eurodeli, for the photo above.

 

Next week, we look forward to Pubcycle 2021, the 8th Tour de Damansara in aid of Agathian’s Shelter

[StreetCowboy]

Sunday saw us on Le Tour de Damansara VIII, Pubcycle 2021, in aid of Agathians' Shelter.

 

Our young Door Man bailed out after a couple of kilometres on my shopping bike and spent most of the ride in the Rescue Truck, while my buddy suffered an uncharacteristic puncture, and more unusually, struggled to rectify it, with both patches and spare inner tube having spent too long in his saddle bag to be fully serviceable; he did catch us up eventually, but he was having to stop every five kilometres or so to pump up his ailing back tube. 

 

There were a few strangers joining the ride - I was nervous about recognising them, but fortunately they were easily recognisable - like cyclists, only bigger.

 

Our former Project Director - you may recall we misplaced him, back in the day, near Semantan Station, but fortunately he called back to say he was OK before I contacted the traffic police or recruitment consultants - anyway, he had another appointment, and was coming over a bit faint with hunger about half way round (3 pubs, 65% distance), so we stopped for food.  We should've forced him to eat on his own, as the remaining three pubs all sought to excel with their provender; I was glad that I was stopping for a few digestive ciders before the short ride home, or I'd have struggled to remount my bike.

 

We've banked about RM 10K for the Shelter - a lot less than last year, but every little helps.  There may be more that is not accounted for, with people directly banking to the Shelter and not telling us, and there may be a little more to come.  I am hoping that the Shelter will resume their fund-raising banana leaf lunches, and we can all stop there one Sunday for some nourishment on a Monte Carlo to the pub.  

 

And it's only 52 weeks till Pubcycle 2022.

 

SC

 

 

[StreetCowboy]

I’d planned a long ride for yesterday - 125 km plus navigational errors.  It had rained continuously for two days, and on Saturday night I got a message - “I don’t fancy tomorrow if it’s raining like this”

”If it’s raining in the morning, we can take the train to Kajang, and if it’s still raining there, we can get the train back, by which time the pub’ll be open”

Sunday dawned clear but overcast.  I spent minutes researching the internet for conditions, but all I found were tales of flooding and disaster in Shah Alam - nothing about the hills around Hulu Langat.

The ride through town and over Ampang Lookout gave us no cause for trepidation, bar that my buddy reckoned his rear brake cable was frayed and one good pull away from failure, his chain was skipping on the one ridiculous gradient just after the left-angle turn, and one of his spokes had come unwound.

If I’d known he was going to abstain from using his back brake I’d have suggested turning back before the descent to Hulu Langat, but I suppose we were most of the way up the hill already, and the far side is a good fast descent so long as the cars in front don’t decide to take notice of the speed limit.

We were not prepared for the flood damage beyond Hulu Langat.  The road runs alongside the banks of the river, to which the river had grudgingly returned.

 

But the evidence that it had been more exuberant previously was all around

The New Boy would have wanted to turn back at the first flood across the road but we pedalled through up to our bottom brackets.  
There were young lads marshalling traffic past fallen trees and downed power cables but the whole way up the valley we didn’t see any emergency services; I am surprised that Bomba KL did not take advantage of the chance for a day out in the countryside…

If we’d not taken a wrong turning, we would have not noticed the washed-away bridge that you can’t see in the photos above.

At every flood and mud slide, I was getting more worried about the hill road beside the reservoir - not so much flooding, as land slips.  I really did not want to turn back through all that water and mud.

”Hawey thair!” An old mate of my buddy cried out; he’d moved his workshop out to the countryside some time ago, and he passed on the rumour that they had released water from the dam out of concern for its safety.

At the turnoff to the reservoir road there was mud across the road, and cars were being escorted through in alternate directions, but they looked cleaner coming towards us than the cars in our direction.  Sure enough, as we swept down the road, there was flood damage alongside the river, but the road was a couple of metres above and clear.

Once you join the old Road 1 Northwards towards Kajang it’s a busy, tedious road, but only the motorway junctions are dangerous. Diligent research on Google Streetview saw us through Kajang, and onto a safer road home, I hoped, than our last trip there.  A misrememberment on my part saw us detouring down the SILK highway, salmoning back up a slip road, and back onto the planned route.  From there, I was able to remember the route - left at the big Starbucks sign, right at the construction fence

”Are you sure this is right?”

”I was worried about this road after the rain, but it looks ok”

”You knew this road was gravel and potholes?”

”Any other day, we’d have been glad of a bit of adventure”

”The New Boy wouldn’t have liked this…”

A few turns more, and we were back on familiar, if not well-known, roads, though with the completion of our civil works, the traffic layouts have changed.  My buddy was not his usual cheerful self.

”How are you feeling?”

”Worried.  It’s 4.30”

I picked up the pace best I could, cursing - though observing - every red light, but we had to finish with other-way up the lane to the pub to get there by 1745.

 

[StreetCowboy]

We hosed the bikes down at a petrol station to get rid of the worst of the muck, but there was still a residue of clart, so I took the bike to the car wash wallahs at work.  There’s still little seams of muck in nooks and crannies, but the drive train was clean and the paintwork shining.  Somehow the back hydraulic brake seems a bit soft, but we’ll see how that goes.

 

For my Christmas holiday, I knocked off from work at 4 pm to pick up the back wheel of the shopping bike, which was being respoked at KSH.  Seven spoke failures in four years was unacceptable…

 

Merry Christmas to you all, and all the very best for The New Year, when it comes.

Edited December 24, 2021 by StreetCowboy

[roo860]

4 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

We hosed the bikes down at a petrol station to get rid of the worst of the muck, but there was still a residue of clart, so I took the bike to the car wash wallahs at work.  There’s still little seams of muck in nooks and crannies, but the drive train was clean and the paintwork shining.  Somehow the back hydraulic brake seems a bit soft, but we’ll see how that goes.

Car wash wallahs? Been in India have ya?

Edited December 24, 2021 by roo860

[StreetCowboy]

I can’t blame the car wash wallahs for the soft brakes; even if they may have contributed by turning the bike upside down to clean the underside. I had lashed the brake lever and suspended it head upwards to let any air percolate to the reservoir, and sure enough, the brakes were completely dead after that, with the reservoir looking distinctly empty.  Filling up the fluid was easy enough, but looking for where it was coming out…we traced it to the hose connector, which had not been fully permanently tightened when we replaced the shifter some time back.

 

it rained again, but I’ll wash the bike myself this time…

 

Happy New Year, by the way, and all the very best for 2022.  I am trying to plan a tandem ride for our blind acquaintance on Twosday, 22 Feb.

[KhunLA]

[StreetCowboy]

On 1/8/2022 at 1:53 PM, KhunLA said:

That’s a tremendous photo - and an eminently practical bike.