Photo-story - Where my bike’s been

[StreetCowboy]

Today’s ride, on the first official holiday of the Lunar New Year took us up Route 1 towards Rawang, then over Rawang Bypass, which is so high you need oxygen.  They seem to have added a second crest since last time we rode it, which seemed maliciously superfluous.  I hit 65 kph coming down, though.

Then back through Rawang - I was surprised that the road seemed so unfamiliar, because I used to work in Sungai Cho, back in the monorail day’s.  Anyway, through Rawang, past the turn-off to the cement works (the road condition is a big turn-off, but once you’re past the cement works, it’s an OK road, with one little steep bit, then past The Tips Of Rawang and a lovely ride down into Sungai Buloh - but not today). Today we went out past the out-of-town shopping centre, after which the traffic calmed down, but the road surface was still a bit distressed, and then onto Monkey Road (so-called for the monkeys, not the nature of its construction), and through The Valley of Fruit and Flowers, where you may remember the Monkey King grew up.

That took us to Batu Arang, remarkable for its 22 sites of historic interest, including both Some Old Shop Houses and Chinese Shop Houses. Today, it seemed they were celebrating Chinese New Year by a complete absence of chilled tinned soft drinks, so I had iced coffee instead of 100plus. The hill from there back to the main road seems to have shrunk substantially since last time we were there, though it was still a lovely ride down to Highway 54; which is still a horrible road with too many roadworks and roads that need works.

I’d been fantasising about the last 50 metres up to the pub since we’d stopped for lunch but at least now we were most definetley on the way home, and if I’d known where to start, I’d have been counting down the kilometres. We swerved off Highway 54 to the Expressway, for safety reasons, amongst others, and stopped at the services for a final drink stop.

”I reckon we’ve got about 30 km to go”

”My phone says it’s 18km to a Sids Pub - oh , wait a minute, it’s got a route - 26 km!”

”well at least that’s a lot less than 30; 30’s an hour and a half, almost two hours; 26 is just over an hour”

and we set off with renewed vigour. As we came home through the suburbs I apologised “We need to keep this pace if we’re going to get to the pub before five, and before the rain”. It was a struggle, but we managed it, although the rain didn’t start till 5.15

[StreetCowboy]

I was still suffering from yesterday’s exertions, so today I just went down to check that Richfield Corner would be open at 1130 for next Sunday’s pub ride.  Richfield Corner is handy because it’s almost ten km from home - far enough to be worth stopping, but still manageable after 3 pints. And they have a beer garden.

 

The road works on the Federal Highway seem to be finished, and the renovated underpasses are lovely and bright and welcoming. The new motorcycle bridge over Jalan 222 is a joy to ride, bar the three sets of fierce red speed bumps painted on the approach.

From there, I turned for home along the PJ Gyratory, one of the most obdurately perilous pieces of urban sabotage I have ever fallen victim to.

Then a road to nowhere that looks like it had intended to just burst out on to the Sprint Highway, but for whatever reason, was thwarted at the last minute.

You can get home from there, though- either through some bushes and over a footbridge, or through two adjacent development car parks and a flyover. If you’re doing the latter, be aware that there is a drain grid at the bottom of the flyover which is best traversed weaving from right to left.

The road to nowhere does take you past this new Chinese temple - I assume reconstructed by the developer to replace an older, less ostentatious monument.

And finally back to base, to be reminded the kitchen didn’t open till 3 pm. You can see the new smoking bins outside, in the cycle parking area

 

[StreetCowboy]

M’s son, M Junior, joined us on our Chinese New Year pub lunch ride; unfortunately I’d not explained that ‘lunch’ was just a figure of speech, and that we don’t normally take it literally.

M Junior was younger than the bike he was riding, a beautiful old road bike that M had brought back from his childhood home in The Old Country and refurbished.  He’s a fashion model (M Junior) and he did look embarassingly fabulous on the steel roadster; I thought it better not to be seen taking a photo

[StreetCowboy]

I think I mentioned that my exceptionally hilly ride of Chinese New Year was no more than a practice for the Highland Games; well, on Saturday we were back to the Highlands.  This is Chateau Duta,

and to be honest, the weight of the picture was not the last straw that broke the camei's back on the way back up 'The Wall'

Seen here from the top - my camera cannot capture the sheer vertiginity (vertiginity: A steep slope you have not yet fallen down....) but I can assure you, from the other direction it looks like something Wiley Coyote has painted on a cliff-face.

I managed my slowest speed yet while balancing the bike (something around 4 kph) as we came up, but the road from here to the bottom by the back roads is lovely - and blessed with shade, to boot.

It was not far to the Highland Games, and the New Boy had grown a beard for the event

You can tell his wife is away - she'd never have allowed him out the house exposing his oxters.

The Highland Games was well organised, as always, and, same as last year, we almost cycled through and out the back gate.  Luckily, some helpful advice from the ladies at the gate ("Overthair, ye eejits") saw us parking up by the pipe band practice fields, just in time for a round of the "throwing heavy things" - in this case, a cannon-ball on a stick

In terms of sporting drama, the highlight for me was a chap from Singapore managing to level the scores in the "throwingacannon-balloweryerheid" by ripping the handle of the cannon-ball at a height of 12'6".

"So where do these competitions come from?" asked our Australian cycling colleague.

"I think they mostly involve nominal weights for livestock - haggis hurling, throwing the sheep over the fence,  and so forth"

"On the contrary", I explained, "this event almost certainly comes from a siege of Berwick, probably after the English had invaded and captured the town after a surprise assault taking advantage of the more relaxed licensing laws North of the Border.  The Scottish army sent to repel the incursion probably turned up in haste, having forgotten to harness up their cannons, to the initial amusement of their English enemy

"Ha Ha, I say, You seem to have forgotten your cannons!"

"Naebothermate, catch that"

So the English retired to the safety of the fortifications of Berwick Town,

"WIthout doubt, they shan't be able to hurl a cannon-ball as high as th..."

 

As ever, I gravitated to the sound of the pipes and drums.

but that was a long way away from the beer tent.

There were lovely ladies fishing cans of beer out of ice baths, but the beers were all tipped in haphazard, so they had to search around for whatever you asked.  As we arrived, 'fresh' off the bikes, all I could think about was cider, and icey cold water.

"Three ciders"

"There you go"

"You must have lovely cold hands..."

Well on a  hot tropical Saturday, there's nothing nicer than a clap in the chops with a cold, clammy paw.

They ran out of cider, eventually, and new girls took over the shift in the beer tent, so we concluded discretion was the better part of valour, and set off our separate ways homeward, to think again.

 

I have to say that today's ride felt just as hard as Saturday's, and the hardest part of it was starting after Saturday.  I can't believe people build traffic lights with no shade around them....

 

[ravip]

Hanselmann forces organisers to neutralize women's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Bigla rider almost catches men's race during solo breakaway >>> I saw this news item, but cannot understand exactly the rules that apply to a cycle race. Anyone familiar with this?

[StreetCowboy]

9 minutes ago, ravip said:

Hanselmann forces organisers to neutralize women's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Bigla rider almost catches men's race during solo breakaway >>> I saw this news item, but cannot understand exactly the rules that apply to a cycle race. Anyone familiar with this?

I didn't understand it clearly myself; it seems to me that the ladies caught up with the traffic behind the men's race - the rescue cars, marshalls ambulances and so forth, and (probably for safety reasons) suspended the race for a while, to allow the traffic to get further ahead again.

 

It seems to me obvious that the fastest ladies would quickly make up a ten minute gap on the slowest men, especially allowing for falls, mechanicals etc.

 

I understand they allowed Hanselmann to re-establish a lead before the peleton was released and allowed to chase her again, but was soon caught again.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/47433583

 

The speed we ride at, we're lucky if we catch a cold...

 

SC

 

 

[bannork]

A great read SC. I hope you've made a blog out of this, it deserves far more readers.

[StreetCowboy]

On Sunday we rode to the seaside again, this time to Port Klang for a beer by the sea by the way.

We went out along the Federal Highway motorcycle lane, which was completely free of roadworks; there were still a couple of underpasses which were scarily dark; to be honest, I'm not sure whether my eyes were closed or not.

 

And somebody's gone berserk with the fierce red speed bump paint, at every turn-off and sharp bend, and the approach to the very nice bow-string bridge.  I hadn't realised how far Port Klang was from Bandar Klang, and we got a bit lost trying to avoid the high-speed flyovers.

"C'mon, M - you should know the way - you used to work here"

"It's twenty years since I was last here"

"Well, its ten minutes until my first time, so you're our only hope..."

 

Anyway, we got there in the end, and the actual port is quite quiet.

We stopped for a larger beer than I'd expected, and then back on the bikes to head for home

You can see my buddy is short a bell on his bars, so we stopped at a local bike shop to see if they could provide, but alas it is exceptionally difficult to find a bell with a mounting hoop big enough for road bike bars.

 

We were soon on the Kesas Highway motorcycle lane, but not soon enough, after a bit of an altercation with a lorry that passed closer than is seemly between two gentlemen.

The Kesas Highway motorcycle lane is a really pleasant ride, though there is only one intermediate services stop, and as usual, we took the wrong turning towards the North South Highway, progressing further down the slip road than we normally do.  Anything to get the kilometres up, I suppose.

 

Other M (with the model son, who did not join us today, not M formerly employed at Port Klang) had cycled to the start instead of driving, so we thought about stopping at a pub in Subang Parade, but he was not sure where you could get draft cider.  So instead we stopped at Richfield Corner

They sell cider in sets of five ladies' glasses, which posed a bit of an arithmetical conundrum with four of us.

By the time we'd solved that one, the sun was not quite so high in the sky, and indeed it was threatening rain.  Not really threatening, but hinting... suggesting, if you like, in a way that you felt prudent not to ignore.  So we hammered it quick as we could to make it to Silly Billy before 5 pm and before the rain.  There were a few spots as we came through the suburbs, but I forgot to check the time when the heavy rain started.  Who cares? We were safely under cover, refreshing our weary brows.  

 

[ravip]

What are the pros and cons of...

1. Thumb Shifters vs Grip Shifters
2. Disc Brake vs Rim brake system

3. Bikes with suspension vs none.

 

Any practical and first hand experience advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

[StreetCowboy]

30 minutes ago, ravip said:

What are the pros and cons of...

1. Thumb Shifters vs Grip Shifters
2. Disc Brake vs Rim brake system

3. Bikes with suspension vs none.

 

Any practical and first hand experience advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

1. I'm not sure what you mean by Grip Shifters... Twist grip shifters like on a motor scooter, or an old Raleigh Grifter, back in the day, back in the Old Country? I've never owned twist grip shifters, so can't comment, but Thumb Shifters are magic. 

 

My shopping bike has Shimano Altus shifters and Deore gears, with big shifters on the thumb and little shifters on the trigger finger - like firing bullets.  The mountain bike has SRAM X5 big and little thumb shifters, and I think they are easier to use.  I like the upright riding position, being able to look around better, and also being able to steer, brake, change gear and look around all at the same time.  You can run up to red lights much faster (especially with hydraulic disc brakes), looking around so that you can be going faster at the approach when you make the decision to run or stop.  Not that I would ever condone running a red light.  Not without checking both ways, knowing the sequence of lights, checking who has green...

 

2.  Hydraulic brakes are great.  You can apply as much pressure as you want, and lock your wheels no matter how dry the road or wet the weather.  Cable-pull disc brakes are not so good, in my experience.  Disc brakes have a lot less surface to dry off when you're braking in the rain, and don't run through the puddles, so they are more consistent regardless of the weather.

 

3. I never felt I got much benefit from my front suspension, but that said, I normally had it locked out.  All my riding is on road, albeit sometimes rough roads or construction roads.  If you're riding on road, good gloves, bar tape and if need be, bigger tyres, but still pumped up hard as they'll go.

 

We were out on Saturday, and we'd had a great ride through Kota Damansara, I was sure it was going to be a personal best.  Well, I would have got a "KOM World Champion" but for the New Boy's mishap.  We only noticed after the end of the segment, but all our rough road riding had taken its toll on his front tyre, and the rubber was flapping off the canvas thanks to a serious cut.  So we took it easy en route to breakfast, and then he got a taxi home; so he uploaded his data first...

 

1. New Boy               20:03

2. Cowboy               20.04

3. someone else      Substantially longer

 

Anyway, my point was that although all my riding is on roads (being generous), but I still ride 38 mm 'adventure' tyres.

 

SC 

[MrTrip]

One of the reasons (excuses) for not buying a newer mountain bike is that I love my grip shifters on my old Cannondale [emoji170]
I’ve not had a lot of experience with thumb shifters but when I did try them 20 odd years ago I didn’t like them. I feel I can react quicker with the twisting actions going from the bottom to the top of the cassette in 1 single motion in under a second




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ravip]

11 hours ago, StreetCowboy said:

1. I'm not sure what you mean by Grip Shifters... Twist grip shifters like on a motor scooter, or an old Raleigh Grifter, back in the day, back in the Old Country? I've never owned twist grip shifters, so can't comment, but Thumb Shifters are magic. 

 

My shopping bike has Shimano Altus shifters and Deore gears, with big shifters on the thumb and little shifters on the trigger finger - like firing bullets.  The mountain bike has SRAM X5 big and little thumb shifters, and I think they are easier to use.  I like the upright riding position, being able to look around better, and also being able to steer, brake, change gear and look around all at the same time.  You can run up to red lights much faster (especially with hydraulic disc brakes), looking around so that you can be going faster at the approach when you make the decision to run or stop.  Not that I would ever condone running a red light.  Not without checking both ways, knowing the sequence of lights, checking who has green...

 

2.  Hydraulic brakes are great.  You can apply as much pressure as you want, and lock your wheels no matter how dry the road or wet the weather.  Cable-pull disc brakes are not so good, in my experience.  Disc brakes have a lot less surface to dry off when you're braking in the rain, and don't run through the puddles, so they are more consistent regardless of the weather.

 

3. I never felt I got much benefit from my front suspension, but that said, I normally had it locked out.  All my riding is on road, albeit sometimes rough roads or construction roads.  If you're riding on road, good gloves, bar tape and if need be, bigger tyres, but still pumped up hard as they'll go.

 

We were out on Saturday, and we'd had a great ride through Kota Damansara, I was sure it was going to be a personal best.  Well, I would have got a "KOM World Champion" but for the New Boy's mishap.  We only noticed after the end of the segment, but all our rough road riding had taken its toll on his front tyre, and the rubber was flapping off the canvas thanks to a serious cut.  So we took it easy en route to breakfast, and then he got a taxi home; so he uploaded his data first...

 

1. New Boy               20:03

2. Cowboy               20.04

3. someone else      Substantially longer

 

Anyway, my point was that although all my riding is on roads (being generous), but I still ride 38 mm 'adventure' tyres.

 

SC 

 

9 hours ago, MrTrip said:

One of the reasons (excuses) for not buying a newer mountain bike is that I love my grip shifters on my old Cannondale
I’ve not had a lot of experience with thumb shifters but when I did try them 20 odd years ago I didn’t like them. I feel I can react quicker with the twisting actions going from the bottom to the top of the cassette in 1 single motion in under a second




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you very much StreetCowboy & MrTrip for your informative responses. I meant by Grip Shifters are what exactly MrTrip has shown in his post.

[StreetCowboy]

As part of my efforts to reduce traffic in KL by 10%, as well as building the MRT line, I am also trying to cycle into the office twice a month or more.

 

It's not a bad ride - out the back, along the road that is the boundary between the suburb and the village, up a very steep but very short hill to the militant mosque (I think that's the militant one, the bloke that explained it to me was not clear whether its that one, or the one in the centre of the village, but the one at the top of the hill is the more famous of the two, and has confusing signs towards it in various places, to the bafflement of visiting coach drivers), anyway, up the hill to the mosque, down the other side which is even steeper and longer, with speed bumps on it, through a garage forecourt and out on to the old Jalan Damanasara, which is NOT ONE WAY! OI! although it is one way beyond the garage.  THinking about it, perhaps it is one-way, but there are no signs to indicate that, and the dividers between the two lanes are long dashes as in the centre of a two-way carriage-way, not short dashes as between parallel lanes.

 

Carry on along the old Jalan Damansara, which, after the baffling junction with the red lights that so many people ignore (I guess they wish they were cyclists) and the road is definitely not one-way, although some people drive the wrong way down it as they can't be bothered queueing for the traffic lights.  Then you're passing under the works for the future DASH highway, which will allow people to race from Shah Alam to form traffic jams in Damansara, instead of forming them in Shah Alam; according to the bloke directing the traffic, there's room for a motorbike or bicycle to go against the flow of traffic through the single lane section, and I haven't been hit yet.

 

From here, the road surface deteriorates due to the concrete trucks - there's a batching plant and quarry through the underpass on the other side of the highway, although the underpass itself has been resurfaced; up the hill past the workers'  camp that discharges sewage into the storm drain, past the ridiculously sharp off-ramp put in place presumably for the convenience of our directors when our company was building the highway, and then into the car park.

 

The whole journey takes about as long as it took to write that, and its only the last little section up the hill to the office that leaves you sweating like a horse and stinking for the rest of the day

[StreetCowboy]

This morning's ride was marginally more photogenic than a ride into the office...

There was just three of us, two of the regulars pulling out overnight (if I can say that on a family forum)...

So I changed the route at the last minute, to a Hills of KL route.  Young A, who has only joined us recently on the pub rides, had a new bike to show off - I should have got a photo of it on its own; an aluminium Merida with Shimano 105 equipment, it looked great.

 

I had to shout at a bloke pulling out from the service station on the highway, to make sure he'd seen me, and then we were off into the Malay University; there's an inner ring road which is great way to get from PJ to KL and back, though this morning there seemed to be a lot of traffic, and an outer ring road that takes over a fairly big hill.  I'd remembered it as being particularly challenging, and as I crested the summit, I thought "I can't believe that was so easy", and then moments later, thought "I can't believe that I'd forgotten there were two lumps to this hill", and some time later "That was no easier than last time...".  There was some sort of fun run going on through the university, and a few police motorbikes in attendance.

 

We diverted round Bukit Pantai as Young A was suffering from lack of breakfast, and took a detour to stop at a little Indian vegetarian place we had not visited for some while.  Then up Bukit Pantai from another direction, which was significantly less steep, down through Bangsar and into the National Museum.

I've just noticed another advantage of the cyclocross bike - there's more space for the company logo on the main tube.

From here, you can take a stair and a footbridge over to the Lake Garden, where I normally get a bit confused navigation-wise, verging on lost, and today was no exception.  However, I now recognise some places, and while acknowledging we were not on the planned route, it was more of a second-best alternative rather than a wrong turning.

We saw three tour groups of cyclists - at least thirty in all, on some of the quieter inner city roads, before we headed out, back over the highway, and then a rather innovative short-cut that was not strictly in compliance with all the stipulations of the Highway Code, salmoning against the flow of traffic down the hard shoulder, then on the footpath which appeared just as the hard shoulder faded into the gutter.  I'd not particularly recommend that route if you've been drinking.

Then up the South face of Tennis Centre Hill, past Chateau Duta, holding on tight, knuckles white as we climbed the last section of the Wall "Don't look back, A!" but he looked, and had to pull into a driveway and alight with vertigo.  THen over the crest and clocking about 60 kph past the Hockey Stadium, where the traffic was quiet.  Young A and New M both dropped out as we past their respective homes, Young A struggling somewhat and not keen to complete the ride, even though that meant having to come back in the afternoon to recover his car.

I finished up slipstreaming a lorry through the tunnel, and managed to shave six seconds off my fastest time.  I was ready for a nap by the time I got home.

 

I'd meant to include this photo for our cannon aficionados amongst us

It doesn't seem any more effective at repelling invaders today than in the past

 

[StreetCowboy]

Once I had recovered from the morning's exertions, I had to run an errand down to Digital Mall; as I was setting out I thought "It's later in the day than I would like...I'm gambling on the weather holding out..." so I kept the pace up.  Luckily I found a convenient piece of street infrastructure to lock the bike to, and I was not exactly in and out like a burglar, but I didn't spend any time browsing or comparison shopping. 

 

The first drops of rain were falling as I unlocked the bike.  I was in no mood for dawdling, and took the view that it was safe enough to show a bit of colour disregard, if not exactly blindness, at the traffic lights.  Four Strava personal bests on the way home will tell you how heavy the rain was getting, but luckily the lightning was still a few kilometres away.  It was tipping it down stair-rods by the time I got to the pub, and I wasn't too bothered when the waiter didn't bring me an iced water.

 

Anyway, the point is that four personal bests on my regular route home while I was riding the shopping bike tells you it's not about the bike, it's about the motivation.  And impending storm clouds* are a great motivation, especially once they pend right over you.

 

* You may recall last week we pushed it from Richfield Corner to Silly Billy under a bit of weather impendiment; that was on the 'road' bike.  I was faster yesterday on every Strava segment, although to be fair yesterday I was not hampered by the arithmetical conundrum of dividing Sets of Five ladies' glasses into four riders.

[StreetCowboy]

You may recall that I had set the target of reducing traffic in KL by 10%, and one of the key elements of my plan was cycling into the office twice per month.

I'd got a bit of grief from car park management for parking my bike in my allocated parking space.

I said they didn't have any satisfactory bike racks...

Well now I don't have a leg to stand on (unlike the bike)

 

It's not as convenient as my parking space, but I think it will encourage others if they see another bike parked there.  I've still not seen another bike in the racks, though

 

[StreetCowboy]

I was up at the crack of dawn - worse than that, I was up before the Imam gave his "one hour to the crack of dawn" call, and it was still dark when I met M outside Sid's.  It's nice and cool at that time of night.  We headed out to the Trek showroom, slightly brisker thanks to the cool weather and lack of sunshine or traffic.

Trek had arranged a 60 km ride to somewhere in the middle of nowhere; I like think I choose better destinations than "petrol station in Puncak Alam", although maybe "Almost Kuala Selangor" is not much better.  There was more people than I had expected

They had advertised an average rolling speed of 28 - 30, which I reckoned I could manage if I could slip-stream the peleton shamelessly.  I struggled to keep behind people on the descents, thanks to the super-gravity-attractor I carry round my midriff (I don't like to use my brakes if I don't have to - the pads don't last forever, and I paid for all that momentum), and equally struggled (with fewer choices) to keep behind them on the ascents, and I found myself on my own leading out another chap of my age who was more shameless than me.  We had caught up with someone else, but I hope he was not in our group, as he missed the turn-off from the motorcycle lane.  Someone else shouted from behind "You can still make the turn-off" but that was not true, and the bloke told me later he'd had to jump the barriers.  I'm guessing he meant çlimb over' rather than 'bunny hop'.

I got chatting to an American chap, who was fairly new to these parts, and found himself on his own, slightly uncertain about the route.  I was not too confident about the route either, but at least I thought I knew the roads.  Jalan Kuala Selangor is still rough in parts, and too fast where it is not, but at least there is some new tarmac on it.  "Straight", I shouted, as we approached a traffic light, for those behind me
"Left!" someone confidently shouted from behind me, and I turned off "No, Straight! Sorry!"

And we had to U-turn and weave back through the traffic at the lights ...

At least now I had someone to slip-stream.

We passed standing at the side of the road a chap I'd been talking to at the start and stopped to help him change his tyre.  By that time the Trek sweeper had arrived, and I let them take over.  I mislaid one of my rusty old tyre levers, that the young fellow had been slightly nervous about letting loose onto his carbon rims.

Anyway, we got to the petrol station

 

That's me there /^

On the way back, the other bloke I'd been talking to broke his chain, but again the Trek guys sorted him out, and he caught up later, with the young lad who'd suffered the puncture.  I was leading us home through the safer roads, but I didn't hear the young lad's tyre explode, and he had to get a taxi back to the shop.

The ride was harder than I'd anticipated, and I didn't come close to the target 26 kph average.  I was glad to get back to the Chinese Children's Pub and a Breakfast of Champions, including food as well as three pints of cider.

 

[StreetCowboy]

I'm sat here chortling with glee and smug satisfaction, and admiring the view, following my latest purchase

I bought it off a bloke off the internet, and fully expected it to be plundered from a raid on some luckless geezer's garage.  Well if it was, the bloke had done a good job getting cardboard packaging for it, and stencilling on packaging information.

 

It had taken a week to meet up with the bloke, and I fully anticipated an evening of painful frustration - traffic, parking, we'd arranged to meet in a shop and I fully expected to be offered a longer stand than I had time for.  But no! Smooth traffic, bizarrely a parking place right on the doorstep (not literally, the motorbikes were parked there, I was on the road next to them) and as if by magic, the shop-keeper appeared... no hint of recognition or expectation... I sent a message "HERE I AM", and I could see a bloke in the doorway with a box typing "There you are!".

 

We exchanged some money and pleasantries; he was off riding with one of the local bike shops; so I rushed home to set it up so that I could nip round to harangue him before they set off if there were any problems.  There were none.

 

So now maybe I'll need to buy some tools, and lubricant, and if I'm going to sit here on the sofa looking at it instead of the TV, maybe I should wash the bike more often.

[StreetCowboy]

This weekend's rides were spoiled by my phone playing up - the GPS is inaccurate and giving only occasional readings.  I can still remember more or less where we went, though.

 

Saturday was just me and the New Boy; I can't remember why I was taking it easy, but probably something to do with Friday night.  "I must stop drinking on a Friday night", he'd said.
"I think I did".

 

Anyway, as we were passing the old airport, I suggested he take the lead for a while.  And that was the last I saw of him, until the next navigational choice.  I'm not sure he could find his way home from there on his own - more down to his navigational frailties than the complexity of the route.  Didn't matter, we weren't going home.  He'd have gone over the fly-over, to get the faster traffic, and hammered it down until the North South Highway slip road merged from the left, and thought nothing of it.  I think that's a horrendous junction - you find yourself on the barriers where the 3rd and 4th lanes merge, with three lanes of 80 km/h traffic either side.  Not what I would call "family-friendly".  But there is another way.

 

There's a slip road that takes you towards the toll booths, and just before the toll booths there's a gate with a guard and a barrier, but there is room to squeeze past the barrier (even with mountain bike handlebars) and then you'r round the back of the Highway Offices, past their playing fields, and out past the gently slumbering guard at the other end, through a subway under the toll plaza, and your out - out in to the warrens of Kelana Jaya, where the streets have no names only numbers, almost back onto the main road, through a petrol station, through a little commercial development, on to a suburban street, right into a condo car park with a cheery hello to the security man, out past the barriers at the other side, once round the rugby stadium, through the park and you're onto the LDP Highway heading for home.  

 

I don't think I ever told you about the first time we rode that junction, but the signposted route takes you through the underground parking of the Paradigm Mall, and where the underpass goes under the highway, there is a wicked drain grille where my buddy got a puncture back in 2015.  So these days I prefer to take my chances on the surface, even though there's no right turn there.  However, if you are cautious, with a judicious read of the traffic lights, and a modicum of good fortune, and a favourable tide, you can get across the junction safely, most of the time.

 

We took a slight detour through the neighbouring suburb en route to breakfast, and that was where we saw Big G out on his own for a ride.  He's quite distinctive in his bright yellow site hi-viz shirt, which is even expansive than mine.

 

Sadly, the roti man was missing in action, so the day ended slightly on a low note, and worse, my phone had completely failed to record the entire ride.

[StreetCowboy]

This week we took a ride to Intermediate Vent Shaft 1, which is in the back roads of Federal Hill, quite close to Brickfields Police Headquarters, if you've ever been incarcerated in Indian Country.  Big G was with us, and he struggles a bit with the steeper hills.  I struggle a lot with the steeper hills, he gets off and walks ... I explained that the only way to get better at hills was to do more, but he misinterpreted that as a request for oxygen and a defibrillator, and was half way to phoning an ambulance before I recovered my breath enough to make myself clear.

 

Anyway, IVS1, with the New Boy, Big G and M.

 

We took a route diversion and ended up home sooner than expected, stopping for roti at my local shop, not the one where the coppers go, next to My Basikal Shop.  Our usual place is friendlier, but the roti man is not always there; the serving staff at the local place also seemed to be not all there.

[MrTrip]

At last some warm sunshine [emoji274]






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[StreetCowboy]

23 hours ago, MrTrip said:

At last some warm sunshine



And the blossom is out already.  Lovely weather, lovely riding. 

I'm going to imagine it was pleasantly cool, but your fingers were not numb and blue with the cold.

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[MrTrip]

Yep, started at around 12 degrees at 9am and probably 15/16 degrees when I finished. Warm enough to push the sleeves up on my spring/autumn jersey but cool enough to keep the zip firmly up to my neck. Certainly chilly on the downhill sections. I always suffer from a cold chest, especially in temperatures under 20 degrees. A combination of sweat and cold air.

Clocks changed last night so it will be evening cycling soon[emoji16] and evening golf and evening BBQ’s and beer[emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]


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[StreetCowboy]

As you know, the GPS on my phone is FSed, so I left it at home today, hence no photos.

 

It was a lovely ride on the quietest roads on the way out, and our first time on a route away from our suburb.  Down at Ara Damansara we took a different road, and I can imagine that on a weekday those three lane highways would be a bit intimidating for cyclists, but today we had the loveliest car drivers behind us.  I'm sure they would have offered us a cup of tea and a biscuit, if they'd had them.

 

A rake round the LRT depot at Sleepy Hollow, through a commercial centre and down to the rugby stadium (it's set up for football just now, as the home of PJ Rangers, and the games against HK and Korea will be held at the National Stadium, if you;re temted to attend).   Past the National Golf Course, onto the Federal Highway, which is in great condition, bar the chap with the red rumble strips going berserk.

 

We took breakfast in Indian Country (Top Chappatis!) and home via Malayu Universiti (wacky exit but the drivers were great) up the Road to Nowhere and home to the Chinese Children's Pub.

 

It was a family-friendly ride, my buddy's sister was with us, but she suffered from clueless idiots - on the way into Indian Country we were following a bloke who was yet to complete his driver's education, and was not sure which side of the road to park on; and later, some idiot who swerved across her, because at the end of the day, despite how much we rely on it, telepathy is not our best means of communication, and she did not know the way home as well as I did...She politely pretended she was going to turn left anyway, and disaster was averted.

[StreetCowboy]

Since the GPS stopped working, I've stopped taking my phone with me, and so there's no pictures again today, I'm afraid.

 

I actually got up early and was the first person down at the station, after staying in last night.  I'd had a bit of bother before I left though - my back tyre was soft, but not completely flat, so I pumped it up; it hadn't been pumped up last week, so I thought things might be OK; it was not an ambitious ride, and not far from home.

 

The tyre was still hard when we left the station, and we came back through the suburb, up through the tunnel; I almost got confused and nearly took us back through the tunnel, but I remembered where we were going; through the high-rise suburb where the Hongkies at work live, into the village beyond, to Desa Park City, up the first of two pointless hills.  I was finding it hard going, and at the foot of the pointless hill I stopped and checked the tyre; soft as a blind man in a nudist colony.  My mates were too far ahead to tell them.

 

So I stopped, took the tyre off, took the tube out, and found a matal rod 60 mm long and 2 or 3 mm wide invisible from the outside of the tyre buy protruding from the tube by may 5 - 10 mm.  So I put in my spare tube, and started to pump.  It was hard going!  The guys came back down and it was still not hard.  In fact, it was clearly not holding air...  I had also noticed it was missing its lock nut and valve cap, so I suspected it might have been a return that was smoothed out nicely and folded back in the box (it still had its elastic band round it, and if I'd been putting it back in the box after almost using it - for example if the old tube had been patched before I'd fitted the new tube, I'd have not bothered with that.  On the other hand, I don't know how long the tube had been in my bag, as the box was falling apart with water damage).

 

Anyway I patched the old tube and put that back in and we set off.  I told the New Boy I'd never had a patched tube fail after it was in the tyre, but never had one survive if it was not immediately fitted. 

 

The roti man is apparently in hospital, so we had to resort to curry puffs.  The coppers turned up later.

 

Sure enough, as I was about to go out this afternoon, I noticed that the back tyre was a little bit soft again.  So I've changed the tube and the tyre, but my spare tyre is an old one that was nearing its end of life, and has a cut / hole patched already to try and stop foreign bodies getting in (that was a lot easier than Brexit), and the tube is sitting partially inflated on trial.

 

In the end, a frustrating ride, and I've got no GPS data.

 

 

[StreetCowboy]

I thought I would take the opportunity to join the Bangsar Cycling Group Tuesday Night Social ride through the city centre. It doesn’t always happen, but a few people had expressed an interest.

 

I rushed away from work to get to the Rodalink Shop where they meet in time to get a new tyre fitted.

”Welcome sir, how can I help?”

”I’d like a new tyre”

”But you already have a spare tyre” 

“That, young man, is a SuperGravityAttractor.  Now are you going to fit a new tyre or am I...” and I paused thinking of a suitable yet humorous threat; “... am I going to have to take my business elsewhere?”

At that suggestion he brightened up, but when I didn’t take the hint he grudgingly set about my bike.

So then I sat outside with my lovely new tyre to wait for the others.

 

And to post on Facebook about the first spots of rain.

 

And to compose this message.

 

And take a Johnny-No-Mates picture of my bike.

Ready to head for home, via the pub

[StreetCowboy]

The last laugh was on me - the back tyre is flat again - I suspect a squint spike tape, so that’s my Friday night fun sorted.  I’ve hung the bike on the stand to take the weight off the flat tyre.

 

On the bright side, I ran into our Consultant in the pub on the way home, to the point of feeling second-best at work in the morning.

[StreetCowboy]

Well, it wasn't the spoke tape that was to blame.  I bought a bunch of inner tubes with ridiculous long valve stems; and I can tell you a long valve stem is not an adequate compensation for whatever shortfall you may have, and does not impress the girls.

"You don't have much of a sense of humour, do you?"

"No, but look at the length of that valve stem...."

 

Anyway, the long valve stem puts unnecessary moment on the tube, and results in failure around the valve stem.  

 

I think the long valve stem is for aero wheels, but who has aero wheels with 25 - 32 mm tyres?

 

I changed the spoke tape anyway, while I was about it.

[StreetCowboy]

You may recall I told you about the Tips of Rawang, a lovely road between the village of Kuang and the industrial town of Rawang.  It's a winding country road that meanders slowly up the hills. 

For the first time we noticed a Private Road sign and a barrier that presumably was more effective before it was driven through and pushed to the side of the road.  Maybe the sign and barrier were new since last time we were here.

 

On Sunday it was even more pleasant than before, and we only saw one car the whole way up.  Admittedly, we saw him twice, once going up and again on his way down, which was not a good sign.  But it was a lovely road.  Could maybe do with a bit of maintenance...

 

At least all the rubbish had been cleared away, so the views were much nicer than last time, when it looked like this

That wasn't the only work that had been done on the road.

 

The land-owner had also built a concrete wall across the road, with a ditch three feet deep and three feet wide on the other side, and broken up the road for 200 m beyond.  So that had stopped people dumping rubbish on their land.  Instead, there was rubbish burying the road for about 100 m or more down the road, which was unpleasant and hazardous to walk across, due to nails sticking out of the rubbish.

 

I was broken-hearted; it really was one of the nicest roads.

"That's so distressing.  It would be such a nice road, but you'd just have to turn back and retrace your steps.  I don't fancy walking through here again"

"Well, we always reckoned it was nicer in the other direction, so all the way up you'd know you were looking forward to a better return journey".

 

So I imagine we might start not going to Rawang quite often.  I think we'll need to do it as often as we can, because I doubt anyone will maintain the road now that it literally goes nowhere.

 

[StreetCowboy]

On Monday I put the bike into the shop for servicing; not my favourite shop, I can’t get there after work before they close at 1845, and not the nearest, which was prematurely closed at 1915, but KSH, the biggest of the Local Bike Shops.  

“Can you give this a full service and clean-up, and Check the wheel bearings and headstock bearings”

”OK; when do you need it?”

”Friday night?”

”It’ll take more than a week to get that clean!”

So I’m not sure I’ll ever see the bike again.  On the bright side, I doubt they will be tempted to sell it on the black market, but it’s so heavy it must have some scrap value. And the rear tyre is lovely and new.  The new boy’s Fondriest has been in for three weeks now.