Meriday Ride

Date: Saturday, Oct 16th 2010
Route: Sungai Long

I had the feeling that this ride was not going to be "plentiful". Worst come to worst, I know for sure that the "hardcore" bunch would ride on a sunny Saturday morning. Avid riders such as Zaha and Farizal will ride 9/10 of the time.

While crossing the SILK highway, I heard a distant shout from the opposite Cheras bound lane. At first I couldn't identify who it was but I soon realised that rider was Farizal in a new outfit, non other than Merida jersey.

After a brief chit-chat and few photography session, the two of hit the road and rode casually through the rather busy SILK highway heading towards Kajang Prima.

The MeriDay Ride - Racun & Madu

In the 80s there was this hit song sang Bill & Brod, Madu dan Racun.  What happened today has a some similarity with the song. The perspective however was different.  In case you're wondering, this has everything to do with the title too, the "Ada Udang Sebalik Batu" kind of things.

First it started with the cycling computer last week, today the new jersey and gloves and everything about nothing less or other than Merida. Now don't get me wrong. I have nothing against the brand nor the the person who happened to be die-hard fans, evangelists or loyalists. Just like how Optimus Prime had eloquently said it, freedom is the right for every sentient being.

Sufficing to say, today was a "Racun Round-Up" day. The fact that this didn't come from Saipol was disturbing. Saipol was  known to have a knack on this "Racun" activity and sometime his persistence for the cause, even though the intentions was noble, could be at some point seemed to look like nagging.  It's even more worrying because this time around it was Farizal and his fiery passion for Merida.

I still believe that the best bike is the bike that fits/suits you. It doesn't really matter what the brand is for as long as its comfortable and has the right geometry for your physiques that maximises your  power to weight ratio.  This is crucial for climbing, sprinting and on flats.

Power to weight/mass ratio is the amount of power produced is measured from the sum of all the forces applied to the chain through the cranks. But bear in mind that this has everything to do with your body weight and height.

Just the three of us
Farizal and I cycled causally Sungai Ramal and made a quick bio-break at the Bukit Kajang toll plaza. We're planning to reach the 2nd RV at the Kajang Perdana clover leaf at around 8.15am.  According to Farizal, this was the exact time when Zaha reached the 2nd RV. I found this interesting as it never occurred to me that someone actually mark all the check points and timings.

True enough while we're climbing the Sungai Long's 1st hill enroute to the check point we saw Zaha made his way to the RV from the clover  leaf.  What a guesstimate....awesome timing and Farizal was over the moon about it.

After a brief break we headed straight out to the Joint.

The 1st convert and the testimony
I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the news that MieTador had gotten himself a new bike and its Merida and he bought it from Farizal. I'm not going into details about this Racun and Madu thingy but at least all of us were happy the he finally found the bike with the correct size.

MieTador joined us at the Joint later at around 10.30am as he started a bit late and he could not stop talking about his new bike. It nice to see that he has his passion back after a few unlucky bike selections in the span of a couple of years.  He was like a kid with a new toy if you know what I mean. There's plan to do Putrajaya next week. Ada berani?

Good ride guys!

Videos:


From the 1st RV heading towards Sungai Ramal



From Sungai Ramal heading towards Bukit Kajang


Climbing the Kajang Perdana's Clover Leaf


Coasting from the second hill







Pictures taken during the ride (Please click on the image to enlarge):



My old TREK 5900 USPS

Farizal and his new outfit


Just the two of us here...

Cycling to the Sungai Chua's clover leaf

Entering the Sungai Ramal's interchange

Passing through Bukit Kajang

Heading towards the 2nd RV just after the Semenyih interchange

Hmmmm.....


The Kajang Perdana landmark

Serene Sungai Long's scene

Zaha at the 2nd RV


The Sungai Long's highest peak, 107m above sea level.





Group photo @ KP Clover leaf






I wonder who lives here?

The climbs





Farizal checking his sensors at the 3rd RV


Can you see what I'm seeing? Err....the label?

MieTador joined us at the Joint

MieTador's new bike

Saipol pun menyebok jugak...


Riding back with MieTador

Nice bike...

Faizol

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

interested on the Merida bike. Any good suggestion where to get it more affordable? TQ

Faizol said...

What are looking for? New or used? what about your budget?