Rising sun...manyak panas woo..

I hope its still not too late to wish a Happy and Prosperous Rabbit Year to all our Chinese friends.

Saturday ride crew @ Kajang Perdana clover leaf

Yesterday I came across an interesting article about diet plan and how recent studies showed that running on strict regime might actually caused weight gain instead of weight loss and even can have negative affects on overall health.

The study concluded that the weight-focused approach to health is unsupported by the scientific evidence and has in fact been detrimental and costly.

Rather than focusing on weight loss, the researchers recommend that people focus on improving their health status.

I find this very interesting as I recently had an argument with a colleague who tried to get me to join a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme's herbal based diet products. The initial package would cost me an “investment” worth RM1500. That’s what they called it, an investment instead of the word “fork-out” or pay. Creative use of words can actually change the way you think and perceive an idea or situation.

Word choice in marketing and advertising is absolutely critical. When advertisers spend millions of advertisements, you can bet they have tested every word they are going to use to psychologically lead you to believe their product is the best, that it will change your life.

This was our first Mantin ride in 2011.  The thing about riding through the LEKAS highway is that it will take the best of us, both mental and physical. The biggest test thus far are the headwinds and searing sun, not so much of the terrain. It's nice and cold in the morning but temperature changes rapidly after 10am.  From a point of madness to insanity, literally.

It was a glorious sunny Sunday morning. I could see the bright orange sun ray brighting up the day creating a spectacular view. This could only mean that it's going to be one bright and hot day. 

For those of us who had had experience riding to Mantin via LEKAS, would know for sure if you went full throttle from the Zero Km to Mantin, it's highly likely that you're bound to bonk at some point during the course. It's to-and-fro, not a one way ride. This rule however doesn't apply to "Gaban".

In total there were over 100 photos taken and 9 videos recorded in HD format. The photos published here are filtered based on time line of the ride mission. I hope to capture the experience to the best my ability and humanly possible to be shared on this blog entry. You'd have to scroll down until the bottom part to view the videos.

A text message woke me up from my much needed slumber  at around 5.15am this morning.  What did this “nutcase" want on this ungodly hour?  Slowly I got up from bed still to check on the phone. It was Zack, checking if I’d ride today. I guess he’s one of those very early or odd hours people, the kind like Batman who fought crime mostly at night...

Anyway, I had problem pinching the alphabets on the touch screen due to my semi-aware state with only 1/4th of my eyelids opened.  Eventually I had to send a second reply when I realised the 1st one was gibberish.

Sourced from VeloNews

We're just few days in 2011, well technically we still are, and news of the new racing team, LEOPARD-TREK is definitely going to spice up this year's Tour de France!


The new new professional road bicycle racing team from Luxembourg led by the brothersAndy Schleck and Fränk Schleck, with Brian Nygaard and Kim Andersen as team managers. Looking from the team's line up, the goals are nothing short of domination in the classics and the Tour de France during the 2011 season.

 Here it is folks, the LTdL 2011 is happening on 23rd Jan - 1st Feb. The race is scheduled to last for 10 days instead of 7 in the previous years. In 2010,  Anuar Manan marked his name in the history to be the 1st Malaysian to win a stage and the 1st Asian rider to win the Overall Sprint Jersey in 15 years since its inception in 1996. 

First of, Happy New Year to all. 2010 was just like a blink of an eye and now we’re in 2011.   As usual this is the part where most people come out with new resolutions. I think I’ll skip this topic as it’s doesn’t really matter.

I have to admit that last year’s cycling activities were not not as diversified as 2009.  Most of the route were along the line of SILK highway, a little bit of LEKAS and Putrajaya. Lets make something new this year. May be we can start with new routes, revisit Sg Long old route (thorough the Kajang Perdana Dragon back). The suggestion box is officially opened so please feel free to chip in your ideas.

The monsoon season is definitely back. We had to cancel Saturday morning ride due to rain and I could say this is going to be the trend at least until March 2011. This will definitely make it hard to plan for long distance rides. It ain’t fun riding in the rain, not with the slick tires.  Not to mention the bikes need to be bathed and scrubbed  especially the drive-train systems.

My new hobby: lomo"nization"

Hmmm... It has been a roller coaster December for me. I've missed few weeks of ride thus far for a number of reasons. There's only so much that can be going right in one's personal life at one time.

As you might imagine, there's a lot to juggle, give attention to, and hope goes well from work, family and self indulgence stand point. Inevitable, not everything can be going well at once. On most year-ends, this is how it tends to go:

• Personal: long school break - vacation, weddings, monsoon season, social visits, going back to hometowns etc
• Work: Next year's business plan and budget preps, finance closure - clearing payments, claims, year end reports, more offsite meetings and the list goes on and on...

It looks like I'm going to have to switch back to YouTube from Vimeo. I noticed that the videos uploaded were not in HD even though their source files had been transcoded into high-end MP4 HD format. There's no doubt that, in my own personal opinion, Vimeo has faster video transcoding rate and slightly better video quality especially in HD.

I gotta wait...on Vimeo

As it turned out, all the limitations of being on a free account became apparent recently such as limited one HD video a week and the waiting line for video transcoding (I find this very "amusing").  I don't know what other limitations will soon appear if I keep using Vimeo's free account. But one thing for sure, ride videos will take longer time to be published and this is not going to work for my plans to share our ride experiences.

I'll need some time to figure out the right decision, drop either one or have a mix of both.
Anyway, I've digressed. Here are the videos:

Date: Saturday, November 13th 2010
Route: Sungai Long
Rider: Zaha, Suhaimi, Farizal and Faizol


Saturday morning, dark clouds loomed over the horizon. There’s and old saying in Malay, “Langit yang mendung tak semestinya hujan” or the direct English translation would sound like “An overcast sky might not necessarily mean rain”.  The ride was on, hope for the best prepare for the worst.

Zaha informed me that the Suhaimi would be joining the ride. After waited for about 20 minutes I decided to start riding my two wheels and hoping that Suhaimi would catch up later at the 2nd RV near the Kajang Perdana's clover leaf. The traffic was a bit busy with the emission polluting the early  morning fresh air.

At the Sungai Long's Toll Plaza