So many things happened in the last couple of weeks. Its interesting to see some new "hupgrades" in the family. It started with Azmi from his Cervello to TREK 2.1. Quite recently Zam Besar had had his Raleigh frame "hupgraded" to half carbon Specialized fame. Yesterday I saw a Giant with a brand new Spinergy Stealth Wheelsets at the a workshop. Little bird told me it's going to be another half-carbon Specialized too.

Okay, I had an upgrade too. I traded my TREK 5900 USPS for a brand new TREK Madone 5.2. I've been dreaming and saving for this bike for quite a while and now I am riding one.

Personally this is the best price point for performance level bike. You'll get Shimano Ultegra groupsets, good frame and a get crappy good Bontrager Race wheels. They are lower level sub one thousand MYR wheels but suprisingly, they still provide great performance. Some suggested that I change the Dura Ace C24 on the TREK 5900 to the new Madone. While it might be not such a bad idea, I'd prefer to ride the Madone as it is. I just want to savor the "smell of a new book".

Both Saturday and Sunday were blessed with sunny morning. Even though there were clusters of moving white clouds hovering above the city, the sky was bright and blue, radiated by the golden-rich light of the sun. Too bad we're still on recovery plan. It would have been nice if did a long distance ride.

It felt great to get back in the saddle after a long break. Last week we only managed to cycle on  Sunday since Saturday was a no show due to the rain.

Friday, September 16th is a public holiday commemorating the establishment of the Malaysian federation, a sovereign nation. Happy Malaysia Day everyone!

Group Photo @ 2nd RV

We missed Saturday ride due to the rain and the weather didn't get any better on Sunday either.

It was gloomy Sunday morning. The road was slightly wet because of the rain in wee hours just before dawn.

You don’t see a lot of movies about cycling races made, perhaps cycling it is  not such a popular genre or less appealing compared other high grossing movies.

The list below is my  all time best cycling movies.

Alhamdulillah, soon Muslims across the world will be celebrating Aidilfitri (Eid Ul Fitri), marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.  CA's and I, would like to seek forgiveness for any offense that might have be done unconsciously through this blog, or when replying to comments.

We wish all of you a meaningful celebration with friends, family and loved ones. For those who are travelling back to hometowns, please be careful and watch out your diet!

We're coming to the last week of the holy month Ramadan and soon we'll be celebrating the Eid Mubarak. During the previous years we used to have night rides on Friday and/or Saturday nights to satiate the addiction to cycling.  This year however we seemed to have chosen to hanged our bikes for a good 4 weeks. That is a one costly long break.

To start back cycling is going to be really tough. The reason being is that when you stop exercising, you are going to lose your muscle, regardless of the amount of hard work and long hours spent on the wheels beforehand. This a one of the common situations that any cycling addicts or enthusiasts pass through at some point in their lives.

While the reasons for long breaks varies and could be due to accidents, domestic problems or just taking a break (while trying to figure out new hobbies), I'm just going to share my thoughts about getting back on bikes after the Ramadan break.

One of the worst thing that could happened during any recovery program is you're hit by another injury while in process of getting back into shape. That happened to me when I participated in the office games,  last Friday, during a tug of war match.

The Sunday’s ride route was Putrajaya. The original ride plan was to ride on the SKVE towards Cyberjaya through the B15 road up until the Putrajaya exit. From here we were supposed to ride through the Persiaran Selatan’s road passing through Desa Pinggiran Putra, climbing the Bukit Wawasan (nickname "The Dreaded Hill" - Bukit Malang) until the Lebuh Perdana Timur exit, heading towards the Diplomatic Precinct.

Since some of us need to get home before 11am, we had to revised the plan to the “Chicken Route”. Instead of cycling to the B15, we cut it short by taking the Putrajaya’s Persiaran Utara and on to the Persiaran Timur, PICC, Dataran Putra and the final destination was the Diplomatic Precinct.

I missed cycling last weekend. Saturday was a false alarm and on Sunday I got wasted.  I missed yesterday's ride due to a domestic problem and today, again it was a close call but managed to ride, yeah!

The Wasted Weekend
Last weekend was a complete mess. It was really cloudy and the ride was called off. A few minutes later, the morning suddenly turned  bright and sunny but it was too late to start cycling.  To make mater worst I went fishing that night and finished at around 3.30am, yes empty handed, the baits were intact. I got home at around 4am and the rest was history.

Man on a Mission...
After a no show yesterday, I was adamant that I'm not going to miss my Sunday ride. I was hoping that the gang would pick a short route like Sungai Long because my fitness sucks.  Missing few rides and my "get-back-that-damn-fitness" was all but so-so thus far were just not going to cut it for long range ride.

When Zaha texted me the ride plan, I was a bit glad but still uncomfortable. It was Pajam. I was glad becuase it was not Mantin. Uncomfortable because Mantin was just 5 Km away from Pajam. It was still a 50-50 plan because it might rain on Sunday and there might not be enough take-ups. I don't know who were the ride crews other than Zaha.

I had a busy evening on Friday filled with back to back adrenalin pumping activities, a speedball game and go kart race with colleague.  I went home exhausted, flat and even missed dinner. I had no idea that waking up on Saturday morning would require an effort. Nonetheless I got to make time for my morning ride.

Saturday route will almost always be the CA Arena. I started late again. Yes, I almost overslept but manage to bring myself out of the bed.  There was nobody there at the 1st RV point so I'd figure the train would have left the station. I continued cycling and true enough I saw two riders about one Km infront of me. At this point I couldn't possibly know who they were so I pressed on but couldn't quite catch them as they consistently rode through hilly roads from the Sungai Chua's cloverleaf all the way to Bukit Kajang.

Which is one is for you MTB or road bike?

From time to time, I have friends, acquaintances and neighbours asking question on what to buy if they wanted to start cycling. Over the years I've developed a keen smell for small talks, serious talks or just trying to start a conversations kind of discussion about cycling.  I'll always try to give the simplest answer to that question but there's no one answer that fits all circumstances.

There are different kind of circumstances that drove them to think that cycling is something that they believe might work for them.  Some people wanted to just exercise or workout. Some wanted to loose some pounds, trimming down the spare tires or ABS wrapped around the waist. Some thought cycling looks cool especially with the team jerseys,  cool shades, weird but funky helmets, clipped shoes and branded bikes.  Some used to do cycling during their younger years and some who cannot run or swim if its to save their life. The worst kind would be the one that don't really know what they want but wanted to give it a try but with high hopes that it might suit them by clinging on somebody who would share their ideas.