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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.


Saturday, November 6th 2010
Route: Sungai Long (28.6Km)
Time on wheels: 1h15m
Riders: Suhaimi, Zaha, Faizol
At the Sungai Long's Toll Plaza
Suhaimi called me at around 7.30am asking about my location. To be honest, I told him that I’d be late (overslept actually). I was a bit shocked to know that he started cycling at 6.45am and was already at the the Sungai Long toll plaza. 


Bounded by the pledge I made to myself not to miss weekend cycling under any circumstances with the exception of bad weather, sudden visit by parents or in-laws, alien stole my bike or dog ate my tires to oblivion, I cranked up my two wheels at 30-35 KM/h passing through the Sungai Ramal, Bukit Kajang burning all my NOS in the tank. 
Darn, this HD video making is tedious. It's nice to have but a bit complicated to produce.

Riding and video recoding at the same time is a challenging task. The technique however is still a "trade secret". The biggest problem has always been managing the level of vibration, in other word how to keep a steady shot.  The camera setting has to be right before the ride.

Splitting the video has an impact on the page-view and time spent on page. I'd prefer to have all the content in one go but due to the video transcoding and time-consuming uploding process, the video posting will have to come in later. 

Anyway here are the videos taken during the ride. You're going to have to click on the "read more" link to view the video list. For some strange reason the jump-break function does not allow embedded video to be viewed on the landing page.

Here are the videos in sequential order.

UPDATE: I've created an alternative channel on Vimeo for the HD videos. Here's the link:http://vimeo.com/channels/cyclingaddicts

Date: October 31st 2010
Route: Putrajaya-Cyberjaya
Distance: 53.38KM
Time on wheels: 2H10m
Riders: Najib, Zack, Zam (Kechik), Farizal, Suhaimi (MieTador), Romzi and Faizol
Bailed: Zaha, Saipol



Thank God it was a sunny Sunday morning. I was looking forward for this ride since Saturday was a now show due to the torrential downpour. Zam (Kechik), Zack, Najib and started from the Sungai Balak RVP (Rendezvous Point), while Suhaimi and Romzi waited for us at Petronas station near the LLM. Zaha bailed for an unknown reason, Saipol was “expected” and no status update from Farizal.

While passing through the Sungai Ramal flyover, we saw Farizal riding alone heading towards the Petronas Station from the Bandar Baru Bangi underpass. We rendezvous with Suhaimi and Romzi at the station. A few minutes later Bob who was on his way to the Rodalink Putrajaya launch ride stopped by for a quick chat before heading to the Diplomatic Precinct.

We're supposed to do Sungai Merab-Putrajaya but unfortunately it was a torrential downpour on Saturday. Still hopeful I waited for the rain to subside but it kept on pouring until about 9.30am. The monsoon season  is back and so does long list of wedding invitations. Yes, the long school break is just around the corner. The plus side however, for some strange reason, the traffic will be less congested.

Since the ride has been cancelled, I decided to check out Rodalink outlet at Precinct Diplomatik, Putrajaya. I think it's a pretty smart idea to open a branch here. The city has the mass and almost everyday you can see people riding bikes especially at night and on weekends.
After toiling since May 2010, CA's blog revamp project has finally been completed. It wasn't as easy as I had expected in the beginning. It was time consuming and up to a point daunting especially when facing complicated script errors. I was lucky enough to have kept a few backups as roll-back plans.

Next revamp will happen in a year time....err maybe two. Thank you for your support and patience.

Date:October 24th 2010
Route: Sungai Long
Riders: Zack, Zam Besar, Nizam & Faizol

The original plan was to ride to Mantin. Due to certain circumstances, I had to do Sg Long instead. Zaha, Farizal and Cikgu Sham however continued with the plan.

Wet Sunday ride...
It was a dark and windy Sunday morning with loads of nimbus clouds hovering over Kajang, Putrajaya and Semenyih. It already started to drizzle lightly when Nizam and I cycled our way to the Sungai Balak RV where we met up with Zack and Zam Besar.

We continued cycling through the SILK highway up until the Sungai Ramal toll plaza where we made a brief stop to check if Cikgu Sham was there. We then continued cycling and took a quick "bio-break" at Bukit Kajang's toll.

Here you go guys, the videos in HD.

It took me while to get this done. It's a lot more complicated than a MotionJPEG video like we used to have. The whole process of encoding the videos into MP4 files and uploading them to YouTube is an effort by itself but its worth it.

The breathtaking view while coasting downhill shared in HD. I hope you guys enjoy watching them as much as I enjoy recording them.

Note: The video parts are a bit confusing. I'll fix this later.

Video #1: Coasting downhill from the Peak



Video #2: Coasting downhill from the last hill after Sungai Long's Toll


Video #3: Cycling through the SILK highway towards Sungai Ramal


Video #4: Cycling through the Cheras flyover heading towards Cheras Jaya
Route: Sungai Long
Riders: Zack, Farizal, Zaha, Suhaimi, Nizam and Faizol

Its a gloomy and Saturday morning. This time around I brought my brother (in Law) Nizam who’s studying in UPNM to join the ride.Zack and Farizal were there at the 1st RV when we arrived. We hit the road shortly afterwards and rode casually through Sungai Ramal, Bukit Kajang and made a quick stop at the 2nd RV where we regrouped with Zaha.

After a brief stop at the clover leaf, we continued to ride until the Sungai Long’s toll plaza to regroup with Suhaimi who came from Cheras. 




This one missed the boat. It's shot during the Meriday Ride while coasting downhill from the peak.

I decided not to do the "AudioSwap" and keep the original background sound. This way you get to share the exhilaration of coasting downhill from Sungai Long's highest peak.


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.


It's already 7.00am and it's a gloomy Sunday morning. Did a final check on my bike especially the pressure, drivetrain and brakes  for safety and piece of mind while cycling.

The Sungai Long route has evolved in the span of  2 to 3 years. Back in 2007 when I started cycling with Farizal and Saipol, we used to cycle via Saujana Impian through Kajang Perdana, Sungai Jelok and took the exit to Sungai Long after the last "bastard" hill.  This route was fun and hilly but the road conditions were bad as there were many pot holes and sandy road edges. The traffic was the worst part as there were lots of big trucks carrying all sorts of dirts from the near by area. 
@ the Second RV

Date: October 9th 2010
Route: Sungai Long
Riders: Dr. Azlan, Sham Discovery, Farizal, Zaha, Shamsul, Romzi, Suhaimi and Faizol

"Syawal" is officially over but there are people who still host open houses. There’s no telling when this event will subside. I hope we can do a ride to Mantin sometime  next week.

It was a rather lovely sunny Saturday Morning. Its just too bad we couldn't do a long distance ride.
The route is simple enough, the Sungai Long dragon back route.  We (Sham Discovery, Dr. Azlan and I) started off with a pretty decent speed at 26-28 KM/h while on the 0 Km.  Just to quench the curiosity, the 0 km starts from Sungai Long RV up until the Sungai Chua clover leaf's peak.

My dream bike, the TREK Madone 5.2

So what is the best road bike out there? Which brand? Full carbon-half carbon or alloy? Italian or American made (Well...most of the lines except for the really high-end are made in Taiwan or China anyway). Some even say the group set is the key differentiator.
 Group photo @ the 2nd RV.
Route: Sungai Long
Riders (from left): Zaha, Farizal, Romzi, Zack, Najib, Cikgu Sham, Syam, Azmi Cevello and Dr. Azlan

Last Saturday evening I received a text from Cikgu asking if there was a ride plan on Sunday. Given the current variables, the monsoon season, long list of  open houses and weddings, it's a bit difficult to plan a ride in advance especially for long distance.

Missing the Sunday ride would be a blow to my fitness recovery plan as as I already missed Saturday's due to "undisclosed reason".  The ride was set and it's Sungai Long, the safe plan. The thing about this route is that its easily guesstimated with a slight degree of variations.

Sourced from GoPro website: Handle bar mountable camera,
Gadget lust is something of a phenomenon nowadays as proven by Apple's Iphone 4 recent launch quite recently by our local telcos and soon the much anticipated Ipad. Hard to say which is what and why but is pretty much like buying the "lifestyle" instead of just the product.  The were people who queued up at "ungodly" hours just to get their hands on this "magical" device.

It's amazing how strong the brand loyalty is. The widely discussed Iphone 4's "AntennaGate" issue has not deterred the "die-hard" fans from buying it. Even when they knew that Apple is coming out with the "white" Iphone 4 that is supposed to fix the current antena design defect. This scenario reminds me of a law called the Diffusion of Innovation. According to this law, we all sit at the different timescale such as the innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards (the last ones to adopt anything, in fact the reason why these sets of people buy dial-tone phones is because they couldn't find the rotary phones anymore).  I guess it safe to say that those who bought the Iphone 4  are in the 1st and 2nd categories.

But I digressed.

From left: Doc Azlan, Zam Besar, Zaha, Saipol, Farizal and Zam Kechik

What a Raya week... I hope everyone enjoyed your Aidilfitri break. I'm pretty sure there were dramas when all the siblings congregate and met each other in both fashionable and unfashionable manner.  Either way, good, bad, regretful or memorable moments happening around us are just part and parcel of life. Lets forgive, forget and move on. Yeap move on...

After a week long marathon of stuffing the ketupat, lemang, rendang, sate, kuah kacang, laksa, mee kari and the list goes on and on, its time to burn the calories stocks and reduce the spare tire.

Dear CAs, Friends and Followers,

Wishing all of you Salam Aidilfitri and Maaf Zahir Batin. For those driving back to your hometowns, please remember to drive safe and have a pleasant journey.

We wish you a safe and enjoyable celebration. Just remember not to over-whack the lemang, ketupat and rendang and practice "eating safe" as well.

Here's a "classic" Raya song during the 80s. I don't know if it is just me but I find that majority of the new raya songs fail to lift the raya spirit and ambience.  Retro rules!



Have Fun and Selamat Hari Raya!



Dear CAs and friends,

We are now on Facebook. The move has nothing to do with being fancy but just creating another channel for us to communicate and sharing thoughts. Please feel free to drop by and click the "Like" button to follow us.

For the time being we will still be using the long address as we need to have at least 20 followers before Facebook allows us to have our own vanity URL.

Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CyclingAddicts/104488369611964

Yatta!
Bob sedang rancak bercerita...


Date: August 20th 2010
Route: Precint Diplomatik-PICC-Bukit Wisma Putra-Precint Diplomatic
Riders: Zack & Gang, Bob & Gang, Zam Kechik, Romzi, Suhaimi (Mitador), Zaha & Faizol
License not Approved: Saipol

The ride was On and it was a big one for me. The was not set but there were a lot of excitement from the crews. The news of the ride spread fast. What started from the chatter box brought together  close to a dozen dudes to wear the tights on the cool breezing night.

 @ Kajang Perdana Clover Leaf


I apologise for the lateness of this post. It has been a crazy few months with no signs of up to the neck To-Do list subsiding any time soon. Any way I'd like to wish all a blessed Ramadan. For some of us, the ride is still on be it at night or late in the evening casual ride around the neighbourhood. Either way, keep it up, burn some extra fat during while maximising the burn rate or whatever that means.


Group photo at the basecamp

Yes folks I did the white-river rafting at Kuala Kubu Baru (KKB) on Saturday, August 7th 2010!

I’ve done this before back when I was still in secondary school. Back then we built our own raft with odd stuffs like banana blocks tied together with rubber bladders or tubes from truck tires and cars as well. The raft was pretty solid but had their limitations. Let’s just say that we usually ended up using the bladders or tubes as PLDs (Personal Floating Device) after running through few rapids.

Group Photo @ Sungai Long's Peak

Ok Folks, this is it. I'm posting something from the past. This ride was on sunny Sunday, May 23rd 2010. I just wanted to make clear that my recent state of hiatus has nothing to do with me hanging or selling my bike. My USPS TREK 5900 OCLV 110 is still intact, lying dormant, waiting to burn rubbers before the fasting month.

Well for the record , this has been the longest sabbatical ever to date. The thing is, It's not just the series of domestic problems but a combination of few things which I'm not particularly incline to divulge.

One thing for sure, to start riding back is so damn hard.


No one in this world are born to write a perfect condolence message. Of course, part of the reason is because things like this doesn’t happen most of the time. Unfortunately, we do have to face this problem once in a while.

Today, It is with the great sorrow that we learn the death of Abang Man and I struggled to find inspiration to write this condolence note. He left us his passion for cycling, his kindness, jokes, humility and above all a great friendship.

We extend our condolence to his family. May his soul rest in eternal peace and may Almighty give his family the strength to bear this irreplaceable loss.

Amen..

I has been 2 month since my last post. Have no fear my friends for I'll be back on the wheels! Only this time I'll be chubbier than before but still faster than MiTador!

Yatta!
Are you reading the same contents in our blog for the past 2 months??? Me too. This is because Faizol aka blogger/reporter/journalist was either unable to rode, on school holiday/vacation, domestic problem or unreachable when I tried to contact him.


Faizol aka blogger/reporter/journalist


How about others?? Yes. We ride as usual on weekend.
Even as we rode on weekend for the past 2 months, I was not updating our activities regularly since I'm not a good story teller/writer/reporter. Besides, I don't have any riding pictures to sharing with.


17/7/2010

Saturday's Sg Long route ride was a boring ride. Farizal and myself was the only members to shown. Abg ManTador just start pedaling while we already reached and waiting for him at RV point @ Kajang Perdana. Farizal and myself decided to continue riding without waiting for Abg Man and headed for usual roti canai at Tmn Sutera. We finished our roti canai before 9.30am and start pedaling back home. Wow... That was early. As for Abg Man... sorry for left you behind.

18/7/2010

I received sms from MieTador on 8.30pm Saturday night asking for Sunday's ride plan. Immediately I texed to all Cycling Addicts members. Route: Putrajaya-Cyberjaya-PICC is on. RV point at Petronas Ikram @ 8.15am.

When I reached at RV@Petronas before 8.15am, Farizal, Zam "Besar", Zam "Kecik", Abg Man, Wan & Ah Meng already waiting for me. Where is MieTador??? He's running late again... We decided to continue without him as the sun start rising. While we catching our breath below the flyover near Cyberjaya, MieTador called asking our current location. He was riding with Romzi and already reaching PICC tried to chasing us. We decided to met at Mamak Restaurant @ Presint Diplomatik. We continue pedaling to Presint Diplomatik via PICC and Persiaran Selatan/Timur. Abg Man was struggling while climbing "Bukit Malang" as the other members are waiting for him at the top of the hill. Just a little advise for Abg Man... start practising high cadence and avoid big gears. After regrouping we continue heading to our meeting point @ mamak restaurant as Mie and Romzi already waiting with empty stomach. Everybody's having a heavy refuel at Mamak except Ah Meng who just sipping Teh O Limau and some power stick. We continue cycling via Kg Abu Bakar Baginda and was split at Sg Ramal heading back home.


Zam "Kecik", Farizal, Zam "Besar", Wan
No.. we did'nt wait for "ganti tiub" services to come as we already have our spare tube ready in our saddlebag



Abg Man showing his sore feet to Ah Meng. The remedy... power stick & power pipe


p/s:
Another few weekend to go before Ramadhan/Bulan Puasa/Fasting Month

Right now, this is my passion. My USPS TREK 5900 


Passion is what fuels the best of what we do. It’s that tireless drive to do something that we feel matters that will bring us forward in so many ways. Whether you're into road biking or mountain biking, fixed gear or freeride, be true to your passion.

Life doesn’t have "undo move" or "do -over" button. When we get old, things get taken away from us. That's part of life. But you only learn about it when you start losing staff. You'll find out that life is about the will to fight for what you believe in or love, just like how Al Pacino had eloquently put it in the movie Any Given Sunday, life is a game of inches. The inches we need are every where around us, the cubic centimeters of chance that differentiate between truly living your life or just passing time. If we are going to have any life anymore it's because we are willing to fight for that inch.


The title sounded like Danzel Washington's Man on Fire (2004), one of many favourite movies of mine.  But this weekend ride was not about a body guard  who went out to hunt everyone involved in the kidnapping of his client's little girl. It's about Man"Tador" making a comeback after the Mantin-Ladu Interstate Ride. "The Man on Fire" is the most apt description there is to describe Bro Man's appearance that had everyone at Sungai Balak toll awed in amazement.


I almost forgot about the sunny Sunday ride on May 2nd. Anyway, better late than never.

Farizal proposed to do Putrajaya route on Sunday but due to poor response we had to settle for Sungai Long instead and that's why we love this route. Its a mystical bond, unexplainable, something that one cannot fathom except for the Addicts. This is our home field, our sacred arena. But then again, this is unequivocally the easiest route.

Salam Gang,

*UPDATED*


Below is the propose route for our coming Sunday Ride as requested by Suhaimi aka Mitador.

Propose date: 9/5/2010
Total distance: Approx 55km
Terrain: Lots of climbing especially around Sg Merab area.
Propose refuel stall: Presint Diplomatik/Kg Abu Bakar Baginda

Let's discuss this route at our chatter box.




For Saturday ride: Sg Long 1 1/2 Loop with 1/2 loop in reverse climbing of Big Mac
From left: Zaha, Farizal, Romzi, Faizol, Mitador(Suhaimi) Saipol, Ah Meng, Zam & Syamsul.
P/S: Too bad the camera timer was preset, otherwise I would have set it to 30 sec and see how many of us can hold our tummies breaths.  posers!

It's already 1st of May 2010. For all labours out there, happy labour's day!

Hard to tell how far the wheels would roll. So far we've added additional flavour on the weekend ride menu. A dash of variety wouldn't hurt would it? To much of Sungai Long route is not good for the fun factor either  but it all depends on individual  "domestic" schedules.

From left: Suhaimi, Zam (Besar), Syamsul, Ah meng, Razi, Faizol, Zack, Bro Man, Farizal, Wan, Zam (kechik) and Romzi
Location: Bukit Kajang Toll (SILK)

Prelude

There was no solid plan for Sunday.  There’s this seed idea on doing a ride to Mantin last week but generally most of us were a little hesitant due to few factors but the crazy hot weather was the mother of all reasons. The horrid time we had to go through during the ride to Pajam was still fresh on our minds.

I find this situation as very odd. At times during a ride, while under immense conditions (searing sun and headwinds), I felt like throwing my bike off a cliff or just ditch it on the road site. The LEKAS hell can bring the beast in you yet after the ride you yearn for more...One thing for sure, if you’re riding at 12 noon on LEKAS, you’d be running on adrenalin.

From left: Ah Meng, Sham, Zam (Besar), Farizal, Bro Man, Zaha and Faizol
Note: I seriously have any idea why this picture has a huge watermark on it...

The Prelude
Zaha texted me on Saturday that the gang wanted to do the Putrajaya route. An interesting choice indeed. Bro Man would have had something to do with this decision. All of us knew how much he loved this route.

From Left: Farizal, Sham, Syamsul, Bro Man (Penasihat) Zack, Suhaimi and Zaha


It’s gloomy Saturday morning. Received a text message from Zaha on Friday evening that said “Sungai Long saja”.  It's hard to tell how many will be riding on Saturday as some of our friends are working and some have fixed domestic problem. So this week we’re going Dutch again.


Finally Saipol is sharing some of his actions with us. He gave me a call yesterday asking me to upload some pictures taken from last Sunday ride somewhere near Broga. 

Riders From Left: Ah Meng, Wan, Zam (Kecik), Li, Zam (Besar), Faizol, Farizal
Marshall: Razi


Going Dutch
Dutch Treat, Dutch Date and Going Dutch are variations of a common term for a slang, indicating that each person participating in a shared activity pays for himself or herself, rather than any one person paying for anyone else. Of course weekend ride has nothing to do with anyone paying anything but it describe the situation of late. Everyone went out at different times hoping to get lucky and met up with other riders. It seemed that no body was coordinating Sunday rides and everyone went "Dutch Treat".

@Sungai Long's hill

It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The sky was blue and it was not as windy as Saturday where at some point the gushing winds blew like the speed of 60-70km/h (just my gut feel).

To be honest, I'm not really a fan of afternoon rides for a few reasons. One, the traffic is busier. Two, it definitely is hotter hence I usually get dehydrated faster and  three, the air is less fresh in the afternoon. But given the challenges of both domestic and work related commitments, afternoon ride does look as a better option compared to not riding at all,  provided that it doesn't rain.

@ the Pit Stop near Bandar Sg. Long

Honestly, It's frustrating to miss weekend rides. But sometimes thats the way it is. Its something that one can plan but circumstances may change.

This reminds me of James Clavell’s Shogun. The part where back in Anjiro, Mariko was telling Anjin-San (Blackthorne) not to worry about the future. That the Japanese lived a simple life. Tomorrow doesn’t exist, only today, now.  In someway the line does make sense but its a matter of thoughts.



It was late Friday evening and the sky was dark, rumbling with lightning and thunder. From my house, I could see dark clouds over Putrjaya and KL.

I quickly texted Farizal asking him if he was still keen on PCM. The answer I received was just baffling and confusing. Instead of a simple yes or no, he answered me in a perplexing manner...something about KL was already raining and Putrajaya might just had a rain splash... Hmmm still persistent...So I told Zaha the plan was still on....regardless...


I am 3 minutes down my best time on Sungai Long route, an obvious degradation of fitness. It's something that needs remedy and it's a simple one...Do Not Miss Weekend Ride for this shall be my mantra...

I usually don't prefer to ride on Friday morning should holiday break fall on it but considering the fact that Farizal had given Saipol his word that we'll ride when the chance comes, I just couldn't bail out.

This time around Saipol was the Ride Master for Friday ride(the one who arrange the ride plan and send invites). After a string of well coordinated psychological campaign to lure him back to road,  I think we've nailed it guys, Saipol is back and on fire.... YeeeeHawwww!


VID00037.MP4 -- Powered by Team Shack

Link: Visit team Radio Shack site


Read the blog entry here
I was contemplating of getting a roller or trainer but couldn't make up my mind on which one to choose as both are distinctly different and come with their specific benefits.

Based on brief research from the internet, there are a few differences that one should consider before purchasing a roller or trainer. Which one to buy really depends on one;s goals for using them. If you want to work on spinning technique and base fitness, go for rollers. If you want variable resistance workouts that require lots of power, go for a trainer.

I tried the trainer for a week or two and to be honest, it was too noisy that it drew out my neighbors to look for the source of buzzing noise that had unknowingly caused their pets (cats) to become distressed. Anyway I never do like indoor stuff...

Here's one of the video of a cool bike on roller action I spoke about last Saturday.


Saturday @ Clover Leaf

Yes, Like the title, I felt like a newbie starting to ride again after 3 weeks. It's like a Dejavu... where did I hear this again?

Things have been pretty hectic these couple months. Hopefully March would be better as things have started to settle down a bit hence we can all enjoy our weekend cycling like we used to. Don't let the nice sunny and warm weekend morning go to waste...let's burn the rubber to Mantin this weekend!... ada berani?


Sunny Sunday!

It's January and already the schedules and tight deadlines are falling into places. 2009 was undoubtedly was a fast paced year, I doubt that his year is going to be any different.

Saturday, Jan 23rd:
I did a solo ride of the Sg. Long route. Started a bit late as my kids had "Ko-Ko" day at their school and they started as early as 7.30am. I had to drop them off at 7.15AM.

"Ko-Ko" day? Back in the old days, at least during my school time it's called "Ko-K" [pronounced: ko-kay].

Ok folks, we have ourselves here a proposal, the broga jantan loop.

Looks pretty tough here. The RV is Tekala Recreational Park. For those who had tried this loop, please share with the rest on the ride plan.

It's this route, Mantin or dubel lup. Decision decision decision.


Climbing the Sg. Long hills

There weren't any solid ride plan to start with. The uncertain weather condition wasn't helping either.

Saturday, Jan 16th 2010:

Anyway...Saturday 17th ride was a refreshing one. I started a bit late from Sg. Balak Toll Plaza at around 7.50am. Farizal and Zaha were already on their way to our usual assembly area near the Kajang Perdana clover leaf.

From there Farizal suggested that we cycle to Putrajaya via the Lebuh Timur Route. It has been a while since our last ride via this route. The traffic was a bit busy while the weather was a little bit hot and humid.

We cycled our way at around 30-33KM/H via the SILK, SKVE towards Putrajaya and through to PICC via Persiaran Timur's road. We came across Man CIOCC's clan who were about to cycle to Jln Limau Manis near Sungai Merab.

We parted ways soon after a brief chat and photo session and continued through Precint 2 and straight to Precint Diplomatic for a pit stop. After refueling we cycled through Jalan Ayer Hitam back to Kajang.

Finally, I started cycling again after 1 month off.

From the outset, last weekend was meant to be a warm up rides. Started the Sg. Long route with casually and tried to catch up different paces as much as possible. Overall it went well except for the climbing part where I struggled in that department a bit. I guess its just natural when you don't ride for a while.

Sunday ride was merrier as Farizal (recuperating with injured foot while "MTB"ing with Saipol), Zack, Zam, Zaha and Saipol joined the ride.

As 2009 passed by, we welcome 2010 with new hopes and yes we still haven't done the PD ride. Last year was not that all disappointing but yes the thought of Beppe who rode alone injured with his heavy bike and aged at 63 said it all. The will was absent, we just don't have the mojo.

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About

Cycling Addicts is a blog mainly about cycling. My cycling posse consists of average folks who love cycling on weekends and public holidays. This is our ride journal.

We mostly do road rides in Kajang, Hulu Langat, Inter-state and Putrajaya.

This site is still work in progress. There's a lot to be done to enhance this site to give it a fresh new look and experience. So bear with me.

Mata-ne!

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