Life is just awesome!...going everyday on two wheels.

After years commuting on bicycles to work finally i think life was too perfect for me.  Feel younger, active and just kill 3 or more birds with one stone. Life is very lively.  I loose massive weight, my long pants getting extremely loose..very loose!, have time to enjoy radio control hobby/activity in between, save fuel and money, save traffic headache, save time because i can slip through traffic, had a good sleeping time, wake up late but stay fresh, have time to eat proper home made breakfast and my health is improving plus getting strong leg muscles.  Wow! all these because i'm skipping from drving my car to work and getting on my bicycle...this is so awesome!  Other than that it seems my often presence on local road have become part of familiar appearance among traffic user which is good for me so that they aware that i'm using the same road everyday too.   When the weather is all good with blue sky and white clouds its nice to tour around and enjoy the scenery..just plugin into my MP3 SONY WALKMAN and there goes enjoyment. Sunset always been so beautiful along the coastal area as i'm riding on my way home.  Sometimes if i get hungry i have lots of mobilty opportunity to wonder through several burger stalls, cafes and food stores without worry about parking space problem.  I can also go about wondering my own business without worry time and fuel. 

Another broken sunday!

Never felt so bad  having my Sunday a major drag with pocket to burn later.  Ride in the middle of the jungle miles away from civilization and 'bam!' i got permanently broken drive terrains my mountain bike in the middle of no where. Let see...that was USD$210 shitty Shimano XTR parts gone down the pit this month, rear derailuer, frame drop-out hinges and chains going goodbye.  With almost storm coming in on windy evening i cut the chain short to fit the whole gear into single speed setup so i could continue pedal and a whizz my way miles to the pit stop and drove back home in agony.  Why agony because i expect to spend my budget for computer hardware for my 3D work...mmmmm NVIDIA..... Should have followed my instinct not to ride my MTB yesterday.  On the bright side though i still have my road bike to keep my legs alive this week....i really hate lycra tights.

12 year later, finally i got all my favorite lid!

It maybe an obsolete product from GIRO but it still looks cool and lights years a head of other helmet design, infact my car design inspired from these lids which is why i collect them envy for their design, cooling engineering, aerodynamic and durability. 14 years ago i just a college dude when these lids almost reached 4 figure way beyond my deepest pocket. Slowly year by year i collect each helmet one by one until the final puzzle was found on ebay. The last piece was Giro Switch Blade, a piece of "Courage for my Head" (opss...Its BELL's moto). Today i ride mountain and road bike with these. Strap it on it feels like nothing on your head, just felt so cold and chills on my scalps, now thats what i called Ventilations.

I like it hot and windy

Ah! Just the right day to ride my mountain bike on hot and windy afternoon. The sky is clear blue, cotton clouds, dry trails and life full of nature's energy around me. I keep my pace slow and steady climbing up the hills, not in rush like i used too. As i got aged i don't think i'm willing to put too much competitive speed on the trails like racing around up and down with other riders but to ride as nature tourist sight seeing wonders of nature. Lot of alltitiude ride today as we go high above the sea level overlook carpets of forest canopy. The sea looks glowing gold and the grass just like in the Praire hills as it waved by the winds. I wish this hilly trails was my backyard and months of holidays on my calendar so i could spent most of my happy life more meaning full on earth. After years of riding my dependance on living in urban concrete seems to fade and the trump card within in pull me back to mother nature where human used to dwell as habitat. But that doesn't mean being i can't integrate myself with modern world. Thankfully we still got internet connectivity and portable everyday technology behind our bag to keep us updated everywhere we go.

My speed collection

Well i decided to show my land machine annual portrait. A new comer just entered into my life...the white road stallion..its a MERIDA. Now i got two buddies to fill my cheerful weekend and keep health and human performance top notch. My mountain bike already had enough dna upgrade and soon the road bikes will get her too soon. I'll try get some carbon goodies and stuff to keep it 7kg and below. I hope my body weight doesn't bog the machine down. I would probably get an ULTEGRA upgrade and CAMPAGNOLO wheels or a MAVICs but not until all the part got worn out under over use. I do hope i could do that by end of this year since my cycling intensity doubled each week. For the last 3 week road bikes seem to be the ultimate speed machine that keep my legs feels like bionic. Drop mine 3kg per week except when someones keep cooking some good food.

Smacked!

Check it out, a fly got smacked to its death upon high speed collision fly vs my mountain bike with its back wing smacked below my crank. It must have been i've cycling beyond 85km/h and the fly got head-on on the road. RIP little bro. That was not the first time. There used to be some bugs, grasshopper, and some unfortunate little creature that is crossing my path ended become goo on my bike.

Bike in good hands

When it comes to professional bike maintenance and bike damage recovery theres only one man i look up to...its Mr. Syariff my very very old best mountain biking buddies whom weve been together riding for 15 years. All i can say his bike maintenance and fixing skills is second to none and can fix a dead bicycle out of nothing with minimal tools and resources. When he get it done its 100% the bike will be very much in fresh new condition and best top notch performance. It took him only a day to completely fix every corner of the bike to perfection which left me awe in amazement when i tried it late at night for a test drive. Wow! perform far better than a new bike! kudos! I'm proud to be his buddy.

Rain 48Hour!

Just when i was about to kick my day off riding my mountain bike the clouds in the sky seems to watch my move and spoil my mood. This week i'm not in the mood getting wet but i'm very much firey getting back on my bike and do some urban stunts and get my muscles all heated. January shouldn't have rainning. I blame the world heavy industrial for changes in the weather aka "Global Warming". It really changes the world climate drastically. Go ride bicycle people.

Let race, mud, rain and crashes, mtb to the extreme.

Its saturday, i woke up as early as 4,.30am to prepare myself for today mountain bike race. Surprise to see on my windows the rain drops like cats and dogs, I'm sure the race track already flooded and muddy. I skip bath fear i may degrade my muscles due to cold tempreature and just brushed my teeth and head for heavy breakfast with some cereal, bundles of banana, eggs and hot milo. 1 hour before departure i tune my bike and remove unnecesary items on my bike such as pump, spares, bolts, holder, bottle cage as last resort to lighten the bike. Then i packed my gear, put on my car and the drove to the race venue at the peak of highest hill beside the public park along the airport road.

Upon reaching there everyone clinging together under the roof as rains still pour down madly, Gushy flow of water started to flood the soil and roads. I can feel the ground going to soft to walk around. Me and my buddies made a quick 1 lap ride to test overall condition on the track along 3.5km length per-loop. The condition was very poor, slippery, muddy, soft, and some critical part are heavily flooded almost reaching our knees.

Back at the race pit i've reunited with dozen of old buddies whom we used to be in the same national mountain biking teams since the early 90's who flew from Kuching and Bintulu city for the race. Other power rival come from Brunei country who also come to compete. 5 minutes before starting time at 7.45am we gather ourself down the hill where the staring lines for Open category flag off. Open category have around more than 30 riders to fight for top 10 position, i have to arrange a quick strategy how to keep up with them.

The air horn from the track mashall sound off and at split second we sprint all the way to the top and along with huge angry crowds of racer trying to get the front lead as we squeezed ourself into the wet muddy and slippery bushes and jungle. For the first 3 laps the brakes works ok as we going up and down, plunge into high speed downhills, over the big rocks, smashing into pool of flood drain, down the steep muddy downhills, zig zaging into muddy and narrow jungle trails, down the hills again, back to the main tar road towards the starting line for another continuous loop. Howevery my first lap going to the last steep downhills wasn't perform well as i skidded and hit into my friend's read bike who happen to recover from crashes, i crashed over the bar after hitting his rear tire and me flying into the side of deep trenches. The soils along the downhill quickly eroded due to rain and constant scrapped from other racers tires which is why its no longer suitable to ride through. I quickly got up, grab my bike and continue to push towards the next trails where i'm on the safe zone and then start to pedal again to catch up with other. Behind me people started to push their bike down the hill as it now a danger zone after witness several crashes at the same spot. A friend of mine from Bintulu break the record for the best freak crash fly over the bar landed directly down the most deepest hole downhill. My first 5 lap was easy to catch up with other and manage to overtake a few rides especially going up the "lung popping" up hill rides and narrow slippery muddy trails in the bushes where people tends to slow down to catch a breath and put their guards down from behind. I try to keep my stamina long by using the high ratio torque gear to keep my leg easy without killing my stamina thus easier to overtake competitor going up the hills. Thankfully this technique i learn ver much from my 2nd R/C hobbies which emphasize the technique conserving energy through the use of high torque gearing.



After overtaking handfull of riders i felt i'm now i'm at very safe distance from other rider behind me but not yet confident to secure top ten yet as i haven't met my potential rival infront of me. However along the way few top riders especially local ones withdrawn earlier as they couldn't handle the racing stress. Slowly as i pedal again on the next lap i manage to catch up handfull of powerful rival who seems to look very tiring and depressing when climbing up the hill, their zig zagging way to climb up the hill indicates they already out of energy and here my changes to overtake them and leave no gap to chase until they have no psychological motivation to chase me anymore. As i enter back into the jungle the race marshall indicates i have few laps to go and mentioned the minus -2 laps due to unsuitable condition to run longer laps.

The rain drop getting more heavy each seconds, my field of view getting obstructed with watery sap around my eyes. Both front and rear brake not functioning with totally no means to brake and i have 2 last lap to go as i shouted at the race marshall at the check point for my lap count which confirm i have 2 more last lap to go. The race become more intense as everyone started to push last minutes struggle for last lap. My Camelback have few litter of quick digestable sugary water to consume for my muscle recovery and energy which i suck up last minutes to keep the energy bounced up. The mouthpiece to suck up the water all covered with heavy mud but still i have to much it to squit some water along with mud into mu intestine. ewww!!. My pedalling speed doubles and to stop at every dangerous corners and downhill i have to use my shoes to rub against the rear tire for braking effect, my other method is either ram through the bushes,sticky mud or "U" swing to do last minutes braking without loosing speed, distance and time. The heavy rains already turn overall track into pool of muds which is impossible to pedal under certain circumstances, I have to push and run to escape from the mud and manage to by pass another handfull of rider who are down on sticky trails. Some i saw lying lifelessly beside the trails.

After climbing up the hill again the race marshall who logged our lap at tent shouted "004! Last lap!". I say "WHAT!?"..Again handfull of official shouted: "004!!, last lap! last lap!!". Oh yes!!! last lap! my heart are pounding like mad. I shift my gear like crazy finding the optimal pedalling pedal to push the bike at top speed as i zig zag along the trails for the last time. I sprint and pushes my muscle to the limit feared someone might catch up behind me. As i exit into the open streets before the 2nd entrance into the jungle via wooden ramp i manage to take a glimpse up the hill where i went down minutes ago, few riders aspecially my rival stared to chase me which estimated 40 seconds behind me. So i went into the secondary jungle, ride, push through the mud, down the hills, speeding into the open plains, then down again passing the pond, overtaking few more slower riders and then back to the tar road leading up to the finishing line. Suddently saw few rider started to slow down up the hill, i decided to push my pedalling to the max under the heavy rain, i can feel my lung ballooning like crazy try to gasp some air, almost caught up behind him, he went toward the finish line about few yards, people are shouting, i can feel the tension, i looked behind me are few trying too. At the end i manage to step into the finishing line like stepping into world of freedom, heaven!.. Pain! but glad its all over. The war is over. My throat dried up, i quickly sat beside the road try to keep my heartbeat low. I thought i was somewhere below 10th position but after the lady race official checked through the list of open category log she confirm to me twice "Yes! you're on 9th position!" . Yes!!! top 10, but ouch that was my ultimately worst record in my racing career. I never been somewhere below at 9th. Thats bad. However, its better than nothing.

Overall everyone finished their laps at mid 11am, i've reunited back with my riding buddies, went over the tent for heavy lunch and had a good chat about the race and old time stories. Cold, dirty, muddy and wet but i'm happy to completely finish the race as it has been almost 3 years i haven't joined any race. Good thing we're all still kicking with some dirt power. Yeah. The next day we should attend the prize giving ceremony. What a day,

Race Registration

At 6.00pm everyone already flocked to our friends bike shop for registration and briefing. I took my race plate number "004", free L size T-shrit and gather around with other listening for instruction for tomorrow race protocol.