Rogue Rider - projek Bagan Lalang, part 1

Is it possible?

Commuting guru and Brompton God Ng Chor Guan told me that he had done a 200km ride..

I'm not sure whether his attempt was a one-way ride or a return trip.

I've done 150km, it wasn't easy.

Seeing that it was feasible, I gave it a shot.

It was a cool morning, I started late (which proved to be a grave mistake) and headed out towards my planned route.

I was to ride from my home in USJ 26 to Bagan Lalang and back.

When I plotted the route on Google maps, it was a clean 100km single-journey ride.

If you have a GPS log to track your ride, then its verifiable.

I am not sure if Guan had logged his on a cyclometer, which is inaccurate at most times. But I would never doubt his sincerity on this.

Ride hard, Ride far, or Die..

This was to be my second solo ride.

I did it the first time from my home to Jugra Lama. It was enjoyable.

The road to Banting was paved with danger.

There are inconsiderate drivers on the road, trailers that could sweep you up and make a pile of minced meat out of you.

So, its either you, or the trailer.

I set out at 9am in the morning. The sky was gloomy. It was a good day to ride.

Half-way reaching Kota Kemuning, I noticed that my Ashima PCB disk brake was dragging.

Even after bleeding it, the problem was apparent.

In our weather, the Ashimas are useless.

The road to Banting

A detour

I had a decision to be made.

Either scrap the journey, or head to Bandar Botanic to get the bike fixed.

The option was clear. 

Even with the brake drag, I can't get home without losing lots of energy.

So, I picked the option of getting the bike fixed.

I knew the store supervisor EK at Rodalink Klang. He's good.

So, to get the bike on the road, I had to first remedy the brake problem.

I am not sure if the guys at Rodalink are capable of doing it, but hey, no risk, no gain...

While the boys were tending to my bike, I had the chance to fill up my tummy.

Its the wantan mee at a corner coffee shop behind Rodalink that made my day! 

Wantan mee for the soul...

Catching up...

I utilised the down-time in Klang to chat up with EK.

He told me that since the Tern bicycles were launched at the Rodalink in Bandar Botanic, they have been receiving plenty of requests for the Verge P18.

Seems that my 'first impression' preview had generated some interest.

Its a shame that Le Run or K2 Asia depends solely on their customers to do their work.

If the marketing people there have half the brains, they would be aggressively selling their Tern bicycles instead of using the local cycling magazines...

I hope that they will deliver when the Terns arrive in March this year.
Yeah, I am still sore about being used, abused and conned into helping these buggers!

We talked a bit, and I wished EK all the best.. 

Kuala Selangor - Sabak Bernam - Kuala Selangor ride part 1

At Tanjung Karang before the rain

I had to call off a ride two weeks earlier from Tanjung Karang to Sungai Besar.
Citing exhaustion as the main cause, my wife was not in a shape for a long-haul ride.
Barely days into the weekend, I came up with a diabolical plan.
A surefire way of hitting the magical '100' on your bicycle's trip meter.
The plan was to cycle from Kuala Selangor to Sabak Bernam and back.
So, with adequate rest, we did just that on Saturday.
Why Kuala Selangor?
There's ample parking on a weekend and its also easier to get supplies like water and food in this town.
We worked our way to Kuala Selangor from our home in Subang Jaya and arrived there at 7am.
After we set up our bikes, we hit the road and the first landmark was the Kuala Selangor bridge leading towards Pasir Penambang.
The journey to Tanjung Karang is roughly about 14.3km (50-minutes ride) away from Kuala Selangor.
We stopped at a tire shop when it started to rain and spend nearly an hour stranded there.
When the weather was much better, we proceeded to Sekinchan.

A newly paved section of the road from Kuala Selangor to Sekinchan

Add another 15km, we are in Sekinchan.
The first thing we did, was to get something to eat.
Michelle was hungry and when we reached Sungai Burung, I asked her to pull over to bus stop.
There, we had a piece of Vanilla crunch Powerbar.
And this never tasted so good!
It took us about 20 minutes to get to the Bagan Sekinchan.
Even with the sun shining, it was drizzling. We found Guan Huat restaurant and had a late breakfast.
The house dish here is the spicy hot pot with fish fillet. I don't know why the lady owner of this makan place had recommended fried fish in spicy tau choo which is similar to the hotpot, but we were too hungry to argue.
At Sekinchan, I noticed a flock of sea birds nesting on a tree line.
They looked like those "Angry Birds" from Rovio's game apps on my LG Optimux 2X.
I snapped some shots before moving on to Sungai Besar...