.... the jackal rides and run....

I embark tomorrow with Ben. Destination : Ipoh. Mission : Completing the 3 most difficult climbs in Malaysia (and Asia for Genting!), unassisted carrying our own 'shit'. So, I pretty excited about it of course, and tonight I'll be avidly packing everything neatly. Sure hope the bus can take our two bags!!!!!! So everything has been leading up to this; the climbs, the intervals, the long distance events....well more or less. I really got the inspiration to do it when I went back for Ching Ming and my dad showed me the road that goes to Cameron while on our way to Gopeng. I am so glad that my family, especially my wife, is supportive of this! I'm truly blessed. Went for intervals on Tuesday, unintended of course! And on today, Ryo was kind enough to accompany me for a 5.30am ride..recovery, just a slow 20km park ride. It was good to chat and just get to know each other better, over fresh air, sea breeze and whirring of our gears. So, all set mentally. Eager to go. Hope ev

Ah...finally someone to do intervals with. I got a taste of what its like....its harder when there is someone to tail or pushing you from behind. On Tuesday, we started at 530am and did intervals at the coastal road.....10 intervals....30s 90%+ effort and 90s rest interval. Managed to keep up with Ryo for most part and was able to pass him a couple of times too just make it more fun. The guy is strong and determined! I was on my Colnago. This morning (Thurs), we went for my usual Parbury 10 loops....guess what, its my worse timing for 10 loops...41mins (today, fixed) vs 39mins (last week, Colnago + 5kg Carradice) vs 37mins (2 weeks ago, fixed). Has quitting smoking reduced my performance??? Well, maybe I didn't get too much sleep past few days or just been eating too much! Upon further investigation, the sprint up was fine and actually faster than ever....however, the rest periods were about 30s longer than previous rides, hence contributing to the longer timing. I should try to ke

Nothing much over this weekend. Was initially planning for a solo century doing loops of ECP-Coastal-Loyang-ECP x 5, kick off at 3.30am and end around 9am. But got a text from me cycling buddies so had to push that one back a little. Did 85km on Sat (50km solo) and 45km on Sun (2 x Faber + 1 x Blangah Hill). Not really considerable so will try to fill up saddle time over the weekdays with Ryo on Tues and Thurs mornings. I try to cycle with my Carradice these days, fully packed @ 5.2kg. you can feel it going up Faber and trying to accelerate to speed on flats but in all honesty, not that much more.

This is the updated Route B. We've decided not to head towards Bentong after Fransers. Instead we will head back to KKB, rest for another night and then attack Genting via the new road from Batang Kali...same toughness (maybe worse!), terrible climb! TOP B Route 400km : Ipoh - Cameron - Frasers - Genting - KL Find more Bike Rides in ,

Just got the DA hubs last week in NOS condition. I think these were produces in 2003/2004 time so they are really first generation DA 7800 hubs. They look great, as usual, DA finishes are just exemplary. The freehub looks to be alloy, so a lot question marks on whether that would last.... The planned build will be with Mavic Open Pros. These hubs are made for box rims, IMO. I was thinking about using DT Swiss but the RR415 is only single eyelet (RR465 is the double eyelet, incidentally the number indicates the weight). The Mavics are about 430g and they are double-eyelet-ed. The build will not be light but will be at least 100-150g lighter than my current super-used Ultegra-Mavic OP combos.

Its been awhile since I reported back. Nothing too eventful except doing a bit more solo rides. Last weekend completed 2 solo rides. 105km non-stop (ave speed of 27.6km/h) on Saturday and 5 loops Faber on Sunday. I felt quite good on Saturday, and if not for the time constraint I would have gone another one or two rounds....I still had another bottle of water. Granted it rained for almost 30+ km, so it wasn't hot at all and I kinda enjoy cycling in the rain anyways. My Shimano R700 compact crank arrived on Saturday and I installed it along with the 12/27 cassette that very afternoon. Installation was pretty simple...only difficult thing was removing the freaking Keo Pedals. I got a nasty cut on on my pinky while removing the pedal from the drive side crank, nothing serious though. Tried this setup going up Faber.....indeed....the compact setup give a true granny gear. I was no longer grinding, even at the steepest parts along Kg.Bahru, in fact spinning at 70rpm using the Granny gea