A Solo Road ride in Prai, 29 October 2000

It was raining cats and dogs, or spokes and nipples as described by the PCC riders, this morning. I tried to call Azmi asking if he would like to get the ride going. Unfortunately, his turned his mobile off. I then called ST to find out about what happened. There were already 5 riders waiting at the Petronas Gas Station, and there was no sign of Azmi. We decided to cancel the ride since there were so few of us, and there was no sign of rain stopping any time soon. I later found out that some of the riders had already made a conclusion that ride would be cancelled if there was rain. Me and ST did not know about this. It's not nice to find out early in the morning that ride was cancelled, especially I have told other groups about the ride. Some of them are as far as Parit Buntar. Luckily, I managed to get them from going to Kulim to wait for us! I really pitied Julian, ST and other riders who were waiting at the gas station. Some of them were waiting there for at least half an hour, and we had to tell them that the ride was cancelled!

Since there was no ride in the morning, my fiancée would have to "entertain" her friends from Hong Kong, who came to Penang a day before on vacation, and my high school buddy was having a good time with his love one, I decided to do a solo road ride at my place's backyard. So I changed the tires to the road ones, and I was set to go! Oh yeah before I go on. I discovered that certain sections of the sidewall of the front wall were ripped off. I think I have found the root cause of the frequent front tube puncture! Man, it means I would have to get a new pair of knobbies soon! And stuffs are so expensive in Penang! Anyway, I hope I would be able to find WTB Velociraptor in my next KL trip. I think I should get few pairs of them for spares!

The sky was already darken when I hit the road. There was no traffic in the Prai Industrial Park. It was quiet! The ride in the industrial park was surprisingly easy. Also, the slick tires helped me to use heavier gear to go faster. I think I hit 40 plus but I did not have a cyclocomputer to tell me how fast was I going. I really hoped that some of the passing motorcyclist could tell me how fast had I pedaled! The cold air also help to boost my performance on road, and hey, I was a roadie before right? I also found out that I was less panting for air than before! I went faster and faster until I hit the junction to the Jalan Perusahaan, the main road!

The wind was strong! I had to fight with the wind to maintain my sub-30 velocity! The weather did not help as much as it started to rain. I could feel the water sipping thru the T-shirt to my body. I was shivering! Having wasting no time, I continue fought with the wind and hoped that the junction to Bukit Tengah town was not far away! I regret for not putting flasher on my bike. The sky was already dark. I am sure the vehicle would find it difficult to spot me! One thing that helped me was the road was scarce of traffic.

I finally hit the Bukit Tengah town after about 20minutes of pedaling, which turned out my average speed was 30kmh. No good, no good at all! I think the gusting wind at the main road really dragged the whole thing down. The rain was getting heavier. It was very tempting to stop at the town to wait for the rain to stop before continue. I decided not to since the sky was also getting darker and darker. Furthermore, I was at the Federal Highway now. If I did not get to Prai before 1800 hours, the traffic would be so heavy that riding on road would be suicidal!

I finally surrender to the rain after I went thru two climbs before the Bukit Tengah Roundabout! The rain and the traffic were heavy! To make the situation worst, there was an accident involving a motorbike and a car before the roundabout. Because of this accident, the traffic from Bukit Tengah town to coming a craw, and I would have to fight with other to squish thru! I decided to push my bike to the nearby gas station and waited until the rain became leaner.

There was no sign of rain from stopping. I decided to continue after seeing two Bangladeshi passing by. If they could do it, why couldn't I right? To overtake them was a no brainer. They did try to catch up with me. Tough luck amigo! I was soakingly wet. I was so wet...err...I mean I was like coming out from a pool. So don't think of something else okay? Furthermore, men don't get wet, they get excited okay??? Okay go back to the ride. The rain was getting worst. There were ponds here and there. I had to be very careful either to avoid them, or to go thru them. Also, I had to make sure that no other vehicle was tailing my gate if I chose to avoid the ponds! Boy was it tiring. I had to think simultaneously for what would be the road condition up front and the traffic at the same time!

My thighs were hurt like hell after I finished the ride. 45 minutes for a 20km ride, an average speed of 27kph! I think it was the slowest I had ever done. It was a good experience. Also, it brought back my memory when I was very much into road riding. The rain and heavy rain made the ride a lot of risk. I think I would have to give it a second thought if I want to do the same ride again in the future! Will this stop me from getting myself a Colnago M40? I don't know. Maybe next time if I really want to do a road ride, I'll take my bike with me on my Daihatsu Ascend to Kulim since there are much less traffic than in Prai.

I will be in KL next week. I don't know what are those KL riders going to fix me up. Sometimes it's good to go there and tell them in the last minute so they will not have time to arrange "Holland" rides for me!

Stay tuned!