Cycling is like life. Cycling with no goal is meaningless. What meaning is there cycling in circles? Or living aimlessly? Meaning comes from direction and destination. Join me in my life's journey on a mountain bike :)

Blogging since 2003. Thank you for reading :))

Sunday, May 30, 2004

Good vibrations

May distance travelled: 484 km

Three-quarter island, 109 km. For so long, I've not heard my bicycle sound so happy. It purrs with pleasure on knobby tyres instead of slicks. Like it's happy to be reunited with the tyres it came with nine years ago (I'd replaced them on 1 Mar 03 with slicks). Anyway, knobbies are made for mountain bikes, they sound, look and feel better. This is such a multi-sensory experience - hear the purring, feel the wind, smell the air, feel the good vibrations from the tyres through your feet, and taste the sweat. Today is another long distance training ride, with seven cyclists. It the first time I'm leading a ride with a Caucasian. At East Coast, we pass by a couple on a tandem bike, their aluminium thermos matching their grey hair. The Englishman bursts into song about a bicycle built for two. Further down the road, people start dropping out; one at Kallang, another at West Coast, and a couple more at Choa Chu Kang. At the end, it's just sweeper Papa Bear and me; everyone else in between has gone home. Just as well; it starts to pour and my just-cleaned bicycle gets dirty again.

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Out of breath

To Changi, 100 km. On a creaking grey bicycle, the white man cranks out a constant 41 km/h along Changi Coast Road on his racer. No matter how much my chest heaves, I fail to keep up. No wonder, I've already logged 30 km into my ride. In a flash, I drop behind. Another roadie sweeps past me on his SACA time trial. I slip into his slipstream. But not for long either, as he's going at 40 km/h. By now, I'm spent. I wonder how I'd have fared if I was on a racing bicycle instead of a mountain bike. I also wonder what it'll be like to accompany my companions today from Bike-Aid, who are cycling 1,400 km (Singapore-Kota Bahru, Malaysia-Singapore) next week. Sweet charity! Today is the last training ride before the stalwarts head north.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Polar opposites

To Hougang, 41 km. One of my bosses tells me to go home on time instead of working late since I look sick. Since I can't afford psychotherapy, it's cycletherapy for me. But it looks like it's too late for me to join the Wed night ride gang; there's no one there when I arrive. I amble about aimlessly and slowly, feeling heavily burdened. Until another rider sweeps past me. He's my polar opposite: full suspension vs my rigid bike, fat tyres vs slim slicks, platform pedals vs clipless, black socks vs white, helmet off vs helmet on, fast vs slow. Too bad he breaks away. But I'm not alone for long; I meet D on his Merlin. He confirms the Wed night ride is history. Entropy, I guess. I cycle past two fatal accident sites; the police signs are like tombstones. As two lives are snuffed out, I cycle down memory lane of my childhood, where once I rode over a snake, and where I had my first "face plant".

Sunday, May 16, 2004

15 riders, 66 km, one water bottle

To Lim Chu Kang, 66 km. There are 15 cyclists today; the biggest group I've ever led. One cyclist drops out barely 5 km into the ride, the fastest anyone has ever abandoned a ride on me. It's a slow start, cycling at 20 km/h. Wave after wave of roadies sweep past me. I ache to join them. A kingfisher flits past, the bright blue of its feathers the colour of a biker's jersey. A snake lies motionless, belly up on the road. Some cyclists look like they're dying of thirst. We break at Kranji and Lim Chu Kang, plus a few other unscheduled stops to regroup. It's a cloudy day. But somehow, the sun manages to beam brightly. Someone points out I'm barely sweating and hardly drinking. Somehow, one water bottle lasts me for the entire ride. Back in civilisation, a "tai tai" cuts into my path. She's so audacious, she ignores not just me but two cars zipping by. The drivers honk furiously at her, but her thick makeup - or thick skull? - deflects our wrath.

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Riding with a Tank

To Changi, 100 km. It was a slack ride with Bike Aid, until the roadies break away. I'm hot on their tail. And hot it is, so hot that my head hurts. The lead rider is on a Tank. I'm on his tail for what seems to be along time, but I drop off when my lungs feel like bursting. And he's only going 35 km/h. I amble along after that, resting, until another roadie overtakes me. I lunge behind him. The wild chase goes up to 39 km/h, until he gives me a thumbs up and goes into a slip road. Man, I hanker for a road bike again. That would be going full circle, since I'd junked my road bike 9 years ago for a mountain bike. On the way home, I meet more friends and we head for a bicycle shop where I ogle at road bikes.

Sunday, May 02, 2004

Heart jumps, speedo jumps

To Lim Chu Kang, 68 km. I'm so sleepy eyed, my contact lens falls off five times before I get it right. I amble along Seletar Reservoir, trying to shake off thoughts about work. Five leggy white roadies tear past me. I rev up, overtaking one of them. I hang on grimly to tail the rest. My heart jumps as my speedometer jumps: 40, 47, 54 km/h. I keep up as a red light slows (but doesn't stop) them. They rest at Kranji, I press on after another white roadie in a Cycle Worx jersey on a Fondriest. He drops me finally. I detour to the end of Lim Chu Kang road, with its floating rubbish, then amble south when I see another group of roadies - locals. One of them says "hi". They go at a more humane pace: 31-33 km/h. I spoil it by overtaking them, then regret my rashness. Two of them up the ante, going at 38 km/h. A lorry stops in front. The lead cyclist stops, the one behind me yells: "Car ... WATCH OUT!". It looks safer to me than riding at East Coast, so I pass, tailing yet another group of roadies ahead. We part company. I cycle alone up along Mandai Road when another roadie blasts past on a red Santa Cruz. Here we go again. What a blast! Sure makes up for the Malaysia ride I miss this weekend. Today, besides carbo, I am "fuelled" by two charcoal tablets.