Murphy says...

When something goes wrong, everything else can and will go wrong with it. Murphy really had a grudge against me yesterday. 

Got home from work around 6:30, weather was great, dry and all. Superb conditions for a night ride. So immediately, I started prepping my bike, only to realize that the bottom bracket seemed tight and wasn't spinning freely. Tried lubing the gaps a little here and there, but still no luck. Starting to panic, I grabbed all my other gear together in a frenzy and headed out to KSH to see if they could help fix the problem. Traffic was pretty bad, and it took me at least half an hour if not more to get there...

At KSH, Lim fusses around with it, etc, and finally got it working again. Turns out it was overtightened just a tad too much... But i suspect that some grit might've gotten in between the arm and bearings too. So anyway, that was all well and fine and I got to the car to get ready.

Getting my gear together, i realized that I'd left my helmet and gloves at home!!! Geez... But then Shang kindly offered to go home to get his spare helmet for me, and so off he went. Phew... When he got back, i whipped out my lights to attach onto the helmet... only to realize that i'd left the battery pack at home! Crap. So much for all that trouble just to end up with a battery pack short. Murphy, I'll get you yet... 

And it was a dry night last night too... :(

Setting your sights.

Training has always been a bit of a drag for me. I remember the first ever major race I did was the AXN Adventure race about what, 4 years ago? Gosh, its been that long? Back then, I still remember that I was actually motivated enough to get out there and do some running as training. Since then, there's been a few other races, and each time i get lazier and lazier. 

Well, there's the XTerra coming up in June and all, so that should be reason enough for me to start getting off my butt and train! Managed to get a team together now, so we're doing the Relay (PHEW!!) instead of the solo. I can't imagine having to do a 1.5km swim, 28km offroad ride and then 8km trail run. Not in my current condition and 2 months left to train anyway... So anyway, this is good cos Cheryl will do the swim, Cyril will run and I'll just manage the team. Yea right, I've got the longest distance to go, so the pressure's on!!

Will have to try and get more mileage on the bike asap. Stay tuned.

Ramblings after a long break.

It's been quite a while since my last post. Been busy. Been lazy. Been biking. Been lazy. Been working. Been lazy. See the pattern here?

Nothing new on the bike-front. Fitness is still going up and down. Did a Sat ride out at Broga few weeks back, covered 31kms or so. Felt like crap but finished it feeling good cos I finished it in good shape. Following Sat was another long-ish ride at Kemensah. Dunno how long it was, but it was long enough to make me feel like crap again. But the downhills at Kemensah were superb, with the last stretch of down that seemed to go on forever, it just makes the climbs worth it. Felt like easily about 10 mins if not more of fast and reckless downhills, and at 1 point, with 4 of us bombing down in close, single file formation (me being the 4th in line), the dried leaves were swirling about on both sides almost like in a vortex!! Anyway... the point of all that is that some of the fitness came back again after those 2 rides, and i felt much better at Kiara... for about a week. Last Sat was good, confidence and fitness getting me going and all. Then we did a ride Sun afternoon, and i felt like crap again. Worse still, got witnesses some more! Worse than worse, witnesses were my cousin Jay and his friends... *sigh* So much for reputation and face...

Well, at least this is still the early part of the year, and there's a few races coming up. The Selangor MTB race is one that sounds pretty promising. Then, in the more extreme sense is the much talked about and exciting offroad Tri, the Xterra series. Check out the calendar for 7th June 2009, its finally coming to M'sia!! 1.5km swim, 28km mtb and finally 8km trail run. Sounds like a lot of pain, but it sounds do-able. Of course, on the keyboard everything IS do-able.

Tues night rides are slow with takers, with the regulars being James, Megat and myself. Not everyone's cup of tea, i can imagine, but one never knows till they try. What better way to squeeze in some exercise on a weekday than doing a night ride to release all that work stress?

Well, here's to more rides to come...

30mm and a world of difference!

Who says shorter is not better?? :-P

I recently got to know of a new shop in Tmn Tun, namely AG Suspension, which is run by a couple of downhillers, Zure and Hong Chun. They are a very service oriented shop (Hooray!! About time too, don't you think?) for bikes, more specifically for servicing Fox forks and shocks. Spoke to Zure (aka Champion) a few times, and made an appointment to see him.

I dropped off my old Fox Vanilla (an '03 model, i believe it is) to be serviced, and it was done in almost a day. This was the first Fox fork I've ever owned, and is capable of running up to 125mm of travel, but I've had the spacer removed to run it at 100mm, which is the recommended for crosscountry riding anyway (actually 80mm is the ideal, but i'm a wuss). But after using it for a couple of years, the seals had started to leak and the stanchion where the preload spring sits in was making a 'clunking' noise everytime you shook it. None of the local bike shops could fix it, not without sending it to Fox in S'pore anyway. As it ended up, I bought another Vanilla instead, this time an '06 model, which runs up to 130mm and is adjustable down to 100 or 80mm as well. However, this time I decided to leave it at 130mm, and have been riding it for at least the past year or so.

At 130mm, the front is raised slightly higher, hence it absolutely sucks when climbing. However, bombing downhill is a breeze, as the position of it puts you more level to the ground, and hence the front doesn't seem to 'dip' as much when going downhill. Going back now to 100mm, the change was very obvious and instantaneous. First ride going up the tarmac at Kiara, it already felt less tiring. Offroad climbs also felt easier with less travel up front. The downhills didn't feel that bad, i just have to remember to slide back off the saddle more (to shift my weight back), that's all. I wonder why I stuck to 130mm for so long!!

As of the last ride I did on Sunday afternoon (the trails were absolutely great then, by the way...) the fork felt kinda weird. Checking it again, I realized that it was not using up its full travel. To be more precise, only 50% of travel seems to be used. I'd already set the preload to the softest, i.e. letting it sag as much as possible, but the max travel was still the same. Something's just not right, so am gonna send it back to them this week and see if they can figure out what the problem is...

Now, having said all that, it still doesn't mean that I can go faster on the uphills. Fitness is still at less than desired level, which means... it still sucks big time!! Need more saddle time for sure. Oh well, another To Do for 2009's resolutions. :P

Unveiling the DirT...

I've had about 3-4 rides on the hub now, and so far so good. I think I will even go so far as to say that it feels smoother than the XTRs. Comparing the engagement, however, the XTR is more responsive, and its gonna be a few more rides yet before I get used to the slight 'slack' as soon as I step on the pedals to power up the wheel. And the XTR was a quieter hub too, compared to the solid clicking that this makes. Then again, that doesn't really matter as its unlikely that I'll be stealthy enough to sneak up on someone without my hub giving me away.

Enough ranting and raving, a picture tells a thousand words. A few pictures, however... :)


240S. Is that even a brand?


It's not as wretched as it sounds.


Gotta remember to wipe off those darn fingerprints.

Got you curious yet as to what make it is? Here we go...


DT Swiss 240S. Swiss precision and all that jazz. You could almost hear it tick.

Dax's recommendation seems to be right on. However, only time will tell if it'll hold up to a 'heavycore' rider like myself. Stay tuned...