Tuesday, November 29, 2011

135.5km Ride to Kluang

This is my furthest ride to date & also the most tiring. 7 of us went for the ride & i was the last for much of the journey. At times it was demoralising when the riders in front of me are nowhere in sight especially after a few bends & mild slopes. At the later stages voices of whether i can make it are swirling in my head. Allthough the terrain is relatively flat, i was advised by the experienced organiser to switch to a smaller chainring & just spin to avoid muscle cramp instead of pedaling on the biggest chainring.

I had little appetite for lunch & had porridge instead. Guess my body is not used to cycling this sort of long distance at a fairly fast(to me) pace. The gear shifters on my entry level bike suck too so i'm stuck with some pedaling inefficiencies.

We stayed for the night at Anika Inn hotel at RM60. Dinner at a nearby eatery is fantastic value for $$. We order quite a no. of dishes & it works out to be around RM11 for each person's bill. Luohanguo drink is RM1!! Is amazing that the further we cycle from s'pore even in the Msian state of johor the cost of living gets lower & lower.

Look at tiny S'pore. Distance to Kluang is a few times the north-south distance of minuscule s'pore.

Another lady & a guy along with me decided to take a cab back to S'pore. The guy didn't have enough sleep the night before as he was working & worrying about his business. The lady had ridden till leg muscle cramp. Though i didn't have any cramp i feel i'm near my limits & is better not to push & overexert myself by riding back. Besides is not nice to be a burden & slow down the other 4 riders over such a long distance. Cab fare was RM160 (RM100 to JB, RM60 to sg's queen st).

2 comments:

  1. Hi how did u manage to lug your bike back to sg? Did you ride a foldable bike?

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    Replies
    1. Hi,
      Sorry for awfully late reply. Another cyclist didn't have enough sleep the day before so was in no condition for ride back. So both of us shared a cab back. The taxi driver switched to using his private car & drove us to near Kranji mrt.

      He asked if can pay bit more after the journey & i gave him RM5 more.

      I'm not riding a foldable bike. I ride a flatbar hybrid roadbike:
      Polygon Helops F100

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