Woke up at 3am by the lightning and thunder.
Mistaken time for 4am and started waiting around to see if the sky would clear.
An hour later, it is still thunder but no rain.
We shall see if the ride will still be on later.
*-*-*
Woke up at 5.10am.
It is still clear skies and the lightning and thunder is nowhere in sight.
Very cool weather , today may turn out to be a very nice ride.
Leaving the house at 5.45am, today will be chase day again.
Still trying to get used to the brake shifters.
But seriously speaking, what have I been doing all these while?
Using tip shifters , it has really damaged my knees.
Cos I cannot change gears at will and I probably use only 3-4 sets of gears the entire ride.
With the shifters at your fingertips, changing gears is a breeze, but I have not got used to the concept of changing gears though :p
Reaching Mandai Shell, there is no one in sight, so I continued on my way and did a leftie.
All the way till Bukit Panjang and still no rider....The group must have pulled far ahead.
When I reached Shell Bukit Panjang, it started to rain.
As it is still tolerable, I continue...cycling in the rain.
But then it started to pour.
For me, I still feel quite okay on the bike, but I know that as a driver, visbility is bad in this kind of weather, so I decided to pull over at the next bus stop and wait for the rain to soften.
While waiting, 2 cyclists (Joyriders) rode past and I am tempted to join them.
Just that I am not crazy or daring enough lor.
After a while, the rain did get smaller , thus I continue on my way.
Immediately heard an annoying sound from the rear wheel. Shucks....what is that noise???
Haha, the next bus stop was filled to the brim, so I am darn lucky to have the previous bus stop all to myself.
Two bus stops later, there are 2 more Joyriders and I decide to join them to wait out the rain.
Turned out they are in the same situation as me.
Start riding in the calm weather before hitting the storm.
Tried checking out what is making the irritating sound, but no luck... everything looks fine.
When the day get brighter, we decided that we shall do a slow ride back to LongHouse.
Again the annoying noise came back. Will really have to find the source of the sound, else I might just break something without knowing it.
Reaching Hume Avenue - my most hated slope - I encountered the red light and had to stop.
When I start off again, I did the fundamental mistake of trying to clip in while climbing up the slope.
End result? CRASH!
This time round, I was able to unclip my shoes, thus only my bike hit the road.
Haiz, my brand new brake shifters is scratched. Just like my tip shifters on its first day out.
Guess that is how my bike like it to be.
This time though, I am very glad that the bike is scratched and the rider is fine. :D
Argh...., the seat post is twisted though and the nose of the seat is biting into my right thigh.
The more I ride, the more I feel like I am doing the Bintan Triathlon trial.
Hehe, why?
Cos Bintan Triathlon is well known to be a stormy race.
I think that today's ride will keep me a good perspective on how to control my bike during a rainy ride.
While going down slopes, I had both brakes pressed to the extreme, but the brakes are not biting at all!!!
It can only feel slight braking motion the entire time.
I am just glad that I am nowhere near a car at these moments.
Another thing to remember, never stay near a cyclist during rainy days. Keep a safe distance of 3-5m.
Reaching Lornie Flyover, I was able to engage the lightest gear and climbing up is a breeze without feeling that my knees are crapping out on me. :)
Yeah, the beauty of brake shifters.
On reaching LongHouse, the guys intended to proceed on. But I stopped.
Thus they turned back for me. Thanks, guys.
Found out the source of the noise.
The rear light's position has shifted and is hitting the spokes of the rear wheel. Fixed that.
Took out my allen keys to try to fix the seat post , only to realise that the allen keys does not fit.
Luckily one of the guys has the full range of allen keys and I manage to get the problem fixed.
Else I could imagine the agony that the next 10km will cause me.
The guys decided to take the Jalan Kayu route back home and I gladly obliged.
While waiting to move out, I saw a group of four riding past very fast.
One of the riders looks like Stacy, but I was pretty puzzled why she never even bother to look up to try to spot us.
Just before Lentor Avenue, we caught up with the group and I realised that "Stacy" was actually Jeanette Wang. :)
Rode past too fast to check out if it is a Pinarello though. :p
In case you are wondering how we catch up with the hell riders, it is because we are heaven riders.
Haha, we are not that fast, it is just that one of the group riders had a flat tire and the group has moved up to the pavement to fix it.
Jalan Kayu is a bit scary though, as it is single lane road. But the motorists are kind enough not to horn us.
Bid my farewell along Yishun Ave 6 and continue the ride home.
On reaching home, I quickly had my bath before proceeding to clean up all the stuff.
Shannon even helped me to clean my awfully dirty bike.
Completed everything within 1.5 hours and proceed onto my next appointment.
No comments:
Post a Comment