Archive for the 'Biking' Category

The Search For Stars To See (Part I)

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on July 30, 2007
in Biking, Interesting Stuff, Stories and Technology
. 0 Comments

The time is 2300 hours. Equipped with little more than my handphone, GPS receiver, cousin’s Giant road bike, army glasses, I set off to find an “wulu” (deserted) area around my neighborhood where I could graze at the stars.

Cycling Route Tracked with GPS
(courtesy to Google maps)

Why the want to look at the stars? Some friends might have know my love for stars, (not so much in exams) that in my bedroom are glow-in-the-dark stars linked with adhesive to the ceiling. When overseas even in Malaysia, it was nice to look up and see the beautiful sky we seldom chance on at home. During my army’s guard duties, it was nice to step out of the building at night, with the dark surroundings, gave attention to the bright backdrop of stars overhead.

Although I always ask others if they knew how to look at stars, I never get to learn, and so I always had my own way of looking at them. Until I visited this webpage, The Night Sky, with over 80 pages of night photos, teaches you how to identify stars, direction, constellations, and planets. Armed with this new knowledge I wanted to look at the sky for myself.

In my memory, the route I’ll be taking will be going through the least populated and least lit, places which perhaps I could get the most out of the sky. Up the slope, round the road to the Yishun channel cycling track, connect to a lonely road at a Malay Kampong g (village) near the Sembawang beach.

Well… I didn’t manage to see the stars today.

For one reason, perhaps its too early?

Two, as what a writer describe in an article I read years ago: “Light population”. Lights from the city, from the HDB flats, from the roads, and even the deserted road I remembered with proper lights has been covered with street lamps.

Three, the sky. Too bright, I thought, such that I see a lighted background behind the trees and lampposts. Seemed because of the bright full moon in the near horizon. Yet I remember seeing both bright stars and moon in my duty days. Cloudy sky, was my conclusion, as the clouds trap the moonlight to reflect or refract creating a bright sky with no stars.

Summary:
About 30 mins of cycling time,
~8km of flat distance
Average speed of ~20km/h
Maximum speed of 36.4km/h
Average elevation: 12.2 m.s.l.
(tracklogged by Trekbuddy and reports by uTrack)

No star grazing. Let’s wait for another time.

Photos from Pengerang Trip

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 5, 2007
in Biking, Food, Hobbies, NS, Photos and Stories
. 5 Comments

Some photos about my trip.

Early in the morning, 30km, 2 and a half hours later, I reached the Chang Jetty Point.

Reached Changi Jetty

I enjoyed the tugboat ride, which lasted about 45mins to an hour.

Tugboat to Pengerang

Ashore Malaysia’s Jetty, was a 16km bicycle ride on a almost straight, easy and low traffic road along the coastal line to the Pengerang Town. The sights are almost kampong style, kids stick their heads out of the passing cars, or stand outside their huts and wave to you excitedly. I happen to see certain dead animals on the road.

Pengerang Town Street

At an easy cycling pace, you would hit the town in about an hour’s time. Here’s an impression of the town. Had some chee chiong fun waiting for the rest to gather at a coffee shop near taxi station. Money changing was done at inn nearby.

Lobster King
A huge lobster for lunch. We went to this restaurant call “Jade Garden” which Channel U visited before.

Dishes
More dishes.. with sharkfin soup and drinks, we payed only RM$50 per pax. The disappointment our group had was that the mantis prawns were not going to arrive until evening.

Baber

I went to get a nice RM$7 haircut at the barber while my friends bought Ipoh coffee, huge mangos.. 45 minutes to the Jetty, the return boat ride, and the most challenging part, cycling the long distance from changi home.

Was delayed a little by the rain, slip and fell as a road bike slip traveling across a wet drain cover, as we took a shortcut through hougang back to seletar road. I got changed in time to celebrate dinner for Mother’s day.

Spent no more than $50, tired, yet satisfied, and a comfort for not joining the City Dualthon or the Paya Laba’s 45km Runway Challenge.

Cycling to Pengerang’s Seafood Plan

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on May 11, 2007
in Biking and Hobbies
. 1 Comment

12 May 2007 Plans
0500 Assemble, Equipment Check, Set off
0730 Changi Village, Meet up contacts
0800 Tugboat Journey to Pengerang
0900 Arrival at Pengelih Jetty, Start Journey to Town
1045 Rest and look around town
1100 Regroup and prepare for lunch
1300 Finish Lunch and Shopping
1500 Back to Johor Jetty
1600 Boat ride to Singapore
1700 Return trip to Sembawang
1930 Home Sweet Home!
2000 Dinner

Estimated Cycling Distance
Home -> Changi Jetty: 32km
Johor Jetty -> Seafood Restaurant: 16km
Total Distance: 48km x 2 = 96km

Preparation
-Study Maps
-Bag pack
-Rest

Equipments
-Bicycle
-Shoes
-Helmet
-Wallet
-Passport
-HP
-GPS receiver
-GPS Maps in Camera phone
-2-way radios
-Cycling Bag
-Water bag
-Clothes

Tallest Building in the North (my Area)

Published
by
Zz85
on October 8, 2006
in Biking, Hobbies, Stories and Thoughts
. 0 Comments

Ok, I’m planning to complete the Vertical Marathon and the Standard Charter Marathon (its half for me only - 21km) this year.

Due to my lazy routine and just about just 2 more months to go, I need some accelerated training.

Here’s what I’ve run the past days.
27-Sep-2006 Tango Loop 20mins -
28-Sep-2006 Safra - Home 30mins ~4km
29-Sep-2006 Depot Loop 30mins -
2-Oct-2006 Katib - Home 50mins ~6km
4-Oct-2006 Camp - CCK 1 hour 6.8km

The exercises stopped in view of my MC for wisdom tooth op.

For the vertical marathon, the training is slightly different. 1 mission to find a suitable place to train.

30-Sep-2006,
In search of the tallest building to train for climbing stairs,
I took 1h 30mins for the round-trip of
approximate 30km
Cycling from Home to near the (Singapore’s/Malaysia’s not the shopping center) causeway and back home.

Mission Accomplished.

The latest buildings at the highest altitude can be found at the area name Causeway View, close to the Singapore Immigration checkpoints, nearest MRT being Marsling. The tallest buildings are namely 214,215,216, block 214 at 24 stories high.

The runners up were blocks around 204 (or block 7?) at 21 stories high.

That’s all for now. If you are also staying in the north like me, and need stairs training, maybe you could find the blocks I mentioned.

In memory of 6 Bicycles

Published
by
Zz85
on June 21, 2005
in Biking and Technology
. 0 Comments

#6 My Momoki bike (aka flying saucer)
was stolen during 11.30am to 1pm at SAFRA Yishun Bicycle Bay. I was playing tennis and parked my bike outside tennis court when 2 security guards asked to place it at the bicycle bay which I did. When I came down, the bicycle was gone. The lock was on my bicycle but I didnt bring my key. Its really sad but the fault lies with me not locking the bike so really too bad. This time you can say 2 bikes are stolen in 1 week (see bike #5).

This bike was bought in 2002 around April after I saved enough money after a few months working. The shop I went to was near the "drive-thru" macdonals near chongpang owned by a old chinese man and his son. The reason I orginally bought it was for my brother after losing his bike (see bike #3). It is a hardtail, zoom suspension, GT-like aluminum body, 21 speed, v-brakes. After riding the Aloeca bike, this bike usually feels like a fly saucer (like when takumi uses the Subraru WRZ). This bike has seen many areas of singapore including the north (woodlands), west (boonlay), east (eastcoast) and many other places. Its sad to see it part so soon.

#5 Aloeca Bike (aka my86 or the20)
About 3 years old while I bought it 2nd hand 3 years ago at the price of about $20 (orginal price when bought was about $700 ), it went thru modifications, adaptations, stress testing and proved to be the most convient and best companion for endurance training. This bike was bought in Bukit Panjang, after someone wanted to sell it on togoparts.com. It serves its purpose well ferrying me (and others) to and fro the mrt station, and other nearby destinations.

#4 Colourful Full-suspension Mountain bike.
This bike was also one of the cheapest deal I ever got. I paid about $150 for this full suspension bike but was stolen in less than 3 months at the Yishun MRT even though it was locked.

#3 Italian designed Rigid Bicycle
This bike was bought by my brother and delivered from Carrefour in the year 2000. In secondary 2 I cycled it to my friend’s house in woodlands. Parked and locked to the staircase outside his house, it was stolen when I wanted to return home.

#2 ??? Mountain Bike
The grey colour mountain bike with a bottle and passanger stand was my sister’s birthday present. I however use it to cycle to my school everyday. Walking then took 15mins, and cycling took me 10mins. I never parked it in school because of sabotage but rather outside under the hdb flats nearby. The route I took to school was up the hill, then down the hill jumping over a small ramp on the way down. On many days, the ground is wet due to rain or dew but I seem to enjoy the splash of water and mud on the way down. Some days I would mend the “ramp” giving me more air time on the way down. One one day I tried to make a really high jump, I went into an endo, the bike hit its front wheel rather hard, both me and the bike went summersault and tumbling down the hill. After my stars cleared from my head, I found up that the bicycle’s front fork is badly bent and dented that it had to be thrown away.

#1 Kiddy BMX Was my brother’s 4 wheel kid’s bike. Modified for us to learn 2 wheels, and then abused by me to learn stunts. The pedal broken while I attempt to do a wheelie one. Time to say bye-bye to it.

Asides
Utunbu CDs I ordered was delivered to me from the Netherlands. I already gave out couple of them.

Miranda IM 0.4.0.1 released.

Latest Lilypond for Windows is 2.5.31

Latest downloadable lilytool version - 0.2.8