BIKING 101: HOW IT ALL STARTED - PART I

I took up biking/ cycling in January 2009. Thats only about a year plus to date.

HOW DID I GET INTO THIS?


I was doing my 'power walking' rounds at the majestic PICC then (in all seriousness, PICC do resembles the alien that Fox Mulder and Dana Scully frequently encountered in the X Files tv series), when a group of people whizzed pass me riding their MTBs. I thought to myself, "Now, that looks like fun". I was referring to the seemingly effortless and smooth movement of the group, which to my tired eyes, looks like they were gliding on the road. (I was dead wrong of course in my assumption. Cycling, like other physical sports, requires a lot of stamina, energy and kederat). That encounter with the MTB bikers sparked my interest in cycling considering:-

i. I already know how to ride a bicycle,
ii. I was bored stiff with my everyday power walking routine (I cant run yet at that time, and was still a fat and overweight person then),

So I went back home, searched for a bicycle shop near my house and bought one GT MTB for me and a Jamis MTB for my love one from Ah Chai's Kedai Basikal Dan Barang-barang Dapur Lain. For information, besides selling the usual MTB, road bike and other cycling accesories, Ah Chai also sold barang-barang dapur lain of course, and to name a few, periuk belanga, dapur tanah, cili kering, ikan masin, gula, milo and serbuk teh. Oh...... and the ever popular multi purpose and comfortable toto was on display too in his shop.


A good MTB price average was around RM 1,000.00 to RM 2,000.00. Its cost more for those top of the line models. I did not pay any particular attention to the brands since I sort of jumping into this on impulse and did not have any idea whatsoever what model or brand to buy. I just asked Ah Chai and put my trust on his experiences and judgement (selling barang-barang dapur) to recommend to me what he thought best. Imagine my relief when researching the Internet after I bought those MTB's, that both GT and Jamis were listed in Wikipedia with links to their their impressive websites and information. These two models even won awards.

BICYCLE DONE, WHAT ELSE DID I NEED?

1. Cycle computer- RM 30.00 - RM 50.00. Cateyes. Polar is good too according to a friend of mine.
2. Gloves - RM 15.00 above. (Yang cikai punya jer, I was broke after buying the MTB's)
3. Iron Mag helmet - about RM 40.
4. Bicycle tyre pump - Cant remember what the price was(or was it because Ah Chai gave it FOC?).
5. Spare tube - RM 8.00
6. Water bottles - RM 10.00. Bought two for 15.00 after much haggling with Ah Chai.

WHERE TO CYCLE?

With its good road system and highways, Putrajaya is definately a safe and an excellent place for newbie cyclist like me. Not too many traffic is a plus point too. And no, I did not go anywhere else since Putrajaya was just near my house and I was too lazy too find/ drive to other places.

To angkut both mine and my love one MTBs, I got myself a bicycle carrier. And yes, I bought it from Ah Chai (again). The price was about RM 125.00 discounted (and seriously, Ah Chai was making lot of money from me alone!).


Putrajaya was an interesting place to explore. With a MTB, I gained access to those parts of the administrative capital not normally visited. I discovered pathways and shortcuts, got to meet with the hordes of gardeners who kept it clean and also found out that there are actually a lot of Putrajaya Holdings security guards scattered all over Putrajaya stationed at their makeshift guard posts under the bridges or near the unused public toilets.


My last biking adventure in there was the Feb 2009 Putrajaya Critical Mass (PCM). I wrote a post of the event in the my old defunct blog Nasi Lemak And Nescafe Tarik. PCM is still going strong and just celebrated their 2 years anniversary.

At that time, I could only ride for about 20km - 30 km (tops) since I was still in the process of shedding my weight.

I got posted to Geneva in May 2001 and brought the GT MTB with me.

To be continued in Part II

BIKING 101: GRAND SACONNEX - LAUSANNE

View Larger Map

After a few weeks of hitting the 50 km mark on the Nyon route, I decided last night today I will try to go for Lausanne, which is about 59 km from Geneva.

GRAND SACONNEX - NYON

I started cycling at 6.40 am. My intention was to beat the crowd, since usually, from 8.00 am onwards there will be a lot of cyclist on the road. The weather was nice, no rain and at 6.40 am the sun has already came out, shining. The good thing about going out this early was that, theres virtually no traffic at all on the road. It was quite and peaceful.

I am quite use to this route since I cycled every week to Nyon and back. Met with a couple of riders who obviously started much more earlier than me.

After 23 km, and 55 minutes later, I arrived in Nyon. Decided to stop in a park by its waterfront for a break.

NYON - GLAND

Put on my Ipod Nano, and with Iron Maiden songs playing in my head, I headed out towards Gland, 4.8 km away. Traffic was still light. Just one hill to conquer along the way.

GLAND - ROLLE

This 6.8 km stretch was quite straight with a lot of vineyards on both side of the road. Met a lot of other cyclist which seems to appear out of nowhere. A lot of small hills and elevation.

ROLLE - MORGES

This section of the route is the most challenging, since this 15.1 km route were dotted with hills after hills, elevations after elevations to take on. I felt tired and at times could feel my legs and my hands went numb. I could feel the increasing pain at the back of my right knee. My neck and back stiffened with every round of cycling. My mouth was dry and I was struggling to beat those hills. There were a lot of instances I considered to stop to take a break, but shaking off the temptation, I forced myself to continue. I too, reminded myself that if the fat, out of shape and never exercise in his whole life Eddie Izzard (Britain's stand up comic and actor) can run a full marathon everyday in 52 days, there is no reason why I cannot do this.

The last hill to conquer in this section was near Aubonne, and I breathed a sigh of relief since the town of Morges lies just a few kilometres after that.

I arrived in Morges in high spirit and felt elated.

Lausanne was next.

MORGES - LAUSANNE

The final leg of this route is about 9.7 km.

At first I planned to stop for my second break in Morges, but since Lausanne was just abut 10 km away, I decided to push through. I was taken aback when I found out the road to Lausanne had long stretch of elevation, three hills in sucession. To translate, I had to climb uphill 7 kilometres non stop. There was no other choice, of course, so I gathered all my energy, (baca Bismillah sikit) put my head up, changed the gear to the lowest possible and cycled slowly up the hills. Very slowly.

At this juncture, 5 other cyclists overtook me. They really seems like almost flying. I took a glance at their legs and noticed that it looks like batang kayu balak, compared to my own. I think I could see the blood vessels popping out out everywhere on their well tuned leg muscles. I comforted myself by thinking that they have been doing this for years and after all, I had already clocked over 50 kilometres from Geneva and they just started. Plus maybe they even lived nearby as well.

I managed to pull through and arrived in Lausanne in one piece, happy but tired. Met with a friend who drove all the way from Geneva to pick me up.

And no, I did not cycle back. Like I said in my previous post, my goal was to cycle to Lausanne . I did not say anything about cycling back to Geneva.

Hehe.

Maybe next time though.

THE STATISTICS

Total Distance : 59.11 km
Climb : 105 km
Calories burned : 21, 361
Air sebotol
2 Power Bar
2 batang Dunhill
Ipod Nano and Iron Maiden songs.
Age : 41 years old
November 2008 body weight: 104 kg
Current weight: 83 kg

And.... oh, if I can do it, there is no reason you can't.

AKULA WAS HERE : NYON, SWITZERLAND

Too many pics, huh?

Taking photos is a passion, to say the least. :)

Well, last Saturday I was on a sailing ship cruise to Yvoire, France, organized by the the Malaysian Ladies Association here in Geneva. I enjoyed the trip very much. (Good job ladies!) I have uploaded and shared the said trip pics in 3 parts, here, here and here. I am too lazy to write a review of my trip there. Will update those posts once these tired lazy bones recovers. :)

Yesterday was a public holiday in Geneva. My friends and I took the opportunity to visit Nyon, about 23 km from where I lived. Nyon is also one of the town I cycled through on my routine cycling route.

Apart from the normal jalan-jalan, we also went there to satisfy our cravings for its famous ice cream.

SHOTS OF NYON WATERFRONT





NYON'S FAMOUS ICE CREAM PARLOR

Ice creams were sold at CHF 3.00 per one scoop. Its so delicious that all the members of our group took 2 scoops each. Mine was a mix of tiramitsu and caramel. I forgot to take a pic of that since I was so busy enjoying it!

Simply delicious!

SHOTS OF NYON (CONTINUED)

One thing I noticed and observed here in Switzerland, come summer time, there are a lot of big bikes around, with its riders clad in black leather jackets and pants. (Well, not in the above pics). And its not just the guys, the aweks too seems to enjoy riding motorbikes. I can say for a fact that its affordable for most people to own a big bike here.

Strolling along Nyon waterfront, I noticed this guy was playing to what seems like a gambus to my eyes. I guess he's from the one of the Middle Eastern countries since the music that he played sounds like a typical padang pasir tune. He must be 'in the zone', ignoring all the people who walked by him. Really, really cool.

So thats it. I had a good weekend, with good friends and consumed a lot of good food.

Really looking forward for summer time here in Geneva.

AKULA WAS HERE : SAILING TO YVOIRE, FRANCE - PART III, THE VIEW AND THE DESTINATION

SHOTS OF GENEVA






THE DESTINATION - YVOIRE, FRANCE






























SHOTS FROM THE SHIP NEPTUNE