The day DawnRiders did 200km! Desaru (18-7-09)

The day started with Damian’s distress call.   He had a puncture at Lakeside MRT and all out of tubes, he tried to call Raymond for help.  Raymond, carrying too much stuff in his jersey pockets didn’t feel his phone vibrate.  The result, 8 missed calls!  Damian decided to walk home since it’s easier to pump up his tires using the floor pump.

All out of tubes, the whole group at Jurong East decided to go over to Damian’s place to pass him a spare tube.

While waiting for Damian, Ping sent Kyne at 5.35am, an SMS asking “Got ride today?”   Good, another RI rider.

The original plan was to do Reverse LCK and Neotiew with the RI group but since it was late, we decided to go via Bukit Batok road.  Cleared the Singapore customs after a 20min queue.  The Malaysia Customs was an obstacle course.  Drain covers with vertical holes and motorcyles that don’t give way is just an accident waiting to happen.  Luckily, it was not today.

Johor Bahru was another stretch with alot of traffic, even at 7.30am.  It felt like we were riding on the expressways with 4 lane roads full of vehicles.  Made it to the quiet stretch leading towards Desaru safely.

Do NOT believe anyone who says Desaru is flat or that Mohd move the mountains.  The roads around Desaru is full of rolling hills, much worse than Mandai.  Together with the heat and super STRONG headwing and even the lightest gear or most aero equipment won’t save you.  Imagine us struggling at 30km/h on flats or 12km/h on slopes.

Our 2nd incident of the day turn out to be a serious one.  Amos rode thru a patch of sand and his chain suddenly got caught between his cassette and wheel.  That caused his rear D to break and his rear wheel to seize up.  With his rear wheel fully locked up and whipping around, he still manage to keep his balance and bring his bike to a stop without falling.

After concluding that he is unable to continue the journey, we managed to hitch a ride from a nice uncle to the nearest petrol kiosk.  Thanks to the Fizik Arione, Amos2 hop onto the truck as well complaining that he can’t feel his balls anymore.  haha.  At the kiosk, we managed to get a taxi to drive the brother, Don and Amos, to the jetty for an early ride end.

Kumar was unaware of all these happenings because he TOO FAST!  He solo in front with his seemingly unlimited reserves.  He was too far ahead to even call out to him.  Result? He reached Petronas (our designated rest stop) more than 30 mins ahead of us.

From Petronas, it’s another ~30km to Sungei Rengit.  The headwind is so strong, the sun is so hot, the slopes feel so steep and our legs feel so tired.  After a long hour, we managed to arrive in Rengit for our long awaited seafood lunch.  Called Miss Chin who is also riding Desaru with a different group and found out that he is still at Desaru, more than a hour away.  Famished, we decided to have our lunch without Chin.  The food at Jade restaurant is pretty good, and not too expensive.  The lobster’s sauce is nice, but a little ex in our opinion.  Will opt for crabs next time instead.

From Sungei Rengit, it’s another 17km to the jetty.  Kumar, the strongman of the day, pulled at 34km/h while the rest of our tired legs struggled to stay in the draft.  Reached the jetty and while registering for a boat, Damian removed his ‘tan’ from his nicely shaven legs with a piece of wet tissue.  The air in Malaysia is quite dirty that we shruddered to think about the colour of our lungs after the ride.

The bumboat took pretty long, almost 45 mins.  By the time we reach Changi Villagel, it’s almost 5pm.  Started our long way back to Jurong via coastal road.

Till the next Desaru ride but try to leave your tri bikes at home.

The day started with a punture at Damien’s place
With no tubes left, everyone had to go rescue him..
A broken rear dee ends Amos’s ride
The casualty: one DA rear dee, one chain..
The 2nd DA rear dee that broke… Seems DA has an issue with their 7800 rear dee
90km into the ride on Malaysian soil. (~120km in total so far..)
The Champion rider of the day: Kumar!!

Watch out for him during POWERMAN!
The only motivation to continue riding: SEAFOOD!
Damien: look like a cockroach…

At Sg. renggit just before leaving..

SL2 with  “grey” bartape!

On the bumboat back!

SHAck out~~ But still need to clock another 40km back to the west!!!