Sunrise from the Lornie Road overpass
Beginning of Tampines Road
I was quite elated at having finally shaken off a bug to cycle once again. So to Changi it was this morning. At Serangoon Gardens, wen we pulled over at the Shell station to pump Ladybug’s tyres, we chanced upon a father and his two sons. The man had obviously pulled their three bikes out of storage and was struggling with the petrol station’s pump. So we helped him figure out the digital pump’s workings for inflating a flat tyre and the correct pressure for a bicycle (not car tyre). The Crank Brothers dual valve pump sure came in handy with his bike as it had the other valve (Presta valve), once we figured we had to loosen it slightly! The young father was certainly relieved for even as we fixed things, one of his sons went “we’ll never go cycling today!” Well it had certainly been a long time what with the cobwebs on his tyres and all! So it was cheery faces that thanked us later as we headed off to Changi.
Jaswant’s deraileur being changed at Mr Bikes
Jawant’s five rear lights
Jaswant was fascinated by the route changes since he last rode. When we reached Changi, we headed for Mr Bikes actually to look at helmets. He ended up getting his bike fixed up and he got a new rear light as well. He now beats any of my previous attempts at being a Christmas tree – he has five rear lights now!
The clouds disappeared and the heat finally as we headed back from Changi and it was time to test our my sunglasses, Sunkiller Powder Milk (yes there is webpage), Suunto Arm Warmers (will they be cool?), water over helmet and Ladybug’s rock solid-iced Camelpak. Well the sun certainly withered us. We’ll just have to soldier on during the NTU Round Island Bike Rally like we did last year around Sengkang if the heat is this bad. Considering we only clocked 70km, I felt a little sheepish when I was dramatic with friends via SMS but they were all very encouraging.
Sunkiller!
We raced back but only a few drops of rain hit us – I realised from watchig rain clouds that moisture was mainly being dumped over Bukit Timah and very little ended up our way!
So there was no rain to sleep through post-ride but I was still able to find my second wind at the 70km mark, after a short break. I am more confident about the round-island now. I seem to have shaken off trace of the bug in my system!
The other positive sign? No butt pain! I need to shorten my chain though. It kept getting derailed and jumping during quick gear changes; its new so needs to be fine-tuned.
[HV – Changi. 7.10am – ?3pm – HV: Dst 70.17km, Tms 3:56:19, Avs 17.8km/h]
Arm warmers are great sun protection!
Rain over Bukit Timah
Otterman speaks... 