A short weekend road trip to Endau Rompin. It rained on my hiking plans but still I enjoy being on the east coast of the peninsula. Who wouldn’t with stunning visuals on display

This time is so alive
Everybody’s tranced, dancing tonight
Oh so beautiful, and so strange
Oh, it was empty until you came…

- Dave Matthews (So Right)

Strangely, this song as been my ear-worm for the last couple of days and more precisely, it is this bit that kept ringing. It then followed with a different song:

I don’t want to wake up
Lost in the Dreams of our Fathers
Oh, it’s such a waste child
To live and die for the Dreams of our Fathers
Though I must confess, yes
My view is a wonder about this
This love I possess, love
It must be the Dreams of our Fathers

- Dave Matthews (Dreams of our Fathers)

A strange combination if there was one. Anyway, that’s besides the point.

The lack of commuting miles on my bike has been getting to a critical point I guess, I was feeling particularly miffed when I chanced on a couple of bike trip logs. I had done a lot of couch surfing in the past few months, and something had to give. I simply couldn’t resist the urge to hop on my bike and ride off. I sent out an invite to my brother who felt he was not in particular shape this time of the year, so I promised we will take another trip soon and sketched out my simple route.

Sedili Loop is something I have been on a few times, the roads are pretty much familiar so I had to do very little planning. Just a couple of calls to make sure the ‘resorts’ near Sedili have empty rooms. Threw in a spare set of sleeping clothes, pumped up my tires and I was ready for the ride. The loop is about 180-200 Km and probably good for a stretched day, but I did not want to stretch and turned out to be a decent decision. I was in much poorer state than I imagined and had to huff and puff my way beyond 80Km the first day. A few months of sedentary existence off the bike had taken its toll and my legs felt like Jello. The only respite was that the day remained cloudy and hydration / sun burn was not a big problem.

Going out via the Causeway has its positives, one does not need to be at the mercy of ferry schedules but the flip side is that one has to contend with the Traffic at JB. Which is fine with me. Just that the narrow and congested roads lead all the way up to Kota Tinggi. One has to compete with container trucks until Pasir Gudang too. Thats all alright I think because the reward is completely empty roads after that.

I managed a quick breakfast and stocked up on fluids to last the distance and pedaled on. The weather as I mentioned remained great and I kept up a pretty comfortable pace, neither too fast nor too slow. Riding in Malaysia is always a pleasure as the traffic shows good respect to cyclists and there are hoards of strangers cheering you on. It is something about living in a bigger country that seems to make people friendlier. I guess just after noon, I felt darn drowsy and figured it a good idea to stretch and get some shut eye. Anyway by then I have had enough of the rolling hills and I conked out for a few minutes by a nice grassy patch. Funnily enough that was the last hill of the day and the rest of the way was completely flat as I had already reached the coast. Doh.

I planned to stay the night at Jason’s Bay but I had overshot the place by 9 Km and had no intention of turning back. Instead I moved on to Sedili Kechil and found a place to rest at the Sedili Country Resort. The friendly ladies there even offered dinner and Breakfast as part of the deal. Not one to reject, I pounced on it . The room was not anything to write home about but suited a tired traveler pretty well and did I mention the dinner and breakfast… I know what Jesus meant when he said “ask and you shall receive ”

My bones were weary and the muscles needed some stretching, so I read a while and off to sleep at 2200 Hrs I guess. I had planned an early day but the chef could get my b’fast at 0800 and so I slept in. Time for b’fast and pictures and I was on my way again. The coastal route, for those familiar, is pretty much deserted and most of the time, the only sound you hear is the wind and the rubber on asphalt. It is strangely mesmerizing punctuated only by the occasional car / motorbike buzzing past. And the calm returns followed by the two songs mentioned above.

The only trouble was that the temperature was the soaring (weather reads 34C. I am guessing 38C under the sun) heat. So All I could do was to count down the distance and feel good about every Km covered. Curses flew when the hills came and praises were due in the slopes. Occasional rest stops and another lie down under a grass patch was pretty much unavoidable. The heat drained all energy out and my bones were really Jello by this time. Off Bike, I felt strong, On bike it was the reverse. So when the option came to decide whether I head to Tg Pengelih or Tg Bekungkor, the decision was simple, Tg Belungkor it is as it shaves 20 Km off

I guess the end of the weekend I was pretty tired but at the same time rejuvenated that I squeezed in a good long ride. Couch surfing is fun but the real fun is being out there riding. Braving the heat, exhaustion and pain sounds strangely masochistic but joy is undeniable. Listening to birds on an empty road strewn with roadkill (of snakes, monitor lizards, rats, squirrels etc…), occasional dog encounter (4 but no attacks) is a strange sense of joy, “Oh so beautiful, oh so strange” as Dave Matthews sang. May be that’s why it was ringing in my ear.

And this is for those interested in the route…

You might have observed in the past few posts, there were a bunch of equipment upgrades on my bikes. Some of them well worth it, some probably vain. There seems to be missing an essential component, that of riding the bike. Heh, It is about time I really road tested the NWT.

Al, requested for pictures of the complete bike and here they go.

First up, a 100 Km loop to Kota Tinggi. It was almost impromptu ride, my brother pushed me to join him and I figured it is a good excuse to take the NWT on a shakedown. You know bikes take a bit to settle down. Cables will stretch, tires will roll into place, brakes will wear in etc… I had a few things to check out too, like how do my panniers fit the rear rack, will I have heel strike, will my setup with skating wheels work fine with the panniers, how will the dual drive hold up over long distances etc…

I realized after the initial short rides, the shifters were a bit tricky to reach, so the first adjustments were made (I have not put on bar tape yet expecting more adjustments in the coming days). I swapped my B17 with the B67 from the Surly and the bike was ready for the road test. The bigger question was whether I was ready

For those who do not know about SE Asia, we do not have regular seasons, the only thing regular is the intense sun, high humidity and thunderstorms and usually they decide to mix and match combinations as the day progresses.

We started off about 0830 in pretty much high sun and the only thing I could look forward to was some cheap / great food in JB and if lucky, some showers in the mid day. Luck did not hold out for us and we were served with intense heat and near 100% humidity throughout the ride. As it is with riding out through the causeway into Johor Bahru, heavy traffic is the norm until you cross Kota Tinggi. So an out and back loop means that we are practically in heavy traffic throughout the ride. Added to it was the fact that the highway 3 was being extended and all trees have disappeared. Shade was scarce.

Well let me say that it was a very difficult metric century. We ran through a few litres of water and at least a litre of gatorade (each) before we decided to turn back. At the halfway point, we stopped by a street side coconut vendor (Thank god they are willing to brave the heat to quench the thirst of travelers) and gulped down a couple of coconuts before turning back.

It was a good decision in the end as my brother was pretty dehydrated and exhausted when we reached JB. The ride route as follows:

So how did the bike hold up in this ride. Well, excellently. The  setup is a bit more upright and the B67 was a good choice, no sore butt or shoulder. The trekking bars were great. There were indeed many comfortable positions I could use, a worthy choice again. I do not like the position of the levers, I may push them forward a bit but given the curve on the bar, the levers might flare out a little. I will have to try the setup. I will most definitely move the bell to some place near the stem. The bell is a great idea to communicate with my brother over short distances. Ding Ding and we stop to check each other out.

I liked the friction shifters. Infinitely better than the twist shifters. The Tikit my brother was riding had a very tight twist shifter and the rear dee was also out of alignment. He had a terrible time shifting. Not so for me, heh. If I don’t shift smooth at first, I just need to feather the shifter and I am sailing along smoothly

The Dual Drive was a revelation. I need to probably write separately about the dual drive. It deserves honorable mention. But let me say a few words, Shifting was precise and smooth. I did have to use a trigger shifter for that and with a quick flick, I go from pounding on the pedals to tootling with a whistle on my lips.  The best part was that I could stick to any of the 3 gears and still choose to use the entire cassette. That means less fiddling with the gears. If you have been riding with front deraiullers (which most of us are), this is really neat. And the gear range is very nice. Rolling hills, well, bring it on I say now.Al e-mailed me once to caution me about some of the quirks of the dual drive. It has not reared its ugly head till now and I will wait for them to surface. For now, dual drive is really worth it if you are considering it for your bike.

The only minor issue I had was the chain slip when I switched gears too quickly (on the cassette not the dual drive). That is because of the odd angle the chain has to take when in the extreme gears. A chain guide should patch it, but I am in no hurry for that.

Overall, the bike worked like a charm, an intense metric century in trying conditions is the best way to check out a bike I guess and the NWT passed the test in flying colors. Thank you Bike Friday!