Stupid_O's Xanga

Moving

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:39:06 GMT

To www.startingtotrainwithpower.blogspot.com

Why Don't More People Ride Motorbikes To Work?

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:49:26 GMT

This morning on the way to work as I was zipping by those people stuck in a traffic jam, I got to thinking, why don't more people ride motorbikes to work?

Every morning, I see tonnes of single occupant vehicles on the road, stuck in a jam, on the way to work. If that were me, I would have long blown my head off. It is so frustrating sitting in traffic going nowhere, wasting time and fuel. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who feels that way, but why aren't there any more motorbikes on the road?

1) Too unsafe? Perhaps. But if more people rode in to work, there'll be less cars on the road, which makes it safer for the riders. No? With less cars, you could perhaps designate one single lane for motorbikes, which makes it even safer? No? Think KL roads with 20% less cars. When the fuel price increase happened, do you remember that there were less cars on the road? And you could actually feel the difference? And I'm pretty sure that's not 20% less cars. Imagine 20% less cars on Jalan Kuching at 8 a.m. or 5.30 p.m. Different? You betcha.

2) Inconvenient? Excuses like "Nanti caught in the rain, baju basah". Hell no. What's so difficult about keeping a spare set of work clothes and a towel at work? Or packing your clothes in a plastic bag and putting it in a backpack. Banyak mana la sangat creases kat baju hang on a 30 minute commute to work? Nak bawak barang? Be honest. How much stuff do you need to carry to work? Laptop can go in your backpack. There's even pannier-like devices for your motorbikes which you can put stuff in if you need to bring reports/paperwork/etc. back home/to office.

3) Need to send kids to school? Don't they go to the school closest to where you live? Send them first using the car. Or get the wife to send them on the way to work (not trying to be sexist, but there are more men than women riders so the women can drive the family car and drop the kids off at school before making their way to work). Excuses like "Oh I send my kid to private school"? Puh-leez. If you can afford private school, you're probably living in a gated community somewhere with a private school a fart's smell away from where you live, and your kid can walk there if he/she wants.

4) Uncool? Habis cool la tuh to waste 2.5 hours a day sitting in traffic, listening to crap Malaysian radios?

Let's break this down a bit. Time wise. I live in Kepong (substitute that with any given suburb like Puchong, PJ, etc.), which is a bitch to get to and from work in a car. Jam on Jalan Segambut, jam on Jalan Kuching, jam on Jalan Tun Razak, jam on Jalan Sultan Ismail, jam on Federal Highway. If you like a little of a lie in, and leave for work at 7.30 and don't want to pay the toll, it's at least an hours commute to work. Each way. On a motorbike, maximum, it's 30 minutes. That's 5 hours a week (probably more coz Friday after work traffic is atrocious) for you to do something else, spend time with your kids, go to the gym, gardening, whatever rocks your boat.

Cost wise? A nice, peppy Lagenda 110Z cost RM 5500. You can even cut that down by getting something even more basic like an EX5. Which I think is something stupid like RM 3500 on sale. Let's take the Lagenda for comparison's sake.

Petrol: RM 200 per month (kira RM 50 per week la, which is pretty realistic)
Parking: RM 150 per month (around RM 7 per day for 22 working days a month)
Toll: RM 150 per month (around RM 7 per day for 22 working days a month)

That's already at least RM 500 a month. You recoup your expenditure in less than a year, and you have (5 hours per week x 52 weeks a year) at least 260 extra hours in your year that you can do something with.

That's in one year. A motorbike can last you at least 3 years (paling minimum la). Maintenance cost is pretty minimal. So that's at least another RM 12000 in your pocket to do as you like (redo the kitchen, go for a holiday, your childrens savings, buy a Powertap )

But no. A motorbike, is uncool, a poor person's way of getting around. People might look at me like I'm poor (actually, I am, uncontrollable spending habits on cycling stuff actually ) coz I'm on a motorbike and I can't afford a car. But actually, on the inside, I'm happy as a clam, zipping past them on the way to and from work, pitying them for the lost time. Especially on rainy days. "Hahahah, tengok mat rempit tu basah kena hujan". I might get a bit wet, but I'm usually home, showered, clean and dry befreo you've even moved 2 kilometres. Who's the stupid one now?

Because The Project Manager Is Not Here

Tue, 19 May 2009 06:08:20 GMT

I find other things to occupy myself with during some of my free time.

Like plotting elevations.

Genting Sempah from HOA. 15 km. 550 m elevation gain.

Fraser Gap from Tranum. 20 km. 700 m elevation gain.

Genting from Batang Kali. 24 km. 1600 m elevation gain.

Finally

Mon, 18 May 2009 08:27:13 GMT

The ghost of Fraser-Gohtong past has been buried. Almost a year and a half from when I cramped so badly that I couldn't bend my legs, I made it up to Gohtong on the back of the Fraser loop. Climbing a 13 km 9% average gradient after already clocking 180 km in the legs is no mean feat. To those who made it up on Saturday, well done to you

Apparently there's plans for an even more "super" ride when I caome back for good. All the way to the top of Genting. For this one, if it ever happens, I'm fitting a compact crank on my bike. Pussy crank or otherwise, I don't care. We'll see who laughs last when all you can do is turn over a 34 x 26, when all you have is a 39 x 25

On the other hand, 12 more days. It's so close I can just about taste it in the air...

Gila Babi Circuit

Thu, 14 May 2009 23:48:02 GMT

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

There's nothing much to write about. I'm still in Jakarta. Counting down the days until I'm back in KL for good. Which is 14 days to be exact.

Did the Interstate ride the Labour Day weekend, which is not a public holiday in Indonesia, if you didn't already know. The best part of the 3 day ride was the twisty up and down small rubber estate road that we took on the 2nd day. Really felt like riding one of those one-day classics in Belgium/Holland, with the narrow roads and the ever undulating nature of the road. Was pretty disappointed that the section had to end.

Have been really busy at work, in a project engineer support role for the project manager. It's all helter skelter now. Partly it's the nature of the project. Lots of interfaces with other sub-contractors and missing data and such. Part of it is the clients demanding nature. It's developing to be a bit of a cockfight at the moment. Thank god it';; all be over soon. For me at least, anyway.

Less than 24 hours to GilaBabi circuit ride. Can't wait!!!

The Epitome of Sloth

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:53:47 GMT

Not having your bike with you is a lot like breaking up. You feel depressed coz you can't, you don't feel like doing anything or leaving the house, you mope around, eat junk food, watch copious amount of TV and hardly ever leave the couch except to pee. Or to get food out of the fridge.

The things I did this weekend:

5 episodes of Chuck.

5 episodes of Life.

Monsters vs. Aliens.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

The Watchmen.

The International.

The 1st season of The Big Bang Theory (again).

Formula 1 qualifying and race.

And the one thing I wanted to watch the most, Liege-Bastogne-Liege I couldn't watch coz they don't have Eurosport here.

I don't understand what to do with the time on my hand when I can't go for a ride. What do people actually do on weekends with all that time?

The Story of Jens Voight

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:31:45 GMT

Because this one deserves a post on it's own

Jens Voigt doesn’t read books. He simply attacks until the books relent and tell him everything he wants to know.

Waldo can’t be found because Jens dropped him on a hill training ride… on K2.

Jens doesn’t spin or mash the pedals… he kicks them into submission.

Jens Voigt puts the “laughter” in “Manslaughter.”

Jens Voigt climbs so well for a big guy because he doesn’t actually climb hills; the hills slink into the earth in fear as they see him approach.

If you are a UCI ProTour rider and you Google “Jens Voigt,” the only result you get is “it’s not to late to take up Football, Fred.”

Jens was a math prodigy in elementary school, putting “Attack!” in every blank space on all his tests. It would be the wrong answer for everybody else, but Jens is able to solve any problem by attacking.

Jens’ testicles are bald because hair does not grow on a mixture of titanium, brass, steel, and cold, hard granite.

Eddy Merckx was actually a neo-pro at the same time as Jens, but Jens dropped him so hard that he shot backwards in time to the 1960’s, where he became a great champion.

Jens once had a heart attack on the Tourmalet. Jens counterattacked repeatedly until he kicked its ass.

Jack was nimble, Jack was quick… and Jens still drove him to quit racing bikes and become an ice dancing commentator on Lifetime.

If Jens Voigt was a country, his principle exports would be Pain, Suffering, and Agony.

If Jens Voigt was a planet, he’d be the World of Hurt.

Jens Voigt doesn’t know where you live, but he knows exactly where you will die.

Jens Voigt doesn’t have a shadow because he dropped it repeatedly until it retired, climbing into the CSC team car and claiming a stomach ailment.

Jens Voigt once challenged Lance Armstrong to a “who has more testicles” contest. Jens won… by five.

When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jens Voigt jumps out and attacks.

You are what you eat. Jens Voigt eats spring steel for breakfast, fire for lunch, and a mixture of titanium and carbon fiber for dinner. For between-meal snacks he eats men’s souls, and downs it with a tall cool glass of The Milk of Human Suffering.

Jens Voigt believes it’s not butter.

Jens Voigt can eat just one.

The first time man split the atom was when the atom tried to hold Jens Voigt’s wheel, but cracked.

Jens Voigt doesn’t complain about what suffering does to him… but suffering constantly complains about getting picked on by Jens Voigt.

Jens Voigt can start a fire by rubbing two mud puddles together.

Guns kill a couple dozen people every day. Jens Voigt kills 150.

Jens’s tears are so tough they could be the world heavyweight mixed-martial arts champion. Too bad Jens never cries.

Jens Voigt rides so fast during attacks, that he could circle the globe, hold his own wheel, and ride in his own draft. At least as long as he didn’t try to drop himself.

Jens Voigt nullified the periodic table because he doesn’t believe in any element, other than the element of surprise.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Unless Jens Voigt has been riding on the other side in which case it’s white with the salty, dried tears of all the riders whose souls he has crushed.

Total Slugfest

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:10:52 GMT

Well, today's run was a total sulgfest. And I mean TOTAL. The legs were not there, RPE was high, even trying to maintain my EZ run pace (calculated from here) was hard. Very hard. Ah well. I guess we all have on of those days some time or other. But at least I got some running in. These EZ runs might seem pointless to you, but I think they help me build up my running specific muscles/tendons/ligaments so that they can hold up better in the long run. Hopefully the knee holds out too.

You Know That I Could Use Somebody

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:35:23 GMT

So for the next 100 days, I plan to become a runner. Because I've signed up for THIS. And I'll again be starting from scratch using BarryP's articles from Slowtwitch as guidance. Last week was Week 1, with 3 very easy 20 minute treadmill runs and one long run of 10 km. Target for KL Marathon on the 29th of June 2009 is 4:33 for an average 6:30 per km. Stretch target is 4:22 for 6:15 per km. I have to be realistic. Running a marathong starting from (virtually) scratch will be difficult. But ah well. At least it'll give me a goal rather than me wallow in Post-Ironman Withdrawal Symptoms

Ironman Langkawi 2010

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:00:51 GMT

The easy bit is now over. Registration is done and dusted. Next year, I'm back for revenge. Hopefully this time around I'll actually be able to train properly for it. 2007, I had 3 months worth of training as it was a last minute decision, 13:49. This year, due to being in Jakarta and lack of training, 13:37.

So I'll put it up here for the sake of traceability and accountability. Provided I can fit in the proper training, I want to go sub-13. Always remind me of this, and perhaps I'll be more diligent in waking up for those early morning sessions