The moment of truth

Took me Scottie out for a ride this morning in the witching hours of the night to test out the results of my work. Enjoyed the ride with the smooth transmissions and superb braking. The ride goes as follows.

Started at 1:00am 25th Oct 2007

Route

I started at Bukit Batok and proceeded to meet Ben at Dairy Farm Road before turning to Petir Road connecting to Jelebu Road and Bukit Panjang Road before turning into Woodlands Road for the long ride to Mandai Road.

Upp thomson Road was the next turning that takes you to Lornie Road before passing through a chinese cemetery atKheam Hock Road. Can be pretty eerie at night as the road is not well lit and there are humps along the way and the chance of dogs appearing out of nowhere. We emerged from Bukit Timah Road to proceed on to Evans Road then Nassim Road.

Stopped at Treknology and Tay Junction at Tudor Court along Tanglin Road and rode all the way to Alexandra Road. Turning right at Lower Delta Road we enter Kampong Bahru Road. At this point, it started to drizzle and we decided to make a dash for the prata house along Telok Blangah Road. We were going at 40km/h for about 10 mins before we realised that the 3 weeks that we did not ride was starting to take an effect on the performance of our muscles. 10 mins in my opinion was all the sprinting we could do before we felt like cramping in the legs. The murtabak at the prata house was awesome. Huge crispy murtabak with lots of egg and filling as compared to the lousy murtabak at Railmall. We had a great stuffing before we set off for what seemed like the killer of the whole ride.

Taking Pasir Panjang Road and turning into South Bouna Vista Road and up Vigilante Drive to Kent Ridge Park. The bloody hill was more than 20 degrees gradient and was even more daunting as we were full of murtabak. Ben wanted to make it more challenging by only using the middle crank and not the granny. Halfway up the first part of the hill, we were both wheezing like broken whistles and our legs were feeling like they were slowly melting away on the slope. Finally we emerged at the top of Kent Ridge PArk after what seemed like an eternity of climbing.

Going through Kent Ridge Park and emerging from the other side from Science Park Drive while witnessing a liquid nitrogen tanker refilling the Science Park facility. There was fog all over the place as the super cold liquid was pumped into the facility. At first I thought the tanker was on fire or something seeing smoke all around the vehicle. Ben in his usual prankster mind was thinking, "Hon Shin, go buy a pail of that stuff and refill your insulated water bottle."

We exited by North Bouna Vista Road into Lower Kent Ridge Road then Kent Ridge Cresent, finally into the all too familiar Clementi Road for the final journey back home. The last leg was through Jalan Anak Bukit, Upp Bukit Timah Road then Diary Farm Road for Ben. I had a little more to go through Hillview Avenue to Bukit Batok.

An incident happened at Hillview Avenue just outside The Petals Condo. I was returning home along the road when this mother drivine here 2 kids in her car was stopped at the entrance of the condo waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear before making a left turn. I was riding at 35km/h and approaching. We made eye contact but as I approached her car about 5m away, this reckless mother darted out making the left turn! Damn it. What was she thinking? I shouted, was scared shit out of my pants, and e-braked till my tires skidded. It was a good thing I was using good brake pads from Kool-stop or I would have collided into that purple car with number plate 6612. What's more, this lady didn't even turn back and and just drove off. Talk about reckless almost hit and run accidents. She should have her license revoked and banned from driving for life.


Ride ended at 5.30am

Total Distance: 67.94 Km
Riding Time: 3hr 12 min
Average Speed: 21.2km/h

Given the idea of a test ride to be an easy ride, we never expected that the ride would turn out to be a torture as we were climbing hills more than 20 degrees gradient, dodging rain at 40km/h and finally riding on a full stomach of "Murtabak".