Sedili here I come... I hope...

Yes! Finally, I'm going to Sedili riding. This came after crazy Ben recced the place and made notes on the water points and confirmed route. This will come in handy as I will be riding all the way to sedili besar to meet Ben. In any case, just pray hard it is not too hot and does not rain. I hope I do not become a broiled chicken when I get there.

Till I get back and post what my ride was like, you might want to check out Ben's version of the ride.

Ciao.....

Jurong Hill

Another climbing route tonight. This time it's Jurong Hill. Ben seems keen to get me up every hill in Singapore. In no time, I think I should would be going up mountains if this keeps up. The route was simple, we headed to towards Jurong East then Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim before going all the way straight down towards Pioneer North Road. Wrong choice of road. It connects to part of the expressway. We should have taken the road to Boon Lay then go past the industrial estate and make a left towards Pioneer North Road. Lucky for us, it was very late at night and there were no cars on the road. We did meet many patrol cars though. We even saw a group of punk riders get stopped by a patrol car early in the morning.

Anyway, this seems like the season for hill climbs and short rides, but hell do I feel more tired after these rides. I have done 120km a night but hill climbing seems more tiring than long distance riding. Jurong Hill, just beside Jurong Bird Park starts with a long low gradient slope that gets steeper as you progress upwards. Hitting the car park midway, you will face another climb almost twice the gradient of the first part of the climb. Happy climbing!

Finishing the climb, we were aimless and headed to a Mac at Jurong West for coffee to replan our next destination. After much discussion, we decided to head for our regular Jurong West Nasi Lemak. At $4 a plate, consisting of ikan bilis, fish cake, chicken wing and egg, I felt that it was very expensive as the Nasi Lemak at Changi only cost $3 for the same stuff. The interesting this about this malay guy who sells nasi lemak is that he can speak almost perfect mandarin!!! Try talking to him. The stall is located at the market at Jurong West. After that, we headed back to Bt Batok for more food. We had eggs and toast and coffee. The funny thing was, we could still eat! I wonder if it was the hills we climbed. I don't eat as much even on long rides. This is like a makan ride disguised as a hill climbing ride...


Ride Details:
Distance : 28.2km
Avg Spd. : 18km/h
Ride Time : 1hr 39mins

The night of the climbs

Crazy Ben was feeling nuts tonight and dragged me up some freaking hill that nearly wanted my life; Mount Faber. He said, "Hey, let's do Mount Faber tonight!" I only slept 4hrs the previous night and had to work full day the next and here's what he said to that, "We take a short ride tonight!" Ya right....short...He never mentioned anything about long winding, roads, hilly climbs and on top of that he even suggested BT off road at night... Uuhh.....

Anyway, we started the route and went to explore a way to avoid the BT traffic by using the small roads in the housing estate.
We entered the estate via Rifle Range Road and came out from Shelford Road to complete the first part of the trip. We'll do the Adam Road part the next time. There are many turns and roads to remember but ONLY 1 Route out of the estate. There are a few alternative(Marked by red lines) that connect to the route again. Please note that the Turf Club alternative is only available during the day as there is a gate in turf city so you will need to exit the estate and use the sidewalk along BT Road. After Vanda Link, beware of hilly terrain especially Pine Walk. IMOH, it sould be called Pine Hill!!! There is another major downhill/climb depending which way you are coming from inside the estate. I shall not disclose where it is, but I am sure you will remember it.... Have fun...


After BT, onwards to Tanglin and Grange Road towards Alexendra Road, Lower Delta Road, before the highlight of the night; Mount Faber! An idea of the climb at to Mount Faber is like a Vigilante Road Combined with a South Bouna Vista Road. During the other climbs, Crazy Ben was saying that he would not be using his middle chain ring, that was until he felt his legs ..."I think I'll will retract what I said when we reach Mount Faber!" hahaha.... My legs were burning when I was climbing Mount Faber. I wonder how it would feel like on a touring bike with 40kg on the bike??? Two words... Damn Scary...

The climb was horrible but the descent was marvelous. Coasting down the other side of the hill, you can see the picturesque sights of the Sentosa view in the clearing. At the foot of the hill on the other side is Pender Road. Try going down the hill without brakes, you'll understand why the road sounds like a particular animal...

After that it was all the way to West Coast Park Mac, for a long awaited chocolate milkshake. We passed the Murtabak place and decided to give it a miss since we had had it a few nights ago. I was craving for a chocolate milkshake tonight!

Finishing off from there, we headed to Clementi Road where I took Ben on another route to avoid the smelly Toh Guan Road. We used Clementi Ave. 6 exiting via Bukit Batok East Ave. 3 towards home. BEWARE, do not use this route during peak hours as you will be riding alongside cars that go very fast that are exiting at Bukit Batok East Ave 3.

Home and time to hit the sack. Zzzzzz...........


Ride Details:
Distance : 42.73km
Avg Spd : 18.2km/h
Ride Time : 2hr 14min

Short ride with new discoveries

Supposed to ride at 2am but had trouble adjusting my brake pads at home and was late. My road wheel's spoke snapped on the previous ride so I had to change to my original semi-slick wheels but I forgot that I had to change the alignment of my brake pads. According to Murphy's law, everything went wrong that night. I had forgotten to change the spare tube in my saddle bag to the semi-slick version before riding out. This made me have to go back home to change it as I did not want to be stranded due to a flat tire.

Finally everything was set and it was already 3.30am. Ben had an appointment in the afternoon and wanted to be back by 7am to avoid the traffic so our trip was planned to be a short one. The 1st part of the route was simple enough. We went through BT towards Cavanenagh Road and made a right at Suntec towards the Esplanade and all the way to Keppel Road. Going to our favourite Murtabak place along Pasir Panjang Road, we stopped there for a bite. The strange thing was I felt hungry at that point but I just could not finish the Murtabak??? Must have been a psychological scar the last Kent Ridge ride left me.

After the food, the ride became more interesting. We hit Pepys Road up towards Kent Ridge Park and found a very nice treetop broad walk that connects to Kent Ridge Park. (Cyclist please dismount! Don't make them ban all cyclist from using it!) There are benches and rest stops you can sit at and enjoy the sunset from the broad walk. Getting into Kent Ridge Park, we headed to the exit towards Science Park and made our way towards Bouna Vista, Old Holland Road and towards Senapang Trial where we would emerge from the entrance of BT hill. At this point, Ben decided to explore the road that supposedly runs behind the fire station. No luck, it does not run through. We backtracked and headed back home. Being IBS, I decided to do another hill before heading home so I went up Hume Ave. for another climb.

Conclusion, I had to get used to semi-slicks again, found a nice broadwalk and an alternate route to Kent Ridge Park instead of murtabak puking Vigilante Road, went through Senapang Road and explored a new route behind the fire station.

Short and sweet!

Ride Details:
Distance : 46.60km
Avg Spd : 18.7km/h
Ride Time : 2hrs 28min

Discovery Route

It's back to Changi for Nasi Lemak again but this time using a different route and having many new discoveries along the way. We set of as usual and used Mandai toward Bondary Road vai AMK ave 6. Making a left on Boundary Road, you hit Tampines Road then Old Tampines Road, in my opinion was one of the more interesting roads that night. It spans 6.17km and is mostly flat, runs behind a runway and you can see the Tampines skyline from the uphill climb at the end of Old Tampines Road. After that, as we proceeded right to Bedok Reservoir Road we saw a very bad accident where a taxi crashed into the middle of the road divider destroying the steel barricade. Wonder how was the driver? As typical Singaporeans, I overheard a man on the phone at the crash screen telling his friend about the crash and to buy 4D of the car no. plate! BTW, it 4549. Further up, where you will find a 7-11 that sells MARS ice-cream!!! Best Energy Bar in the world!!! Instead of turning right to Simei Road, we should have just continued on Tampines Ave 2 and would have hit Loyang Ave. instead of doing the extra mileage. Following Loyang Ave, we used the usual route towards Changi Village for our breakfast!

Coming back from Changi Village, we discovered a new road that leads to an Aviation Hub with a 1.6 mile runway and huge hanger. Excellent cycling road; long and straight but has strong headwind at times. Riding along the Changi-East Coast Park Connector, we saw the remnants of a lorry accident along Coastal Road. The driver was dead when we saw him. The lorry crashed into a tree on the oncoming side of the road and swerved 180 degrees, shattering the windscreen and throwing its carriage onto the middle of the road. That driver must have been going very very fast for something like that to happen. Would have posted a pic if I had a camera with me. Talk about road kill! 2 accidents, 2 rats, 1 toad, 1 bloated dog and 1 man(if the taxi driver wasok). Bad night...

Well, that only goes to remind us that road safety is just so important. Doesn't mean that at night, there are less cars it is safer. In fact, it is just as dangerous if not more as people drive faster/race and are already sleepy and don't see you as well.

We also found a way of coming back from East Coast without hitting much traffic during peak hours that we thought was well appropriate for the morning as we were tired and were late in a sense that the peak hour traffic had started. We took the usual route to Orchard and made our way along the pavements towards Botanic Gardens and entered Tyersall Avenue. It leads to Cluny Park Road where you emerge from Bukit Timah Road. Making a right at 6th Avenue, we went up Swiss Club Road, Swiss Club Link then Binjai Park where Ben tried to Sabo me by ordering a $4 plate of wanton mee for lunch just before a major climb at Hua Guan Avenue. There is a back road that leads to BT nature reserve's Senapang Trail where you come out from the main entrance of BT hill. Beware, if you are going there after a rain and you have slick tyres.

From there it was all the way back home before I started work at 5pm. I reached home at 2pm, cleaned up my bike and discovered that one of the spokes of the drive-side of the rear wheel was broken. Damn!!! I just had it repaired not long ago. Now I have to go to Peter Chew's place to get it fixed again. And since I'm riding 120km again tonight, I guess it's back to my semi-slicks again. I think I'm going to smell smoke from Ben tonight... :~(

We'll see.....



Ride Details:
Distance : 116.26km
Avg Spd : 20.1
Ride Time : 5hrs 45min

The Great Murtabak Hunt!

After the crash at Jalan Kampong Chantek, I decided I had to re-visit the site and document the crash site. I headed out to Ben's late at night about 2am and we made our way there the reverse direction to take pictures of the damaged kerb and steep slope. You can see the video in my previous post on the full story. I shall not go into details here and will focus on something of greater importance... my hunger...

I was famished by the time I finished taking the pictures and was craving for a good murtabak thinking back on the one at Telok Blangah, thus began the quest for murtabak. Since we were at BT, I thought that the coffee shop at 6th avenue would be open. We rode there only to find that it was closed...it should have been opened if I remembered correctly..... anyway, further up was Adam Road food centre, I thought,"This time sure got one....". We reached, parked our bikes and I approached the indian prata shop in the food centre only to discover to my demise, "Solly boss, vee are crozing...". I could not believe it! It was as though it was a conspiracy. Ben even suggested a network of indian prata houses that would phone ahead to tell the other stalls to beware of a murtabak monster riding towards them.... 2nd last resort, Mr Prata just along the road by the old SMU, current NUS.

Typical of Ben when he said, "Ay, Hon Shin, later you reach there they say closed for cleaning". Now this was something that was highly possible as we ride past there quite often and we always observe that they are usually cleaning the place... Mr Prata was kind to me; they were open. I went in there and ordered a mutton cheese murtabak and a teh tarik, Ben being afraid that he would end up Jolly like a mutual friend of ours, decided to just have a teh tarik. The murtabak came very quickly and disappeared very quickly too... For second helpings, Ben ordered a cheese roti tissue and another round or drinks. That disappeared pretty fast too and we were on our way again.

Heading back this time along BT was the best ride of all nights as we were so early that there was no traffic to beat. Brilliant, till Ben suggested we take a right up the hill towards upp BT road from the main junction at BT plaza. After having a full murtabak and half a roti tissue climbing up a long long climb as like trying to squeeze out all that I had stomached. Now, South Bouna Vista doesn't sound that bad after all...

I was tired by then and decided to head back home to sleep and that concludes our short documenting, recovery and makan ride for the night.


Ride details:
Distance : 28.79km
Avg Spd : 16.9km/h
Ride Time : 1hr 42min

New toys and more crazy riding

So its back to Viki's or some new toys. Bought a Garmin GPS 60 to better plot my cycling routes for future references. Got too tired of visually plotting the route using Google Earth . Now, I just upload it via USB directly into Google Earth PLUS after paying the US$20/- yearly subscription. In my opinion, it's worth it! Saves you a lot of eye-strain hunting blurred, clouded, not updated satellite images of google maps. You can also use MotionedBased to do the job. Haven't tried though but I'll do a full write-up once I have tested it out with the unit thoroughly, but in the meantime, here are some comments I have for the unit.

Quite bulky but it is very visible while travelling as it sports a larger than average display as compared to other handheld GPSs. The waypoint recording is highly accurate as referenced with the picture on google maps and physical location, subjected to full 3D capturing of waypoints. Try not to stand just outside the shop to take waypoint as you are usually partially sheltered by the building. This has resulted in one of my waypoints being 500m off-course which I later traced to it being that I did not have a full 3D lock on the location.

[Tip! That extra 2mins you spend acquiring a full signal would save you miles later on the way back. More, if you are elevated/climbing!]

Sexy design sporting user friendly water-proof buttons for easy single-handed use and rubber studded side-grips for those slippery and wet moments... hee :p


Route taken was half-manually plotted. As you can see from the pic, the light green line was plotted by me and the cyan one by the GPS.

Highlight of the day happened just as we started riding. I went tree-hugging just 20 mins into the ride... I was very lucky to only sustain minor abrasions and bruises on my left shoulder and thigh considering that I was going very very fast. Flipping my stem over really made a difference to the profile of my riding, not to mention the handling of the bike too. Check out the vid.

All in all, this ride was an interesting one as we located new bike shops and makan places. Had chunky grass jelly and soya bean curd along Upp Serangoon Road, also managed to find 1 of the 3 Scott distributors in Singapore called Swiss Valley along River Valley Road and we found a little bikers haven for cool drinks and chillin out. Go check out Ambrosia. It's a Mediterranean restaurant that has the coolest slushes and refreshing drinks. Didn't have a camera then so will write more and post more pics there when we visit again.

Till then....


Trip Details:
Distance : 103.51km
Avg Spd : 20.3km/h
Ride Time : 5hrs 5min
Crash speed : 60.7km/h

Crazy ride and more crazy rides...

For the love of riding......


I had been looking forward to the ride with Belinda and company for 2 weeks and had always been postponed due to bad weather, till today.... BUT!!! I never intended to do the ride they did that day... 55km non-stop ride riding mostly 32km/h, pulling the runway at 35km/h, flying downhills at 55km/h and worst of all, climbing South Bouna Vista Road at 33km/h after 40km into the journey!

Whew, what a ride....

By the time I reached home, my legs were shaking like jelly, BUT I still had to go back to close shop at 9pm. Tough luck!

Met Ben at the cafe and he suggested a ride to explore(snigger) the Serangoon Viaduct. I thought why not, since I was not working the next day(bad idea, he had it all planned out).



Result, by the time we reached the viaduct, I had fallen asleep and woken up again after a huge nasi briyani just before the viaduct that I could not finish and the Zzzz... monster that was tormenting me. We reached the viaduct and I asked Ben what was so interesting about the viaduct and his reply was, "I just want to ride it!" By that time we had already done close to 40km just to ride a 1.93km viaduct! Curses!!!

We completed the viaduct only to decide to head to Punggol Jetty where the OBS departure was. We got a little lost and did an extra 10km trying to figure our way there. Interesting place that had 3 rolling hills and the threat of dogs that would spring out of nowhere. We ended up pedalling, just pedalling. We did not even dare to change gears or talk for fear of dogs hearing us and giving chase.

The going was fine, the gravity climbs were in our favour and NO dogs..... the return was different.... hills not in our favour; less gravity but longer climbs. Forgetting not to speak, I popped Ben a question, and before you knew it, "Woof Woof Woof....." Damn, you should have seen us climb those hills.... hahaha.... Ben, wide eyed and gaping jaws was like, "What are you doing ???"

By that time, it was already 7am and we were having a hard time dodging traffic and trying to get home. We hit Ang Mo Kio and headed for Lornie Road before turing into Sime Road through the Chinese cematary to Bukit Tinah Road. Beginners beware, do not attempt Lornie Road during rush hour. You cannot believe the number of idiots who would run you down without knowing. Huge trucks run you so close to the kerb you could bunny hop any moment!

Hitting Bukit Timah, we play dodge ball again. School traffic and huge buses as well as many vehicle turning in and out of the main roads make you thankful you have new brake pads. Had a quick chocolate milkshake at KAP Mac Donalds before heading home to what seemed like eternal slumber.

Ride 1 details:
Distance : 55.49km
Avg Spd : 27.75km.h
Ride time : 2 hrs

Ride 2 details:
Distance : 84.76km
Avg spd : 20.1km/h
Ride time : 4hrs 21min

Total computation:
Distance : 140.25km
Avg Spd : 22km/h
Ride Time : 6hrs 21min

Cancer and alternatives

A close friend of mine recently sent this to me regarding cancer and I thought would be a good article to share with everyone. This is an article from John Hopkins Hospital, US on the alternatives to cancer treatment.

Kudos to JH Hospital !!!


AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO (TRY) AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHN HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY .

Cancer Update from John Hopkins


1. Every person has cancer cells in the body.
These cancer cells do not show up in the
standard tests until they have multiplied
to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer
patients that there are no more cancer
cells in their bodies after treatment, it just
means the tests are unable to detect the
cancer cells because they have not
reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more
than 10 times in a person's lifetime

3. When the person's immune system is
strong the cancer cells will be destroyed
prevented from multiplying and forming
tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates
the person has multiple nutritional defi
ciencies. These could be due to genetic,
environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5.To overcome the multiple nutritional
deficiencies, changing diet and including
supplements will strengthen the immune
system.

6.Chemotherapy involves poisoning the
rapidly-growing cancer cells and also
destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in
the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract
etc, and can cause organ damage, like
liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7.Radiation while destroying cancer cells
also burns, scars and damages healthy
cells, tissues and organs.

8.Initial treatment with chemotherapy and
radiation will often reduce tumor size.
However prolonged use of chemotherapy
and radiation do not result in more tumor
destruction.

9.When the body has too much toxic burden
from chemotherapy and radiation the
immune system is either compromised or
destroyed, hence the person can succumb
to various kinds of infections and com
plications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause
cancer cells to mutate and become
resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery
can also cause cancer cells to spread to
other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to
starve the cancer cells by not feeding it
with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off
sugar it cuts off one important food
supply to the cancer cells. Sugar
substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,
Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame
and it is harmful. A better natural
substitute would be Manuka honey or
molasses but only in very small
amounts. Table salt has a chemical
added to make it white in color. Better
alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea
salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus,
especially in the gastro-intestinal tract.
Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off
milk and substituting with unsweetened
soya milk cancer cells are being
starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid
environment. A meat-based diet is
acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a
little chicken rather than beef or pork.
Meat also contains livestock antibiotics,
growth hormones and parasites, which
are all harmful, especially to people with
cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables
and juice, whole grains,seeds, nuts and
a little fruits help put the body into an
alkaline environment.About 20% can be
from cooked food including beans. Fresh
vegetable juices provide live enzymes
that are easily absorbed and reach down
to cellular levels within 15 minutes to
nourish and enhance growth of healthy
cells. To obtain live enzymes for building
healthy cells try and drink fresh vege-
table juice (most vegetables including
bean sprouts)and eat some raw vegeta-
bles 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are
destroyed at temperatures of 104 deg-
rees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which
have high caffeine.Green tea is a better
alternative and has cancer-fighting
properties. Water-best to drink purified
water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins
and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled
water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and
requires a lot of digestive enzymes.
Undigested meat remaining in the
intestines become putrified and leads to
more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein
covering. By refraining from or eating
less meat it frees more enzymes to
attack the protein walls of cancer cells
and allows the body's killer cells to
destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune
system (IP6, Flor-ssence,Essiac, anti
oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.)
to enable the body's own killer cells to
destroy cancer cells. Other supplements
like vitamin E are known to cause
apoptosis, or programmed cell death,
the body's normal method of disposing
of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded
cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body,
and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit
will help the cancer warrior be a
survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and
bitterness put the body into a stressful
and acidic environment. Learn to have a
loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax
and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an
oxygenated environment. Exercising
daily, and deep breathing help to get
more oxygen down to the cellular level.
Oxygen therapy is another means
employed to destroy cancer cells.




CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS
HOSPITAL , U S A - PLEASE READ

1. No plastic containers in micro.

2. No water bottles in freezer.

3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

John Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well.

Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.

Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.

Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.

Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard.

He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers.
This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as CorningWare, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else.

Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, CorningWare, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

Design Flaw of the Topeak Hexus 16

Topeak Hexus 16 Design Flaw

Made a discovery about the Topeak Hexus 16 tool when I was about to install a new Shimano 8 Speed Chain on a bike. Apparently, the Hexus tool’s chain break does not have a housing long enough for the bolt pin to thread in to push the master pin .

The chain does not fit if put in straight.

You will need to angle the master pin down and insert this way for it to be able to sit in the place-holder.

Fully inserted, the master pin is covered by part of the housing.

This results is the bolt not being about to thread into the housing of the chain tool due to a short housing length. Alien Tools have a longer housing.

This is the minimal threading that the bolt needs in order to fit into the housing. Notice the protruding pin in the region of the place-holder. Compare with the picture above with the chain and master pin fully set in the place-holder and you will realise that it is impossible to screw in a master pin for a chain.

Forcing the bolt strips the thread of the bolt. (Look very closely in Hi-res at the beginning of the screw thread)

Well, I have written in to Topeak US and hope they will offer a solution to this as I hope I do not need to have to buy another multitool just because of a flawed design on the Hexus 16.

The Alien Tool from Topeak has a housing that is longer and is able to install a master pin perfectly. I wonder why Topeak has a different design and in the process created this problem???

Anyway, for all you guys out there who have this problem, go check out the Alien Tool. You will see that the chain breaker component has a longer housing than the Hexus version.

Cheers

Topeak Prepstand Elite

As promised, the Topeak Prepstand Elite write-up.

Having a folded length of 1.23m, it is quite a tall stand that requires quite a bit of storage space.

Partially expanding the stand results in a 73cm base that is stable enough for holding the bike for normal repairs. Crank wrenching requires it to be fully expanded.


Fully expanded base of 112cm gives you unshakable performance while you work.



45cm clamp length


Small parts bin with locking lid


48mm clamping width for gigantic frame tubes.


Huge rotating lock ring to secure the folding clamp hinge. 5mm tube diameter QR for adjusting the main stand tube prevents the tube from sliding downwards during wrenching and repairs.



Jagged-ridged grooves on the 360 degree rotating clamp prevents the clamp arm from rotation up or down when wrenching heavily.


Huge clearance for even the longest of pedals for you to freely rotate the cranks for derailler adjustments.


Bike in neutral position, partially expanded base.



Clamp and stand tested when bike is rotated vertically. The force exerted on the clamp is much much greater in this position as weight distribution is at its minimum. The stand withstood the test. It did not flex at all.


Even hanging at 180cm clamping height, the stand was very stable partially opened. I'm impressed! However, the only minor problem I encountered was the freely swinging handlebars.


Problem of freely swinging handlebar.


At eye-level, the handlebars knocks right into your eyes/head if you wrench hard and shake the bike. Very painful experience to go through. Pre-empting this problem, I decided to find a solution even though Topeak has a handlebar stabaliser.
Cheaper alternative..... Bungee Cord!


Problem solved by tying up front wheel to the bottle cage using bungee cords.

Other Specs

Jaws : Non-marring rubber jaws 360 degree rotation
Clamp height : 122cm to 180cm
Material : 6061 T6 tubes
Stand Weight : 6kg
Max Weight : 25kg
Added Features : Carry bag, small parts bin, rubber bases


Overall, my rating of this stand is 9 out of 10 in terms of design, reliability and functionality.