Ride Report #11: Christmas Ride

Disclaimer: Not all photos posted in this post are taken by me. I have the permission from the owner to use their photos for the blog 

 

Since Christmas fell on a Friday and we had a long weekend the group planned a ride to Pedu lake on Sunday. Since this was uncharted territory for all of us we had a lead, sweeper and pointers. There were a total 17 bikes joined this trip which is the biggest group we had so far.

Complete route for the trip - Courtesy of Afizi

There are 2 meeting points for the planned out. First is the usual Caltex at E-gate. There are a total of 9 riders who are meeting up here before taking off to the next stop for a regroup and ride briefing before starting the trip. After some introductions between riders, we left for the second checkpoint.

 

Introduction between riders before leaving the island

BMW F 900R: First Ride Impression

After testing the R1250 GS I asked if they have the 310 GS available for test ride as well but sadly that was not the case. The salesman suggested to test the F 900R as it is the same engine as the 850 and since I was already there, I figured why not.

 

He handed me the key, brief me about the functions available on the bike and sent me on my little merry way. There are not a lot of functions on this bike as it only has 2 riding modes: Rain and Road. In order to get more modes, one would require to get the package.

 

The first thing i noticed when I got on the bike was the position of the foot pegs. They are higher and positioned more to the back which makes the riding position aggressive. Pulling out of the showroom the bike feels so small and it reminds me of riding my Demak, does not feel like one is riding a 895cc bike. The bike is front heavy and it needs some aggressive persuasion to get the bike to go where you want it to. It is not as agile as the R1250GS or the Triumph Tigers. I went wide going into the first corner and was lucky that there was no other cars on the road.

 

Ride Report #10: A visit to Segari Turtle Conservation Center

Since I had a long week off made a last minute decision to visit the Segari Turtle Conservation Center. Passed the sanctuary a few years back during the first visit to Sitiawan but because of tight schedule it was kept in the 'places to visit' list.

Overall journey

Left the island quite late as there were some chores to be completed. Halfway thought the ride, we had to do a unplanned pit stop at the Buki Merah R&R as the headscarf was being uncooperative with the helmet. Other than that the ride on the highway was a boring expressway ride until the Changkat Jering turnoff.

Bukit Merah rest stop

From here the scenery changed to the old trunk roads riding pass small towns and palm oil estate. It was a lovely ride with a nice cloudy weather. As we were approaching the sanctuary, there was a major road work and the detour made the ride a bit more interesting with a mixture of off road riding.

Ride Report #9: Recce to Baling

Since this is officially the first ride after the CMCO, the group decided to head towards our usual haunting ground, Grik, to let off some pent-up CMCO energy. There was a total of 9 riders who joined the ride and 2 of them are new riders and new to the route as well. As usual I am the sweeper in case the new riders does not know our usual petrol stop. Since I am running late I told the rest to proceed ahead to the Seberang meet-up point and will meet them there.

Waiting for the rest of the group to arrive

Since we were there early and the sun is starting to come out the temperature started rising. For being late, I treated both Barney and Alex a cold 100+ drink. There was one rider who will join us at a later time told us to carry on ahead without him and he will meet us at the BHPetrol. When all the riders met up at the second stop, we proceeded to the third stop to pick up another 2 members.

Ride Report #8: Third ride to nowhere - within Penang

With the CMCO still in place, the group decided to do a third installment of the ride to nowhere within the island. We have the usual suspect: Barney, Mookie, Nik and myself. Meet-up was at the same place but since they will be heading to the dam again, I opted to meet them 1/2 way.

The Vulcan waiting for the arrival of the rest of the group

It was not a long wait at the rendezvous point before the rest of the group showed up. Headed up to the dam and was surprised to see that the dam was de-voided of life unlike last week where there was quite a number of cyclist.

Ride Report #7: Second ride to nowhere - within Penang

Having completed the first ride to nowhere last week, we planned for another and we had more members joining. This time round we have Barney, Mookie, William, Nik, myself and someone new to the group, Aidil.

Same meeting point and we were discussing about 'jatuh bodoh', loosely translated as silly falling. It is when the rider looses control of the bike while it is stationary and is tipped over. While sharing stories on when and how each of us experienced this at one time or another, William arrived and he almost 'jatuh bodoh' while coming to a halt. Another incident was when we were preparing to leave Aidil almost 'jatuh bodoh' while getting on his bike and from that point onwards, we agreed to ban this topic for the rest of the ride.

Waiting for the arrival of William

The ride plan was the same as last week. Meet at Caltex and head up to Teluk Bahang dam. It was an uneventful ride there and was surprised to see that there were so many cyclist at the dam.

Our bikes were the only motorised vehicle at the dam