West Malaysia loop ride

Now that the ride is on and the riders are confirmed, we had our first pre-trip meeting. Unfortunately, Alex could not make it as he was away for the Chinese New Year break. In any case, the meeting had to go on so that we can confirm some essentials…so we met!

Tony came over with Chris…and Dan came a  little later. As usual, it all started with talk about bikes and stuff. Soon enough, we got down to business. We got on the same page on the route that we will be taking, the places that we will be spending our nights, and some of the activities that we will be doing. It all went rather smoothly.

Then Tony briefed us on the things that we needed to pack. He sounded experienced…hahaha…so we took down notes like the good boys that we are…two forty somethings listening to a twenty something talk about what to pack. It was all good though and we settled on a small list of things to bring along. Our list include spares, first aid, personal gear and other stuff. I thought it was a really good list. Kudos to Tony for coming up with it! Here is how the list looked like.

We also decided it was a good idea to have our bikes serviced a week before we set off on the trip. The service should cover areas like tires, brakes, clutch, chain, lights and controls at a minimum. This will give our bikes time to settle and fix any other niggles that we may have missed. We also decided to have a second pre-trip meeting where we will test out some of our plans on riding formation, communication, pace and other things like that.

All in all, it was a superb first meeting. I am so looking forward to our next one!

There’s something to be said about serendipity. It always confounds me how seemingly random events can collude to make sense out of a big mess of thoughts. Now I know the word “collude” gives the impression of a less than noble outcome. But I chose this word purely because it sounded a lot better than “collaborate” which is over-used, over-rated and way over-glamorized.

You should know by now that I am planning for a long ride to loop the West Malaysian peninsular next month (its February 2010 now). I am really excited about this ride and have been working hard to put up pages on this blog to tell people about the ride. I am doing this in the spirit of sharing so everyone knows what we will be doing…AND so that everyone can attempt something similar with the benefit of our experience.

I was chatting with a friend last night on Facebook and the topic of this ride came up in our conversation. He asked me if I thought of making this a charity ride…hmmm…that sounded interesting to me. So we chatted a little more.

You are probably wondering what so serendipitous about that! Well, earlier in the evening, I had a conversation with my mom too about a kid who had a special condition (probably Autism but I cannot be sure) and needed special care. I remember that we ended our conversation (my mom and I) rather unsatisfactorily because we could not find any solution to obtain special care for this child.

Fast forward back to my Facebook conversation. He suggested tying up with AWWA (Asian Women’s Welfare Association). Now I was thinking more along the lines of the Children’s Cancer Foundation, but was interested to find out more about AWWA. He told me that they also work on care for children with special needs…CLICK!

We shared more about the subject and decided that we should meet up and see how far we can take this. What rang in my head loud and clear was him telling me that I could make this an annual thing…to dream big. Hmmm…now THAT was a thought!!!

So I woke up this morning with that thought still running circles in my head. I had that feeling in my stomach and I knew I was hooked! I chatted with a few other friends about this casually…and it started to get clearer to me what could be possible: a way to allow the motorcycling community to powerfully impact the lives of children with special needs.

Nothing is fixed at the moment…suffice to say that this ride which started as an adventure for me…now has the potential to become something a lot bigger than me. I’d love to hear more from you (if you are reading this) what you feel about this. What do you think can be done? Would you like to contribute? That kinda thing…and together…let’s dare to dream…and dream BIG!

Hear from you soon!

So after six months of riding, I am itching to go on a really nice long riding trip. Well, there is no better time to start than now. So I am setting up this page to share my plans, thoughts, tips, photographs and everything else about this adventure.

Come join me on the ride online!

The dates

The top reason preventing many people from going on long rides is the failure to fix a departure date. This sounds ridiculous but it is true. After all, there are many things to plan for and many reasons why a departure date is difficult to set. So I have set the date for this trip. I will depart Singapore on 7 March 2010 (Sunday) and return on 13 March 2010 (Saturday)…or a day after that. This gives me enough time to complete each of the legs comfortably and affords time to rest and enjoy the stops.

The route

The route will loop the entire West Malaysian peninsular starting in Johor Bahru (Woodlands checkpoint) and ending at Kampung Ladang (Tuas checkpoint). More interestingly, this route avoids the use of major expressways. The route will make use of many of the older trunk roads including Routes 1, 3, 4 and 5.

The gang

Some people like to ride alone, some people like to ride in big groups. I enjoy both actually…but for a long ride like this, I think a small group of riders makes the most sense. Joining me on this ride are Tony, Dan and Alex (more on them here). I think four is the right number for a ride of this duration…it would make us more visible on the roads…and provide for a simply buddy system to take care of each other.

The bikes

It was clear at the onset that this would be a relaxing ride that would avoid the major expressways as much as possible. While going on such a long trip can be tough on the bikes of our choice, I believe this also shows what an adventurous spirit can achieve with seemingly ungainly tools. See the bikes we are bringing along and you will know what I mean.

The gear

Obviously such a trip that covers so many kilometers across some of the remote areas is very different from a ride around the Singapore island. Take a look at the gear that we will be bringing along and let us know if you feel we have missed something important.