Day 4 - Going to Ride from Seria, Brunei Darussalam to Miri, Sarawak

Apologies on the lack of updates.

For uptodate information on my status please go to www.facebook.com/francisho

I'll update this blog when I find the time and energy! The first 3 (three) days have been hard as the weather has been unrelentingly hot and the route hilly.

... 4, 3, 2, 1!

Yup. It's just four more days to go before I begin my ride on Tuesday 29 November 2011 from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching. I have been busy with work and training for the ride that I have not been updating this blog as regularly as I would have liked. Lots have happended and not recorded. I hope I can redress this when I begin my ride next week and keep this blog updated.

Any Colours Except Red, Blue & Black!

I must confess that I've been feeling a little shaken after my crash last Sunday. I had the stitches on my lower chin removed this morning and although the swelling on my knees have healed a lot after the kinesio taping; it is still a little blue and back and so is the deltoid of my right arm. I'm fine and hope that all pains and aches will have subsided by the time I begin my ride in slightly over a week's time!

Oh! Thanks to a fellow cyclists who does spray paint and body repair works to motor vehicles; my Surly LHT have been repainted! It's now in a brighter and more cheery colour and more importantly it is now hi-vis to give me a little more confidence about safety in getting back on the saddle! Incidentally it also happens to be the official colour of the Federation of Sarawak Life Care Societies. Nice.

Oranges anyone?

Crashed!

I don't look good in red.

I fell off my bike yesterday morning during my usual Sunday morning long rides. We were nearing Muara Tebas fishing village when I hit a speed bump and I must have inadvertently squeezed on the front disc brake of my hard tail just a little too hard. I have not ridden my Giant XTC Team for quite a while now since I started training on my Surly LHT which has cantilever front brakes and which requires quite a strong squeeze on the brake lever to slow it down. A deadly mistake on my Giant XTC Team which has powerful hydraulic disc brakes which only require finger pressure to halt it. Now I’m licking my wounds – to be more precise 3 stitches to my lower jaw, two badly grazed and swollen knees, chipped tooth and various cuts and abrasions to my hands, arms, neck, face etc. And this has to happen with slightly over 2 weeks before the charity ride. Sighs.

Sin Chew Daily - Saturday 24th September 2011

Josephine Ho (no relations) of Sin Chew Daily interviewed me with regards to the charity ride and her article appeared on Saturday the 24th of September 2011's edition.

Unfortunately I cannot read Chinese (shame on me!) even though I can understand very basic spoken Mandarin; so I can't really tell if I've been correctly quoted or otherwise. But thanks to Allen Liew (I don't know him) who alerted me by email on the same day that the web address was incorrect. After some deliberations, I thought that the best solution would be to create another website/blog using the incorrectly published address to direct people to this correct website! Brilliant right? ;-)

 

Note: Thanks to Chris Sim for pointing out to us that the above news is available on-line here in Sin Chew Daily's website. 

My Bike & Me

Surly Long Haul Truck with 26inch wheels in black - 58cm in size.

After much deliberation I decided on the Surly’s Long Haul Trucker, a bike of choice of cyclo tourists for their world wide adventures, for this ride. Touring bikes like this are near impossible to find in Malaysia and I ended up having to order it through a friend in Singapore who also kindly brought it over for me when he came over for the last Rainforest Music Festival in Kuching. It comes in either blue or “blacktacular” in either 700c or 26inch wheels. I ordered the black colour with 26inch wheels in 58cm size. I added a rear Topeak Super Tourist rack, centre kickstand (there’re spare spokes on the rear chain stay which annoying gets in the way of a kickstand if you want to install it there), a pair of Soma fenders which is also hard to find in Malaysia and which I bought in Singapore (the local bike shop which installed this for me broke one of the plastic bracket and never inform me; the bastard! - it's now held in place by a cable tie) 3 bottle cages and a pair of Shimano XT SPD pedals.

I replaced the stock saddle with a comfortable leather Brooks B17 which is definitely worth the expense (I didn’t have to ‘break it in’ as I have read – fortunately for me it felt comfortable from day one), stem, handle bar, the 2 tyres with 1.75inch wide Panaracer Paselas which I find comfortable and rolls reasonably well. The rest of the bike I left configured as stock.

Currently the bike weighs a hefty 15kg and I’m still not used to riding such a heavy bike. By comparison my Titus X-Racer full-suspension is 13kg, my Giant XTC Team hard tail is 9kg while my all carbon road bike is only 7.8kg. It is the heaviest (and slowest) bike in my stable. I feel really slow (arrggh!) on the Surly LHT but then again I am not going for the speed record – I just want to finish the ride without the bike breaking down and for it to carry me and my gear in relative comfort. But it is the most comfortable bike to ride that I have ever owned; and I have owned quite a few bikes!

That’s about the bike.

54 year old poster boy *ahem* ;-)

Me?
I’ll be 55 on the day of the ride and currently weighs a meaty 89kg (I blame the current durians season) but I think it’ll be around 80kg come 11th December 2011 when I complete the ride! And I'll still be 6 feet tall. ;-)

Pledge Form

Inside of the Pledge Form

The pledge form is now ready for printing thanks to the fine efforts of Vincent Bong of Kuching Life Care Society who did the initial artwork that was professionally finished by Jason Chew and team of Events Horizon who volunteered to help as did photographer Davy Choo of Kaki Filem Studio who did the studio shoot of me and the bike (fancy carrying a 15kg bike up and then down 3 flights of stairs?) last night.

A closer look at me in Kuching Life Care Society garb & my unloaded trustworthy steed ;-)