Rawang Elevated Bypass 22 Oct 2017

RAWANG ELEVATED BYPASS  

Pic 1 : !!

Location : Rawang, Selangor
Date        : 22 October 2017
Weather  : Sunny and Hot

There is a new highway built to bypass the crowded Rawang Town, Selangor.  The bypass is an elevated bypass and it takes you from the outskirts of Rawang town to Serendah town.  The highway is currently closed to traffic. It is a 4 lane highway (2 lanes each way). This made an ideal opportunity for cyclists to experience a brand new 9.0 km (one way) length of highway cycling, free of traffic. (for now).

Pic 2: Location of elevated bypass highway

Pic 3: Just me and my shadow cycling on the empty highway.

The highway is spanking new and finishing touches are being made to get it ready to receive traffic.

Pic 4 : No Traffic!  YAWN!! Fancy a snooze on the tarmac?

Pic 5: Note the concrete columns to support this elevated highway.
View heading towards Serendah town

Pic 6:  the electric power cable tower has been elevated to accommodate this highway.
Note the concrete support used to raise the original steel electric cable tower

Pic 7 :the worker sits on the precarious frame hanging on the side of the highway. He moves
forward by pushing the frame forwards everytime he finishes painting one section of the highway

Pic 8:Note the concrete columns to support this elevated highway.
View heading towards Rawang town

Pic 9: the elevated highway stands almost to the top of the treeline

Pic 10: met a group of cyclist from Sg Choh also enjoying the highway while they still can.
Location is at the top most elevation of the highway

Pic 11: after ride brunch at Serendah coffee shop - herbal tea with boiled egg

Pic 12: Panoramic shot showing the electric wires crossing the elevated bypass

P.S. It may be more advantageous to come in from Serendah end

See the link below for the more darker side of the Rawang bypass:
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/2017/07/31/ags-report-rawang-bypass-construction-delayed-2132-days


 ****   Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints  ***  

Sepang MTB 18 Sept 2016

Pic 1 :Group Pic at top of first hill under the electric cables
transmission Tower  (Titanium and uGo-iGo cycling groups)

Date          : 18 Sept 2016
Location   : Kota Warisan, Sepang, Selangor
Weather    : Cloudy - Sunny

Sunday morning ride at Kota Warisan in Sepang near Dengkil town on the way to the KL International Airport, KLIA.

There was a heavy shower in the early morning and the initial cloudy sky made for good weather to cycle into the mainly oil palm estate. The group of riders consisted of members from Titanium and uGo-iGo groups

The highlight of the ride was the view on the top hill with the electrical towers/pylons. The double electrical towers were traversing the landscape in an approximate East-West heading

Pic 2:  First Hill Looking North

Pic 3:  First Hill At approximately KP4,22 under the electrical tower

Pic 4a: View from the first hill - looking West.

XiaMen University, Malaysia is at left background of the pic,

partially blocked by the left hand of rider 

Pic 4b: View from the first hill - looking West .

XiaMen University, Malaysia is at the left edge of the pic

Pic 5: View on the other side of the first hill - looking East

Halfway through the ride after crossing under the Elite highway via a road tunnel, we met up with 3 horse riders giving their steeds an early morning exercise.  It was a good opportunity to chat with them and to snap a few group pictures.

Pic 6 : Group pic in oil palm estate with 3 horsemen

Pic 7:  Grp pic with the 3 horsemen

Pic 8: Typical oil palm estate road

More ride details are in the pic below:

Distance  : 27.6 km
Duration  : 03:36:20

Pic 9: Route details

This ride lead to some questions on the safety of the electrical towers on the top of the hill.
Is is safe to go near the electrical towers?
Is it safe to touch the steel members of the tower  (see Pic.1) ?
If its a danger to public, shouldn't the area be fenced up? (see Pic 10 : No fencing nor Signages)

Any experts out there? Care to comment/advise?

Pic 10: Panoramic view of the hill with the two electrical towers -looking North

PD Triathlon 9-10 Aug 2014

Date   :  9^th -10^th August 2014

Venue:  Avillion Admiral Cove, Port Dickson, Seremban

The following is a brief write-up of my second attempt at the PD triathlon Sprint and MY FIRST PD Triathlon OD Relay Event

Added Flavour

This year I decided to try both the Sprint and the Relay event. The Sprint was held on the Saturday 9^th August followed by the Relay event on Sunday 10^th August.

The distances to be covered for each event were:-

SPRINT (Solo)	OD RELAY (Team)
SWIM  - 750m	SWIM  - 1.5 km
CYCLE  - 20km	CYCLE  - 40 km
RUN    - 5km	RUN    - 10 km

For the sprint, both of us (Edward and I) thought that it should not be difficult as we had gained confidence from last year. This year I had a target time to complete within. I had to improve on my previous Sprint time.  Boon on the other hand decided to skip the Sprint and went straight for the Full Olympic distance (OD) event this year.

For the relay, we thought we had a runner but our original runner pulled out and initially both Edward and I decided that one of us had to do the 10 km running. It was decided that the person doing the swimming would be the runner as he would have time to rest. We had not decided who was to swim in the relay until the day before event day.

Hence it was only the three of us who were confirmed for this year's PD Tri 2014.

The training this year was again rather sporadic. We did our training separately barring once where we met up for a swim at the Chin Woo swimming pool after work. The pool was smaller than the public pool at Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras. It was not a conducive training pool.

The length of the pool was short.  Edward accidentally left his swimming googles behind on that particular day.

I did the rest of my biking and running near my home.

The Carbo dinner 

This year the families tagged along and I took a half day off work. We booked the same resort i.e. Methodist Church resort.  Boon and family decided to stay at Seri Malaysia.

This year’s carbo dinner was not as good as compared to last year. I suppose the rising cost of food caused the decrease in the quantity of the food.  There was not much variety in the menu.  Here I was telling the family that the buffet dinner should be good as everyone of us thought the food was good in 2013.  It was a bit of a let-down this year.

The venue for the dinner was changed also. It was in a much smaller room. Went for two carbo-dinners Friday and Saturday.  Edward came from work and was late for the Friday dinner.  Boon came over on Saturday night as he was taking part in the OD event only. 

A) SPRINT EVENT DAY (9^th August 2014)

The next morning Ed and I left early . This time I didn’t have breakfast. I had come prepared though. I brought along extra power bars.

This year the body painting was changed to the “stick on” type. There were uncertainties from participants on how to apply the numbers onto our arms. Anyway we manage to figure out how to stick the numbers on our arms.

Attached below is a short video attempt at capturing the atmosphere on that morning...

Below are a series of photos indicating the events of that morning..

organisers tent -showing us how to apply the stick-on numbers

the transition area for the bikes

me trusty mongoose

Sprint Swimming

at the starting point of the swim.. all set to go

coming back to the beach from the swim

Ed landed on the dry land ..

Sprint Cycling 

the Bike-Out & Bike-In post

pushing bike out from transition area
to the Bike-Out area.
Uncle Chan seen busy relocating cone

At the Bike-Out area - ready to mount bike

cyclists coming back and turning right to the transition area 

cyclist coming back from the 40 km ride

Sprint Running

Edward and new found friend running to the finishing post

last burst to the finish line

almost there...

mission accomplished !!  medal on neck

     ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

B) OD RELAY EVENT DAY (10^th August 2014)

At the eleventh hour we found a replacement runner.  KK a friend of mine is a marathoner and was willing to fill up the runner spot in the Relay for us. That was a relief for the two of us as both Ed and I did not like to run. It was decided then that Ed would swim and I would cycle.

In summary:
Name        : Bucket Team

Swimmer  : Ed

Cyclist      : Me

Runner     : KK

Our special guest runner planned to drive to PD from KL on Sunday morning itself.  We reckoned that the runner would have ample time to wake up on Sunday and drive up to PD.  Edward had not met the KK and since I was the cyclist, Ed was worried that he might arrive after I had started the cycling leg and KK would not know where to find us.  Anyway KK arrived early and I  introduced him to Edward.

Swimming

Edward was faster than I  had anticipated.

Cycling 

I was slower than I had anticipated

Running

KK was damn fast.!! 

C)Results

Relay
Swim  : 00:51:11
Cycle  : 01:31:10
Run     : 00:44:37
Overall Time : 03:07:00

Sprint
Swim  : 00:34:48
Cycle  : 00:46:37
Run     : 00:39:26
Overall Time : 02:00:52

KVKS MTB Jamboree 21 Feb 2016

Date   :  21^st February2016

Venue:  Vocasional College Kuala Selangor (KVKS), Selangor

This was my first MTB event for 2016. This was the first time we had a huge turn out of MTB riders.  I think we were one of the largest group of participants made up of uGO-iGO and MuddyGo riders.

This was also a TEAM event which consisted of 3 cyclists per team. The team had to cycle together. We had to work as a team as all 3 cyclists had to cross the finish line together. So each team member had to depend on each other and to encourage each other to cross the finish line together else the rest of the team will have to wait for the last rider to arrive before they can check in as completed.

Our team members:

(l-r)  KC, MH(team leader) and me

team pic for the road

We had a practice ride at MARDI a few weeks before the event date.

The Event distance covered was about 36 km. We basically traversed oil palm plantations and plantation roads

I did not have any opportunity to take many photos. My handphone’s battery was on the blink and I did not bring my powerbank.  In short I did not record my ride nor did I take scenic photographs.

The highlight of the ride was that we had a really huge group of riders and the event was held on the second last day of Chinese New Year celebrations. This year CNY fell on the 8^th of February 2016.

uGo-iGo and Muddy-GO riders in FULL FORCE. Group pic at end of ride

From memory I think there were 3 check points for water and bananas. Yes they had bananas!

The following are the few pics from the ride in chronological order.

uGo-iGo group pic queueing at the starting line

and we are off .. starting post can be seen in the background

at first check point..group pic -still looking fresh

group pic at first check point

at the finish line.. our team members cycling in single file:- KC.... 

....followed by team capt:- MH,

...last but not least..yours truly.  All 3 of us checking in as a TEAM 

Team picture : with our finisher medal

uGO-iGO & MuddyGO riders - Chilling out after collecting their
finisher medals - still looking fresh!

uGo-iGO riders group pic- in sombre mode

uGo-iGO riders group pic -in "shiok" mode

the route traversed