Saturday, September 22, 2012

World Car Free Day Ride - Part 1

An initiative
I toyed with the idea of cycling from Kuala Lumpur to Klang via the Federal Highway's motorcycle lane.
This facility has been around for decades and a section of it is now deteriorating.
Its also the poor man's access to Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam.
In total, the distance is 32km one-way.
That said, for this year's World Car Free Day Ride, I designed a route from Brickfields to Klang Town.
The plan was to meet up at the YMCA, which in turn, is not a bicycle-friendly establishment.
I found out the hard way that the front desk people in this hostel are really shitheads.
Spare that, the heavy rain in the morning didn't help much.
Much of the cyclists who signed up for this ride were unsure.
Nevertheless, the show must go on.
I posted on the Malaysian Foldies Forums as well as its Facebook page on the details and pre-ride briefing time.
Along the route, I staggered five checkpoints.
Another group of cyclists had decided to join in the ride half-way.

Setting up at the Kuala Lumpur YMCA
A group photo at the YMCA
After briefing the cyclists, we rode off towards the motorcycle lane in Brickfields.
The bike lane was blocked with a large wooden stump.
Fortunately, two of the riders Sin and Fong knew of a scenic route that leads to an Indian Temple which I had mentioned to them earlier.
They took lead till we reached the temple.
It didn't take long for us to arrive at this checkpoint.
I reminded the cyclists that in order to access other parts of the cities in and around the Klang Valley, this route remained as an important facility. 

Cycling out of Brickfields
The scenic route

Blocked entry at the bike lane near Brickfields
Murphy's Law and Plan B
Sometimes, things don't always work out the way you plan it.
We had to make a detour to connect with the bike lane and proceed with caution towards Angkasapuri off Jalan Syed Putra.
Another group was waiting at the Seri Setia KTM Komuter station. 
The plan was to link-up there and we clocked-in with a really good timing.
Half-way through, the underpass at Jalan Templer was submerged underwater.
We made a short detour and continued again with the ride.

The group who rode from KL
The flooded underpass
At Seri Setia station, we linked-up with the other cyclists.
That brought the number to well about 20 people.
From there, we continued towards Batu Tiga in Shah Alam where we took a short break for refilling water as well as answering nature calls.

No comments: