So today was the day I tested my bike with full load (ok, it lacks a few items but i think maybe only 300grams difference?) on a local circuit to simulate an actual day.

A few things to point out though, which made this first trial run biased:

- I already know the route by heart.

- The route is like 99% (exagerated but you get the idea) flat.

- I know where all the potential rest points are.

- Singapore is a safe place.

- It is highly unlikely to encounter flooded areas even during heavy rain.

0530 get up etc.

0620 eating prata at coffee shop

0645 I'm off:

Thomson Road

Yio Chu Kang Road

Punggol

Old Tampines Road

Pasir Ris

Loyang

Changi Coastal (the built a cycle/joggin track parallel to this!)

ECP

0900

MacDonald's Breakfast:

MountBatten Road

Nichol Highway

Esplanade

Shenton Way

Keppel Road

West Coast Road

Jalan Buroh

Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim (100km)

Tuas Check Point

Boonlay Way / Safti (Powergel cum transfer water break)

NTU (destruction of my quads start here)

Lim Chu Kang (crampiness observed)

Neo Tiew Road ( 120km. bonked. reduced to limp ie start walking during a run)

1245 Kranji Road (lunch!!!)

1330 Marsiling

Woodlands

Admiralty

Sembawang

Yishun

Khatib

Yio Chu Kang

Ang Mo Kio (The heavens open and it starts pouring!)

Bishan

Thomson Road

1500 Balestier Road (159km)

Home!

Yup, a typical day would look something like this. Ending around 3pm (160km days) or 5pm (for 200km days).

One more test tomorrow where I'll face more realistic terrain and conditions.

Alright, now I just need to hope that the floods in Malaysia reside. -_-''

And I forgot to mention one thing........ The bike is damn heavy now. My speed has been reduced tremendously (think + 1 hour a day as compared to without load).

Hmmm it's been a while since I've blogged. The past few days have been busy, mostly over the settling of equipment. Been running all over the shop to get the parts to put everything together. I had initially wanted to depend on the bike shop to settle such matters for me, but many factors prevented it from happening. In a sense it was good also, because I ended up going down personally to view and purchase the stuff, which avoided a major hiccup.

Thanks to Daniel Loy (Passione bikes) for giving my bike a free wash and lube (yes i don't have to do it myself!), but he didn't quite get the shifting of the rear derailleurs dialled in properly on the new wheel. It was pretty scary having auto-shift gears one moment and having not being able to up shift the next.... Crunchy gears sometimes made me fear for the integrity of my chain. And I learnt that Daniel is only 1 year older than me and knows Dom and Annabelle!

I fixed up my rear rack at Soon Watt. Yeah, it was there that I discovered the so called 'road bike' rack was this puny thing which wouldn't fit the length of my slippers..... Yup, so luckily I was desperate enough to think of mouting a mountain bike rack. And yes, it worked! There was some initial problem with the seat post mounting clamp rubbing on my inner thighs when I pedalled but that has been resolved by twisting the quick release upwards... The maximum load for the rack is 9 kg, so don't even think of sitting on it.

Lunch at neo tiew / kranji coffee shop

120 km... Lunch break...

Finally ready for testing: