Kota Tinggi – Climb On!

Thomas encountered a broken spoke on the way to Fabian’s place at 3am in the morning hence they had to drop by at my place to collect the Polygon, once again called up for overseas duty. I think it was the fastest I ever serviced a bike and it was ready (less a damaged race crown) by the time they arrived. Still, we were running late.

By the time we crossed customs, it was already past 6.30am and the darkness of the wee hours did not last long. We set a rather decent pace and pulled into Kota Tinggi before 9am, considering the multiple breaks we took along the way. After looking around for the “suitable” breakfast, we settled for bakut-teh – simply delicious!

Fabian and Thomas were reluctant to ride back hence we spent quite some time looking for the express bus terminal (eventually finding it at the original location where it has been all along, but I had forgotten about it). The next express bus timing was 1pm, way too late for us. In the end, I had a chance to practice my Malay and managed to convince a city bus driver to let the two of them onboard (bikes in the luggage hold).

The remaining three of us from the NTU Team set off for Johor Bahru. We beat the bus in the first couple of kilometres before it overtook our peloton and disappeared from sight. We did a wonderful pace back to JB. I was impressed.

Crossing over to Woodlands, Jasper and I headed for the hawker centre where I indulged in my favourite ice kacang before we went our different ways at Marsiling MRT. The rain got very heavy and I suffered the full brunt as I pulled into Sembawang.

The bike was peeing water from the drainage holes and I had to dry and lubricate the sensitive areas. The headset was also loose so some time had to be spent to reassemble the fork. I hope all is fine and ready for the next ride!

Total distance: 110km
Money spent: RM11, $3.80
Participants: LSH, Jasper, Jeremy, Fabian, Thomas