outing

Went for my first Malaysia trip to Kulai on the Beemer yesterday. Meet up with eugene and co at Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim shell station at 9pm. Proceeded to GP petrol kiosk after the guys had arrived.

The money changer had closed by the time we went in and we had to change money at the petrol kiosk. After I finishing pumping petrol, I went to pay for it while the bike was parked on side stand. When I came out, i found the bike leaking petrol from a drain tube on the right side of the bike. It seems that either we don't pump the fuel to the brim or parking it on side stand after pumping a full tank. Many things to learn on a big bike.

All were on sports bike except for the Beemer and a GSR400. I realised the open face helmet I wearing is not adequate for anything more than 120km/h when we made our way to Kulai. Everyone was doing like 200km/h onwards and it was pitch dark on the NSH. The only things I saw was the tail lights ahead and the reflective road markers on the road side.

The beemer managed 180km/h without any stress on 5th gear at 6500rpm constantly. Afraid to stress the machine too much, I dropped to 160km/h all the way to our destination and back. The heavily scratched and vibrating helmet visor, pitch dark road and being constantly on high speed is no joke.

I lowered myself below the windshield to minimize the wind blast on my helmet visor just to barely make out the traffic ahead. The blown bulbs in the speedo meter also meant I cannot gauge my speed unless we reach stretches of road where there is street lamps. All I could do was to keep the RPM below the red zone with the tachometer.

The bike proved itself to be a great touring bike. Comfy for long rides, superb road holding capability and high speed stability is a plus point. I was able to adjust my helmet and visor, tucking in my shirt as it rode up my body while doing 180km/h with only one hand on the handle bars without any sense of danger. The only thing I didn't like was the top speed. Doing 180km/h max was a little bit too slow for a 1100cc machine with such riding capability.

After a good dinner, we headed back to SG. Upon reaching GP petrol kiosk, I discovered oil on my left boot. I looked over the engine and found the source to be a leaking cylinder gasket from the left cylinder. Not good news but luckily, at normal speed riding, its not leaking. The oil level was good and there was no danger of the engine blowing up.

Total damage for the trip: S$50.

This includes:

Full tank for the beemer: RM$50

Food and drinks: RM$24

cigarettes: RM$16
Toll fees (to and fro): RM$2.60

For S$50, I can only get a full tank of Octane 98 petrol locally. You do the math.

As usual, we "punch card" at Yishun dam for a chatting session. This time, everyone was tired out and left early. Kai met us at the dam around 2am. Eugene, kai and me then proceeded to sembawang macdonalds after we felt some rain drops.

Upon leaving the dam, we were hit by rain. It was not heavy, but enough to make you wet. We hung out at the macdonalds till 6am to wait for the rain to stop. The rain was hitting down hard and we were glad to be sheltered. We left when it began to drizzle very faintly. Put on the Dririder Jacket in the beemer and Kai commented the jacket was very form fitting for me. Seems like I was destined to be a adventure touring person, with touring jackets and touring bikes fitting my size and my kind of attitude towards riding.

The jacket was fitted with waterproof linen, so I didn't get wet in the heavy rain that came down on us once we left mac except from waist down. The jacket also keep me warm throughout the ride home while eugene was freezing his ass off. The only thing I didn't like was the jacket only came with soft armour. It was pretty decent for a mesh jacket though.

The Nike socks got wet again. They always seems to attract water where ever they went. From the time I wore them to work, I always get caught in the rain most of the time when they are on. Talk about being cursed.

At GP petronas before leaving for Kulai

After kulai trip, before heading back to SG