Peace!
The last post started with the declaration of the cycling bug's return; ironically it is the flu bug that is currently threatening to keep me company!
After my Pertama Complex and Sungai Wang days, I had a 2-year break from cycling, firstly due to taking an Intensive English Programme at KPP/ITM Subang Jaya, and thereafter 2 years of A-levels at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen. However, my entry into St. Catharine's College, Cambridge necessitated a bicycle. How could one not ride in the Fens? Fortunately I did not have to scrounge up a battered bike from the town, as my eldest had brought home a fine silver Trek 1000 after she had graduated from Illinois. The tires hitting the Cantabrigian roads marked the beginning of its service for the next 6 years.
I still remember pushing the Trek for the very first time into Ben Hayward Cycles located just to the left of Catz on Trumpington Street; the guy working on another bike stared at it - there was no other Trek, to his knowledge, that existed in UK at the time, and that was the first time he had seen one! You could certainly guess how chuffed I was, and the swagger with which I walked for the rest of the day. A quick look at the shop's website today would show that they now proudly carry Trek!
In Cambridge it took me to all my normal haunts - the Cambridge Mosque for Friday prayers and Bosphorous' Kebabs or Chicken n Chips soon after, Shahidan's place near the Schlumberger Centre with his apple tree in the backyard, Comics Showcase for my weekly graphics & prose inhalations, and the art shop near Grafton Centre across Parker's Piece for my architectural presentation supplies. The longest trip was when a group of us went to the Imperial Air Museum in Duxford, though the flat Fens made it fairly effortless.
The Trek continued to serve me well in Edinburgh from 1992-1994 although it was really as an urban commuting vehicle. Though the roads in Scotland's most metropolitan city were much more challenging, the Trek was very much up to it, flying often its often-cobbled streets, especially at the Royal Mile. It's lithe aluminium body made it easy for me to carry it up two stories of the semi-hemispherical shaped staircase of my shared flat off East Preston Street, and ended up being used by my housemates once I had left.
After a 20-year lapse, I caught the cycling bug again. Malaysia might well be considered to have non-optimum weather for cycling, as the sweltering sun, high humidity and oft monsoon-like rains ensured that one would only get to one's destination with copious perspiration entrapped within whatever fabric that adorned one's back! So it was with a pinch of amusement that I noted so many cyclist during one of the KL Car-Free days riding various types of two-wheelers; but what really caught my eye was the folding bike.
The last post started with the declaration of the cycling bug's return; ironically it is the flu bug that is currently threatening to keep me company!
After my Pertama Complex and Sungai Wang days, I had a 2-year break from cycling, firstly due to taking an Intensive English Programme at KPP/ITM Subang Jaya, and thereafter 2 years of A-levels at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen. However, my entry into St. Catharine's College, Cambridge necessitated a bicycle. How could one not ride in the Fens? Fortunately I did not have to scrounge up a battered bike from the town, as my eldest had brought home a fine silver Trek 1000 after she had graduated from Illinois. The tires hitting the Cantabrigian roads marked the beginning of its service for the next 6 years.
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| A similar Trek 1000 (image from 3.bp.blogspot.com) |
I still remember pushing the Trek for the very first time into Ben Hayward Cycles located just to the left of Catz on Trumpington Street; the guy working on another bike stared at it - there was no other Trek, to his knowledge, that existed in UK at the time, and that was the first time he had seen one! You could certainly guess how chuffed I was, and the swagger with which I walked for the rest of the day. A quick look at the shop's website today would show that they now proudly carry Trek!
 |
| Serving Cantabrigians since 1912 |
In Cambridge it took me to all my normal haunts - the Cambridge Mosque for Friday prayers and Bosphorous' Kebabs or Chicken n Chips soon after, Shahidan's place near the Schlumberger Centre with his apple tree in the backyard, Comics Showcase for my weekly graphics & prose inhalations, and the art shop near Grafton Centre across Parker's Piece for my architectural presentation supplies. The longest trip was when a group of us went to the Imperial Air Museum in Duxford, though the flat Fens made it fairly effortless.
The Trek continued to serve me well in Edinburgh from 1992-1994 although it was really as an urban commuting vehicle. Though the roads in Scotland's most metropolitan city were much more challenging, the Trek was very much up to it, flying often its often-cobbled streets, especially at the Royal Mile. It's lithe aluminium body made it easy for me to carry it up two stories of the semi-hemispherical shaped staircase of my shared flat off East Preston Street, and ended up being used by my housemates once I had left.
After a 20-year lapse, I caught the cycling bug again. Malaysia might well be considered to have non-optimum weather for cycling, as the sweltering sun, high humidity and oft monsoon-like rains ensured that one would only get to one's destination with copious perspiration entrapped within whatever fabric that adorned one's back! So it was with a pinch of amusement that I noted so many cyclist during one of the KL Car-Free days riding various types of two-wheelers; but what really caught my eye was the folding bike.
 |
| A Dahon Jetstream P8 Dual Suspension |
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