The Road Trip of Xgrind and AngKuGuay: Day 3

Due to limited internet and Angkuguay posting his entry with my lappy, so I shall post this entry with my trusty N95.

After a good night rest at the hotel, we finally set off for Chiang Mai today. We moved on to Lampang all the way to Chiang Mai via Highway 1. Some part of the highway are very very bumpy, so much that we are worried that the suspension will be screwed as a result. However most of the road are pretty smooth and the ride was so much more scenic as we are moving thru the mountain roads. Not to mention that the climate is uber excellent. As a result, we stopped by to take photos so you will be able to see them on my Flickr site.

About 200km ride, we finally arrived at Chiang Mai. As this city is a tourism spot, we have no problem finding a place to stay, abeit a bit expensive. As today is New Year's eve, everyone in the city are in the festive mood and celebrating so I guess we came at the right timing. At the hotel, a German couple came to look at our bikes and got to know that he is a Fazer rider as well. So far I've met 2 Fazer riders so far, one from Germany and one from Italy. That goes to show how popular Fazer is haha.

Tomorrow we will be heading for more scenic and gruelling ride for Northern Thailand border.

Lastly, happy new year to everyone who read this entry! Huat ah!

The Road Trip of Xgrind & AngKuGuay: Day 2

After about 10 hours of good deep sleep (surprisingly), we finally arrived at Nakhon Pathom Railway Station where we will load down the bikes unscathed.

Both of us were hungry, smelly (yes, we haven't bathed since the beginning of the trip) but fresh from the sleep and seeing that we can continue with the riding again. While we were loading up the baggage onto the bikes, the crowd were looking at us as if we were some aliens from another planet. Guess that they don't get to see big bikes in this town much, since there are not much singaporean bikes riding around the area.

Once we are out of the station, since we are not familiar with the place, we just rode around until we hit the main highway where we slowly ride until we found a nice little coffee place called "Friendly Coffee" and had breakfast plus enjoying the free wireless internet access (hence the Day 1 blog entry). After having our fill, we moved off at Thai time 10am.

From Nakhon Pathom, we rode to Highway 321 via Highway 4. Since our arrival at Thailand, we had been using Gasohol 95 as petrol seems to be unavailable. However we had read up that it does not really affect EFI engines, so we proceed to fill our tanks with it. So far so good.

After lunch, time to move off again. We continued to ride on Highway 321 until we rode on Highway 340 at Suphan Buri. As we pump at a gasoline kiosk, we had our lunch as well to fill our stomach as well as our tanks. Once done, we moved on towards Chai Nat for Highway 1. Along the way there we met with a traffic jam on the highway. At first we thought to be some kind of riot but later found out to be their Thai King is in the vicinity hence the police blocked off the junction and caused the traffic jam. The jam set our schedule back by 45 mins and once cleared we carried on with the journey.

Jam on Highway 340

Once we reached Chai Nat, we knew that we will not be able to reach our intended destination, Lampang, in time. So, after some plotting, we fixed Tak as our newest destination where we will find a hotel and stay for the night.

When we reached Tak, timing was just nice as the sun had set and with the help of Nokia Maps on my trusty N95 8GB, we were able to find a nearby hotel with ease. So we dropped by this hotel called Suansin Hotel and managed to find a room for us to bunk in. Guess how much is the hotel room? 370 baht! Fucking cheap! And the room facilities are not rundown I assure you, really a bang for the buck :)

Finally we had our first shower since the beginning of the trip and then proceed to have our dinner. How can we not eat their Thai food when we are here? Of course we ordered the famous TomYum soup and Fried Thai Noodles, I will say the food is real nice. However, the bill that came up happened to be more paang (expensive) than our hotel room charge LOL.

The famed Tom Yum Soup

Now, we are relaxing in the room, preparing for the trip tomorrow. That's all for Day 2 :)

The Road Trip of Xgrind & AngKuGuay: Day 1

AngKuGuay and me, together with DaBitch and Quizesilver, moved off to Gelang Petah Petronas Petrol Kiosk where they will send us off. There we get our stuffs ready and once prepped, we moved off at 1am sharp, an hour behind our original schedule.

Night riding is never AKG’s preferred choice of riding, but as we need to coordinate the train schedule at Hattyai, night riding is the only way where we won’t have too much waiting time. Nevertheless, the road up was light in traffic and weather is very cooling. And we rode thru the night till dawn, when we continued till we reach the Thai border. Along the way, we stopped at the following locations for breaks and petrol:

• Pagoh

• Bukit Malin

• Bukit Tangang

• Napoh

However getting thru the customs isn’t exactly smooth. AKG went to check on the procedures while I keep watch of our belongings. We got our passports stamped but we were told that we were supposed to do our customs process at another counter. Wa, damn confusing, and it added to our frustrated mood due to lack of sleep on the previous night. What makes things worse is the rainy weather in Southern Thailand: Wet boots, wet helmets, wet jackets…you get the picture.

When we finally reached Hattyai, another challenge faced before us: find the railway station. We were lost the moment we entered the town. While getting lost while touring makes riding trips, doing it in wet weather isn’t. Still clueless, we decided to stop by a Chinese eatery shop and ordered lunch, as well as asking for directions. Alas, the boss couldn’t give a clear direct so we took out the N95, hoping the GPS will guide us there. True enough, in a short while, we found the station and AKG went in to get the tickets while I look after the bikes. After a while, we rode into he station (YES, you heard it right.) so that the crew can load them up into the train.

We were skeptical at first but what we saw really made our jaws dropped. They managed to lift up the 2 bikes with their bare hands! Check the photos/video to believe.

Ok, now sitting in the comfort of a air-con train cabin typing this blog entry and hope I can update more often when I can get some updates.

Meanwhile, that sums up for Day 1

Both bikes waiting for loading at the train station

See how they load up AKG's Busa without scratching the fairing....jaws dropped!

Goodbye Singapore!

Goodbye Singapore!, originally uploaded by Xgrind.

See you next year :)

After months of waiting and weeks of preparations, AngKuGuay and Xgrind is finally moving off for the longest trip these 2 crazy fuckers (to non-bikers that is) ever attempted.

Huat ah!

Blogged with N95 8GB

Old school!

While Mum is doing some spring cleaning, she dug up this pager and old Motorola phone of more than a decade. Best of all, the phone still works!

The Road Trip of Xgrind and AngKuGuay: Prologue

1 Day and 20 hours.....

Yes that's the remaining time at this point of writing before I and AngKuGuay embark on the longest road trip we have ever attempted and a long-mentioned one since 9 years ago. Due to personal commitments and stuffs, this adventure had been postponed and never mentioned until recently when we have a sudden feel to get this trip done while we both can still afford the time and moolah to do so.

Basically it is a trip up to North Thailand and our furthest destination will be somewhere near the border of the Golden Triangle. And the main focus of our trip is the 1868 turns at Mae Hon Song, The Death Bridge at River Kwai, and pay a little visit to Eddie, who owns a bike shop in Thailand. On our way down, if time allows, we will be heading down to Penang, Fraser Hill and Genting on the way back to Singapore.

The trip took us months to prepare, when both of us (most of the time is AKG) finding out from those who had been there what to look out for and advises. Even up to now I still have not finished packing and by tomorrow everything had to be in place, by hook or by crook.

So, we will be spending the New Year in Thailand, riding and exploring around the places and if internet access is present, probably some updates on the blog :)

Dynojet PCIII Review on Sotck FZ1 Setup

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Thanks to Charlie/Avril, they gave me a $100 dynojet voucher which push my PC3 purchase schedule way way forward. So on the following week I proceed to get the PCIII and did a dyno tuning 2 days later. Note that my setup is FULLY stock (air filter, exhaust, unmodded airbox)

Prior to the tuning, I loaded the PCIII with the generic map downloaded from the Dynojet website. Well, better than running zero mapping right? Well, to be honest, loading the generic map don't really help in improving the rideability of the bike anyway as response seems more retarded and performance's kinda suffered slightly. From that, figured that dyno tuning is still the way to go.

During the tuning, the tuner commented that the fueling was way too rich (~14), so after the tuning, the picture below showed an improvement of average 3HP and 2Nm torque, with improve fuel efficiency. I was also shown that at 40% throttle, I can attain peak power at half the time compared to the stock mapping. Results of the tuning? Better and Smoother response (confirmed by Charlie as well) plus better mileage per litre :D


Note that my tuning is more for fuel efficiency and better rideability and not so much for max performance. Still there is still a significant performance gain.

To date, no apparent disadvantage had been observed.... yet (cross finger)

So even if you get a used PC3 with stock map, it is still advisable to go for a round of dyno tune to reap the full benefit of this wonderful gadget.

So the debate of PC3 being useless on stock setup is totally busted. I and Charlie are the living examples :D

How more beng..

can AngKuGuay get?

Walau eh!!!!!

Super duper uber WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!?!!?

This kind of music video he still dare to show everyone?!?!?!

My eyes are closing, feeling sleepy.... until I saw this video that shaken me up.... #$@)#$*@#()*@

This is the first.....

Time since like donkey years I last drank a cup of coffee and now i'm trying with Vietnamese coffee lol.

Just pray i don't get upset stomach after this

Updates... (National Bikers Weekend and stuff...)

It's been a while since I last post something proper....well, as indicated in my blog, my EeePC went bonkers and sent to service centre so I don't have the right mood to post (since I mostly post proper entry on my bed using the netbook LOL). Since after the repair (replacement of a new mainboard), the netbook is alive again and here I am, lying on my bed writing this entry.

National Bikers Weekend

On 27-29th November 2008, Singapore is having its first ever national biking event, namely National Bikers Weekend. It is a 3-day event held at the Singapore Flyers location where most of the popular bike shops set up their booths selling their products at attractive prices. There is also some stunt bike show (as usual for a biking event) being held in the premises during the 3 days. In conjunction with this event, Singapore Bikes Forum is also celebrating its 10th Anniversary and organised a riding convoy on the 28th November 2008 from the Old Police Academy @ Thomson Road to the Singapore Flyers.

Being a Fazer rider, there is a Fazer group being gathered to be part of the Marshalling team. I figured, since this is the first ever national biking event, no harm being a part of it and join in the fun. The team had a dry run on the previous week, using the chance to know the new Fazer guys I've never met before (friendly dudes they are :D). On the actual day, the Fazer guys arranged to meet at Lavender Food Court before we ride down together as a group into the Police Academy compound. There, for the first time I get to see the largest ever bike gathering in Singapore and it was quite a good thing actually, showing the generous support the biking community had provided despite the hot weather.

The Fazer Marshal Team

Part of the Fazer Marshal Team Bikes

Before moving off, we were briefed for the last time and there we took a group photo. As the Fazer group was in charge of convoy direction, we moved off ahead of the convoy to position ourselves at the respective locations, there we then wait for groups of convoy arrive and we direct them to the right traffic entrance. In my opinion, the organisers made a very wise decision of splitting the convoy up which is so much more manageable and organised. Kudos to them.

Part of the entire convoy gathered at Old Police Academy

Once the whole convoy had gathered at the first FUP (form up point), the whole convoy will move out as a whole for arrival at the Singapore Flyers, which will make a spectacular sight for the people and passer-by over there. Once the convoy had departed, our team also rode off to the final destination.

The event had a pretty good response, with the "famous" Steven Lim, dressed in a body armour with nothing underneath, being one of the MCs. Of course there I meet up with AngKuGuay & DaBitch to go collect the goodie bag we have registered earlier. The goodie bag consists of one NBW T-shirt, a mini tankbag-like pouch, keychains, key straps and lots of vouchers. There are also lucky draws, NBW & SBF, where I, DaBitch & AngKuGuay each got something from the draw. AngKuGuay/DaBitch won a mini LED torch & Racewerkz voucher while I won a FogCity HyperOptik anti-fog visor. AKG ended up gave me the voucher as he discovered it is only for Dynojet products, which he already have a PC3. So he pass it to me knowing that my bike needed one (and also to prove with another living example that a PC3 do makes a difference with a fully stock bike LOL) Really thank him for that, for the PC3 do makes a difference to my bike, in terms of better rideability and fuel efficiency.

The NBW T-Shirt

Certificate of Appreciation for the Marshals

The NBW Babes

One of the lucky Fazer guys keke

Steven Lim gets dumped.... erm.. dunked

Pasir Gudang Dec 2008
This month, AngKuGuay had asked me to go down Pasir Gudang once again since our last disappointment where we were shut out outside the entrance of the Johor Circuit. This time, finally the track is open to public and I am there again, riding on the circuit asphalt track after many years. This is also a good chance for me to try out the bike with a tuned map done at Racewerkz days before. Of course, since I am embarking on the longest riding trip I have ever attempted, I made a constant reminder not to ride beyond the me or the bike's limits. Anyway, I was never an aggressive rider so riding in the track is more or less like a leisure ride rather than going all out (I never aspire to be a track racer LOL). Main objective is just having fun on the track without pushing myself o the bike too hard. Moreover, I'm running on stock tires and without a proper track suit, it just don't make sense to do so. The session and the weather was good, and AngKuGuay is also having great fun with his DR-Z but he is not satisfied with the performance of the bike.

2 days later, he asked me to go down again after modding his bike and ok, I figure I just accompanied him down. However, I had to be more gentle on the bike since I don't wish to change the tires before the trip as my next tires will be a sports tire and not touring type. So there again, good session, good weather and AKG is still not satisfied. This time, he wants better acceleration.

So the week after (which is yesterday), he asked me down again. This time DaBitch kept stressing that she will be going down to take photos of the session, as she know that I had been wanting a photo of myself riding in the track. So I bited the bait LOL. Lucky as we were, session and weather is fantastic and again, AKG is STILL not satisfied. Check this out and you'll know why.

3 sessions in 2 weeks! That's the most track sessions at such short intervals I have done myself so far haha.

AngKuGuay

Yours Truly

Shawn

Alan

Victor

Quizesilver

It's alive!

Finally, after a change of mainboard. It's back in action again. Now i can do my work in peace......

Wasted

AngKuGuay only realised that his tripod is not functioning properly when reached the photo taking destination. Damn.

Ultimate FUBAR

After countless hours of installing, configuring Windows XP like 4 times. the OS barely survived 12 hours before my EeePC 900 went bonkers again...

All those wasted hours translated to precious time which I could have used them for a good sound sleep. When it went bonkers for the last time, I almost had the urge to take the netbook and smash it against the wall.

Yes, I am really pissed.

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