Engine or no engine, I just love racing!!

I participated at Foresta Team Time Trial late last year at Foresta. The team consist of 7 riders and the team lap time was measured when the 5th rider cross the finish line.

I’ve recorded the highest heart rate of close to 200 Beat per Minutes (BPM) when crossing the finish line. Never before I reach that heart rate.

END

Check out the youtube video from the Bali Audax’s organizer above. Can’t wait for the 2011 Bali Audax! I plan to participate for sure!

It’s been a while since I updated my blog… Well, hope you enjoy the video

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 89,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 4 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 79 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 225 posts. There were 409 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 66mb. That’s about 1 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was April 6th with 654 views. The most popular post that day was [Photography] Indonesia Ninja Road Racing Series.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were indomotoblog.wordpress.com, ducatimonster.wordpress.com, triatmono.wordpress.com, search.conduit.com, and kaskus.us.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for ducati multistrada 1200, ducati malaysia, semakin di depan, indoprix 2010, and knee down.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

[Photography] Indonesia Ninja Road Racing Series April 2010
22 comments

Visit to Naza – Ducati of Malaysia October 2007
28 comments

Testing iPhone’s based GPS Lap Timer@Sentul… April 2009
16 comments

“SEMAKIN DIDEPAN”, how important is Indonesia’s market for Yamaha? February 2010
19 comments

[Photography] The sight of Indoprix 2010 April 2010
16 comments

The finish line at Jimbaran Beach!! I cannot tell you how happy I was looking at the Jimbaran Beach. After 2 days of grueling rides, through torrential rain and scorching Bali’s heat passing the sea side road and the 365m above sea level Abang’s peak finally the “Advance Cycling Challenge” completed.

It was 410 km in 2 days, about 200 km perday, with close to 8 hours perday of riding. I’ve burned more then 11,000 calories, drunk countless bottles of water with powerbars and bananas. When I reached Jimbaran beach I couldn’t feel anything bellow my waist, my legs was hurting like hell, but the sense of joy overcome all… I’ve completed the challenge, and I brought home the BaliAudax medal!!

TO BE CONTINUED..

My first cycling tour! I’m off to paradise island for an event called BaliAudax, an “Advance Cycling Challenge” take place on the island of Bali. We will ride 410Km in 2 days from Kuta to Lovina in day 1 and back again to Kuta in the second day as the map shown above.

I’ve done bike (as not  to confuse with bicycle) tour in Bali back in 2007 (story in this link), with my fellow Ducatisti we rode in Bali during Indonesia independence day holiday. That time we took north path to the Batur Mountain and explore the central part of Bali, this time with bicycle I’ll took Bali’s coastal road in a clock wise direction.

410km is by no mean short, even by motor bike standard to take in 2 days. Though the road is relatively flat there are some climbing along the way. As the contour of the road shown above we’ll have about 2+km of climbing in total, with the steepest climb in the second day with max 9.4% (meaning the road ascent 9.4 m every 100 m of distance).

I’ve been preparing for this event for about 2 months, riding a minimum of 200km a week, and just last week I’ve tried 100km in one day. Took me about 3 hr 33 minutes to ride that 100km. With calories burn about 3000+ cal. Just awesome!

I’m pretty excited about this bike “challenge”, I hope everything will go well and I’ll bring along the BaliAudax medal on the way home! Stay tune for the full report at bonadjalins’ blog.

END

Check out my new Alpine Star racing suit, the 1 piece Tech 1-R. Its black and what I am so proud of is its size. The size of 50 (EUR). See, just before I started cycling there was no way I can fit in to any ready-made 1 piece racing suit. My previous size was 54 yet the arm and leg section were just too long it was ridiculous to wear. That time I had to make custom racing suit, which was bit larger on the waist hehehe. This post about that racing suit.

My old racing suit also bit old. I made it in 2008 so close to 3 years already. It has protected me from several crash and it is a well made racing suit. Its local so not as expensive as international brand and I can make custom color, tag, etc on it. But to “celebrate” my weight loss I think a branded racing suite is in order, a gift after shedding 11 kg off my weight.

More picture and story after the link..

Alpine Stars is a very well-known brand in motoracing. Used by several MotoGP stars like Pedrosa, Stoner, Spies, among others. I have used Alpine Stars glove and racing shoes as well so I like the brand. Thus deciding to get the same brand for the racing suit was an easy one. The Tech 1-R is a new model for 2011 and feature wise is one level bellow the top of the line Alpine Star Racing Replica leather used by the MotoGP rider. Based on its spec the Tech 1-R is made by 1.3 mm premium leather, perforated and have the least amount of stitching possible to reduce the chance of seams degradation during crash. It has the same shoulder and knee protector as the Racing Replica. In short it is a top level racing suit.

Wearing them for the first time the leather was bit stiff, I cannot even put my chest protector inside. But once all zipped, the suit is quite comfortable. I can move around easy, and the best part was its look good, well at least I though I did.. First time around the track with the suit the feeling was nice. You know that this racing suit will protect you and make you more confident on the bike. Yet, being an amateur where you spent your own  hard earn money to buy your equipments there this feeling where you do not want the suit to ruin if you crash. So you get more cautious and slow, hehehe.

I wore the suit the first time during the Kejurnas Race 4 series where I participated. Turn out my time was bit slow, I could only manage high 1:48 during QTT. Well, being off the motorbike for quite some time did take its toll.  Yet I had no plan to push or to improve my lap time. My goal was just to have fun. And not to ruin my new racing suit. Some action photo bellow,

thanks to fellow blogger Girifumi of prado2.com for both pictures.

Not bad eh?

As for the race it self, I did not finish. I was way behind and when on the lap 5 or 6 it just started to rain. Other then crashing, water and rain will certainly ruin your brand new leather. I did not take any chances..

END

I kept my head down and from the corner of my eye I could see two shadows in the tarmac, close and trailing my rear wheel. I kept pushing pass the right hand first Turn 1. The wind  was strong and together with my labour breath were the only thing that I could hear. Still leading pass Turn 2. Both turns are descending so the speed was quick.  Behind me the two shadows were still close. Finally I couldn’t push anymore, the Garmin GPS and heart rate monitor went nuts, my heart rate (HR) was hitting 183 a bit above my Max HR of 180. Fortunately the two shadows behind me were also getting slower so they did not pass me. When I check the top speed from the Garmin unit it was 50.1 Kph.

That story above was not from the last Kejurnas Race, but from cycling around Sentul Circuit. My friends and I from our local race club are now start doing cycling seriously. So before hitting the track with a Superbike (with engine) we did 3 to 4 laps of warm up with a road bike (no engine). We also did cycling only workout on road or off-road at other location, like Foresta BSD, or  to Telaga Warna puncak for off-road and MTB-ing.

As for me I finally getting my self a road bike. A fast road bike. Trek Madone 6. With SRAM Red gear set and Zipp 404 tubular wheel set. Its 6.4 kg. So it’s not comply with UCI weight regulation (which is 15 lbs or 6.8 kg), but heck I’m not participating on any UCI sanction race for the forseeable future so for me the lighter the better

More pictures after the jump…

The Trek Madone is the bike ridden and obviously made popular by Lance Armstrong. He used the Madone to win several Tour de France (TdF) titles. It also used by Alberto Contador to win the TdF in 2009.  It is a properly breed racing machine with a credential to envy. The Madone’s frame is carbon fibre, and for the Madone series 6 the frame is still hand-made in the U.S.A (lower Madone series is made in Taiwan). The frame is super light and super stiff. But hey, as with my CBR and my sold Ducati, this machine capability is far more superior than that of mine

For the gear set I use Sram RED with compact crank. I’ve been enjoying trouble-free Sram XX for my MTB, so my choice for Sram Red was obvious for the road bike. What I like about the Sram is its Dual Tap transmission. You move the lever slightly for smaller sprocket, and more for bigger one. It’s that easy. Shimano is different you move the big lever or the small lever for selecting sprocket which for me bit cumborsome.

For the wheel set I’m using Zipp 404 Tubular wheel set. Zipp is famous for its aero wheel with patented dimple surface rim just like a golf ball. The wheel when slice through the air created a vacuum which in turn reduce the amount of power needed to move forward, hence faster speed. The wheel set is super light since it’s a Tubular wheel set made from carbon fibre. Tubular wheel set is not tubeless. The tire still have inner tube but its integrated with the tire. It has less rolling resistance and less weight compare to its normal clincher version.

I’m using this bike almost 2 to 3 times a week, with each ride about 50 km. Since I bought it about 2 months ago I think I’ve ridden it close to 750km already. Much more than what I rode when I got my Ducati in its first 2 months..

END

Taking concert photo is always a challenge. The stage environment and stage lighting have wide dynamic range from pitch black to extreme bright coming from thousand of watts spot light. Different with say capturing a sunset scene, stage environment also change quickly and dramatically, thus  you need to react quickly to capture the moment.

Also about logistic, for an amateur photographer as my self I do not have a stage pass, or a pers pass, where you can go close to a stage to capture the scene so I just have to maximize where I’m at at the concert. No way I’m bringing the big and heavy tele or zoom lens to a concert, enjoying the music is still the main reason for me to go to a music concert. But if I manage to get decent picture with the equipment that I carry from the location where I at, I’m happy

EXIF data for the above picture, Exposure 1/125 sec at f/1.4. ISO 100. Canon EOS 7d. Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens.

More picture after the jump..

EXIF data for the above picture, Exposure 1/50 sec at f/1.4. ISO 400. Canon EOS 7d. Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens.

EXIF data for the above picture, Exposure 1/40 sec at f/1.4. ISO 125. Canon EOS 7d. Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens.

END

Aprilia RSV-4 and Trek Madone 6. Both a machinery for speed. The difference is one a V4 one litter four stroke engine the later is two legs man power. The Aprilia lead this year WSBK champioship while the Trek got 9 Tour de France champions under its name. Both are black..

More pics after the jump.

The Aprilia is race ready, so does the Trek…

With Max Biaggi and Lance Armstrong ride them, both are amazing machinery and leaving the opponents far behind. Yet as powerful as the machinery is, it’s all depend on the man behind the gun.. :p

END