I was out cycling with Mia last Saturday morning for an intended 70km ride. It was a hot and dry morning; and I was already sweating profusely as early as 20 minutes into the ride even though we started at about 6:15am. Thankfully, however, we weren't cycling very fast, so it was quite a pleasant ride.
Unfortunately, shortly before reaching the halfway point, I had a puncture in my rear wheel. I changed the tube and used up the CO2 that I had with me to inflate the tyre. Having no more CO2 and spare tube, I decided not to proceed any further beyond that point, because I wasn't sure if Mia had brought along the hand pump with her. Accordingly, I crossed to the other side of the road and waited for Mia on her return leg. A few minutes later, Mia came along, and then we rode together all the way back.
I've been busy on Monday and Tuesday. Today, I finally had the opportunity to make a visit to the bicycle shop in Kampung Air. I had intended to buy a spare tube which costs about RM12 retail price, but because I'm a regular customer, I usually get it at RM10 each. I reckoned that there's no harm to buy more, so in the end I decided to buy 3 tubes. While I was at it, I might as well buy 3 canisters of CO2 too lah.
Then I received a text message from Mia. She said she wanted 2 pairs of white arm sleeves so that she can use alternately with the only one pair that she's been using all this while. Since she's also going to attempt the Putrajaya Half Ironman next year, she's expecting more regular rides in the coming months, you see. So OK, 2 pairs of arm sleeves.
Then, as if struck by an after thought, she said might as well buy a pair of calves sleeves too lah. She's vulnerable to getting cramps in her calves, you see, so maybe the calves sleeves can help to solve the problem.
And oh!...the floor pump that we have is just not very good for women. Mia is just about 55kg-56kg, and she'd need a Herculean push on the handle whenever she needs to pump her tyres. Usually, I would be the one who'd pump her tyres for her. But she'd like to pump her own tyres too, so it would be good to buy a better pump! I checked out the numerous choices of floor pumps at the bike shop and then found one that's a bit more expensive, but softer. Perhaps it's good enough for Mia; so I bought that pump too.
The original plan was to go to the bicycle shop to buy a spare tube at a cost of RM10 a piece. About 15 minutes later I walked out of the shop with a bunch of bike stuff, and a receipt showing the figure RM498, net of "discounts".
When the price of fuel in Malaysia was raised by 20 sen per litre a few weeks ago, too many people have sarcastically said that they will sell their cars soon, and then buy bicycles so that they could save money that way. I was like, "Yeah right!...If you think riding a bicycle is a cheaper means of transport, think again, folks!"
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