13 June 2010
Football fever is back with the on-going World Cup in South Africa. The results been stunning .. or I say surprising which I bet (pun intended) probably threw a fair few bookies off the track. Wonder there would be cheap bikes to pick up when serious couch players went through the roof with too much betting and losing along the way. The games are more interesting when there are stakes on the table. For me, unfortunately, I have not caught the soccer flu yet. Mind you, I do have the real flu that normally associated with the body aches and pain. With the help of paracetamol and clarinase tablets to ease the pain and nose congestion, I saddled up to meet up with the guys. 5 confirmed GS bagsters and a lone ER6n bagster would ride up to the Sunday bikers' favourite coffee cafe in town or hill.
The Bridgestones that came standard with my bike still got the rubber to last another 2 to 3 thousand kms. We had a little chit chat about which tires were good for our heavy buffalos. Chin commented that the Bridgestones are still the best tires. Metzelers and Michelins wear off unevenly especially at 1/2 way mark. As for me, my riding style does not demand any serious traction from the tires. Fact is that it would be very embarrassing to show my tires' wear patterns. A dual compound tire with super hard wearing center is probably most suitable for my riding style. I could be wrong but I think there isn't any dual sports tire with multiple rubber compounds. Maybe the designers don't see the need for it especially the rubbers are already thicker than our hiking boots' soles. Add hard wearing central compound equation, the tires would probably match car tires' longevity. Not a good thing for the manufacturers.
As I was holding my iced coffee plastic cup, bikers continued to swarm the place. I pitied the super friendly police officers manning the supposedly hotel's main drop-off area. The 'on-loan' policemen, under Genting management payroll, were given instructions not to shoo away guests. At the same time, handling 40- 50 motorcyclists was no small feat. The bikers would loved to park their bikes as close as possible to their tables. Nevertheless, we came to good understanding to park our bikes properly without obstructing traffic. Incidentally, we were always on watch out to keep taps on mostly foreign tourists who would hop on the bikes they fancy to have their pictures taken. Most of them have no ideas that some motorcycles were too heavy for them and any accidental tip-over could cause easily hundreds if not a couple of thousand bucks in damages.
I'm always amazed to see the bikers mingling with each other even they only met for the first time. Yes, there was a biker babe, a pretty one no less with full leathers on an ER6n. Was that the real reason Chin and Timmy decided to stay on when we were ready to ride back to KL ?
