Second Week In Qatar (Part 1)

On the second week, we met Rezza, my university's colleague and asked him to join us for 'Takbir Raya' at the Malaysia Embassy.

Pose after 'Takbir Raya' at the Malaysia Embassy.

At Doha Sport's Complex.

Driver of the month, hehe.

Window shopping at Villagio.

Listening to 'Khutbah Raya' after solat Aidiladha.

First Week in Doha, Qatar

11th December 2007, the day I started my journey to Doha, Qatar. My parents sent me to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 7.30 am and we arrived there at about 8.30 am. My flight was at 11 am. My mother and my sister will join me later on the December 16th. As usual, my dad will not join us since he rather to go for a vacation only for 4 of us. Two of my cousins, Alif and Afif joined me. They arrived at the airport with their parents.

We arrived in Bahrain at 3 pm, local time, after almost 9 hours of flight. We strolled around to wait our flight transit to Doha that was at 5 pm.

6 pm was the time we arrived in Doha international airport. To get Qatar’s visas, we have to get an E-Cash card from a bank before the immigration's counters that cost at QR (Qatari Riyal) 320. QR 100 per person and QR 20 for deposit. We met our uncle and aunty at the airport about 15 minutes later.

We stayed at our uncle’s house at Zaharatul Wadi, Al Duhail. There’s not much we did on the first week since we arrived here. Sometimes we went to Corniche in the evening and Souk Waqif in the late evening. Corniche is the nice place to jog and to have for an evening tea since it is located just beside the beaches. Souk Waqif is a place to smoke ‘Sisha’ and shopping. It is like a place to get socializes.

Other than that we went to City Centre Shopping Mall and Villagio for window shopping. Lol. I met my university’s colleague, Ammar and his family at his home in Al Mesilla. They all went for a winter vacation in Iran on that week. Fuel here is very cheap, that is QR 0.80 per litre. On that Friday, I had to send my aunty and uncle to the airport since they had to go to Mecca for Hajj. Then, the following weeks, I had to send my cousins, Damaq and Hanis to go to school. On Sunday, I had to go to the airport to fetch my mom and my sis.

That’s all for the first week. I’ll continue later in my next post.

Rempitism

I guest, you guys heard this word for the first time, right? This word only can be found in Malaysia. It refers to bikers who had really bad attitude on normal public roads, such as, speeding like hell, like to disturb other road users, doing illegal stunts and so on.

However, at one time, this thing becomes worse as it involves drugs, snatching handbags, gangsterism and even murders. Usually, these bikers ride on small capacity bike such as Honda Cubs and came in packs. Our police are trying their best to crack down these people for them to face justice.

A lot of roadblocks have been put to trace them down. Even the government has to involve in this situation to educate other bikers not to become rempits. Thank God that, their numbers are decreasing from time to time.

I really pity to other bikers, including me, since, because of them, we become the victims of this situation. Normal daily commuters who are using bikes have to be stopped and interrogated by the police at each roadblocks they faced everyday and these will effect their traveling time. Sadly, these normal commuters have been targeted by other motorists of becoming threats to them. I didn’t blame the police because of it, but I blamed these people because they make our life miserable.

I bet that, this thing also happen anywhere, right? How do you guys react to this kind of problem? What should we do to solve this problem since it involves our young generations?
picture take from Google Pictures

Nik Iskandar's wedding in Penang.

The wedding was held on 2nd of December 2007 at Penang Island. This is the first time I attended a friend's wedding in my life. lol. Since I just finished my final exam for this semester, I took this opportunity to attend his wedding.

Therefore, I decided to bring along my mom and my little sister. We took about 3 and a half hour to drive all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Penang.

We arrived Seberang Perai in the afternoon. The traffic was quite slow, since, it was Sunday. There were a lot of construction on the Penang's Bridge for maintenance perposes. My little sister like about it since she is taking civil engineering.



As we arrived on the Penang Island, we got lost. I blamed myself for not asking the people around us for direction. However, we managed to get back on the right track half an hour later. lol.

There were a lot of people in my friend's compound, since he is 'anak Dato'. Then, we took our lunch, and for your information, the foods were really good. Other than that, bikers from Utara Bikers Group attended the wedding.





Me and my sister managed to take several pictures. Then, at about 3 o'clock, after tiring eating and taking pictures, lol, I met my friend, congratulated him and then, we went home. He was really busy, entertaining other guests. Nevertheless, I was really happy because I managed to attend a friend's wedding, since I am really busy with my final year.

We took ferry to go home and guest what, the PLUS Highway's traffic was really slow. We reached home at 10pm. I would like to thank to my mom and my little sis to join me to the wedding and also thanks to Nik for his invitation. Overall, the journey took about merely 700km.

MotoGP Championship 2007: Final Results

I'm very sorry for not reviewing the last 4 races. I'm quite busy with my study and Final Year Project, since, this is my Final Year in UTP. Other than that, I've got some difficulties with my ex-girlfriend, which she made my life harder for the last 3 months, lol. Anyway, I'm glad she's already gone in my life, and therefore, my life will be back to be normal, again, lol.

I'll make a quick review about the last 4 races, since, all of you already know all of it. In Japan, the winner was Capirossi, then, in Australia and Malaysia, both won by Stoner and the last race in Valencia, the winner was Pedrosa.

This were the results. Championship classifications are arranged with the highest accumulation points at the top.

Yeah, good to be blogging again.

source from MotoGP.com

Did you realize what mistakes you've done today? (Part 4)

The first step to becoming a better rider is to recognise the mistakes. This is 15 of the most common ones and how you can avoid them.

MISTAKE: RIDING AS IF ALL ROAD SURFACES ARE THE SAME TWO things keep us on the road. One is our tyres, the other is the road surface. If we haven't got a good bond between them we're going to struggle to ride fast. Watch the road surface and learn how your bike feels when it's on different surfaces. We know what happens if we hit a drain cover or metal studs while cranked over, but some roads, where you see black lines in the bitumen where cars have started to wear out the road, can be just as slippery. Reading the surface can also give you advance warning of what is around the next bend. See horse manure and it ain't an all-girl marching band you can expect to find on the next straight. Lots of skidmarks from heavy braking could suggest the next corner is tighter than it initially looks. Remember the rubber part of the story, too. We all know someone who crashed on new tyres - cold tyres can be just a dangerous. Be patient, take the time to warm them, then enjoy.

MotoGP Championship 2007 in Estoril, Portugal

Yesterday, the race was held in Estoril, Portugal. Sadly, this time, our TV satellite provider, Astro, didn't show the live telecast. We all in Malaysia, have to watch the delayed telecast on 1.50am (should be 10pm, before).

The race was won by Rossi, his first ever win since Assen. It was the battle between Rossi and Pedrosa for first place. Pedrosa managed to finish at 2nd position with only 0.175 seconds behind Rossi. Meanwhile, Stoner managed to get 3rd postion while the the pole man, Hayden managed to clinch 4th place. It was really a nice race after all.

These were the results for the Qualifying Practice and Race.



Go Rossi, GO!

source from MotoGP.com

Did you realize what mistakes you've done today? (Part 3)

The first step to becoming a better rider is to recognise the mistakes. This is
15 of the most common ones and how you can avoid them.

MISTAKE: FAILING TO MAKE THE MOST OF THE CLUES IN YOUR VIEW THE best riders are those who use every clue they can to see where the road is going.

That gives them time to react to the ever-changing view without fear of the unknown chiming i to slow their ride.

Others ride like a man walking down the street but staring at his feet. Before too long they are going to bump into something. You tend to end up going where you are looking.

The big advantage a bike has on the road is that it can be moved from side to side to improve your view. Unless the surface or other hazards dictate otherwise, always ride on the part of the road that gives you the greatest view ahead.

The vanishing point (the point at which the road disappears from view) now becomes a useful go-faster tool. If that point is coming closer to you then you should slow down or at least keep the throttle constant, as this shows the bend is tightening. If it is getting farther away from you, the corner is opening out and you should start powering out.

Police riders have to do a commentary on their ride during tests, describing every hazard they see, where the road ahead is going and what the surfaces are like. Try doing a commentary to yourself next time you ride. Keep it up and you'll learn to make use of the things you are seeing
to tell you when and where you can pile on the power. You'll end up cracking on smoother than ever.

MotoGP Championship 2007 in Misano, San Marino, Italy

Casey Stoner, Ducati Team during the press conference

This time, the race was held in San Marino, Italy. During the practice session that happened on last Friday, it was raining, heavily. The pits were flooded with water. In qualifying session, on Saturday, Stoner managed to get pole position while Valentino Rossi in second place and Nicky Hayden in third.

During the race on Sunday, Rossi's Yamaha suffered engine problems and made him retired at laps 23. Stoner won the race with Vermeulen in second and Hopkins in third. These are the qualifying and race results:

Rossi: We have two choices.


Sunday, 2nd September 2007

Valentino Rossi's hopes of a glorious Misano homecoming ended after just five laps when a problem with his new Yamaha engine forced the Italian to retire - and all but sunk his world title hopes.


Rossi, who grew up almost within sight of the Misano circuit, began the San Marino Grand Prix from second on the grid - and with thousands of passionate fans begging him to finally turn the tables on pole sitter, and world championship leader, Casey Stoner.

The Doctor dropped one place at the start and another a few turns later, as John Hopkins and then Suzuki team-mate Chris Vermeulen forced their way through, but never got the chance to retaliate as he lost power and was forced to coast to the pits.

"At the start I felt I was lacking some temperature in my tyres and so I slipped back a little from my starting position. However apart from this I felt quite good, stable, with a good rhythm and confident that things would continue to improve as the temperature in my tyres increased," said Rossi. "However on lap five, when I was braking hard, I suddenly felt something go and that was the end of my race. The engine was the same one that I used at the Brno test and also here in practice and it felt quite good; we don't yet know what the problem was today so we will have to wait until our engineers have had time to examine the situation."

With Stoner winning his eighth race of the season, Rossi has now slipped 85 points behind the Ducati star with just five races, and 125 points, still to be decided.

"It would have been great, and very useful, to have a good result here in Misano today," Valentino reflected. "I like the track a lot and I really wanted to do well in front of all the fans; it was a great emotion for me to see so many people in yellow ( we will never give you up Vale!). Unfortunately this wasn't the case today and now we know that the championship will be very, very difficult. Breaking down after just a few laps is frustrating and unlucky, especially because today we had good expectations and we had been fast during practice."

Nevertheless, Rossi insists there will be no surrender:

"When bad things like this happen you have only two choices; give up or come straight back and start working again even harder than before. This is what we will do at Yamaha; me, my team, the engineers - everyone involved." he declared, before hinting that his target has shifted from the championship to individual races. "We still have five races left and we will keep trying to get the result we deserve. Once again Stoner deserved to win today, so well done to him. We have a lot of work to do before Estoril."

Misano marked the first time that Rossi had used the new Yamaha engine, featuring pneumatic valves, in a race - but team director Davide Brivio was keen to stress that it might not have been the 'new technology' that caused Rossi's downfall.

"We used the new engine today and unfortunately something went wrong. We don't know yet exactly what, we won't be able to tell until our engineers have had a lot more time to look at it," said Brivio. "It might not have been anything to do with the new technology, we need to check but this can happen and this is racing. It's just very disappointing for everyone and especially all the thousands of fans who came today to cheer Valentino on."

Meanwhile, Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards struggled with rear grip in the later stages and was only able to bring his YZR-M1 home in his starting position of ninth.

" I got a good start and managed to miss the big melee with Hayden and de Puniet. Then Checa almost took me out a couple of times and the second time I had to run wide and West and a couple of others came through," said the Texan. "Once I'd got sorted again I had my work cut out getting back by West, but then I just got my head down and got going. Unfortunately however, the left-hand side of my tyre then started to give me trouble and I had no grip from then on. There are a lot of quick changes of direction here, turns one-two and four-five for example, and every time I had to flick it left it felt pretty scary. I had to adjust my pace accordingly and from there on in it was just survival and looking to salvage what points I could. It wasn't fun out there today to be honest."

Fiat Yamaha will stay for a one-day test at Misano on Monday.

source MotoGP.com

Malaysia's 50 Years of Independence Celebration

31st August is our independence day.

I finished my class earlier at 1pm on last Thursday, since, I got flu right after my Electrical Machine 2 lab. So, I went to the clinic to meet the doctor. I fell asleep for a moment right after I took my medicine.

Then, after I woke up, I packed up my things and head on to Kuala Lumpur, about 240 kilometres from my campus at about 6 pm. After the Tapah's rest area, it's raining, heavily until Behrang. But, thank God, when I reached KL, it's already dry and again, thank God, I received a 'love' letter from the traffic police because of using the toll gate as my exit. Surprisingly, I received it without any arguments because I felt really tired and cold.

Before I'm going to meet my friends to celebrate our 50 years of independence, I went back home to meet my parents.

To make the story shorter, we all gathered at Hartamas at about 11 pm. The atmosphere was really nice. Almost 20 of us turned up on that night. The funny thing happened on that night was, the people in Hartamas celebrate about 2 minutes earlier than the people in Dataran Merdeka. Haha. We all really had a good time. Zul Champ came with his girlfriend on his 'kapchai' since his RS250 only got 1 seat (motor racing la katakan, huhu). These are the pictures I took that night:

Ard posing

Bob

Farid and Radi

Yon (red T-shirt), a friend and Ali (the one with the phone)

We celebrate it at the Don

Shahril's friend with Ali

The bikes

Then, we headed to Putrajaya to enjoy the scenaries. Some rempits and a police's patrol car try to impress us with their exceptional skills. Haha.

Sorry Radi, I'm testing the camera, huhu

'Almost' candid shot

We all really enjoy that night. I would like to thank you for those who turned up and sorry for not mentioning all of the names. For those who cannot come, we're sorry because of our 'last-minute decision'. But still, we all can gather again next time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALAYSIA!

Did you realize what mistakes you've done today? (Part 2)

The first step to becoming a better rider is to recognise the mistakes. This is 15 of the most common ones and how you can avoid them.

MISTAKE: HOLDING TOO TIGHT/BEING TOO TENSE

There's no need for a leotard or a Yoga class, but to be fast, smooth, safe and focused on a bike you need to be relaxed. Remember the time you got buzzed by a rapid rider passing you? When the red mist descended you got more than angry, you got tense. You may have felt fast because your riding was erratic, but you didn't go faster. He got farther and farther away. Relax and start to flow and you're more likely to reel him in, even if you feel like you are going slower. Tensing up is an all too natural response. Almost overshoot a corner and the fear makes arms and legs stiffen. Your rigidity hampers the movement of your bike's suspension (you are effectively fighting back against its movement) which makes the risk of you losing control even greater. You fear this, get even more tense and, if you don't break the cycle, you'll end up breaking your motorcycle. You may feel this doesn't apply to you. To find out, do this simple test. Find yourself a corner and, while you ride round it, try waggling your elbows up and down. If doing this " funky chicken " upsets your bike, you are holding too tight. Holding on too hard also increases your risk of having a tankslapper.

Did you realize what mistakes you've done today? (Part 1)

The first step to becoming a better rider is to recognise the mistakes. This is 15 of the most common ones and how you can avoid them.

MISTAKE: ASSUMING DRIVERS CAN'T/WON'T ATTEMPT THE SAME OVERTAKE AS YOU

HOW many times have you gone to overtake a slow-moving vehicle only to have a car pull out from the queue behind it to attempt the same thing? That's frustrating if you see him swerving out in time, downright dangerous if you don't.

Always assume the driver won't have seen you, let alone given you a second thought. And bear in mind that the higher performance the car, the more likely the driver is to attempt the manoeuvre. One thing the Porsche driver has in common with a Ford driver is he is less likely to look behind before making his move than you are. His chances for overtakes are fewer than your own, so his frustration is greater. If he sees a gap he'll go and it's hard luck if you are alongside at the time. So if you are going to go past him, go as far to the other side of the road as you can in case he swerves out, and go past at a speed at which you can abort if the need arises.
While you are waiting to overtake, don't get too close to his rear. Act as if you are on a long piece of elastic strung out behind the vehicle you want to overtake. When your view of the road ahead is blocked, drop back (stretching the elastic). As you scan ahead, try to predict when the view might open up (on the exit of a corner, for example) and start accelerating with the intention of being in the right position to overtake when you first see the road ahead is clear. You'll actually find the exits of corners are often the best and safest places to whip by.

Road Safety Campaign in UiTM Bandar Iskandar

Today, I was invited by a couple of bikers from Manjung to come to UiTM Bandar Iskandar in Perak for the launch of a safety road campaign. The campaign was launch by an OCPD (forgot his name) and by the director of the university, Dr Mohd Yusof Hj Othman. The event started at about 9.30am. I came with my friend, Husna. There's also bikers from Ipoh, Tapah and also Tanjung Malim, came to participate the event, and all of them were about 20 bikers.
After a few speeches by the VVIPs, the OCPD received an appreciation from the director of the campus.
I took some pictures before proceed to the next function. Actually, the campus looks really nice. Not too hectic like UTP, hehe.


Then, we were invited to have an 'early' lunch with the VVIPs. The food was nice, because it is Negeri Sembilan's dishes, haha, my favourite.
We were entertained by a few of female students, doing abseiling. What a nice view from below, haha.
Then, we went to the booths and surprisingly, we met Wazi Abdul Hamid. He's a racer and also a legend. He was so friendly, not like the 'other' famous Malaysian racer. Huhu. I was pleased to meet and have a chat with him. Now, he's a very important man in a ministry that relates to road safety, somthing like that.
After that, we went to Cameron.

Attention, CORRECTION:

I got this from the comment I received. Therefore, I paste it here;

Asaalamualaikum..

If I may make some corrections: The campus director is Prof. Dr. Abdullah Mohd Said. Wazi was invited to conduct Safe Riding Clinic at UiTM as part of the launching of Kempen Keselamatan Jalanraya UiTM Perak.

Thanks to all superbikers who attended the ceremony.. almost 40 turn out.

Mohd. Fisal Ishak
Deputy Director, Student Affair
UiTM Perak.

Sorry for the wrong information I gave regarding to this post. Thanks Mr Fisal!

Used Motorcycle Buyers Guide (Part 6)

Trade Secret Tip #5:

At NAZA Showroom

New Version 5,431.101 just released!

Some motorcycle models just keep getting built year after year for a dozen years or more with slight "improvements" to keep it up to date sometimes. This is a tricky tip and can be good or bad depending on the revision history of the model.

This is where you as a buyer have to play detective and figure out the history of the models and what changes took place. You may discover that some years are much better than others and some years you avoid like the plague.

If they are still using basically the same engine for 10+ years and they "increased" horsepower by 5hp, what did the do to do that? If the bike lost 25 lbs in 10 years, where did they shave it off from? What did it loose or gain along the way?

source TMW

Used Motorcycle Buyers Guide (Part 5)

Trade Secret Tip #4:

Ride to Tekala's Waterfall

Lower beats per minute, more relaxed state.

As with humans, if our heart beat too fast for too long, we could die. Same with motorcycle engines. Push the RPM into the red line one too many times and that engine's life expectancy will drop to one day it just won't want to run anymore.

As an engine runs into its high RPM range many things happen. Oil is the life blood of an engine and as it gets hotter it's viscosity brakes down quickly and doesn't do as effective of a job. The engine can overheat causing metal fatigue, internal damage and wear. Some items shrink with too much heat such as O-rings, seals and gaskets causing leaks. Scoring of the piston(s) and chamber is also a concern.

While it is safe and fun to blast away into the red zone under some conditions it is self-defeating to an engine in the long run to do it one too many times.

On the other side of the coin, you do not wish to "Lug" an engine by riding in too low of a RPM. This also places a lot of stress on an engine.

So what do you look for? Mostly the owner of the bike. A typical owner will not only maintain the bike but will also ride the bike properly. Stay away from raced bikes or bikes with lots of kilometers in the hands of timid riders. A timid rider could be the GSX-R750 owner who never takes the bike over 4,500rpm.

source TMW

Used Motorcycle Buyers Guide (Part 4)

Trade Secret Tip #3:

Move less, live Longer

Engineers have known for a very long time that the less moving parts you have the greater reliability potential of any part is. Take a tire iron, zero moving parts = last almost forever. Take a jet fighter = zillion moving parts....

All motorcycles are pretty much created equal by nature. They have 2 tires, a frame, seat, handlebars, brakes, but the engine is what sets them really apart. If you have been reading this so far, you have gotten the idea that the engine can be the most important part in reliability. If the engine dies you don't have much of a motorcycle left even if the other parts are in great shape.

So it then comes to reason that the less moving parts you have in an engine the longer it could last. Just to straighten things out we are not talking about an engine design (sport bike, cruiser, 2 stroke etc), but the amount of moving parts in it.

Let's use this example, take Honda CBX Six (1000cc inline 6). It has six pistons, 24 valves, and loads of parts in between. Not only can it be a mechanical nightmare to work on, but the chance of something just needing a replacement part in there somewhere is very high (not to mention the repair bill). If that gives you a headache, let's take the Suzuki Savage 650. Single cylinder, single carb, and much less moving parts, less chance for something to go wrong and even saves you money in the long run.

So look for less complex designs not only in the engine department but also in the whole bike. More electronics, lights and gadgets look great but can quickly burn out and need upkeep. Chains are lighter than shaft drives, but are not as reliable or as cost effective. Hydraulic valves might cut 1-5% top end horsepower but are more reliable than shim type valves. Just remember, less complex = more potential reliability.

source TMW

Used Motorcycle Buyers Guide (Part 3)

Trade Secret Tip #2:

A Motorcycle on the Jenny Craig program is not healthy.

Jenny Craig may be positive for weight loss in humans, but it can be very bad for a motorcycle long term. Now we are not talking about voluntary weight loss (removing engine guards, chrome, swapping a stock exhaust for a lighter aftermarket one etc) but built in weight loss from the factory. Typical Steel Frame:


There are reasons motorcycle A weights less than motorcycle B, that weight was taken from somewhere. Sometimes it can be fine (using a different type of material for the frame over steel) and sometimes it is bad (thinner engine walls, less metal in the frame, hollowing out parts).

Let's take the Suzuki GSX-R750 again from above and by the way I'm not picking on the GSX-R750, it is an amazing motorcycle (maybe even #1 in it's class). And let's use the Honda Rebel 250. OK, I'll give you that one is a sport bike and one is a cruiser, but we are looking at the weight more than anything.

The GSX-R weights in at: 166kg (and produces 141hp)
The Rebel weights in at: 139kg (and produces 18hp)

GSX-R Frame - That just looks TOO LIght!27kg in weight difference from a 250cc to 750cc! So, how do you make a 750cc that light! It isn't that the Rebel 250cc is a heavy bike for it's size, it is light as bikes go. So, where did the weight go? Since I've worked on a new GSX-R750, let me tell you...Combine: Thinner engine side walls, lightest engine internals, hollow bolts, thin plastic, the narrowest gauge wiring possible, thinnest frame thickness possible and you are just scratching the surface. While this engine isn't under stress from the bike's weight, it just won't last as long as it could if the design allowed for more weight tolerance. Of course if the bike weighted more, it wouldn't be the same either, but then if would last longer...

So to conclude: More solid, heavier parts, wires, plastic (etc) with greater weight tolerance will last longer than those made to minimum specifications. It just makes sense.

source TMW