Friday November 14, 2014
6:45 a.m. Bird Nest Guest House
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Again, not much to say this morning I don’t think. I stumbled across the existence of another bicycle shop yesterday, and I went to see it, and, of course, found it closed. It was very disappointing because this shop specialized in Ortlieb pannier bags, and I very much wanted to check them out again. Getting to the shop wasn’t easy as it involved two trains and long waits for the trains, so I was doubly upset when I found the shop closed. There was no reason for it to be closed. No holiday. No lunch hour break. Nothing like that. They just hung a stupid joke sign on the door that said “Gone fishing” and never opened up. My guess is that they rarely, if ever, get walk-in customers on a weekday, so they just don’t bother opening up.

“Ortlieb pannier bags????” I hear you scream. Yes, Ortlieb pannier bags. Buying a set of those would be the very definition of insanity at this point. However, I’m coming to believe that cycling with my previous heavy loads was even more insane. My Arkel pannier bags weigh sixteen pounds in total if you include the four rain covers – which you must. A set of Ortlieb panner bags comes to seven and a half pounds. That’s a savings of eight and a half pounds! That’s huge.

I tried Ortlieb pannier bags on my trip to Cambodia, and I hated them. However, that was partially because of the street bicycle I was using and the stupid pannier racks on that bicycle. I couldn’t get the Ortlieb bags to mount properly. (I’d have to check if they can mount on my Jandd Extreme racks.) I was also not thinking about the weight, and all I could think about were the wonderful pockets and compartments on the Arkel bas. If I used Ortlieb pannier bags again, I’d surely miss the pockets on the Arkel bags, but I could comfort myself constantly with the thought of how light they were.

There is also the question of volume. The four Arkel pannier bags offer something like 90 liters of space and the Ortlieb bags only 65. However, I never used all the space in the Arkel bags – particularly in the right rear bag, my survival kit. That bag was largely empty. It carried quite heavy items, and I couldn’t put more things into it anyway because it would make it too heavy. But there was also no need. I had more than enough volume in the other bags. That could change with my new tent, sleeping pad and mosauito net and sleeping bag – all much smaller and lighter. Perhaps I’ll be able to put the tent and sleeping bag inside the pannier bags rather than strap them to the top of the racks.

In any event, I’ll try to return to this store at some point. It will take two weeks for the final box to reach me, I’m sure, so I have time. I can at least look at the Ortlieb bags and see if I recoil in horror. To be honest, if it weren’t for the question of money, I’d make the switch today to at least try it out. I’m so tired of the heavy load I’ve been carrying around. Thinking back, I should have been more concerned about weight going all the way back to Ethiopia and started off with a lighter tent, stove, and pannier bags, etc. My constant switching of gear has ended up costing me a lot of money, but that’s life. Most people would say that I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of my Arkel pannier bags anyway. When people see them, they all remark on how old and worn they look. Still, when I first paid the high purchase price for them, I did so with the thought they would last for my lifetime.

Not much else to say, I suppose. I finished reading “A Dance with Dragons.” I enjoyed the bulk of it, but it ultimately left me feeling let down. There are too many characters, too many storylines, and every single storyline was left with a big cliffhanger. That makes reading the book unsatisfying. I’m sure it’s considered great marketing because everyone will have to buy the next book to see what happens next, but I don’t like it. The Harry Potter series didn’t do that, and people bought the next book in the series. They were well-balanced books when you think about it. There was a continuing storyline that went from book to book – the fight against the evil wizard Voldemort – and you had to read the entire series to get that whole story. However, each book was completely separate and self-contained and told a complete story with a satisfying beginning and ending. This Game of Thrones series is nothing but cliffhangers. Very annoying. The TV series “The Walking Dead” also relies too heavily on the cliffhanger business. And it has too many storylines about characters that I don’t care about. I’ve been watching this latest season, but I’ve lost interest in it.

Saturday November 15, 2014
5:15 a.m. Bird Nest Guest House
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I found another bike shop that carried Ortlieb pannier bags and I went there yesterday. I had to take the same trains as I had to for the other bike shop – the one that was closed. I’m an expert on the local train system by now. Though it was a bit more challenging yesterday since it was a Friday. It was a lot busier. An interesting aspect to these trains is that there are three or four cars on each train reserved for “ladies”. These cars are decorated in bright pink to distinguish them clearly and make sure that all “gentlemen” understand that they are not allowed to board them. Another, more amusing, aspect is that people here (I suspect the Indians) have extremely foul farts – the kind that sear the hair in your nostrils and make it hard to breathe. I have gotten hit with them every time I’ve taken one of these trains. It’s a very Seinfeldian moment because it’s impossible to tell who let off with that fart and I don’t want the few women around me to think that it was me. So you try to come up with some kind of body language to indicate that you noticed the foul smell and it wasn’t you that produced it. The best thing you can do is to look around at all the other men suspiciously as you try to figure out who the culprit was.

I found the bike shop without much of a problem. The only mishap was nearly being run down by an idiot on a motorcycle. I screamed my standard profanity at him after he went by. He slowed down and looked back at me and I raised my arms to the skies and shook my head in wonderment at his idiocy. It was a gesture of anger and also a willingness to beat the shit out of him if he came back. Luckily for him, he just drove on. This occurred on a bizarre highway overpass that was built for motorcycles AND pedestrians. Most of the drivers are quite considerate. It was just this one guy that was an idiot and he deserved my go-to profanity. I don’t think my various Sarnia relatives would approve. It was pretty clear, however, that I was under some stress. I had all this anger just boiling away right under the surface and all it took was for this one guy to nearly hit me to bring all that rage out. I don’t know why I should be so stressed out.

The guys at this new bike shop were wonderfully friendly and helpful. I simply can’t get over how friendly Malaysians are in general. It makes shopping a great experience. This is also something I’m not used to. The rule is that customer service in Asia is horrible beyond belief. But Malaysia is a big exception to that rule.

This bike shop did have Ortlieb pannier bags, and the clerks were more than willing to open up the boxes and let me examine them carefully and close up. They aren’t exactly complicated bags, so it didn’t take long to form an impression. The first thing that struck me was how small they appeared – particularly the front pannier bags. They appeared laughably small compared to my Arkel bags. Each Ortlieb front pannier bag is rated for 12.5 liters. My Arkel bags are 18 liters each. The Ortlieb front panniers also consisted of just one top-loading rectangular compartment. I instantly saw tons of problems as I tried mentally to put my gear into those bags. The design of my Arkel bags with the two main compartments, the pocket on the top, the mesh sleeve on the outside, and the compression strap is far superior in every way. The only advantage to the design of the Ortlieb front pannier bag was that it was rectangular and not tapered at the bottom. The new Arkel bags are rectangular as well, but my old models are tapered, and that has always been an annoyance for me.

The rear bags were also much smaller than my Arkel bags. They were rated for 20 liters each. My Arkel bags are about 30 liters each. And, of course, there is no comparison in terms of design. The Ortlieb is one big compartment. My Arkel bags are nothing but compartments of various shapes and sizes and styles. I was also disappointed to see that the Ortlieb rear bags were tapered on the bottom.

The second main thing I noticed about the Ortlieb bags is how light they were. They are all roughly half the weight of the Arkel bags. And that is a big advantage. It’s the only reason I was even looking at them again.

In the end, I came away from the shop not exactly eager to make the switch – particularly where the front pannier bags were concerned. I don’t think I could be happy with the single compartment of the Ortlieb front pannier bags. How could I possibly organize and keep accessible (and separate) all the things I keep in my front pannier bags – tools, stove, fuel, pots and cooking utensils, food, water filter, camera gear and a dozen other smaller items? There is no choice but to just dump everything in willy-nilly. Same for the rear pannier bags, though they wouldn’t be as bad. It might be a good idea to mix and match – keep the Arkel front pannier bags and replace my rear bags with Ortlieb bags. That would save perhaps five pounds.

Anyway enough of that endless rambling.

Sunday November 16, 2014
6:45 a..m.

A rare good night of sleep last night. Woke up feeling halfway decent for a change. Feel somewhat mentally sharp, which is a weird feeling. I’ve gotten accustomed to feeling slow and muddled.

Nothing much happened yesterday. My “big” errand was to look for hose clamps (or some other item) that I can use to rig up a second attachment point for my two oversized water bottle cages. In order for them to fit, I have to move them up the frame tube’s to the point that I can use only the topmost braze on. If I wanted to, I could just use plastic ties to hold the top part in place, but I don’t think that is enough support for 1.5 or 2 liters of water on a bicycle bouncing up and down over rough roads. My idea is to use metal hose clamps. I can drill a hole through them for a bolt, attach the bolt to the water bottle cage, and then tighten the hose clamp around the bike’s frame. It’s an elegant if ugly solution.

The problem I ran into (there is always a problem) is that Malaysia seems to use only heavy-duty hose clamps. I want to use thinner, lighter ones, but I haven’t been able to track any down. I suppose I should count myself lucky that I was able to find hose clamps of an appropriate size at all. Every neighborhood hardware store carries them. But they all carry the same very heavy type. I’ve asked after thinner and lighter ones, but they’ve all insisted such things don’t exist. I know that they do (having seen them my entire life in Canada), but the people here insist they don’t. I bought two of the heavy-duty ones and will try to fit them on the bike. In the meantime, I’ll keep looking for a lighter solution. I’ve noticed again how easily people tell me that I’m wrong. It must be how I speak or how I hold myself. For example, I showed these hose clamps to a young man from Holland and expressed my concern about them being too heavy. This young man picked up the hose clamps and told me that they weren’t heavy at all. He told me that they were perfectly fine and they wouldn’t add any weight to the bike. The hardware guys also all told me that they weren’t heavy. I had just finished telling all of these people that they WERE too heavy. I didn’t like them because they were so heavy. But every person I spoke with told me I was wrong and that they weren’t heavy at all. Strange. I suppose it could just be that they don’t understand the context. Maybe they’ve never encountered lighter hose clamps. I have. The point is that I know a lot more about my bicycle and my needs than anyone else. If I say they are too heavy, then they are too heavy. But everyone always disagrees with me.

The same thing happened with the Dutch guy and computers. He and his girlfriend had just happened to purchase a new computer, and it is the exact computer I’m considering buying – the Asus X200MA. The Dutch guy knew nothing about computers and said as much. He just went to a computer store in Penang and bought the computer that the guy in the shop recommended. I asked him some questions about the computer. At the same time, I was looking up some informtion about it and other computers online at the hostel. This Dutch guy then told me that I was doing everything wrong – that all the things I was thinking about were not important. By this point, it had been clearly established that he knew nothing about computers and that I knew a lot more. I’m no expert, but at least I know that the type of processor and the amount of RAM make a big difference. He told me that none of that mattered. He said that I should just buy any computer. It doesn’t matter.

I never know quite how to respond in these situations. The accurate response on my part would be to say the truth: “You’re an idiot, and you have no idea what you’re talking about. I know a lot more than you do, and you should shut the hell up.” In this case, for example, I learned that this Dutch guy had purchased an Asus X200MA with only 2 GB of RAM. This computer also comes with 4 GB of RAM, and this makes a huge difference. One or two reviews I read online said that this computer was a bit underpowered, but in each case the reviewer’s version had 2 GB of RAM. Everyone else reviewed the version with 4 GB of RAM, and they had no complaints about the computer’s speed and power (at least for a budget computer). But according to the Dutch guy, it doesn’t matter how much RAM a computer has. It’s just an unimportant detail. It’s weird that the guy can tell me that he knows nothing about computers and then in the next breath tells me that the amount of RAM is unimportant. By then, it was pretty clear in our conversation that I knew a thousand times more about computers than he did. Yet, he still felt comfortable telling me that I was wrong. Am I just too nice? I must be.

Not much else happened during the day. I read my book, and I listened to podcasts. I can’t get enough of “Planet Money” from NPR. I think it is my favorite podcast. I love the stories they cover.

Tags: Arkel, Arkel pannier bags, bike, Malaysia, Ortlieb, pannier bag, RAM