13th, JANUARY, 2010

The road signages are finally up for whatever its worth. Eventually we would still need bicycle paths and lanes separated from motorised vehicles. At the moment hopefully this is the first step towards educating our drivers about the concept of road sharing.

Currently, the G club is having 2 on going projects; 

1) Bicycle Workshops - Maintenance and Emergency Repairs to be conducted ont the 7/2/10 in the morning before the monthly Tlk BAhang ride. The organising chairman will be Raymond aka Stingray T his workshop will demonstrate the proper maintenance of your expensive bicycle, how to lube chain, wash your bike etc and more importantly how to do emergency repair eg mend a puncture, change a tire, repair a broken chain etc

2) Car stickers :"Save the Planet, Cycle for Health  -  Share the Road". The project chairman is Jason aka nightrider who has single handedly design the sticker  with all the different logos etc. It is almost in the final stages of designing and we hv got quotations to print for a 1000 stickers. Hopefully, this wil also help to educate our community.

14th, DECEMBER, 2009

FINally, most of paper works etc have been sorted out. We have fixed 20th December, 2009 830 am for the launching of our first bicycle signage at G hotel. G hotel has kindly sponsored the salon and breakfast for the press conference. After the press conference at the G hotel, we will adjourn to the Gurney roundabout for unveiling of the first bike signage  by YB Chow KOn Yeow and hopefully within a month our contractor could finish installing the signages and emblems throughout Gurney Drive to Tlk Bahang and back.

All are welcome to attend and we do hope as many cyclists as possible could turn up.

On the 27th, December, 2009, launching of the 2nd trail i.e the Heritage Trail at 8 am in conjunction with the Heritage ride will be done at the Esplanade (Padang Kota). After the unveiling YB Teh will lead the convoy on the usual end of the month Heritage Ride.

Again all are welcome.

 8th DECEMBER, 2009, 1000 AM

WE are at the final leg of our arrangement for the bicycle trail emblems. On the 11th of December, 9 am; the contractor, MPPP state engineer, YB Teh, Rotarian and hopefully someone from G club will be going around the trail to mark the positions of the emblems and signposts along the heritage trails and Tlk Bahang. Once this is in place, hopefully authorisation letters to start work for the contractor could be issued by the authorities.

Let us hope we can still meet our December dateline for the launch of the bike emblems.

Also there has been some suggestions to run a FIRST AID WORKSHOP FOR CYCLISTS. What this workshop aim to do is to help cyclsits deal with emergencies while on the road / trails. Things like how to move an injured person safely away from the traffic without aggravating on the injuries, acute on the spot wound treatment while waiting for expert helps etc. If you like to have a say, please vote at the poll on the right column!!!

1st,DECEMBER, 2009,  9.00 AM

LATEST DEVELOPMENT;Finally we have all the funds in place for the bicycle emblems and signposts to be implemented from Gurney i.e; Bagan Jermal roundabout to Tlk Bahang and return as well as the Heritage Enclaves. Besides the CIMB FOUNDAtion allocation of RM 35k, YB Teh, ADUN for Tg Bungah had also chipped in RM 15k and lastly YB Sim, ADUN for Pantai Jerejak had agreed to contribute RM 8k for the erection of a master sign board for the Great Penang Trail which will highlight places of interest in Penang Island bicycle trail.

We are currently engaging the contractor to look at the designated route and come out with suggestions to locate the emblems and once completed work could start. The first emblem launch will hopefully be at Tg Bungah, G club's home territory and let us do it with a bit of fanfare to highlight we cyclists have triumphed albeit just a small step. Please look out at this page for us to announce the date of the launch which will be a Sunday and everybody please come and support

For our next CAMPAIGN FOR A LANE ride we are looking at organising it in the month of September and we are hoping to maintain the round island entrance fees at RM 50 but a small sum of RM 20 will be added for the realisation of the second stage of the lane i.e from Tlk Bahang to Sg Rusa. We hope to raise at least RM 50K from next year's ride.

23rd, NOVEMBER, 2009, 11 36 PM

Received a call from our webmaster, Daniel commanding me to update on the development of the bicycle emblems from Gurney Drive to Tlk Bahang and the Heritage Enclave. So here I am typing whatever had transpired between all the parties involved.

The good news is that the final bicylce signs have been agreed upon by all parties esp the MPPP and CIMB foundation.We have opted as above posted by Daniel except the words "Sponsored by " above the CIMB FOUNDATION is somehow missing  (Daniel, pls take note)!!. The sign boards will be mounted on poles and put up along the narrow part of the gurney to Tlk BAhang route i.e the stretch to Batu FErringhi and for the whole stretch of the inner city Heritage enclaves. On the wider part of the road such as Tg Bungah stretch. 2' by 4' rectangular bicycle emblems will be thermoplastically painted on the tarmac (it is costly about Rm 275 per emblem)

Next will be to have the funds ready for the project. It will costs closed to Rm70k for the whole project. CIMB FOUNDATION is the main sponsor and  once the financial aspect is sorted out hopefully within the next few days, we could instruct the contractor to start work. We are working on a December dateline.

For whatever its worth, these 250m spaced emblems will hopefully create more awareness that cyclists are sharing the road. Of course the naysayer will argue that it is of not much use but as in Confucian saying, "A journey of a thousand Li (miles) start will a single step" Let s us hope that this may snowball into something bigger i.e a dedicated bicycle path not necessary on this Tlk Bahang route. Maybe when the Second bridge is up, the developer may take cue from these emblems and built a 40 Km dedicated bike lane for us!!

The last poll that was posted on whether we should organise another CAMPAIGN FOR A LANE ride next year was overwhelmingly positive. Out of the 89 respondents, 99% want us to organise again next year. This year we hv the emblems until Tlk BAhang and part of the heritage enclaves. Next year we should try to raise sufficient fund for the emblems to be extended until Balik Pulau from Tlk Bahang and the subsequent year extend it to Tlk Kumbar. Hopefully within a few years we would achieve a complete Round Island bicycle trail !!!