Drumming

I don't know what has got into me. It seems that I have been bitten by drum bug. It all started out of a sudden. Out of no where I just have to drum night and day. I spent a lot of free time on the web searching for drum info and searching for affordable drum sets. Any free time available is spent on drum related activities. I even took of early from work to go to music shops to look at drum sets. What has got into me!!!! Help.... Even last week when I call in sick for a day, I went for a jam session alone. Just to play the drums. Lucky it was only RM20 for the 1 hour session.

Now, if I can easily get a set I wouldn't mind it. The problem is I could not. The cheapest set I can get complete with mute pads costing RM1,500. But it is an acoustic jazz set. With me living in an apartment and the kids around all the time, I don't think it is a viable option. Which leave me with 2 options, electronic drum set or practice pad set.

In KL, I found out there are only 2 brands available; Yamaha and Roland. the cheapest set would set me back >RM3,500. On e-bay, there are a couple of options the most viable being OSP DD502 set. Costing USD469 + pp USD175, roughly RM2,500 to me.

Or the least favourable option is to get a practice pad set. It will only cost RM550. But of course, it will not feel the same at all, without any "real" drum sound. But hey, at least I can get the feel of drumming a complete set without the noise.

I have to weight the options well. The sure thing is , I can't afford either the acoustic set or the electronic set for the time being. What I have to consider is whether to purchase the practice set or save up more and longer until I can get the e-set.

Argh!!!!!!!

Flated while going 55 kmh

What a scary experience. All this while riding mountain bike downhill, I was never that scared as when I flated week. Maybe because the the falls during downhill happened so fast that I did not have the time to think of the consequences. But on the way to work during rush hour traffic, the flat sure gave me the "Oh no... please unclip..please unclip..!!!"I found out that it is almost impossible to unclip while trying to control a bike with flat rear tyre at 55kmh. Luckily I managed to unclip and stop before the fall.

By the way, the flat was due to pinch flat. This was on a newly paved road where everything supposed to be smooth. But there seems to be small potholes at the end of the new paved road. Damn!!! My thin 23c tyre could not absorb the impact with me being 95kgs, added with loaded bag on the rear rack.

To make matter worse, after replacing the tube with my spare, the presta nut broke off just after I had finished pumping the sucker up. So I was left with 2 tubes, 1 slashed & 1 with a broken nut... both can't be fixed... So all the way home I had to push my bike.

Yesterday I went out to buy some spare tubes. At night after my family went to sleep, I started to repair the damage. a while after pumping the tyre I could here hissing sound. Oh no, don't tell me its a puncture again. I thought I have thoroughly check for debris onside the tyre before putting it back onto the wheel. However, there appears to be lots and lots of metal flakes coming from the rim (which was grinding the road during the flat) embedded into the tyre sidewalls. I tried to pry them out. but there were to many. Worse, you can really feel them when running the finger along the sidewall. So I toss the rear tyre, and replaced it with the stock tyre. Hopefully it will be at least a couple of months before a repair/replacement of the wheels is required.

That's it for now...

Anyhow, now I have put a platform on one side of the clipless pedal... so that when I go on a fast downhill on the road, I'll be able to ride unclip..