We saw it coming.

This was Alek's second attempt at Bentang Jawa, and well, his 2nd DNF. We kinda knew it was coming.

It's not that we don't believe in Alek, it's just that there's something about managing expectations and honestly, sometimes that's the best thing we can do. It is what it is. As we said earlier:

You can do everything right and still have the ride taken away from you. That’s ultra cycling sometimes. *

Oh shoot, he did it!

Alek proved us wrong. We had to scrap the whole opening lines we'd already prepared in our heads the moment he clocked in at CP-3. He still had 25 hours and roughly 220 km to go before the CoT.

Here's what you need to know about Alek: he was born in late 2002. When PIAS Agra first came out, he was only 8. When the Scarab 2.0 launched in 2019, Alek was still in high school. Within our peers, he is still one of the youngest, and of course we're giving him hard times on everyday basis, if you catch our drift.

But..

Seven years later, that bike we affectionately call the "Elitist Green"-Scarab 2.0 carried him acros the finish line of Bentang Jawa: 1.500 km, 16.000 m elevation gain,  in 149:47:30 (hh:mm:ss). For the first time. On his own!

Alek is 23 now.

As we said earlier, Alek isn't just some young rider who happened to end up on a PIAS. He's been putting in the miles riding fixed gear, commuting, racing, getting his hands dirty, and slowly working his way through every PIAS lineup. He's been consistent, and that's probably the part we appreciate the most. Not because he always gets it right, but because he keeps showing up.

That's probably the funniest part of the story. PIAS was already established before Alek old enough to care about bikes, let alone ride one across from the very west to the very east of Java. Yet here we are, seven years after the Scarab 2.0 first appeared, watching a 23-year-old kid take that same bike across the island and finish Bentang Jawa.

From where we were sitting, that's what a generation gap is supposed to look like. The steel gets older, the people riding it change, but the spirit doesn't have to. Alek has made these bikes part of his everyday life, not just something he pulls out for a big event. That kind of relationship is hard to fake. 

Alek didn't grow up with PIAS. He grew into it. And after two attempts at Bentang Jawa, a broken clavicle, one DNF, and now a hard-earned finish, we'd say he's earned his place in our story.

There's another funny thing: none of us have ever ridden one of our own bikes that far or that long. And somehow, the youngest guy in the room ended up teaching us a thing or two about PIAS. About consistency. About showing up. And maybe most importantly, about having the stubbornness to keep going and figure out a way to finish, whatever happens along the way. Did you know that Alek was already battling a pretty nasty cold before he even reached CP-1?
(that's what you Gen Z folks call THE anxiety, Lek. Lol!)

Alek also carried that very Indonesian “gimana nanti” mentality all the way through the race. Don't worry about what happens next. We'll figure it out when we get there. No grand strategy, no unnecessary drama. Just keep moving and deal with whatever comes next. And somehow, it worked.

We vividly remember asking Alek about his daily lodging plan a week before the Bentang Jawa. He casually said

"ngga tau Mang, senyampenya aja liat nanti..".

Or that time we were genuinely worried when he came down Jemplang in the dark. Alek? He just figured he'd find a mosque somewhere along the way and call it a night.

For that part, Alek is a Punk!

Maybe that's the part we envy a little. At 23, he seems to have figured out something we probably didn't have figured out at his age, and, if we're being completely honest, something we still haven't quite figured out now.

So yeah, we gave him a hard time before the race. We were ready with our jokes, our DNF stories, and probably a few “we told you so” and "mampus!" lines. Turns out, Alek had the last laugh.

Good for him. And, honestly, good for us too.

And maybe, that's how the spirit gets passed on. As an entity, our movement isn't something that should only be carried forward by people who come from the same spectrum as us. Finding someone willing to pick it up, make it their own, and ride it further is just as important.

Alek taught us that much. Although, let's be honest, we'll still make fun of him.
Now that he's a 'finisher', we also knew Alek would dust himself off and keep his chin up.

Alek is a badass.

-Mmng