Early X'mas

Look at what the mailman brought today.

All the way from UK! ... and paid up by my ever understanding wife :-)

This must be the ultra secret Super Anti-Endo device #2 !

Lots of info over @MTBR forums

Sunday Afternoon Ride

Sunday afternoon + after the rain + alone in the trail = bliss :-)

I forgot to take this picture yesterday.

From the start point of of Gangsa downhill track

Stream @T15

Stream @T15

Guan Mee Pok

Sunday morning brought with it dark skies and rain. I decided to have a late breakfast with my family instead of going to trails (that could wait until the rain stops hehehe). We went to Guan Mee Pok @Syed Alwi Rd.

We ordered Mee Pok, Fried Tofu and Porridge with Scallops and Mussels. The mee pok here is different from the 'normal' mee pok that you find in your usual hawker center. There are additional ingredients like scallops and prawns. Also, most important, the noodles don't reek of ammonia.

E-Sarn Thai Corner

I have another ride coming up tomorrow so I have to load up. Today my wife took

me to dinner at E-Sarn Thai Corner at Upper Thomson. This restaurant does not have GST nor Service Charge... errrr it does not have aircon also. Anyway, we came here for the food so we went ahead and ordered.



We had Seafood Tom Yum soup, grilled pork, mixed vegetables and fish cakes.
Hmmm... how do I put this? The food is different from the usual commercialized Thai food that you can eat at the numerous 'Thai' restaurants in the downtown area. However, it is not the most authentic that I have tried. For authenticity, I still recommend this small hawker at the 1st floor of the Army Market @Beach Road (if you have a tight budget) or this Thai restaurant near the corner of Beach Road and Purvis St if you want to splurge.
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Service is ok. It should be excellent if you just take into account the number of staff. But for some reason the waiting time is a bit long. All is not lost, however! This is a newly opened restaurant. The food and service should improve with the passage of time.

Heart Attack Climb

We looked for the Heart Attack Climb today and already gave up. It was already noon, it was very hot and everybody was hungry already.

Riding back slowly to our 'escape route', my friends were asking me for clues that I heard last week. I just told them that the only thing I heard being said about that climb was that it was "ridiculous". Then one of my friends shouted 'That's it!' and pointed at a spot denoted by the upper arrow in the picture. The picture doesn't do this climb justice. The climb was indeed ridiculous. Just so you have an idea : the first climb at Bukit Timah is so inclined if your bike is not set up properly, you will do a reverse endo. This climb is just a little bit less inclined (really just a little bit) BUT it is a LOT longer. I seriously thought I was not going to make the climb.

Nice stream to and from the Secret Trail :-)

Barricades and Fallen Trees Aug 28, 2010

After breakfast @McDonald's King Albert Park, we in to Bukit Timah trail via Rifle Range. We saw this barrier before we before we turned left towards Visitor Centre. How it expects to prevent trail riders to don't use this part of the trail is beyond me. You can clearly see the space @ the left. Also I think it is in the wrong part of the trail. Nobody goes by this way. If you go this way then you are going the opposite direction.

Fallen tree on the way to Zheng Hwa park from Bukit Timah loop.





Fallen tree @T15. There are other fallen trees there today but the rest have a way rideable way around them.






The only casualty today was an XTR Shadow derailleur.
I wonder if this would have happened if the cage was just aluminum?

Mt. Faber

Mount Faber

View from Mt. Faber Loop, near the coach drop-off point

Danish Seamen's Church

On-One Inbred and Titus Racer-X

Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant

seafood pancake, beef soup, pork belly





6 kinds of kim chi ... too bad I can't name all of them

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My long ride this morning has almost made me bonk. My energy stores were so depleted I pushed my bike up Belukar track... and I easily do these climbs on normal rides.

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After having lunch, I took a nap and when I woke up, it was already 6pm! Dinner time!

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My ever understanding wife said I have to replenish my energy levels and so she'll bring me to Auntie Kim's! :-) Thanks Jen-jen :-*

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If the 'korean' restaurants in the usual places (Orchard Road, City Hall area, etc.) are not korean enough for you, stop eating there and try this authentic Korean Restaurant at Upper Thomson called Auntie Kim's.

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I have seen Auntie Kim (I think) and she looks / sounds korean to me.What really convinced me of the authenticity of the cuisine here is that korean expats come here in droves and they order their food in korean! Yup, not only Auntie Kim speaks korean but some of her staff as well.

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They immediately serve you with hot tea (even this tea is special, I heard it has wheat?) and a selection of 5 or 6 kim chi. For tonight's dinner we ordered seafood pancake, pork belly in kimchi, and beef soup.... uhhhh I forgot the exact names. Hopefully, the pictures above should give you an idea.

Secret Trail

1st lap of T15


this one goes up




this one also goes up, start of hell climb





another reservoir? look at google earth...
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Just when I thought I know all the trails in Singapore, I met a bunch of guys this morning who took me to this 'secret' trail. We had some difficulty finding the 'entrance' but once in, I was in awe. The place is very big. I think I could spend the whole day just exploring the fireroads. The smaller trails would take me about a month of weekends.

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The highlight of the ride is a what my new friends call 'heart attack climb' :-)

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Those who know this place has a name for it. But I won't repeat the name here. If you're interested, I am going there this coming Sunday to try the hell climb again.

AMP Mountain Bikes

I went on a group ride with a bunch of guys I met at T15. One of them was using this MTB. It was from the mid-1990's. They told me that the bike is an AMP B2 (?). But it doesn't have any stickers / markings on except 'Merceds Benz'.

City Ride #2

@Orchard... relatively few people for a Saturday night






@Kallang

@Kallang ... the picture's not nice. BUT! Notice? No cars. No people. Just me. Nice :-)

Tampines Trail

Tampines Trail

looking back at the entrance

last downhill of MoonScape ... and yes, there is a chance you might end up drenched

looks like some people have already declared the jungle segment 'open'. I didn't go in though. Maybe next time...

Spank Oozy Stem (Limited Edition)

Super Anti-Endo Device !

50mm stem, 31.8 bar bore, titanium hardware ... and get this! claimed weight of 125gr !...well, my kitchen scale says it's actually 135gr. It only has one very big (8mm) screw to tighten at the steerer part. Although I have seen people use this on their AM bikes, I don't trust that single screw so I'm using FibreGrip on it.

Testing tomorrow at Bukit Timah!

Singapore National Day 2010

When was the last time you have been to Orchard Road without throngs of people around?

Notice what's absent in the photos above? Yup, the throngs of people !

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Today is Singapore's 45th National Day. Later in the afternoon there will be the usual National Day Parade at Marina. There will be lots of people by then. These photos were taken in the morning after a short but heavy rain which explains the absence of people.

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You may be wondering why I am so fixated in the absence of people. The thing is when I came to Singapore in 1994 the population of this country was just 2 million (if I remember correctly). Out of those 2 million, 400,000 are foreigners working here (that included me).

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Sg back then was very spacious.

Let me digress a bit, things that I remember are:

1. there was no Suntec yet

2. Takashimaya just opened

3. there was a K-Mart at Lucky Plaza

4. there were lots of jobs around

5. people were all busy going after their 5 Cs (cash, credit card, condo, car, country club membership)

6. I talked to someone in ECP who said that Rollerblades are just a fad and that they would die soon.

7. I still played rollerhockey at the numerous futsal courts near ECP

8. HDB flats were soooooo expensive you'd think the fixtures are gold

9. there was this very nice bak kut teh stall in Cantonment Rd

10. I used to but Dark Horse and Image comics at the 2nd (or is it 3rd flr) of Lucky Plaza

11. You have to stock up with food before Chinese New Year because all stores will be closed.

Some up to 1 week.

12. Singapore was still playing in the Malaysia Cup

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(Back to my fixation about the throngs of people)

BUT now the population of Singapore is 5million !!!! There are crowds everywhere. You have to wait for a long holiday before you can go out to see the streets empty of people. You can't breathe.

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Anyway, things have to go forward. Sg might be richer today than 16 years ago... but I think I preferred the Sg I came to in 1994. Nevertheless, Happy Birthday Singapore!

Crankbrothers 2011 Candy 2

Yes, I know I gave the Eggbeater SLs a bad review. But here we have the 2011 version of the Candy. To be specific, what you are looking at is the Candy 2.

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The assembly of my steel hardtail coincided with this new 'training regimen' of mine called 'climb-Mt. Faber-until-you-puke'. The thing is during training, long before I puke, I complain about my knees already. It got so bad that after these ride sessions to Mt. Faber, I have to put ice on my knees when I get home.

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So what does an old guy like me do? I have gone past the denial stage and am now in the acceptance stage. So I went surfing and found out that my old nemesis (AKA Eggbeater) is supposedly good for the knees. The worst part is that, supposedly, all that float that I hated on the Eggbeaters is the single most important factor that makes them so good for people with bad knees.

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I went through the denial stage again. It can't be that this product that I slammed would turn out to be what I needed! So I surfed again for other alternatives. There is LOOK, Speedplay Frog, and there is Time ATAC.

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Actually, both Look and Time are similar to Eggbeater in design. Not just that, they are also similar in that both of them are difficult to find in Singapore. Difficult to find = expensive as well. I know BikeHaus along Bukit Timah (near 6th Avenue) sells Speedplay Frog. But those pedals have very bad reviews in MTBR. A lot of people think they are only good for road riding.

After this initial denial stage, I eventually went to the acceptance stage. Factors that helped were :

1. Agent for Crankbrothers is Hup Leong

2. I have good relationship with the people there

3. The price of Crankbrothers stuff at Hup Leong is a lot cheaper than ChainReactionCycles.

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I know #3 reason is very surprising but you could always go down there and see for yourself.

But I will only eat half of the humble pie as I did not buy the Eggbeaters :-) I opted for the Candy 2 pedals. I read a review of the Eggbeaters which I wholeheartedly agree with. The review said something like pedalling with Eggbeaters is like stepping on an icecube, then the icecube is on a stick, then you pedal.

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I am glad to report that the Candy 2 pedals are not like that. The small platform really made a huge difference. I don't miss my XT pedals now (PD M770 - 423g per pair). Of course the ususal stuff about mudshedding and being able to find the engagement point due to having four of it (as opposed to other pedals which only have 2) have all been confirmed because today I used them on a wet, rainy trail ride at Pulau Ubin.

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I still have something bad to say though! I had numerous moments in which I could not clip out !!! This lead to about 3 crashes. I installed the cleats with 20deg release angle. I have already changed them to release at 15degrees and I will use them tomorrow at T15.

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By the way, the weight of the pedals that these Candy 2s replaced is 423g/pair (PD-M565). The Candy 2s have a claimed weight of 296g per pair. However, my scales disagree and said that they actually weight 307g.... and no, again, I did not feel any benefits from the lower weight :-(

I have just completed a 75km ride. Around 30km of those are off-road with lots of long(ish) climbs and I did not have to put ice on my knees when I got home :-)

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Ok, I will eat the other half of the humble pie now.

Ashima 160mm Brake Rotors

For my steel hardtail bike I was using Shimano RT51 brake rotors (149g x 2). When I was unwrapping the brake rotors, I noticed a sticker saying that I should not use metal disc brake pads on the RT51s. But I was thinking aluminum is aluminum, right? I don't know what is Shimano on but surely metal sintered pads never hurt any XC rider. However, it seems that I am wrong (never second guess the manufacturer). I don't know what happened but after a few days of using metal pads on the RT51 there seems to be some sticky deposits on the rotors... and my brakes seem to be dragging due to these deposits.
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So I replaced the RT51s with the Ashima rotors pictured above. They weigh 82g per piece !!! I got them second hand so they are quite cheap. Best of all, I asked the previous owner if they came with a sticker that says not to use metal pads. He said 'nope, none, nada'. Nice :-i)
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So, did I feel any benefit from the lighter weight? Uhhhh... no. I hate to say that I didn't feel any. But I can say that these rotors seem to dry faster than the RT51s. My brakes seem to 'pulse' / 'shudder' though. Maybe it is due to all the holes on the Ashima.
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Would I recommend these? I saw in one SG forum that there are users who complained that these rotors came warped 'out of the box'. Some also complain that they get warped easily... Then there are those who think these rotors the best thing since sliced bread. All I can say is if you get an unwarped Ashima rotor, the price of these things are among the lowest, couple that with the low weight so this should be a win-win situation. Now if you get the warped ones 'out of the box' .....

Fallen Trees Aug 1, 2010

This morning was supposed to be my inaugural dawn ride (ala full pledged roadie) to do some laps at Mt. Faber.


But when I woke up at 5AM, there was a storm outside. I went back to sleep and when I woke up again at around 8AM, it was only then when I surfed the net that I realised that the whole of Singapore was again subjected to heavy rains. In fact for the whole day, dark clouds never once let the sun shine through.


... but did that stop me from riding ? No! Since it was drizzling all day, the roads are wet and I decided to stay away from the wet, slippery roads. I am also quite convinced that if yesterday there were three fallen trees in Bukit Timah trail, by today, those three would have multiplied by a minimum of two. So I went ahead to T15 via my normal way of climbing Rifle Range road.


If I think all the fallen trees would have fallen inside the trails, boy, was I wrong. There were lots of fallen trees in Rifle Range road and lots of people (I don't know from which Gov't. agency) were working feverishly to clean the road of debris, branches and fallen trees.


Blogger.com has a limit of five pictures per post and I have deliberately limited the number of pictures I took because of this limit.


At Rifle Range I decided to show what to me is the most dangerous fallen tree. Actually, the danger is that a big tree branch is hanging over the left side of the road. All the other fallen trees are not as dangerous because they have already fallen and people can see them. See picture below and notice that this tree branch will be 'invisible' to other road users until such time when it finally falls. I took this picture at around 10AM. I went back this way at 11AM plus and I noticed the people working on the fallen trees have already gone past this point. I thought they have already cut this down. I was shocked when I went past and saw that they left this tree branch alone?!?! Maybe the priority is to get the road clear first ?

This tree branch hasn't been cut by 11AM.... the thing is the people working on clearing the road have already gone this point? Wonder if they saw this?

I continued my way to T15. I saw two more fallen trees blocking the single track. This apart from the big tree that I have taken picture before.

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From Zheng Hua Park, I went down to Chestnut Ave. Just before the under pass, the right side of the road is blocked by a fallen tree.

Fallen tree at the uphill track that leads from Belukar track (?) to Zheng Hua park.

There were people clearing the tree there while three boys in blue were looking on. A few meters later, there was another fallen tree, this time blocking the whole road. Only motorbikes and bicycles can go through by weaving around the branches of the tree.

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I finally reached T15 ! I heaved my bike over the fence and proceeded to cycle .... shortly I encountered three fallen trees and that is before I even cycled 3 Km! At the 3rd fallen tree, I just looked up the sky and said "Ok, you win. I can take a hint. I'm going home now'.

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So next three pictures are of the first three blockages in T15. I don't know if there are other blockages beyond this.