GoPro Hero

mwahahahahahaha (Dr. Evil laugh)

by the way, don't bother going to carrefour @suntec because

the last two units of gopro hero has been bought by 'everything is rideable' deck

and ME ! mwahahahahaha

almost forgot : pics courtesy of 'nolights' Louie... funds for camera courtesy of my ever understanding wife - JenJen :-)

Sunday Afternoon Ride

fallen tree @T15, another fallen tree behind this one

(see next pic)


this is the fallen tree behind the one in the 1st pic. however, unlike the 1st one, this
fallen tree has already become part of the trail and it does not affect flow. It even
teaches you how to limbo rock properly :-)
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Sunday morning was spent swimming with the family. A nice lunch and long nap later and
I was off to T15.
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I got there at 5PM and it was cool, the sun is hidden by clouds and there are no hikers around
and so I can ride without worrying if I might run over any one.

Night Ride

@King Albert Park McDonald's

Rifle Range Road climb

deck @ the trail head, note the flood of light coming from his
helmet mounted Magic Shine

It rained heavily yesterday afternoon (25 Sept, Saturday). Looking out the window of our
flat, i thought the night ride would be cancelled. However, the rains stopped at around 5PM.
Although we know the trails will be wet and muddy, we still went ahead with the night ride.
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My friend recently added another Magic Shine MJ808 to his collection. Since I haven't bought my lights yet, he lent one to me to mount on my helmet. We've decided to put all our 'strong' torch lights on our bikes' handlebars and use the Magic Shines on our helmets.
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Now this was more like it! No more eerie, soft lights from 9$ torchlights. We were riding as fast as if it was daytime. The MJ808s on our helmets really did the trick. We adjusted them such that the lights follow our eyes.
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We went out at around 8PM, reached McDonalds' @ 8:30, had some burgers for dinner and then went to the trails at around 9pm. By 11:20pm, we were already cleaning our bikes at ESSO and we got home before 12midnight. All in all a no nonsense, short and sweet trail ride :-)
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Note :

My friend uses a Sigma cyclometer on hic XC bike. He noticed that the Sigma unit does not function properly whenever there is a nearby operating MagicShine on the handlebar. When he turns off the MagicShine, the Sigma unit functions properly again... We don't know what causes this, just sharing info as a few might tear their hair and throw their cyclometers in frustration only to find out later that the culprit is the light unit near it.

Another note :

Since we were chased by dogs the last time we were at the trails @ Mandai, I bought a 'dogchaser' from a petshop in Thomson Plaza. I brought it with me on this night ride but we did not encounter said dogs. I have been testing it on the cats in the neighborhood though. It seems to be functioning perfectly ... but I haven't been able to test it on stray dogs yet.

Sunday Leisure Ride

Today's ride was a nice leisurely one. We went to Hell Climb...We even had lunch at the Zoo :-)

Some short movies to follow.... that is if I figure out how to post them here.

Swee Choon Dimsum

(left to right) - Fried Rice (came with tausi and pickled long beans), Wanton Soup (came with black vinegar and ginger strips), Sliced Pork with Chili and Tausi, Fried DouMiao with garlic
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Sunday night and we don't know where to eat. My son suggested his 'go to' place, Swee Choon dimsum @Jalan Besar. However, I noticed that they have a new 'cooked food' menu. So, my son's dimsum cravings were binned in favor of proper food for dinner.

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We ordered Fried Rice which came with tausi and pickled long beans, Wanton soup which came with black vinegar and ginger strips, Sliced Pork with Chili and Tausi and Fried DouMiao.

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The fried rice is nice enough to be eaten alone :-) The surprise of the evening is the doumiao. I didn't know that this vegetable, fried together with garlic would taste delicious. The pork slices together with the tausi, chili and vegetables make for a very interesting taste. The wanton soup does not smell of ammonia and the wanton are really meaty and a lot larger than what we find in hawker stalls.

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Prices here are affordable and the service is efficient.

I enjoyed tonight's dinner and it more than made up for last night's so-so dinner :-)

Trail Ride

Authorities have finally blocked the last 1/3rd of Bukit Timah loop.

You now have to go up to Rifle Range Road, turn right, go down until you reach the first flyover ... just before you reach the flyover, you will see a small entrance with a locked metal 'gate' to your right. You will have to enter there, go straight and then turn left once you see a junction. This left turn will lead you back to the Visitor Centre.

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Or... of course, our rides in BF trail and Ketam trail makes us experts in squeezing in between trees. You could always squeeze in the space on the right side of the barrier. I have seen at least two riders do it this morning.

Saizeriya Italian Restaurant @City Square Mall

Today we bought some rechargeable AAAs for my bike torchlights @Mustafa.

Going home, we caught glimpse of the new City Square Mall @Kitchener Rd.

We decided to check out the place and find a place where we can have dinner.

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My wife says she always hears this new restaurant Saizeriya being advertised on radio.

So that's where we had dinner.

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The restaurant is in basement 2 and it occupies quite a big space. Due to this I didn't

get this cramped feeling I get whenever I'm in ... say Pizza Hut or Cafe Cartel.

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We ordered Minstrone Soup and Double Cheese Pizza to share between the three of us.

I ordered Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce and Bacon for the main dish while my wife and son both ordered Spaghetti Carbonara.

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Our orders arrived fast which is good.

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The Minestrone Soup is 'different' but the taste does not stand out from the taste

of other Minestrone soups from the usual suspects. The Double Cheese Pizza does really live up to it's name ... but just like the soup, the taste does not stand out as well.

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All 3 of the pasta we had are firm... bordering on hard (undercooked?). Also since my wife and son both ordered the same dish, they could not help but compare. My wife's order was dry while my son's order was just nice. As for me, my dish was neither good nor bad...
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Well, that last statement I wrote sums up the dining experience we had in this restaurant. Good points are the service was efficient and the prices are quite low. However, the place is let down by so-so dishes and inconsistencies in preparation.

Magic Shine MJ808

A friend of mine bought this Magic Shine light for our nocturnal forays in the forests of BT.

It has a claimed maximum output of 900 lumens. It is also light enough to attach to your helmet and not cause stiff neck the next day. But the nicest part is it comes in a variety of colors. My friend chose red which complements his chosen colour scheme for his bike. So, what more could we ask for? It has form and function all in one neat package.

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We were very itchy to take it to the trails tonight but having been shouted at last Tuesday for coming home late (1AM) from the trails, we decided to just go to Mt. Faber. This light easily outshone some of the weaker lights on the cars that we encountered on the road. Very promising!

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Anyway, I'll post an update once we are able to test the light on a night trail ride.

Tuesday Nite Ride

What are we doing in the middle of the jungle on a week night? Errrr ... riding? Was it a good idea being a week night and all? Don't think so. But we still did it just because.

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Anyway, the venue for this night ride is somewhere in the jungles of BT. We have done night rides in Tampines Trail. I have even done 2 night rides there all alone. But all those night rides did not prepare me/us for the darkness / creepiness of a real jungle!

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All three of us brought our cheap LED torchlights. This is probably the surest sign of our being unprepared. It was only when we were faced with the black wall of darkness in the jungle that we realised that we are severely lacking in the lumen department.

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But hey, we were already there and all 3 of us are too macho to go back down Rifle Range Road with our tails behind our legs.

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Within a few meters of the ride, all the small talk has drifted to white-ladies and that girl who comes out of the well in 'The Ring'. After that, it has become evident that there will be no sweeper hehehe. We were riding in a wedge-like formation. I was point and I had two wing-men. Lucky that I know each rock and root of the trail so my two friends have no choice but let me lead. I'd hate to be the sweeper last night.

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The trail ride was quite uneventful. My friends just kept on reminding me to 'say something'. So they know I have not been possessed yet and also to stop pointing at things (an old Filipino belief).

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We were almost at he end of the trail ride when I guided my friends to a new trail that I found. It was all nice and quiet, we can already see Mandai, when all of a sudden ... we heard barks! We were chased by three big dogs.

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After we got away from the dogs, it was decided that we had our fill of excitement for the night and decided to go on the road. Good thing I was wearing my RadioShack jersey. It made me go fast even if I was using Kenda Nevegals :-)

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The road ride route was Mandai Road -> Yishun Ave 1 -> Yishun Dam -> Seletar -> Jalan Kayu -> Yio Chu Kang Rd -> Boundary Road -> AMK Ave 1 -> Lorong Chuan -> Braddel Road -> Thomson Road -> Balestier -> Home

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Thursday should be Mt. Faber day.

Broken Helmet

We thought it was just a few scratches on the shell.




Upon going home, closer inspection reveals a huge crack.

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'NoLights' Louie took a spill last Thursday in Mt. Faber (through no fault of hers, mind you).

Her altercation with the pavement resulted in a nasty roadrash on the left arm and a few pockmarks on the helmet ... or so we thought. When she reached home and inspected the helmet more closely, she discovered a huge crack behind the pockmarked plastic shell.

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She's now off to the bikeshop where she bought the helmet to see if the warranty card that came with her Limar helmet is any good. I'll update this post whether Limar honors the warranty or not.

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One thing we learned though. There is no such thing as a tame ride. Always wear a helmet. All of us in that group who went with her last Thursday now cringes at the thought of what might have happened if she was not wearing a helmet.

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Update 16 Sept 2010 :

'NoLights' Louie went to LnT @Tampines where she bought her Limar helmet armed with the warranty card she kept exactly for this occasion. The bikeshop said that the warranty is only valid in Italy !!!!! So, be warned, all these crash warranties that you see in magazines do not apply to Singapore ... or at least to helmets bought from LnT.

Xiao Qing Dao at Whampoa Drive

old favorite : Sweet and sour pork

new favorite : stir fried chicken slices with abalone mushroom

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Xiao Ching Dao is our neighborhood chinese restaurant. When I say chinese I mean the manager, cooks and the staff are all from mainland China. This cosy, family restaurant is our 'go to' restaurant. It means when my wife does not know what to cook anymore or when I am being choosy and yet don't want to go far, this is where we go.

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The manager here knows me and my family already. My son eats lunch here almost everyday as their set lunch is quite reasonably priced (5$) and you are served with 3 dishes. My son even asks the uncle there to change some dishes for him. The manager/uncle always obliges him with a smile.

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The flavor of the food here is distinctly different from the usual Singapore chinese food. Needless to say we love the taste of the food in this restaurant. As proof of that, tonight we ordered 3 dishes. Yet, I only managed to snap 2 dishes out of the 3. The first dish was Dry Fried French Beans. The moment the dish was laid at the table, I forgot to take a picture because we literally attacked the dish. When the other 2 dishes came, my son singlehandedly finished the french beans.

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The uncle recommended a new dish : Stir Fried Chicken Slices with Abalone mushroom. That dish has now toppled Sweet and sour pork as my wife's favourite there... and mind you, we've had sweet and sour pork in hawker centres, restaurants and hotels BUT this version of sweet and sour pork has always been the best tasting for us.

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This restaurant should be easy to find as it is near the Whampoa Market Hawker Centre.

Also, ordering should not be so daunting to non-chinese speakers as there are English translations in the menu. So, if you leave nearby or just want to taste real mainland chinese food, this place is very much recommended.

Relaxed Sunday Afternoon Ride

The Rifle Range road climb ... nobody around :-)


The way to Zheng Hwa ... nobody around :-)



Zheng Hwa, going home from recce ride ... still nobody around :-)
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After last night's trail ride, everybody was complaining about the current condition of Tampines trail. Actually, nevermind the eroded trail, it's the sticky, smelly mud and the mimosa thorns in our faces, arms and legs that turned a 10/10 ride into a 7/10. I think everybody 'enjoyed' the ride because it was quite some time since we last did a night trail ride (1 year+ ?)
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Anyway, next venue for night trail ride is around the bukit timah area. I managed to find an alternative entrance/exit to T15 so the trail would now be a real loop. No touch-the-fence-and-then-do-a-u-turn stuff. This route would also be newbie friendly as we are inviting our official photographer, NoFrontLights Louie, to take some proper pictures. I wonder if ClimbEverything Deck's GoPro Hero would make it's debut on this ride as well? :-)

Tampines Nite Ride - Sept 11

highest point of Tampines trail. You can see one of the eastern towns from this spot.

I just don't know if that is Pasir Ris, Tampines, or Hougang...

@the bridge going out of Moonscape, heading to Kidney




Traffic jam @Moonscape climb. Point man, fell down.

2nd guy just managed to go around him. Lucky :-)

Bukit Timah Summit

Went for a hike today @Bukit Timah and went to the summit.

The hike to the summit took around 30 minutes.

This climb makes Mt. Faber look like a joyride. Too bad it is closed for bikes.

Eve of Hari Raya Mt. Faber Nite Ride

5 laps of Mt. Faber and a late supper @Lau Pa Sat

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if you are wondering how come the pictures are so nice, it's because all photos are by

Louie 'No Front Lights' Aribon and her new Sony NEX-3

Under BKE

long climb but not as difficult as heart attack climb @Mandai



This road does not show in my GPS. A quick consult with google maps confirms this as Jalan Kwok Min






Jalan Kwok Min is at the left. T15 Mandai entrance should be at the right.
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How do you know if you are nearing the Mandai end of T15? You will be going downhill on a badly pockmarked 'paved' road. Instead of going that route, I saw a trail almost hidden by tall grass. The trail went up... and up ... and up... and up some more until I reached a point under BKE.

Ivin's Peranakan Restaurant

Ivin's @Sembawang Hill



Honey Pork, Egg Fuyong, Eggplant, and Beef Rendang




Dessert was Bubor Chacha and Gula Melaka Sago
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Today was quite eventful :-) I have a new helmet, new forks, found a forgotten trail, and last but not least, helped a newbie get out of Sc trail in one piece. So I think I deserve to pig out.

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Good thing my wife was thinking along those lines also. So she said we're going to eat something different. Whenever she says 'something different' she always brings me to Ivin's @Sembawang Hill. This is truly something different for my family as this restaurant serves Peranakan cuisine. We eat Peranakan cuisine maybe only 3 times a year?

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Anyway, we browsed thru the menu and we were looking for the Beef Rendang.... only to find out it is not in the menu!!!?? Never fear though as Ivin's catered to our request and they cooked beef rendang. Just wondering why it's not in the menu when all you need to do is ask them to cook it. We also ordered Honey Pork, Egg Fuyong and some Eggplants with chilli.

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The Beef Rendang, Honey pork and Egg Fuyong are all as expected (delicious), it was the Eggplants with chili that surprised me. I normally don't eat eggplants because they tend to be gooey. These eggplants, however, are not! They are very crunchy and the chili was tangy rather than hot. The food was so delightful that between the 3 of us, we ate 5 bowls of rice.

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Dessert was Bubor Chacha and the ultra sinful Gula Melaka Sago. Why ultra sinful? I think the syrup that comes with it is made up of brown sugar syrup with coconut milk! I'll pay for that tomorrow @Mt. Faber.

RockShox Reba Team U-turn 90mm-120mm

Plush and stiff, nuff said.

Setup

Before having a dual air RockShox fork, I read in lots of personal reviews in
Internet forums that the 'right' way of setting these kinds of shocks is as follows :

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1. pump +ve chamber with 60% of your weight (I am 145lbs, so that equates to 87-90psi)

2. add 10 to the value you got from #1 then pump that in PSI to the negative chamber

3. appreciate your very plush setting and then go for a ride

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However, when I did the above to my shocks, I was shocked! Read on....

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Sag

I have this impression that shocks are shocks, no matter if they are bike forks, motorcycle forks, rally car shocks, remote control car shocks, etc., they will function the same. There will be a spring, there will be a piston, there will be something to control the rebound, etc. Also, setting them up will also be similar.

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Keeping this in mind, we come to setting up sag. Trail imperfections come in two forms. One that makes your suspension compress (branches, stones, etc.) and one that makes your compression extend (holes, drop-offs, etc.). For those trail features that call for you suspension to extend, without sag, then there will be no extension, your bike will just fall into the hole... you will be in for a jarring ride.

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Now the problem with the 'formula' above for setting up the Reba shocks is that, without any load, the shock is already compressed to around 95mm! Nevermind if I lift the front of the bike and the fork extends. That does not happen. So in effect, that setting above has just limited my 120mm fork to 95mm. All this without the rider yet!

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Think !

What I did was empty the negative chamber. I pumped 90PSI to the positive chamber. This is within the manufacturer's recommended range printed on the fork leg for my weight. I then adjusted the pressure until I got 25mm of sag. I ended up with 80PSI. So now, without any load, the fork is fully extended to 120mm. I then proceeded to pump air into the negative chamber. I stopped when I saw the stanchion being 'sucked' into the fork leg. This pressure is about 60PSI.

I then released some air until the fork is again fully extended to 120mm. I ended up with around 50PSI in the negative chamber.

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This setup is still very plush. I don't have any complaints about it. I also have around 1.5 inches more travel allowance for the bigger drops in Bukit Timah or WC.

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The Reba fork is also very stiff. My old fork had me 'meandering' whenever I go downhill and do some cornering. This fork holds it's lines very well. Now, this got me wondering, if this Reba is as stiff as this, I wonder how a thru-axle feels like ............ Maybe next X'mas :-)

Fox Flux Helmet 2010

Finally !!! My wife was talking to her mom on the phone. I quickly asked her if she could let me have this white Fox Flux helmet we saw in the Fox showroom at Jalan Besar. She said yes! I quickly grabbed her purse and got some money and with my son in tow we went to get the helmet.

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I did not weigh this helmet as all magazines / websites that have reviewed this helmet has already commented on how heavy it is. It is not even fit for an XC helmet some even say. This is classified as 'all-mountain'. Anyway, the beauty of this helmet is not in it's lightness (we have the Limar for that). This helmet offers more protection as it extends to the back of your head.

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Apart from that, there is the nice looking fin at the top and also there is the fact that I no longer look like a big, colorful mushroom on a mountain bike.

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Fit is snug but not tight. It also comes with extra paddings. Also, I can't see how, but this helmet seems to be my most 'airy' helmet. I have a hand-me-down Catlike helmet and inspite of the number of holes on that helmet, that seems to be my 'hottest' helmet.

Chamois Cream

Yup, I know this is not Assos or Udderly Smooth. But in Sg, I don't know where I can find chamois cream. Ok, I know BikeHaus sells them, but they are waayyyy overpriced. It's nowhere near how much CRC sells them. So while I have not ordered my chamois cream from CRC yet, this is the next best thing that I could find.

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I have tried Vaseline and Nivea cream... I can say Vaseline is a lot better than Nivea... but this stuff above is better than Vaseline. Besides, see the 2nd photo, it says I can use it for jogging and other sports activities. So I must be on the right track then :-)

Home Economics Class

Sunday morning and it promptly rained heavily just like last week.

The only good thing out of these rainy Sunday mornings is that I get to have breakfast with my family :-) We ate at McDonald's and after that bought some groceries.

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Then my son sent me this picture of his Home Economics Practical Test. He cooked Chicken Spaghetti with Garlic bread. Apparently, he got the 2nd highest score in the class :-)

Saturday Trail Ride

Saturday morning @BF. As you can see there are lots of fallen trees from the past weeks of on-and-off heavy rains in SG.

This is the point where we said, ok we give up and promptly did a u-turn.

We then went to find this 'hidden' trail we call WC... we got lost hehehe but the thing is instead of finding the first stream, we ended up in T15 , just below Gangsa. So technically, we did not get lost, we just found the short cut from the entrance of WC to Gangsa LOL.

We proceeded to this other 'hidden' trail (yup! most of the trails in SG are supposed to be 'secret') we call Sc. From there, we went to the Mandai end of T15. It was not that hot but for some reason we still feel dehydrated (even if we have been drinking water regularly) so we did not venture out to try Heart Attack Climb. We did a u-turn and took the trails to Rifle Range and then home.

Road Racer ?

Seen @ TEF Novena.

This is a steel road bike... quite heavy.

The highlight of the build is the shifter.
Drivetrain is 1x10. However, the rear shifter is a TT shifter.

Very nice and clean mounts for the shifter. The builder, when asked as to where he got the mounts just replies with a smile.