Wednesday, December 28, 2011

#228 : City Ride

















Been raining the whole December ... trails are
either very muddy or flooded ... and I'm lazy to
go and climb Mt Faber .... soooo only thing left
to do is go on a city ride.

Above pics were taken on the route from Kallang
to my house at Whampoa. By the way, photo
opportunity : the Queenstown Bowl will be demolished
soon ... better go and take your pictures now before
 this landmark is gone forever.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

#227 - Sunday Ride


Some members of MTB Brothers congratulating me on my new purchase :)

Ken-san and Brother John taking a rest before their rescue mission

Brother Rey's Magic Link equipped Kona

Brother Rico's NEW Ellsworth Moment

Mike the (ex) Mechanic's racing machine

Sunday and the last day of  'testing' my new Reign.
Today is the day when all of the small stuff that needed
changing on my bike were finally done. Bash Guard,
check! Change Switch-R to Thomson seatpost, check!
Change to original tires, check! Install straight handlebar,
check!

... and so while spinning like an uncle on an old Pigeon
bike along Bukit Timah, I heard someone behind me
say 'good morning!' and when I looked, it was Brother
John from Hup Leong and Ken-san the gracious host for
the MTB Brothers X'mas Party. I got hassled a bit by
brother John for being sooo quiet the past few weeks and
then suddenly showing up with a new bike ;-)

John told me that there's only the two of them since
the rest of the MTB Brothers peloton has been
bitten by the 'wake up early and cycle' bug. Apparently,
everyone went to Casuarina and will be entering the
trail from that side at 7AM!

Anyway, the three of us decided to go straight to
Rooty Trail. Along the way, we met another member
of MTB Bros, Christian. ... and so four of us went in
Rooty Trail ... BUT only three of us went out. It turned
out Christian's RD went into his wheelset. John and
Ken-san went back into Rooty Trail on a mission
of mercy. Me? I took the easy way out and went
to T15.

The thing that I learned from using this AM bike
is that I need to get stronger before I can go around
like I do on my XC bike (duhhh). I mean everything
is possible : short, steep climbs / long climbs / running
over roots, rocks, drops ... but you better be sure that
you have enough gas in your tank ... did that come out right?

Ok, it's like this, on an XC bike, there are some roots
in Rooty Trail that I can not clear. The roots just stops
my bike. You may say that I need to lift my wheels,
yes, that's true, BUT on an AM bike, I just run
over the same roots... it's just that it takes a lot
out of me in terms of energy.

Anyway, I wanted to go and do Reverse Flowy
Trail and maybe roll over the bumps at Gangsa
but it started raining heavily... and so I cut the trail
ride short and went to Esso.

Once, I got to Esso, the rest of the MTB Brothers
came! Hehehehe in the end, the 7AM ride did not
happen. After taking a few pictures, Ken-san and
John came with their rescued rider, Christian in tow.


Monday, December 19, 2011

#226 - Giant Reign 1 2012




The cat's out of the bag :-) After four years of begging
for an All-Mountain bike, Santa Claus (AKA my wife)
has finally relented and so I got a Giant Reign 1 2012
for Christmas !

I took my own sweet time before I started any sort
of  'review' for this bike. To date, I have brought this
bike to four offroad rides (mainly in Rooty Trail) and
one city ride where I descended on all the stairs that
I could find from Kallang PCN up to Boat Quay.
But still, I think I have barely scratched the surface
of what this bike can do (especially the DH part).

Ok, let's start.

Fork - the bike came with a 150mm RockShox
Revelation. This is the RLT version and it comes
complete with lockout and a negative air spring.
The front wheel is connected to the fork using
Frankentein's favourite - a big screw! Also, the
steerer is now  1 1/4" at the top and 1 1/2" at
the bottom.  This promises unheard of stiffness
in the steering department. However, God help
you if ever you need a different length stem or
if ever you need a new stem.

Rear Shock - Giant equipped the bike with
a Monarch RT. Up to this day, I'm still scratching
my head about this shock. This is the picture of
the blue lever on that picture is missing from the shock
that I have on my bike. In place of the blue lever, is
a gold dial which is something like a blow-off valve.
Now, on my Reba (and the Revelation fork on this bike),
you lock the fork and then you set up the blow-off
using that gold dial. So I am wondering how I'm
going to use this gold dial on the shock when I can't
lock the shock in the first place???

GroupSet - funny thing that I had my first taste
of a 3x10 speed groupset (SLX) on an AM bike
instead of a CrossCountry bike. My 3x9speed
SLX has never let me down since 2008 and
I expect the same from the 3x10speed version.

Brakes - The brakes that came with the bike
are Avid Elixir 5s. The brake disks are 180mm
in front and 160mm at the back. These brakes
seem to lack in the braking power department.
I am used to SLX brakes with sintered KoolStop
pads and these Elixir 5s are nowhere near the
power of that setup. The good thing though is,
I'm not sure how it happened, but I tend to brake
more using the front brakes with this bike. If I
have powerful brakes that may send me straight
to Endo City. So, all in all, I don't see any issues
with the brakes (yet).

Wheelset and tires - The rims for this bike are
DT Swiss E540 (which as the name implies are
540grams in weight). The front hub is Giant's own
15mm Tracker hub. The rear hub is a Shimano
Deore number. The tires that came with the bike
are Maxxis Minion DHF 2.35 (F) and Maxxis
High Roller 2.35 (R). However, knowing how
anorexic Maxxis tires can get, I decided to change
the tires to Kenda Nevegal 2.35 Stick-E compound
for both front and rear (hehehe bad move).

SeatPost and Saddle - Giant has been equipping
their bikes now with Fizik saddles. My Anthem came
with Fizik Tundra, I can't remember which saddle came
with Paolo and Bal's Trance (surely Fizik, but which model?),
and now my Reign came with Gobi. The seatpost is the
new Giant Switch telescoping seatpost with Remote.
What disturbs me is that the Reign 0 (the next highest
model for Reign) comes with a Joplin seatpost.
The Joplin seatpost, if you believe all the reviews
on the net, must be the worst ever telescoping seatpost
of all time... and it is not cheap! So when Giant
equips their Reign 0 with Joplin and Reign 1
with the Switch, what does that mean???
Having that in mind, for the first 2 rides, I brought
a spare Thomson Elite seatpost with me
jussstttt in case.

Stem and HandleBar - As I mentioned before, Giant
seem to be having this overwhelming urge to be different
and so the fork steerer is now 1 1/4". It follows that the
stem is also that size and the length is 70mm with 8 degree
rise. If this does not suit you, then you might be out of luck
as I think only Giant manufactures this size of stem.
The handlebar is the exact same handlebar that
came with my Anthem. This is another head scratcher
for me as I find it odd that Giant chose to equip their
XC bikes with the same handlebar as their AM bikes.
What does that mean? Does it mean that the bar is
sooo wide for XC that Giant expected us to cut
down the bar? But I didn't cut down my bar.
Is that wrong then?

Anyway, that's the rundown of the bike specs and
so we now go and ride!









Changes


1. The moment I sat on the bike, the first thing that I
felt was ... this bike's handlebar is soooo 'tall'. Coming
from an XC background, I can't stand this. I took all the
spacers from under the stem and placed them all on top.
The stem is now at it's lowest. BUT the handlebar still
felt 'high'. I complained about this to SR Deck and he
told me that since the stem has an 8degree rise, I should
go and flip the stem upside down.... I said ... uhhh that
might result on some weird and funky steering traits
so I better not do that.

2. I thought that when I press the remote for the seatpost,
my bum will just go down? No? It didn't do that. I 
thought I got a lemon. In the end, I realised I had to
give the seatpost a bit of a 'nudge' before it will go down.
Going up is nice and smooth though.

Now, off to the trails :

3. Tires - I thought I was going to pass out !  The decision
to change the original tires to 2.35 Stick-E Nevegals
was definitely wrong! They were sooo draggy! After
just one trail ride, I changed back to the original tires
and I am now even contemplating on putting on 2.1
Crossmarks at the rear when all the mud dries up in
Rooty Trail.

4. I used the Switch Seatpost for two rides, it was
very nice to ride with the saddle lowered all the way
when going downhill BUT I find that there is actually
no need to lower the saddle that much in our trails.
So after 2 trail rides, I took off the Switch seatpost
and changed it to a setback Thomson Elite seatpost.
The bike is not just lighter now, my backpack is
lighter as well since I don't have to carry a spare
seatpost.

5. The steering is very twitchy! Is it because I lowered
the stem too much? Anyway, lowering the stem seems
to have helped in the climbing department and so I will
not put back the spacers under the stem. ... and so I
went hunting for a 700mm handlebar ... not just a normal
700mm handlebar, it has to be low-rise (stock Giant bar
has a 19degree rise), in fact I know that there are wide
straight handlebars (e.g. Sunline) ... but it has to be cheap
too hehehehehe. Lo and behold, when I went last Saturday
to Hup Leong's X'mas Sale, I saw a ControlTech 700mm
flat bar that only costs 66$ before discount! I got that!
Lucky, since it was the last piece. See picture above
comparing the ControlTech straightbar with the original
Giant bar.

6. Did I mention that the bike does NOT come with
pedals? Yup, you need to fork out more money to
get pedals. Nice thing that I have a pair of new XT
Trail Pedals lying at home just waiting for this bike.

7. Lastly (whew!), there are lots of fallen trees
in our trails nowadays due to the never ending rain.
After two trail rides, I noticed that I have been using
my biggest chainring more as a fallen tree crampon.
I use the biggest chainring when I'm on the road going
to the trails but I never utilise the 11T on my cassette.
So I thought the biggest chainring had to go! Good thing
there are some cheap and good bashrings at Hup Leong's
sales bin. I got a black MRP bashring for 28$ and
I installed it myself at home.


That's all! I am very happy with the changes I made.
I went to go for a trail ride yesterday (Sunday) and
everything was almost perfect ... I said almost because
... my wheelset seems to be heavy? (evil laughter ensues.....)


 






Tuesday, December 13, 2011

#225 : of Marathons and Triathlons





It's a Sunday and as I write this I am waiting for the
rain to fall ... I should be in the trails ... but when I
woke up and looked through the window ... Sigh,
dark rain clouds are on the horizon. I have no problems
cycling in the jungle during a heavy downpour. I am
not afraid to get wet. What I'm afraid of is falling
branches or trees.

Anyway, the StanChart Marathon has just finished
and the office is filled with war stories coming from
several officemates who have taken up running as
a means to lead healthier lives. Most of the stories
are both hilarious and unbelievable. I have heard
of people completing the marathon in 8 hours!
Imagine that?! I normally sleep for 8 hours. 8 hours
is soooo long to be flogging yourself, your joints,
your knees. But hey, who am I to say that? Most
of my buddies raced the 12hour overnight
race at Tampines.

So, you must be wondering what's up with the eye
candy pictures above in this post? The lady above
is my friend Michelle and the pics were taken from
her FB account. After hearing all the war stories
from StanChart Marathon, I learned that my friend
went for the IronMan in Australia.

Of course, I have always heard about the IronMan.
It's a swim, bike, run race. However, all this time
I never realised that the distances that I often hear
are in miles! Now that I personally know someone
who joined IronMan, I went and googled it. The
actual distances are 3.8km swim, 180km cycle
and then a full marathon (42km)!!! Downright
crazy! Can you imagine that? If you are a participant
in the IronMan, even before you run your full
marathon, you need to swim 3.8km and cycle
180km first!

So, congratulations to my friend, Michelle,
for doing something that I still can't imagine
how to do hehehehe.

The thing now is that when I mentioned this
to my biking buddies and they all told
me that maybe we should give triathlon
a try this coming 2013.

Crazy!

Monday, December 12, 2011

#224 : Saturday Ride



Saturday and NoLights Louie was looking for a 'simple'
ride. I don't know her definition of 'simple' but I told her
I will be going to T15 and maybe do 2, 3, 4 laps?
Depending really on how I'm feeling on that day.
This seemed to satisfy her requirements and so
off we went to T15.

We met at Velocity and cycled to Rifle Range Road.
We then cycled to Zheng Hua Park and did just 2 laps
of T15 as she was supposed to pick up someone
at the airport. Some, of course, will say that that
was an easy ride. But the thing was since we started
cycling from Velocity we never stopped until
we were finally at Esso to clean our bikes.

I don't know, but rides like that ... I find it
good for the soul. There's another trail that's
good for the soul! Rooty Trail! I'll go there one
of these days...during the holidays, when I can
have the whole place to myself ... then I'll do 3
laps on my own pace... 
... but that's for another time.

Friday, December 9, 2011

#223 - Shimano XT Trail Pedals


XT Trail Pedals - image from BikeReview.com
 Early this year, Shimano has introduced their version
of the 10-speed drivetrain. But along with the new XT and
XTR drivetrains, Shimano has also seen fit to revamp the
ubiquitous XT and XTR pedals. Now the XT and XTR
pedals are available in two flavors. One is the normal
minimalist version and the other is the 'trail' version.

Naturally, along with the introduction of the new
10-speed drivetrains, all of the components had a sudden
jump in price... and here I was hoping that the prices
would remain the same and the 9-speed versions
would be cheaper. Sigh, how naive of me.

Anyway, it looks like the only XT part that I can
afford right now are the pedals (LOL). The internet
was abuzz with how these pedals are sooo good
and sooo stable. Even one of my ride buddies gave
this a glowing review. On the strength of those
reviews, I went ahead and purchased said pedals.



There are lots and lots of descriptions of these pedals
easily obtainable on the Internet. There are even some
reviews with weights. Hence, I won't be describing nor
weighing these pedals here.

What actually, got me buying these pedals is the 'cage'.
See yellow arrows in the picture above. I had this notion
that the reports of unparalled 'stability' was due to
the cage. I thought my shoes will be resting on the cage!
But noooo... your shoes will only be resting on the
unpainted area pointed to by the blue arrows.
This area is bigger than the same area on the
old XT pedals ... but not by much!


In the picture above, the blue arrow points to the
catch mechanism for the cleats. Note that I thought
my shoes will be in contact with the area pointed by
the yellow arrow....


Picture above shows my Shimano shoes connected to
the pedals. See how big the space is between the cage
and the shoes?! I think that even with my full weight
on the shoe there is still no way that any part of my
shoes will be in contact with the cage of the pedals.

I have used these pedals on two offroad rides
and ... yes, I can feel that these pedals are a 
little bit more 'stable' than the older pedals.
But I have to emphasize that any feeling of
stability over the older pedals is jussttt a little
bit. In fact, it may even be attributed to placebo!

So, do I recommend these pedals? No! If
your pedals have given up the ghost and you need
to get new ones, then go and get the version without
the cages. Up to now, I still don't know what the
cages do. 

Sunday, December 4, 2011

#222 : Sunday Ride


I finally reached BT while there's still fog




While having my BB replaced yesterday at Hup Leong,
Mechanic John told me to join a group ride that will
be heading from Casuarina to Bukit Timah. Hmmm...
since I, nowadays, am more interested in spinning
on tame fireroads, my response was none committal.

So I left the house at 7:20 this morning and by around
8am, I met the trio of KK, Boom and Mer going to BT.
I also met FreeRider Eric blow Gangsa DH going up to
that trail leading to Casuarina saying that he'll be
meeting the rest of the peloton as they come into the
trail. I waved bye-bye and started spinning happily
in T15 ... ahhhhhhh ... peace and quiet and easy
trails. Bliss. I did four laps of T15 and on my 4th
lap ... I saw the peloton coming out of the T15 PCN?!

So, what gives??? I told them FreeRider Eric went into
the trail hoping to meet them! It turned out there
was a newbie with them and said newbie was really
scared of going into the trail! So they went to Mandai
Ave and entered T15 via the PCN !?! ... and the newbie
looked very familiar... it turned out she's my office
mate! She said she has been bugging Brother Louie for
any offroad rides but he said there were no such rides.
Hehehehe sneaky eh.

Apparently, Rochelle (the newbie) has been cycling on
PCNs all by herself until CrestPursuit Owen gave her
a phone number that somehow led to the MTB Brothers.

We continued riding and met the trio of Boom, KK and Mer
again on their way home. The MTB Brothers said they're
going to have lunch at Bukit Panjang and I told them
I will be going my way once we reach the Bukit Panjang
exit. Mike the (ex) Mechanic was leading the way and
he led us to this very short DH section which I can
tell leads to Bukit Panjang exit BUT I don't recognise
that section at all. Due to that, I descended very slowly
and at the bottom there was this mudhole which will
swallow half your wheel ... I sensed disaster coming and
so I just stopped near the mudhole hehehehe.

Mike showed Rochelle the newbie how to descend and
after the presentation it was her turn to go down.
She descended very, very quickly (I noticed she is quite
good in the DH sections) but of course when she got to
the mudhole, she didn't lift her front wheel and so
she endo'ed! She wasn't hurt but she was covered with mud
from head to toe hehehehe. Welcome to Mountain Biking :-)

By the way, while chitchatting with the peloton, I learned
Boom took part in the Tour de Timor last September!
Envious! 6 days, 600 over kilometers! I think the current
issue of SPIN has a writeup on this most Epic of all rides.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

#221 - City Ride








Images above were taken during my City Ride today.
I was supposed to do my long ride in T15 (3 laps?)
today... but the BB on my On-One died on me.
I didn't want to bring my Anthem on muddy rides
as I don't want to foul the bearings with mud during
the after ride jet wash at Esso.

So, I went to Hup Leong and had my BB changed.
... and while my BB was being changed, I went and
ogled at stuff that I can never afford (e.g. 2011 XTR
Groupset, 2011 Fox forks with Kashima coating, etc.).
It was while I was trying to compute how many months
I have to save so I can get an XT groupset when my
eyes rested on the new XT Trail Pedals ...

These pedals have a 'cage' and they have gotten
good reviews in BikeRadar and MTBR.com.
Heck, even one of my riding buddies, Brother Louie
gave these pedals a double thumbs up ....
and so I got them :-)

Why no pictures of the pedals, you say?
I took some pictures but I'll post them together
with a short review in another post.

That's it for now ... and if I finish my
ride early tomorrow, I think I'll head on over
to Padang to see if any of my buddies were
brought to the StanChart Marathon Finish Line
in a bus hehehehe.

Monday, November 28, 2011

#220 - Weekend


The past few weeks it has been raining every afternoon
or early evening. Due to this our weeknight rides to
Changi Village and Mt. Faber were limited ... well
limited is putting it mildly. The weeknight rides stopped
totally! ... and of course, once you stop riding, your
endurance goes down the drain.

I have decided to put a stop to my endurance' downward
slide and so this Saturday I went to T15 thinking of doing
2 or 3 laps of just fireroads ... but a flat has put a stop to
my plans! Not just that, since I was on tubeless tires, I don't
bring inner tubes and a pump thinking that the latex in my
tires will seal the puncture. The thing is, it has been more
than a year since the bike shop mechanic put the latex in there.
Sigh... good thing I had enough money for an early
taxi ride home :-(


I knew the qualifying for both the Mettle Games Urban DH
and River Regatta DragonBoat Race was on Saturday but
having had a flat, I was not in the mood to go anywhere else.
My son and I picked up my wife from work ... and my
wife works literally just a few doors away from Bike Stop
in Upper Thomson Road. So I went in to the Bike Stop
shop and browsed their wares.

I haven't had a flat for more than 1 year but now I have
had 2 flats in 2 months .. not a good record. Also, I have
this phobia of flatting in the trails because I haven't seen
a mini pump that could actually do the job properly.
... and then ... I saw this ultra bling Lezyne Micro Floor
Pump in all its shiny aluminum glory in the cupboard
at Bike Stop. I asked how much was it and was quoted 60$.
I looked behind me to my wife and I saw a barely
perceptible nod meaning 'ok, you can buy that' ...
but not so fast! I went online and checked the
reviews for this particular pump. BikeRadar said
'The best middle-sized mini pump we've tested yet".
That was it! I purchased Bike Stop's last piece of
Lezyne Micro Floor Pump.   



This is the group ride that I had to miss so that I can
take pictures of the 1st Urban DH at Singapore Flyer
in conjunction with the 2011 installment of the
Mettle Games and the 2011 version of the River
Regatta DragonBoat Race at Boat Quay.

I woke up early and reached T15 at around 8:15am !
I have to make up for the lost trail time yesterday.
I knew there will be a big group ride this Sunday but I
can't join since I wanted to watch some Urban DH action
and say hi to my ex-teammates in dragonboat.
I just did one lap of T15 and then I reached Zheng Hua
Park at 9:30am. I was hoping to catch the peloton
and say a few hi's and hello's but it seems the peloton
was slow in reaching Zheng Hua ... and so I left
to go to Singapore Flyer and Boat Quay hehehe.

I took a picture of this building on the way to SG Flyer
... but I don't know what this building is.



Ahhh SG's first Urban DH. Lots of guys (and there were
girls too, I think) having the urge to throw themselves together
with their thousand dollar bikes off the 2nd floor of the
Singapore Flyer for no apparent reason but to see who can
do it with style. Hehehehe just sourgraping. First, I don't have
the money to buy those bikes. Second, in the very unlikely
event that I scrounged enough money to get myself a bike,
no way would I grow balls big enough to throw myself
out of the 2nd floor of Sg Flyer. So kudos to all these
very skilled boys and girls for making history.

Singapore River Regatta DragonBoat Race at
Boat Quay. This is the race that signals the 'end'
of the Dragonboat racing season. This is an exciting
race because there will surely be boats that will
veer off the lane, ram other boats, or just plain capsize.
I walked into the pitlane and found my ex-teammates
and I heard that everybody is bitching because it
seems any team lucky enough to be in Lane 4 will win!
Something to do with the way the water flows
or something. Anyway, after this race, the dragonboat
community stops worrying about their sixpacks
and generally do nothing until Chinese New year
is over. Last time, the first race of the year has
always been MR500 on March. But it seems next
year there is a new race on February which will
kick off the DB Season.

Fallen tree at T15 leading to the vegetable gardens
at Bukit Panjang.