Sunday Ride

Kona Abracadabra

Today's ride is almost the same as yesterday.

Only difference is that I told myself I won't be such

a masochist and skip the BT loop.

I did go to T15 though before I went to

reverse S-trail.

I also brought two cameras with me as today

I plan to take it easy and just go and film today's ride.

My filming session was just about over when the

vanguard of the PadyakPinoy peloton caught up with

me at the stairs going to the BT Visitor Centre.

Good thing that I saw them today as I managed to see

two things that prior to today I thought existed only

in magazines / urban myths.

First one is Sonny's new Kona Abracadabara.

I took a photo of the magic link but did not manage

to get a complimentary test ride as their mobile phones

suddenly started ringing.

It turned out Raffy took a spill and had dislocated his shoulder.

The other part of the peloton is in the clearing that you can see

when you are in Rifle Range Road. So the whole group decided

to go opposite the flow of the track to see if they

can help Raffy.

This is when I saw the Second 'thing'. Bobot went

downhill on the side of the stairs on his bike !!! Fantastic ! 

He did it sooo fast that he was long gone even before

my digital camera could boot up!

I was shouting at him to do it again so I could

shoot the video but he was loonggg gone.

Ok, since I didn't get that video, you guys would

just have to be satisfied with this video.

Saturday Ride

Me! who else?! Looking cool and unaffected by the climb and therefore
never said the word : 'pack'



Today's trail ride was a relaxed affair.

Any one who goes fast is automatically relegated to
sweeper duty. Hence, Roadie Rio was immediately
demoted to the back of the pack after our first regroup
at the quarry.

Once the odd fast guy was identified and dealt with

everything fell into place. Everybody was content in spinning.

Nobody dared stand up and mash their pedals for fear

of some verbal reprisal from the rest of us.

Anyway, it has started to become customary for us to

nominate a 'quote for the day'. Everyone has their favorite

but I think the winner for quote of the day is ... 'pack'...

Yes a very common word except that the guy who uttered

this was soooo tired he could not even pronounce the 'f'

sound. So you could just imagine what he was actually trying to

say hehehehe.



Also, this word has been uttered countless times today.

At the end of S-trail : pack! At the end of a root infested

climb : pack!

Edit : Pedal-less Paolo has pointed out that the
gut wrenching 'Nooooo!' did not come from him.
I had to edit the following paragraphs to reflect this
correction.

Second place for quote of the day stuck to my head
because it was addressed to me.

I was at the foot of a really root infested climb preparing

to pedal up. It came from wayyy behind me : 

"Don't go in there!!! Noooooooooo!!!"



I kid you not. I really did hear someone behind say 'Nooooooo!!!!'.

Since these are printed words I won't be able to express

the anguish and terror (yes! anguish and terror!) of what

he said. So just imagine one of your molars being extracted

by your dentist... without anesthesia. Yup, now you get the

idea.



Anyway, Pedal-less Paolo was today's cameraman

and so I'll be waiting for his post in his FB account to

see if his first foray into directing movies is any good :-)

Another edit : NoLights Louie's camera strikes
again! Hehehehe it was pointing downwards too much
and hence no video for this ride.

A few photos of who attended today's ride :

-- see 1st photo --

Sherwin was actually beside me but I think he didn't

know that NoLights Louie had included him in the frame

and so he was frowning in both photos. 

@the end of S-trail : 'pack'

Rest of the guys

 ... and as always, the person who actually took the picture

does not appear in any of the photos...

So I don't have any photos of NoLights Louie.

Nevermind! I do have this photo of some mushrooms :-)

Edit : added photo below

It's complete now! NoLights Louie is there and so is Sherwin



Chesty

I prepared an ambush for my wife at Suntec

Harvey Norman ... and I got this ! mwahahahaha

No more hitting low branches on the trails :-)

with this thing, I can attach my GoPro to my 'octopus' tripod



behind Funan IT Mall



on the overhead bridge from Marina Square to Suntec



Roti John Steak

A lot different from the usual Roti John, right?

I was on bus 857 on my way home deciding what to eat before

I went for the usual Mt. Faber ride. I've always had either a big char

siew pao or two bananas and then off I go.

But when bus 857 stopped at the Tekka Market busstop,

I remembered this Malay stall that was reviewed at the

'Makan' thread in SMBF. So, just before the rear bus door

closed, I quickly tapped my EZLink card and dashed

out of the bus.

I ordered the Roti John Steak. It took a while before my

order came. It seems this stall has lots of customers. Anyway,

when the food came, it looked so different from the usual

roti john, that I forgot that the food was just cooked and that

it was still hot. I immediately took a big mouthful of the beef

and the bread. Result = my palate got burned!

But it was really good :-)))

The only fly in the ointment is that it was too spicy.

While on my ride I can feel my stomach is very 'acidic'.

I went to the 7-11 at the foot of Mt. Faber and bought

a small carton of milk to counter the effects of the chili.

Next time I order this, I'll tell them not to put

any chili at all.

This is where I got the Roti John Steak.

Sunday Ride

Cloudy morning but no rain :-)

 Good news : Sunday morning and there's no rain.

Bad news : It rained in the afternoon yesterday.

Ahhhhh peace and quiet

 I went back to yesterday's route as I think I will

reach a state of Zen! Yup, climbing and concetrating on the

roots ahead, you will definitely forget whatever deadlines

you have in the office.

Anyway, that was not to be! I did climb that trail I was referring

to. However, I did not climb it with a Zen like trance and

feeling of well-being! I more of climbed it in panic! LOL!

... mushrooms

It went like this. I was on the wooden 'bridge' at the foot of the climb,

taking pictures of some mushrooms ... then I heard some rustling of leaves...

I thought I saw someone crouching, darting from one tree to another...

must be my imagination, right? There it was again! I ignored it....

 then I heard it 'ngork ngork ...' I turned around. No one.

'Ngork ngork ' .... then it was no longer 'ngork ngork',

I heard something like a squeal (?) and then

lots of footsteps were running towards me!

Wild boars!!! <== take note : plural

I hopped on my bike, flew onto the bridge, went to the climb

and just kept on spinning until I reached 3/4 of the

way up! If I was wearing my HRM, it would have

been beeping madly by then.

I fell down when I slipped on a root. I turned around...

no more pigs :-) I went down to the foot of the climb again

(but did not go to the bridge)... and started filming.

This tree @T15 has been there for sooo long there is already a path around it.

Bobot. He podiums DH races using XC bikes.
One of these days, I'll ask this guy to do a 'clinic' on MTB for
people like me who has (lots) of problems going downhill.

A few minutes after I got to the top, Bobot from PadyakPinoy caught

up with me. He told me the whole gang went to Pulau Ubin so he's alone.

.. and no, he didn't see the wild boars. He came from the 1st stream.

Also, he said, ContiComponents has opened a showroom at ... I forgot.

I'll ask him again next time.

Here's the video I took today. Didn't get any footage of the wild boars.



661 Filter

No water/mud got into these shoes even though I walked on mud today.
The cleat area is a mud magnet ... and the mud stays there rendering your
cleats almost useless.

I laced up my new 661 Filters this morning not realising that today

is one of those days that I should have worn proper XC shoes.

Let's have the 661 Filter review out of the way so we

could go on to today's ride.

If you want non-football boot looking shoes for biking

and still have the benefits of having cleats, you only have

3 choices (as far as I know). You either get Shimano MP66,

661 Filters or Mavic (I forgot the model).

Have you seen RoboCop wearing shorts? Not a nice picture. That's

what I see in my mind whenever MP66s are mentioned. That is why

I chose 661 Filters instead.

661 Filters don't just look cool. They also have a strap at the top

of the shoe lace area of the shoe to combat the dreaded heel lift

which seem to plague budget Shimano shoes (e.g. MT34). The area

where you screw on the cleats is also very stiff. Very good for

XC bikers disguised as AM bikers.

See the right side of the cleats? This is the bottom part of the elongated holes
where you fasten your cleats. You can't use the lowest part of the hole
unless you trim the soles of the shoe.

Those are the pros. Let's get down to the cons.

1. MP66 has a higher inner cuff. These shoes don't.

2. Never ever use these shoes when you know you will

push your bike at some muddy parts of the trail. It's

like having bars of soap on the sole of your feet and

then trying to walk on a wet toilet floor.

3. You can not use the lowest point of connection for your cleats.

If you do, the cleats won't engage the pedals. If you really must

use the lowest point, then you need to trim the sole of the shoes.

4. The cleat area is easily clogged with mud rendering the cleats useless.

So, are the shoes good or bad? I think #1 is nitpicking.

#3 is a very real issue for some people who likes their cleats

a certain way. #2 and #4 can be rejected as these shoes were

never meant to be used for walking on mud (there are better

shoes for that purpose).

Would I buy these again? No... I think I'll try Mavic shoes in

 the future instead.

Saturday Ride

Wheeler frame, RST Gila fork, 8 speed

Sometimes all you really need to go mountain biking are a decent bike,

stamina and balls! A 16 year old boy joined us today for our group ride.

It was his first time in Bukit Timah and first time mountain biking.

But he passed the Bukit Timah test with flying colors. After the ride,

everybody was telling him to train for the upcoming races... he might as

well since he is training on road anyway.

Today's group ride saw just five riders going for the Bukit

Timah trail. The ride was quite fast as we went in to BT @9AM

 and we finished 'S' trail at T15 by 10AM.

Since it was still early, we went to this very muddy trail

which terminates at the foot of Gangsa DH track. That brought

us to near 12noon and since we have a school boy with us

who is supposed to go for tuition @2pm, we

went for lunch @bukit panjang.

NoLights Louie has 120mm Epicon and now Gavin also has

the 120mm but with remote lock version of said fork.

Since Gavin had a F1RST before, I asked him what he thinks

about the two. Of course, the Epicons are much nicer in

suspension action overall.

I haven't tried his bike yet but judging from what I saw

today, it looks like this fork should be all that you need for BT.

I'll borrow Gavin's bike next week and check it out....

I just hope it still is the same bike as from last week

to this week saw him change the fork and the wheelset!

Yesterday I went to Takashimaya and saw that they are having

 their Post-CNY Sale! I grabbed this hydration pack for just 49$ !

It's small, it's light and it's cheap. The straps are all just mesh and

it holds a 2Liter water bag. There are no other pockets but your

wallet and tools would fit in the compartment for the water bag.

Ok all good points there... now comes the annoying part. If you get

a camelbak, even if you somehow spoil the part where you drink from.

There is a lock that you can twist such that the water won't drip.

That lock is not in the design of this hydration pack....

So you could imagine, after I drink, if I leave the spout

hanging and pointing downwards : drip drip drip drip. Annoying!

It looks like the designers made the hose long and they also

gave a small hose clip so that you could attach the hose to

 that clip when you are not drinking. The hose forms a 'U' in front

of your chest if done properly.

If you don't do this... drip drip drip ...

It was also my first time to use my Diadora on the trails.

Grip when pushing your bike uphill in mud is good!

Hehehe not like my Shimano M086.

Also for those wondering, I have had Shimano, Specialized,

Diadora shoes and I just bought 661 shoes. The sizing seems

to be the same across these brands. My size 41 Shimano,

corresponds to the same size for Specialized, Diadora and 661.

Anyway, I'll be wearing the 661s tomorrow since I'll be riding alone.

No need to be fast and furious :-)

 

Sunday Ride

Fallen tree @trail leading to Zheng Hwa

I was on my second banana when I decided to check my 

phone for messages before I put in in its sealed bag

...and there it was. The two words that are meant to

dowse any excited adrenalin junkie with cold water.

It says : "pass ako" (as in rain check : i'll ride with you next time).

Hehehe dehydration and muscle pain also got NoLights Louie.

So I went on my Sunday Ride, as usual, alone.

My ParkTool Chain Stretch measuring tool-thing has decided

that my XT chain has stretched by approximately 1.0 something

(there's no unit, just a 0.75 and 1.0). I saw the XTR

Yumeya chain on sale @CRC for around 50$ and so, after much

explaining, my wife allowed me to purchase a few items.



I noticed lately, that I never get to the 32 teeth cog on my cassette.

By the time I get to the 32 teeth, I already resemble a clown

on a unicycle while balancing on a high wire. I think the last cog that

I find usable is the 28 teeth. Hence, I got myself a Saint 11-28

cassette.

Also, Brother Louie changed his whole groupset to XT Dynasis

and NoLights Louie and I became the recipient of an offer

that can not be resisted. I managed to get his XT RD and FD :-)

NoLights Louie got the XT Cranks, Cogs and KMC chain.

Yesterday, I went to Mike the Mechanic's place to put

my new cassette, chain, RD and FD in their correct places

and functioning properly and smoothly on my On-One Inbred.

I also got a thorough checkup which revealed one of the spacers

 on my headset to be inverted causing some wiggle

on my headset! :-O

Hehehe nothing beats having a (ex) bike mechanic as a friend!

Thanks Mike !! :-)

11-28 Cassette, Yumeya chain, XT RD and XT FD

New shoes :-)

 Today, I used my On-One Inbred with new 11-28 Cassette,

Yumeya chain, XT RD and XT FD... and all this topped

with my other purchase from CRC : 2010 Diadora X-Trail Evo MTB Shoes.

These are black and gold in colour. Not really my favourite combination

but beggars can't be choosers and for what it's worth, they

don't look hideous in person.

Toebox is quite generous and the rubber used for the 'spikes'

are quite soft. The 'tread pattern' seems to get rid of mud easily.

Also they are quite stiff which is very good as today is 'spin' day.

Lastly, my friends would testify that whenever I see some one with a

hardtail on the trails, I would say : "You know, that's my dream. To be

able to ride a HT (properly, with out a single foot dab)

in these trails of ours.".

I mean what's not to like? It's simple, it's light, plus

the looks on the faces of people you pass by when you nail a technical

downhill is priceless. Especially if said people could not do

what you did with their 140mm-160mm trail bikes!

I was washing my bike after the trail ride today when a girl

on a bike rolled in and washed her bike too. I didn't catch

a glimpse of her bike but after a while she came out a placed her

hydration bag and fox flux near where I hang my stuff.

She cleaned her bike inside ESSO and later on she came

out with it. At that point I asked permission from her if I

could take a pic of her bike. I was admiring the bike @Zheng Hua

earlier thinking I would get something like that if I hit Toto/4D.

Her bike is a titanium Titus Riddler (I think it's a Riddler).

She has Hope brakes (!!) and Agilis cranks !!! She even has those

Q Rotor chainrings!!! These chainrings are the ones shaped like an egg

(i.e they are not perfectly round). She has a new 2011 fox fork,

CK headset, etc. The stuff (my) dreams are made off!

I (as much as I possible) politely asked how much did that

dream set up cost... she replied, I gasped

and I won't repeat the sum here.

Also, she was made this observation about not

raining for quite some time and then suddenly raining in

time for the weekends making our trails muddy.

I told her, talking about mud, that we saw some wildboar tracks

in the mud yesterday. She told me those wildboars are quite harmless.

She sees those wildboars on her night rides!!!

We cycled together and parted ways at 6th Avenue.

Joni's Ti bike





Saturday Ride

This is where Ronald got lost

Quote of the day : Ang tagal nung dalawa? Downhill lang yun ah?

For those who don't speak the language, it's

loosely translated as : Those two are taking too long?

That was just a downhill section?

A lot lost in the translation :-)

Anyway, today's ride started with breakfast at Sembawang Hill.

We had a new rider with us, Gavin. He did not have any problems

with the technical stuff. What 'killed' him was dehydration and
having had no biking whatsoever for the past 8 months.

Today's ride was action packed. It all started with a scolding from
Uncle Paolo. Recipient of the scolding was NoLights Louie who can't get
her GoPro Hero to work. Her camera got confiscated as a result.

Next milestone was at the climb from the first stream going
back to the 'mango' trees. Rey had a reverse endo. Paolo also
had a reverse endo. Additional points were given to Paolo
because he was still clipped-in when he did the reverse endo.


It was Gavin who finally completed the climb with additional
points awarded for holding the wheelie and not
doing the reverse endo.

Next up, Ronald got lost on the way to the 'mango' trees
and in so doing we found a new entrance to our loop.

Rey and I found some fresh wildboar tracks while we

were looking for Ronald.

Once we did the u-turn, we went in via the route that Ronald

'found'. Paolo and I did our 'good cop/bad cop' routine on Ronald

as we thought he doesn't want to share the right route with us.

It turned out that he is genuinely lost again hehehe. Good thing

I already got lost there with StairRider Deck and the surroundings

looked familiar to me.  We finally found the right entrance and

cruised to the first stream.

Paolo had 'scrambled eggs' at the downhill section leading

to the first stream. No biggie. Nothing damaged except

his confidence level. He actually kind of liked it because

now he has no problems singing 'Tragedy' by the BeeGees

in tune (with falsetto!!) hehehe.

Lunch was again at Sembawang Hill. We had our bikes washed
at a 'nearby' Esso gas station and there we got 'caught' by Mike
the Mechanic. He informed us that tomorrow
(Sunday), the PadyakPinoy group will be doing
the same route that we did.

Ronald's new stuff bought @CineLeisure

Mt. Faber

It's Thursday and I'm alone again @Mt. Faber.

Nevermind, I went to this place of ill repute and

I got to ogle these two beauties by myself.

I took my own sweet time admiring them, talking to

them and taking their pictures.

They didn't mind! They also said I can come anytime

but that I have to make up my mind and decide which

of them I really want as they have lots of admirers.

Yup, they are titanium bikes. What do you think was I talking

about? :-P

Sunday Ride

Train tracks ...

 ... I don't know why I took that picture of the train tracks that goes above

Bukit Timah Road.... maybe it's the first interesting thing that I saw when

I was lugging my bike on top of the overhead bridge. Yup! I didn't do

a u-turn from BT Road to Dunearn to get to Rifle Range.

I was thinking carrying my bike over the overhead bridge is

good training instead of going to the gym LOL.

As usual, Sundays are for solo, relaxed rides. Today

I went to the second stream and did a u-turn back.

On the way back to Bukit Timah, I saw the whole PadyakPinoy

gang going to the end of the trail. FreeRider Erik apparently discovered

a new trail there. They asked me to tag along but my visa is up to

noon time only so I had to beg off. Anyway, Mike the Mechanic

was there and maybe next time he rides with us, he can

show us that trail :-)

Also, I saw Boom again on the trail. I saw him yesterday

at Ketam as well. Must be training for the upcoming races hmmm...

As usual again, since this is the first time I'm doing this trail

alone, I had a bit of brain fade which I paid for by leaving some

skin on that trail. Good thing it wasn't much.



Here's a short clip of what went on today.

Group Ride

A nice picture that was NOT taken at Chek Jawa's quarry

If you went with us for today's group ride at Pulau Ubin,

you would hear lots of scolding going on inside the forest.

First, all uncles scolded NoLights Louie for not bringing her helmet.

Unbelievable! She came down, cycled from Bedok, met with the rest

of the uncles (errr ... i mean riders) and only when the others pointed

out that her MBUK 'BUFF' is not strong enough to take the place of

her helmet did she realise that there was nothing perched on top her

head.

Good thing Uncle Ronald has a spare Fox Flux. Anyway, NoLights Louie

got more scolding when she said she couldn't feel the difference

between having a helmet and no helmet. Sure is good advertisement

for Limar though.

Next one who got scolded was Paolo who lost the rear screw of

his new Thomson seatpost (he only got it last week). Uncle Deck

scolded him because it was unbelievable that a screw that long

managed to slowly unscrew itself and yet Paolo did not feel anything

until the screw finally came loose.

Paolo's seatpost was repaired with 4 zip ties. He had to cycle

more conservatively today as Uncle Deck told him that if the

four zipties come loose, he will get more scolding... and no more

zipties.

Thanks for Boom, Mer and Don for helping us fix the seatpost

and giving us more zipties.

Brother Louie on the way to the deliver the news that NoLights Louie's chain
has given up its ghost and that she was last seen using her bike as a push scooter.

Next in line for a scolding was Brother Louie who complained to Uncle

Ronald that his tires are not gripping. Uncle Ronald could not believe it

as Brother Louie's tires should easily find traction in today's dry Ketam

track.

Upon inspection, Uncle Ronald found that Louie's tires were pumped up

as if it belonged to Roadie Rio's Colnago roadbike. Fresh scolding was heard

in the forest due to this. A sermon on correct tire pressure followed

soon thereafter.

Paolo after getting some scolding from Uncle Deck

 Last scolding of the day went again to NoLights Louie. We were

pedalling up to this observation point that was finally open and she

managed to twist her chain while shifting down and pedalling at the

same time.

If you were a 'normal' girl riding with five macho guys, what would you

have done? Yesss, you call one of said macho guys tell him your problem

and all five macho guys should come to your aid.

But no, she did not do that. She U-turned, went back to the road and

used her bike as a push scooter to go to the Pulau Ubin jetty to wait for us.

Brother Louie informed us of what she did and everybody went down

from the observation deck and cycled to the jetty. Once there, she got

scolded for not calling us as soon as possible. All macho uncles also

told her that she hurt our feelings because it was clear that: 1. she thought

we did not have tools and 2. she thought we don't know how to fix

chains.

Anyway, all's well that end's well and it was later found out that

today was Paolo's birthday. I don't drink and Uncle Deck used

that as an excuse for a raincheck as Paolo was getting

ready to treat everyone to a drinking binge!

No videos for today :-P  as you will not hear anything but scoldings LOL.

Today's casualties : Paolo's Thomson seatpost, NoLight Louie's gouged calf and
twisted chain