Sunday Ride

 I was happily spinning to ZH and was just going to continue

my ride to T15 when I noticed some guys from PadyakPinoy/MTB Brothers

ogling at a new bike.... then John the Mechanic (from Hup Leong) saw

me and shouted 'Hey, take pics of this bike it's the first 2011 Epiphany in SG!'

Oohhhh ok! So here are some shots of this 2011 Ellsworth Epiphany

which belongs to Bong. He is now the number 1 contender for

Top Kidnap Victim as he currently has a Ti On-One 456, Kona, Abracadabra,

this Epihany and various other bikes which I haven't even seen.

Ellsworth headbadge on the left. Apparently, this red version is 'special'.
The downtube badge on the right, proclaiming that Ellsworth frames are
still made in the USA! 



ICT suspension

Even the seatpost clamp is very nice. I believe this one will eventually give way
to a red version very soon.

Even the point where the shock is attached has a big 'E' on it.

Lito's Manitou R7 fork. This has 30mm stanchions.

Lito's weightweenie Scott Carbon HT is also sporting some

new Manitou R7s. Why he chose this Manitou over his SID?

He told me that his SID only had 80mm travel and 28mm stanchions!

Unbelievable! I couldn't touch this guy in the DH sections and he just

told me that his former fork was a noodle!

Anyway, this Manitou, he says, now has 30mm stanchions and 100mm

travel. Hah! I wonder how fast he'll go now that his steering is more

accurate?!

Turner Sultan 29er and Ellsworth 2011 Epiphany!
drool :-(



Saturday Ride

SugarRush Rey's Trek and my BeOne

There was no quorum last Friday if there will be a group ride

this Saturday. So, it was only me, Sugar Rush Rey and later on,

Roadie Rio who went for a ride.

National Parks people seem to be getting more serious in confining

MTBs on the proper MTB trails. Some NP guys stopped us

while cycling on the right side of Belukar track and told us (nicely)

to please use the MTB trails. Of course, the MTB trails had

hikers at that time. So, we just pointed them at the NP guys

and they understood where we're coming from.

Anyway, we told them if there are no hikers, rest assured that

we will be using the MTB trails.

Joni with her new Pivot

Remember the girl with the Titanium Titus HT?
This is her new Pivot :-)

Mall Friday

Weekend!!!! :-) It's finally Friday! Tomorrow is Trail Ride

Day! But today I accompanied my wife to Suntec and Marina

Square. She's been into swimming since last September

and she's now looking for more sporty clothes :-)

Little did she know that I laid a trap for her

again! Mwahahaha!

Rollbar mount for GoPro Hero

Also while mallwalking at Marina Square, I saw

BoulderActive at the main square. The organizers built

a rockwall inside the mall. I think this is the coolest

BoulderActive yet.



Edit : you may view the video here as well

Sunday Ride

Shimano M505 pedals - Stay. Away. From. These. Pedals!

I fell down sooo many times still clipped to my bike today

that I already know how to fall down with out getting hurt!

Can you imagine that? That's a lot! ... and I never fell

even a single time when I was learning how to ride clipless!

Go get an M520, M540, XT! You could even get Eggbeaters!

These M505s are the worst pedals that I have ever tried!

Yes, I know that it was the mud that made the M505s a death

trap but Mountainbike clipless pedals are supposed to

shrug off mud! My M520, XT and Eggbeater pedals

all are unaffected by mud! 

Ok, that is off my chest now. Apart from the not-being

able-to-clip-out part, today's ride is quite good.

I filmed myself riding (what's new? hehehe) and

when I got to Zheng Hwa, I saw Bobot, FreeRider Eric and

Sam the Mailman resting there.

They told me that the rest of the gang was in ECP

watching the Aviva IronMan Triathlon. Bobot asked me

to guide them to HellClimb. Well, you can't say no to three

of the fastest guys around, right? :-)

On the way to T15, we met two Ang Mohs who normally

ride with the PadyakPinoy group : Scott and Remy.

They've been riding since 7:30AM. They informed us that

the 'entrance' to the trail that leads to Thomson has been

newly fenced :-(

Anyway, those three guys that I guided tried HellClimb.

All agreed that that climb would be a good practice for when

we all attend any of Malaysia's numerous jamborees in the

future. But they warned me that although the gradient might

be the same, the length of the climbs are much longer!

Once we're back in T15, everybody shared some banana's and

powerbars. There was talk of  'recruiting' more people to race.

Of course, they will be willing to train and train with these

new aspiring racers (ahem ahem I dropped cough Paolo's name cough).

They also told me that it was a verryyy long time since they did

a long ride here in Singapore and because of that, they

will be attending our next long ride (as long as we do it on a Sunday).

Everybody prepare!!!

Here's today's video ... I combined my GoPro and my DV1.

GoPro is 5Mb while DV1 is HD .... watching the results...

I think I need a GoPro HD!  $$$$ :-(

Edit : you may view the video here as well

Saturday Ride

@that pool again. very peaceful :-)

StairRider Deck, SugarRush Rey and me revisited the scene of last week's
carnage : HellClimb!

The venue for today's group ride was decided at the last minute.

It was to be at Pulau Ubin. However SR Deck has to go home early

and so do I. Due to this we decided to go for a 'quickie' ride at BT.

You might ask why the word quickie is enclosed in quotes? Hah!

It turned the only loop that we did not include in our quickie ride was

the summit and the first stream. Aside from those two destinations,

all the places we went to for our long ride last week was revisited today.

Also, we finally mapped out the HellClimb loop and we did not

get lost in the process. So next time we go there, I already

know how to get out of hell!

By the way, SugarRush Rey has been

cycling solo on weekdays lately and there was a time he

went to our favourite entrance at Upper Thomson. He was

approached by three rangers and they have confirmed that

there is NO 250$ FINE for using that trail!

Yes, that's right! This is first hand info. There is no 250$ fine.

The rangers said that the fine is actually 350$ !!!!

Update : while we were cycling in BT, Sherwin, Paolo
and NoLights Louie were cycling @Pulau Ubin.
Click here for the video from NL Louie.

Saturday Ride

Discussion on how to keep Paolo's cleats in place.

Monjie's Hobbies and AirTime Mark keep their cool even when lost.
Brother Louie doesn't know we're lost. Archie knows.

Lunch ! Finally!

NoLights Louie is the official photographer for this event.
Archie behind after getting lost in wildboar country.

Guess whose lunch this is. Clue : all the boys ate normally LOL.

GE DV1 purchased last Friday at IT Show in Suntec

Today (Saturday, Mar 12, 2011) everyone is in their good behaviour.

Friday prior to this long ride, a lot of people were asking me about

any exit points. However, nobody! nobody! even suggested to using

said exit points. So our quote for the day : 'Sige, subukan nyo!!!'

Translation : 'Go ahead and try!!!'

Quote was from Uncle Deck who dropped his usual monicker

of StairRider as there were no stairs to be biked up on this route.

As usual, Monjie's Hobbies has been branded a sadist by the

participants. By the way, we're welcoming back Archie with

his brand new all singing, all dancing Santa Cruz Blur LT which

seem to weigh a lot less than my XC bike. Also back with

us is BlinkingLights Randy who showed us his mastery of

pedalling air technique.

The day started with a bit of hazing as Ronald convinced BL Randy

that we are such masochists that we do not eat breakfast before our rides.

Believing this, BL Randy ran to BK and got himself his breakfast

which he consumed along Bukit Timah Rd on the way to 6th

Avenue where we took the breakfast that Ronald promised him

will not materialise LOL.

After breakfast, we went to the Visitor Centre via Rifle Range Rd.

BL Randy flatted even before we get to VC! ... and the two

Louies got lost(??) I'm still wondering how they did it as NoLights

Louie goes to BT every weekend!

Once all those were sorted, Sherwin bade us goodbye before

we even went up the rock garden entrance! He got paged for work.

So we went in without Sherwin.

... But even before I can get to the quarry, my phone rang and

it was Sherwin saying the problem got solved and he's asking

for directions to get to Zheng Hwa from RRR.

All these, and the ride wasn't even 30minutes old! Anyway, everything

was sorted at ZH Park. Everybody then went to the Mandai end

of T15. Monjie's Hobbies led the way to HellClimb and when

the group saw the climb... they all agreed it will be hell....

I knew this would be their reaction and so to prevent them

from waiting at the foot of the climb, I told them that we will

not do a u-turn... It was this decision that got us lost.

Thank God for GPS on handphones! We decided to create

our own trail. This was exhausting work and after that everybody

wanted to go for lunch. But I think the group is no longer 'imagining'

the route due to hunger. Sc trail is higher than Bukit Panjang (lunch stop).

If we go for lunch, we will go down, eat and then come back up

to Sc trail? Not nice! So I took out my whip and told them

that any mutiny will be dealt with harshly.

After lunch, we went to the highest point in our route and then 

went to the first stream. It was decided here that this talk of

200$ fines is too scary and so we went to do the Reverse Rooty

Trail.

We went in BT @around 9:30AM and got into Esso to clean our

bikes by 5PM+. People suffered from recurring old injuries and new ones.

Last but not least, only SR Deck and I live @Novena. All the rest

have to cycle to Bedok, Tampines or Pasir Ris!

Wanna do it again ?

Ooopsss, by the way, NL Louie had his GoPro on.

But I am not sure how those videos would turn out.

Here's a short video I took with my DV1 just for testing.

I'll be using this DV1 from now on together with my GoPro

as it is supposed to be waterproof and shockproof :-)

Update : Link to NoLights Louie's video of the group ride.

Sunday Ride

Group rides are fun... but Sunday solo rides?

Look at these pics. You won't see these if you're in a group ride.

I for one would be giving my all so that I won't be

the one lagging behind :-O

By the way readers, if you're looking for this pool in the

normal trail routes, forget it. You won't find it :-)

But since I'm a nice guy, I may point it to you when

you join the Saturday group rides.

Book Day

I haven't read these books yet. I just thought I'll list them here

so I can go back to this post and see which would be next in

my 'to read' list.

The 'summary' below each book cover was gleaned from

browsing through them during my lunch hour :-)

The author seeks to 'annoy' the French by generally splitting hairs.

He starts by writing that it is true that Normandy is in France

and that the Normans kicked the collective butts of the English in

one Battle of Hastings in 1066. However, he points out that 

the Normans at that time were not really French!

They were descendants of the North Men (Vikings?) hence

the contraction Norman. 

This book should be an interesting read.

Out of the 100 mistakes, I only managed to browse one!

I'm not sure if a lot of people knows about this particular mistake.

The Aztecs mistook the Spanish Conquistadors for their

god who promised to return to their lands.

We all know how costly that mistake was.

Do I really need to write a 'summary' here?

The title says it all. You can't go wrong with zombies.

This was a surprise! I didn't know that the John Wayne

classic (this is the only film that bagged him an Oscar)

was from a book?!

Anyway, I just listed it here. I'm not sure if I would like

reading this. I mean how do you put in words John Wayne

swaggering and drawing his gun and showing the villains

the wrath of the righteous?

This book get's a 'whoa' from me.

I listed it here because the plot looks promising.

The blurb at the back says something like when you die,

you go to the afterlife and there your whole life is explained

to you by five people who somehow made a big effect on 

your life whether you knew about it or not.



Back in 1928, Henry Ford of Model-T fame had a bright idea.

Rubber is needed not just for tires but a lot of other things.

So why not grow your own rubber trees and manufacture your

own rubber? This will make him an even more affluent man

and there is also the fact that he will no longer be relying on

rubber from other sources.

So he got a very big space in Brazil. He put up everything

that his workers would need. It seems he created a whole village

out of the forest... However, from the photos in the book,

this project was doomed to failure ...



Thursday Spin

Start !

DiCaprio had to go through soooo much trouble just

to do this Inception thing in that radical movie of his.

StairRider Deck did it in a much simpler way.

This morning I got an sms from him 

SD : Yo! You working?

Me : Yup. Y?

SD : I'm going BT!

Me : Huuhhhh ?

That was it. He didn't have to have a Japanese employer

buy an airline and wait for me to go to Australia to

do the Inception. Very simple indeed. 

From the time I sent my last sms up to lunch time

the gears in my head were spinning. Creating new hormones

and enzymes so that I could fake the symptoms of high blood

pressure. ... and then finally! I made myself vomit!

That's it! I'm sick! I'm going ... going ... gone to T15 !!!

new entrance/exit ?

There seems to be some construction going on near the Mandai

end of T15. Looks like the park connector is being lengthened...

another new entrance / exit ?



Me  ! :-)

Last piece ! 1950$ carbon bike

Lastly, I dropped by Tay Junction to ogle at stuff I can't afford.

Before you even go into their store, at the left side of the door,

there is this Kuota carbon roadbike. The sign says "last piece"

and you can have it if you have 1950$.

The size seems to fit me but I don't have 1950$ so I just

took a photo and posted it here to entice some closet roadies.

This Kuota roadbike should be a good enough reason to

come out of the closet now :-)

Sunday Ride

John's Turner Sultan 29er

Sunday and this time it was me who 'caught' the PadyakPinoy

group while they were having their break @Zheng Hwa.

Good thing that I caught them because if not then I won't have any

thing to post for today LOL.

The first time I saw a 29er was when SK of Toykar bought

his Pivot Mach 429. My memory is a bit hazy but I think before

he got his Mach 429, he was riding a Jamis Dragon 29er as well.

That was a year ago.

Fast forward to today and now 29ers seem to be gaining

foothold in Singapore.

John (Hup Leong's mechanic) assembled a Titanium Dean's

Hardtail. But I have never seen that bike hit the trail and there

he was this morning riding a Turner Sultan 29er!

He told me that he has already brought his bike to this

rooty trail (we all shall call it Bf trail) and apparently,

it had made short work of all the evil roots in there....

note to self : maybe I need this bike? 

Equipped with Tubeless Stan's Raven 29

    John was using a pair of Tubeless Stan's Raven tires today.

These tires have very minimal knobs. They look fast standing still !

However, I don't think I will survive one loop in BT if I use these tires.

These tires (I think) is best used by more skilled riders.

New XTR XC brakes

    The bike porn doesn't let up! He was also using these new

30 Speed XTRs!

Lastly, I asked ReyToots to go and have a short testride

@Zheng Hwa while I go and record a short video.

My phone camera acted up again and all I got was lots of audio

which did not correspond to the hanging few seconds of video

that is showing on my phone screen.

I wanted to hit my phone with a sledgehammer but that

will have to wait for July so I can get another 0$ phone.

In the meantime, here's what I can salvage from this

morning's session.

DW Link

10 cogs on the cassette, notice carbon cage on new XTR RD and
the very shiny XTR XC hydraulic calipers

Benjie's Ti Eggbeaters. Not related to the 29er but I want this and
I think this is the closest I could get to it :-(

Lastly, as I was looking at the individual bikes of the other

PadyakPinoy guys, I saw these new Ti pedals on Benjie's

weightweenie bike. These pedals cost as much as my fork :-(



Saturday Ride



My bike's linkage. If there is no extra link, it should be a single pivot ... complex.



I think I am going now to go buy 4D and Toto.

Friday has come and gone without any one of the

usual suspects sending out 'feelers' for a group ride.

A bunch of people don't want to cycle because

they are preparing for a bike ride that is supposedly

not a race but has you running with a timing chip.

Anyway, well and good as I really need to go solo

today as I had to surprise my son who was having

his 3rd Bukit Timah hike for his NCCC CCA.

I went to 6th Ave together with StairRider Deck and after

breakfast, we separated at the Rifle Range entrance of BT.

He is supposed to do BT, ZH and this trail famous for

being very rooty. After that we were supposed to meet at the

clearing that signifies the entrance of the trail to Casuarina.

For my self, I looked for my son. I found him and exchanged

a few words with his CCA teacher. My ears were clapping

(a Filipino idiom) all the while as I keep hearing the other

kids ask my son if I was his friend or brother hehehehe.

After meeting my son, I went to ZH, T15 up to Mandai and

then went reverse S-trail. I went down to the foot of Gangsa

and cycled to the Summit. I was already going to meet StairRider

Deck at the clearing when I decided to do a little trail maintenance.

I 've been seeing other people do a bit of trail maintenance

and so I thought since I had time, I cleared one pool of

water by diverting the water to a group of trees.

Photog 101 : don't shoot against the light

My good deed for the day

Just when I finished doing my good deed for the day, StairRider
Deck came huffing and puffing and told me he has not taken a
break yet.

LOL too bad for him as I am fully rested and we went straight
to the first stream. While resting at the first stream he told
me that he met someone who said that he has a friend who
got fined $200 for going to that trail....

That's it! I would rather save the $200 for my steel HT's
new fork! We decided to do a u-turn and went to Bukit
Panjang for lunch.

By the way, here's a little video where StairRider Deck
was comparing the merits of Maxxis CrossMarks
and Kenda Nevegals...

You may look at it that way... or you may see it as
Titus Racer-X versus BeOne Nirvana :-O