Ketam Practice #1

A welcome surprise at the end of Blue Trail.
Filipina Mountain Bikers are almost extinct but these two look
like they are enjoying the trail.

The madness started today. It was decided that today's

group ride will be in Pulau Ubin in preparation for the

4 hour enduro on May.

The general consensus is that every one will run according

to their own pace. Ketam is mostly singletrack anyway and

you can't get lost. As and when any one thinks he's had enough

then he could just go to the coconut drink stall and wait for

the remainder of the group there.

I am one of those guys who find doing laps boring. Ever

since I have known how to cycle at Ketam, I have always

done only 1 lap and go to the other fireroads in the island.

But for today, I did three laps!

After doing my second lap, I decided I have had enough

of this self-inflicted punishment and went to the coconut drink

stall only for the auntie to tell me she doesn't have any

coconuts today! Ok, settled for 100+ instead :-)

I haven't finished my 100+ yet when Bal, Roadie Rio

and StairRider came to announce that they did 3 laps in

2 hours! So, that's the magic number.

After everybody has had their drink, they all prodded

me to do 1 last lap....and so I did a total of three laps.

Quote for the day should most probably belong to me:

"I could have easily done 5 laps straight, but I'm

already exhausted"

Also, I realised that this kind of long ride brings out

the worst in our equipment. Example ?

1. I was on a hardtail. I forgot to stand-up on one

part of the the trail... my saddle proceeded to rotate up

 thereby making me sit on my rear tire! Ouch!

2. Tubeless tires with sealant are not puncture proof!

Just ask Sherwin and Ibis Chris.

3. When you're tired, you begin to have brain fade and

 you do things like trying to run over a perfectly sturdy

tree hehehe.

4. Long climbs overstrain your chain and it's best to

bring spare links.

Sunday Paddle



McRitchie Reservoir



Yup, you read that right ! Sunday paddle!

But before anything else, my excuse is that I'm 41 years old

this year and I haven't been paddling for almost 3 years

(I'll explain the need for the excuse later).

I paddled Dragonboat and Outrigger Canoes for 3 years

before I discovered MTB. SPC's coach told us that we need strong

legs to 'kick the boat' when we paddle. So I bought a basic MTB

and started to cycle. Ironically, I enjoyed MTB so much, I left

paddling. 

But recently, I began to feel that my core strength is lacking

and of course those pull-ups and dips that used to be easy

before are a lot more difficult now.... and so I decided to

crosstrain and go back to paddling...

The thing is I couldn't have been more wrong in choosing

to do my paddling comeback on a T1 ! The moment I stepped

into the boat, the boat started shuddering violently! The shaking was

actually caused by me trying to balance the boat just by using my

core muscles ... which I think I no longer have :-(

...and so, the boat capsized... and during the course of the

2 hour 'paddle' I think I capsized a total of 10 times.

Hence the excuse at the top of the post :-)

At first, my two paddlemates (see photos below) helped

me empty the boat. But one canoe coach showed me how

to empty the boat singlehandedly. You sit on the pontoon and

cradle the overturned boat on your two feet. You hook your 

two feet and do leg extensions. You do this a couple of times

until all the water drains out.

So needless to say I became an expert at this and I also

got my leg workout :-)

Also, it was my first time @McRitchie and while paddling

at the reservoir, I skirted the edge of the forest. It should be a

nice place to do some trail running. I know this area connects

to Bukit Timah via a 10km trail.

That's it, I leave you these pics of my paddlemates for now :-) 

Paddlemate #1 :-)



Paddlemate #2 ... notice 6pack under the Skins compression wear





Saturday Group Ride

These bikes make my bike look so ..... :-(

Group photo minus StairRider Deck, Roadie Rio and me

How do you know when there's a roadie in your MTB Group Ride?

We were not in Pulau Ubin today, so no, the answer is NOT that

he is the one who left his camelbak on the boat.

The correct answer is that he is the one who is concerned that

there is a very strong headwind inside the trail LOL.

While everybody was resting today just before entering the

Rooty Trail, Roadie Rio amazed and confused everybody saying

that we should not go to this fabled trail in Batam because

the headwind there is very strong... Everybody looked at him

and just uttered 'uhhhhhnnnnn....' then finally Ronald asked

the question that was on everybody's mind : How does

headwind affect you when you are inside the forest?

Roadie Rio then realised he's with the wrong set of people

and that I was the only one wearing lycra (but I had

my Fox Flux on!).

Anyway, it's been a while since the group came back

to BT. Also, most probably, after this weekend, everybody
would head to Pulau Ubin during the weekends leading
 to the 4hour Enduro race.

But for today, we went to BT, reverse Flowy Trail and

reverse Rooty Trail. After that was lunch. After lunch, Bal

showed us how NOT to bunnyhop to the sidewalk kerb.

Everybody then went to the BT stairs at hyper speed... and

although most of us could carry the bike up the stairs and then

cycle on forwards without any rest, everybody just stood

there ... still on their bikes ... and faced back the way where

we came .... hehehehe everybody wants to see the look

on newbie Leomar's face  while he carries his El Guapo up

the stairs LOL.... and while he was trudging up, he would

have heard lots of jeers like : "How is it?!", "You want to

go Mountain Biking, right?", "You don't want a light XC bike,

right?", "El Guapo is really nice, right?".  

If you don't know the guys I'm with, you'll swear you're going

to punch all of them when you get to the top of the stairs :-) 



Good Friday Spin

Just before the rain ....



Rain !!!!

Some of my friends went for Visita Iglesia (literally : visit church).

I just can not remember, traditionally, how many churches you are

supposed to visit? 7 or 14?

Anyway, to make things more interesting, they do their church visit

on bikes. Talking about killing two birds with one stone :-)

For me, I took my family shopping. But after lunch my son

started having flu symptoms and so we had to cut short

the shopping spree.... hehehe of course, when we went

home I pointed out that it was just 3pm and maybe I could

sneak in a quick bike ride.

So that was what I did. I sneaked in a bike ride at T15.

But I wasn't even 10 seconds in my trail ride when the

heavens decided to open up. The rain was very heavy, I couldn't

see what was 10meters in front of me.

I decided to take refuge under the BKE ... and after a few minutes

the deluge became a drizzle and so I continued the ride.

I think tomorrow's group ride will be in this area. Mud consistency

for tomorrow should be Teochew porridge.

Beach Day Out !

SPC will be having a Beach Day Out and the details

are in the flier above.

Basically, what this means is for a nominal fee (10SGD),

anyone, and I mean anyone can try out all the things the

SPC has on offer !

Anyone may try Outrigger Canoes, surfskis, even

stand up paddle boards! Not  just that, I heard you could

even get on board the support boat and they will

show you around the SPC training errrrr grounds!

That means Kusu Island, Sister's Island and Lazarus Island.

Any farther than that and the coast guard will chase you!

... and when these guys put up an event, there will always
be a post-event party and they make sure everybody goes
home fully carbo loaded and all boozed up !
Remember, one of their sponsors is San Miguel Beer :-)

So, for those looking to do some cross training, why not

try paddling?

... and for those who don't know what I'm talking about

here's outrigger canoing and here's dragonboat racing.

Sunday Ride




Mike's Ellsworth Truth and Benjie's weightweenie Scott



Have you all seen the route for the 4 Hour Enduro

at Ubin this coming May? There are lots of flat

parts where one can go full speed and (hopefully)

regain some time lost when one is not that good

in the technical parts.

Lots of my friends either have a weird sense of
humor or just plain suicidal because I have not heard
anyone going for the Duo. Everybody is planning to join
the Solo Category.

Well, I think in the end, I will go with the flow and
join the Solo Cat also ... that is barring any untoward
incidents like having cold feet or severe solar flares.

So with that in mind, my steel hardtail had to lose the

680mm riser bar to give way to my 560mm Ti straight bar

and barends.

Off I went to T15 for my Sunday spin... and I didn't see
the PadyakPinoy/MTB Brothers group in ZH Park, so off I
went to Mandai. From Mandai, I did a u-turn and when I came
back to ZH Park I saw Mike and Benjie there.

I learned those two are going to join the Enduro Race as partners
and they were practising today. They told me everybody else
went to Ketam to start familiarising themselves with the trail.
So, these two guys are practicing at BT when the race venue is at
Ketam and their buddies are all there ... hehehehe sneaky!

I also saw Chris at ZH Park and he told me he's going to

stick to me like glue because he doesn't know how to get out

of the trails.

Chris' new wheelset comes with Chris King hubs in blue

We went to Esso to clean our bikes and while drying our bikes
I saw he has finally bit the bullet and bought this ultra bling
wheelset!



Saturday Ride

 Very muddy ! That's the general condition of BT today.

No doubt due to the torrential downpour that does not fail

to materialise every afternoon everyday for this past week.

Too bad for Stair Rider Deck who just bought this new pair

of shorts that has TEN pockets! All the pockets have sand/soil

in them after the ride.

Today there was only, SR Deck, NL Louie and AirTime Mark.

Mark was carrying his DSLR and once we went into BT he

promptly "got lost" to go shoot pictures. I've been waiting for

him to post his pics in his FB page so I can get it and post

it on my blog but there's nothing from him up to now.

Anyway, just before the 'killing me softly' climb at BT,

we saw Archie with a newbie in tow. Archie was sporting

some white arm warmers with some patches of red ...

which was a result of him imitating Superman at the

first downhill in BT. Apparently, one of the fallen

branches there got stuck between his rear wheel's spokes

which resulted in a spectacular wipeout.

He went with us to ZH but had to go home early

as his fiance is in Sg and he has a curfew now... hehehe

welcome to club :-)

From ZH, we went to NoLights Louie's Personal Challenge

which she failed LOL (but she'll be back).

After that, we went to reverse Flowy Trail and reverse

Rooty Trail. .. I exited Rooty Trail just 5 feet away from

StairRider Deck and I was sporting a smug grin because

finally (!!!), I enjoyed my ride in Rooty Trail :-)

NoLights Louie smiling but dejected that she failed
her Personal Challenge

Two pics from AirTime Mark's FB Album. Taken yesterday while he was 'lost' in BT.



Sunday Ride

Airborne Zeppelin ... sigh ...

I saw this Airborne Zeppelin at a Gas station on my way to BT.

I ate my 'breakfast' of packet of cashew nuts and pineapple juice

while chatting with the nice owner.



Cane Creek Double Barrel shocks + titanium springs on
Mike's Ellsworth Epiphany

Hup Leong Mechanic Ah Long's bike.
I think he hates mud :-)

Rear guard of PadyakPinoy/MTBBrothers

Today was supposed to be Kayak day! But I got a last
minute SMS saying that Kayak lessons are postponed
because the coach is joining a DragonBoat race.

Later on I received another SMS saying that there won't
be any Kayak lessons next week either because there's
another DB race (PA Paddle @Bedok).

.... and it was raining in the morning! The rain relented
at around 8:30am and I went for a spin to T15 via Rifle
Range Road.

There seems to be very few people in the trails today.
However, I saw a small group of guys having a "meeting"
at Zheng Hwa park. It turned out that Sam the Mailman
was quelling a mini-mutiny. The guys are saying that
they are already bored with the trails they normally frequent.

When Sam and FreeRider Eric saw me, they were
relieved because they pacified the group by saying I'll guide
them to HellClimb!

So, basically, that was what I did today, I showed them
my route and guided them to the entrance of HellClimb.
I didn't go with them as I had to get home early today
and give my son a haircut :-)

Saturday Group Ride

New bikes ! Ibis Mojo, Titus ElGuapo, Giant Trance

somebody left an Ibis Mojo @ Ketam

How do you know if there's a roadie in your MTB Group Ride?
He's the guy who left his hydration pack in the boat LOL.

Roadie Rio missed the first lap of Ketam because he forgot his
CamelBak in the boat that brought us to Pulau Ubin. Good thing
it was a weekend and the boat came back within 10-15minutes
after it left the pier.

Anyway, today's group was quite big. I think there was a total
of 14 people who left for Pulau Ubin. The only bad thing was that
since the range of fitness levels in the group is soooo wide,
it was inevitable that the group will separate.

Three superbikes were 'revealed' today. Chris' Ibis Mojo,
Leomar's ElGuapo and Bal's Giant Trance. I rode all three bikes
and the early verdict is that the Giant Trance is by far the best bike.
Maybe next week, I'll ask Bal to let me ride the Trance for
a while :-)

Ok, I digress, I'll sing praises for Giant Anthem and Trance
another day. For those who were not able to come today,
 here's a short video of what went on.

CrankBrothers Cobalt 2 Seatpost

Left side : Crankbrothers 30.9mm x 400mm (length) + screw-on seat clamp
Right Side : Amoeba 27.2mm x 400mm + quick release seat clamp + 30.9 spacer

Word in our office is that lot's of people bought new bikes.
Also, seems like all of them will be bringing their new bikes
tomorrow.... sigh ... no new bikes on the horizon for me.

Anyway, since there'll be new bikes tomorrow at the
group ride, I bought a new seatpost for my bike just
so I won't be envious hehehe.

My bike uses a 30.9mm seatpost. For close to two years,
I used a Thomson seatpost with setback. However, I tried
using a seatpost without setback and I felt that I fit on the bike
more properly. The thing is the seatpost I used was 27.2mm
in diameter. I had to use a shim so it would fit my frame.

I went to HupLeong and got myself the cheapest CrankBrothers
seatpost. There is still a lighter aluminum and an even lighter
carbon version for those who are itching to get rid of some
of their money.

Pictures above show the weight savings ... and I think there
will be some more minute weight savings to be had because
I will cut the seatpost as I definitely think 400mm is too long
for my frame.

Monday Spin



Finally! After one whole week without any exercise whatsoever,

I got to cycle again. I filed for a half-day leave, slept for two hours

and then went to T15.

Why the one week non-exercise you might ask. Well, I had no choice.

I was on call 24x7 last week. Actually, it's not the work that will make

your blood pressure soar. It is the anticipation that you might be called

in the middle of the night, while showering, while in the toilet, etc.

I literally did not go out last Sat and Sun!

It's during these times when I get these funny ideas of migrating

to Canada or Alaska! Also today, Yahoo has this article about 

the 10 signs when it's time to quit your job. I read it ... unbelievable!

I think I got 7 out of 10 there. 

Anyway, enough griping about my job. Now you'll read me

griping about my fitness (or lack of it). I last cycled last Sunday.

Today is Monday. It was just 1 week without exercise and guess what?!

I was huffing and puffing from my house to the Mandai end of T15.

I think I stopped twice! Normally I don't stop to rest. 

I have 5 more days, err make that 4 more days before Saturday.

I hope the group ride won't be so tough.

So, while cycling from Mandai to ZH (via T15), you'll realise that

the way is inclined a bit. I mean it's not that steep but it's inclined.

This kind of 'climb' are the ones that we call 'killing me softly'.

I was panting and almost wanting to vomit along this stretch of incline.

In the end I slowed down and spun.... bad move...

.... it was already past 6pm by then... getting dark... and very quiet...

and then I remembered this story that SugarRush Rey told me

and StairRider Deck.

He said he once saw an old woman

with long hair and dressed in white along that stretch...

He was lost and he asked the old woman for directions...

The old woman didn't reply, she just looked at him...

Well, SugarRush Rey just shrugged and cycled away.

But me? When I remembered that story, my fitness came

back :-) I cleared T15, the BT stairs and got into Rifle Range Road

in 35 minutes LOL.