#176 : Sunday Ride

Fallen tree at Rooty Trail, there's a detour on the
left side (if you're going the right way. right side, if you're
going reverse).

Rant #1 :

You just know this will be a long-ish piece when

I start numbering my rants.

Anyway, I went home at exactly 12midnight last night

due to our company's Dinner and Dance. I got to see

all my usual riding buddies in 3-piece suits. I also got

to see NoLights Louie in her glamour girl disguise complete

with warpaint and itsy-bitsy purse. But I digress!

I woke up quite late but still quite happy and

elated because as mentioned in yesterday's post,

we were sooo fast hehehehe.

My wife fed me some wonderful hotcakes and off

I went to RRR. I made the trip in record time ...

remember this ... because I pumped my tires at 20PSI in

front and 25PSI at the back. They are tubeless Kenda

2.1 Nevegals, by the way. So the climb to RRR

was really easy. Hehehehe and I was congratulating

myself for being such an endurance machine :-)

I went straightaway to ZH Park and then to the

entrance of Rooty Trail. ... here we go now....

you know all those piles of logs jusssttt before you

really, really go inside Rooty Trail? I cleared them yesterday.

Today? I keep stopping at the top of all the log piles...

lots of head scratching followed.

... and so I continued on inside Rooty Trail...

and all the while obstacles that I can easily clear

yesterday stopped me today. Hmmmm... the last straw

was when there were these 2 chaps wearing the jersey

that exhorts motorists to give cyclists "1.5m to the right".

Those two just passed me! Nevermind, they seem

to be fit.... then later on a girl on a pink On-One

Inbred Steel HT also passed me?!

I just smiled and when I can't see the girl anymore,

I got off my bike and jumped and hopped and kicked the

nearest fallen log. By then I already knew what's wrong!

I deflated my tires until they became really floppy and soft

and then I started chasing those 3 who passed me.

I managed to catch-up with some ang-mohs from

Singapore Bike Hash (that's the jersey they were wearing)

and when I finally caught up with those 3 who originally

passed me, they were already exchanging war stories.

I wanted to take a pic of that girl with her pink Inbred

but I'm afraid the other 2 guys will mistake me for

a stalker and so I went straight to the mango trees

and dropped dead.

By the way, there's a fallen tree inside Rooty Trail.

There's a detour to the left of the fallen tree but it is

still unrideable due to the overhanging vines. I know this

personally because when I got through the detour, I heard

some gargling sounds coming behind me. I looked behind

and saw one tall ang-moh being clotheslined by a vine.

Hehehe, apparently being short saved me from

being clotheslined.



New Fox gloves from CrestPursuit Owen

Rant #2 :

This is not actually a rant but just a heads-up for you

guys looking for nice XC gloves. CrestPursuit Owen

has new Fox gloves .. which for some reason I don't

think he posted on his SMBF For Sale thread.

They're everything an XC glove should be. Simple

and they get the job done. The Fox logo and the nice

colour are just icing on the cake. Ok, if you want

me to nitpick, the only thing missing is the terrycloth

thumb that you can use as nosewipe. But that's not

too bad. You can use the sleeve of your jersey instead ;-)



Rant #3 :

I was literally down when I got to the "mango" trees.

I was lying down and waiting for clouds to make some

kind of formation so that I can take some pics for my

InstaGram... no such luck!

Anyway, while I was lying down there. It finally struck me

that "No-Stop ride" we did yesterday was too much for an

uncle like me. ... While I was under the shade I saw those

3 who orignally passed me and those ang mohs from Singapore

Bike Hash go up the trail that leads to that nice trail

that leads to Casuarina. I wanted to follow them but

this time I decided to be realistic :-(

Realistic means I need to go to Bukit Panjang, have lunch and

go home via RRR. No carrying my bike over the BT Staircase

for me today.

BUT! after lunch, I remembered I've always

wanted to go back to D-Loop! So I went to D-Loop,

and took some pictures. I was going really very, very slow.

My excuse was that trail is for hikers. But in reality,

I was just very tired. Who am I kidding? I've never seen

hikers there at noon! In fact, If you stop and look at

the mud patches there, you'll see MTB tire tracks

(and they're fresh!!!).



Ok, that's it. Before I sign-off, I leave you with

this video which Roadie Rio showed me. It shows

you / us how we should ride our XC bikes in general

and the Giant Anthem in particular.