#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.



#218 - Climb

Have you ever stored your Nike's for a long period of time
and then decided to wear them? What happens? Most probably
the sole will peel. This pair of MadRocks was stored for two
years and when I decided to wear them ... no issues whatsoever.
Highly recommended climbing shoes. BUT next time, I will try
5.10s and the only reason is that they make MTB shoes hehehe.

Say 'Climb!' and the first thing that I think of

is Mt. Faber ... but a few years ago (2 years?),
I have always equated climb with the artificial

rock wall at Climb Asia in Farrer Park.

I have always wanted to go back and climb since

that is my way of relaxing and stretching. Yes, I

know there is Yoga for that ... but I always get

reminded of circus contortionists when I hear 'Yoga'.

Besides, climbing puts the fun into relaxing and

stretching! So, with NoLights Louie in tow, I

jumped out of my comfort zone, into the unknown

otherwise known as Bouldering AKA Tab's Specialty.

It's not that bad. It's not like the first downhill

in Bukit Timah or the whole of Kent Ridge Park.

The worst that I faced were some girls out-climbing

me and sniggering at my clumsiness...

... and so before I keep on digressing, here's last

night's highlights!

Action !



#217 - Sunday Ride

This group ride happened Sunday last week. A few of

the Eastern boys thought with Monday being a holiday,

they can afford to have a long ride with us in the more

exciting trails at Mandai.

Anyway, the attending riders who were supposed to

meet at Casuarina Curry at 8:30am were all late due

to the very very heavy morning rain. I, on the other

hand decided to become sneaky again. I am supposed

to accompany my family to Ikea/Queensway Shopping

Centre in the afternoon and so had to cut my ride short.

So what I did was to ride as early as 7am. I went

to Rifle Range Road and went straight to Zheng Hwa

Park by going opposite to the normal trail direction of

Belukar Track. There were no people in ZH Park

to chat with and so I went to Rooty Trail. The entrance

to Rooty Trail has really become water-logged this

past few weeks. I went in and did a slower than

usual ride of the trail and after that I stopped to

eat my breakfast of a sandwich and some cashew

nuts under the 'mango' trees.

I was regulating my pace because I don't want

to meet up with the rest of the peloton at the

Old Upper Thomson exit. I then went to Gangsa

and entered the the trail leading to the Summit.

I didn't stop at the Summit and continued on to

the first stream thinking that the peloton should be

entering the trail from the opposite end by now.

When I got to the 2nd stream I stopped for a loonggg

rest hoping that the peloton would show up ...

no such luck. I pushed on to the third stream

and dilly-dallied seeing as the 'handle' of the

'bridge' is no longer there... still no peloton.

Looks like I have to fetch them from Casuarina

Curry! I resigned to my fate and proceeded

with my ride.... and then finally! I saw StairRider

Deck ducking under one of the fallen trees on

the trail. Contact!

Everybody told me how sneaky my plan was

and as a penalty, I will have to continue riding

without rest hehehehe. I went with the peloton

back to the mango trees. It was while under these

trees when the whole MTB Brothers peloton

arrived. Lots of 'hi's and 'hello's as the Eastern

boys seldom see the MTB Brothers peloton.

After sharing some more biscuits and bananas

with the MTB Brothers, we all went and did

the reverse Rooty Trail. Now the peloton

is quite big. I think it should be more than 20

people!

After the reverse Rooty Trail, we all went to do

the main Bukit Timah MTB loop... That is I did

the last 1/3rd because I had to bail out once

I reached the trail leading back to Rifle Range

Road and clean, dry clothes :-)

Below are some pics of what was on test last week.

SR Deck's new SIDI Eagle Pro 5. Bought from Tay Cycles BT.
Deck comes from Shimano M181N which he said is very stiff.
However, he now declares  these SIDIs to be sooo stiff, that
those M181Ns feel like yesterday's peanut butter sandwich
by comparison. Also, they are not just very stiff, they are
also very light. After saying all those, he looked directly
at my eyes and told me : Mon, Absalon is right, we need these
shoes.  Luckily, Christmas is coming :-) 

Finally! After 2 months of nailbiting and scanning for newspaper
articles if there are cargo ships that sunk en route to Singapore,
Efren has finally found the Truth. The Elsworth Truth according
to him pedals soooo nice on the climbs that he sometimes shed
tears of joy whenever the trail points up. Of course, on the way
down I can't get too much info from him because he basically is
a good descender. So for those who want a good climber but
don't want the ubiquitous Giant bikes, maybe you need to search
for the Truth. You may find the Truth at Hup Leong in Chinatown.

The one on test here is Ronald's new 2012 Fox 150mm, 32mm stanchioned,
Kashima coated fork. Ronald is coming from a a TALAS 160mm
with 36mm stanchions. The claims are that this new fork of his is
400grams lighter from his old one. So while climbing, Ronald
can be heard muttering his mantra '400grams lighter' and this
seemed to do the trick. Of course, when we got to the stairs in
BT, 400grams is almost negligible and did not prevernt
him from blowing a gasket. Anyway, for me the best part
of the new fork are the words 'Kashima coated' on the upper part
each of the stanchions. This should remind you that the stanchions
are Kashima coated in case you ever wonder why your stanchions
seem to be goldish colored hehehehe.



#216 - Hiking

My toughest hike to date! I finally decided
to suck it up and finish climbing the Catchment
Path. Anyway, before I did this climb I did
some preparations... errr, actually, just one
preparation. I called one lady friend to go with
me. Hehehe so now, if I ever felt the need to
wuss out again on the stair climbs, all I need to
do is look over my shoulder and see my
friend suffering in silence. That should make me
feel like a weakling and spur me on ... in theory :-)

This hike started nicely because instead of
meeting my friend at King Albert Park McDonald's,
we met on bus 171. We accidentally took the
same bus. So no, time wasted there.

We went into Durian Loop first. Since we
were coming from the direction of Dunearn to
Rifle Range, this trail points upwards. This is a
nice warmup for what's to follow.

After Durian Loop, we crossed over to Bukit
Timah and headed to Catchment Path... and this
time I completed the climb. The only disappointing thing
is that I was expecting Catchment Path to go allll
the way to the summit. But no, it leads to the main
road. We walked a few paces up the main road
and then continued climbing using the Summit Path.
Around this time, I am already wondering why these
trails in BT are called 'path' when in reality they
are STAIRS !!!!

Once we got to the Summit, we then headed down
to Rengas Path and then to the Dairy Farm Loop ...
at first I thought since we already left the summit,
all trails should be pointing down... but no! Whoever
designed these trails made sure we will have a
great workout by making us climb again, then go
down, then climb.. you get the picture?

Anyway, we were already wondering if we
were walking around in circles when we heard
a group of people ask another group where the
particular trail that we're on leads. The answer
was that the trail leads to some waterfalls !

My friend and I thought 'WOW!!!' ! There's
actually a waterfall in here?! So on we went
with renewed energy. After a couple of paces
we started hearing what my friend described
as "heavy rain falling on the jungle canopy". After
a few paces more ... we finally came where the
noise seemed to be coming from but ... there
were no waterfalls ... then we looked down
and it dawned upon us .... ohhhhhhh 'waterfall'.
Yup, forget any romantic notion that you have
in your head about the word 'waterfall'. Here
it is being used loosely. See the pic above where
I doused my head with water? That's the waterfall.
But the water is very cold ... and I saw some
guys refilling their water bottles from that
stream !

All in all, the hike was good fun. It provided 2
full hours of suffering, I mean exercise :-)
It's just that on weekends, the place gets a
little crowded ... maybe I'll try to go there on
a weekday ... or maybe at night !