#228 : City Ride

Been raining the whole December ... trails are

either very muddy or flooded ... and I'm lazy to

go and climb Mt Faber .... soooo only thing left

to do is go on a city ride.

Above pics were taken on the route from Kallang

to my house at Whampoa. By the way, photo

opportunity : the Queenstown Bowl will be demolished

soon ... better go and take your pictures now before
 this landmark is gone forever.

#227 - Sunday Ride

Some members of MTB Brothers congratulating me on my new purchase :)

Ken-san and Brother John taking a rest before their rescue mission

Brother Rey's Magic Link equipped Kona

Brother Rico's NEW Ellsworth Moment

Mike the (ex) Mechanic's racing machine

Sunday and the last day of  'testing' my new Reign.

Today is the day when all of the small stuff that needed

changing on my bike were finally done. Bash Guard,

check! Change Switch-R to Thomson seatpost, check!

Change to original tires, check! Install straight handlebar,

check!

... and so while spinning like an uncle on an old Pigeon

bike along Bukit Timah, I heard someone behind me

say 'good morning!' and when I looked, it was Brother

John from Hup Leong and Ken-san the gracious host for

the MTB Brothers X'mas Party. I got hassled a bit by

brother John for being sooo quiet the past few weeks and

then suddenly showing up with a new bike ;-)

John told me that there's only the two of them since

the rest of the MTB Brothers peloton has been

bitten by the 'wake up early and cycle' bug. Apparently,

everyone went to Casuarina and will be entering the

trail from that side at 7AM!

Anyway, the three of us decided to go straight to

Rooty Trail. Along the way, we met another member

of MTB Bros, Christian. ... and so four of us went in

Rooty Trail ... BUT only three of us went out. It turned

out Christian's RD went into his wheelset. John and

Ken-san went back into Rooty Trail on a mission

of mercy. Me? I took the easy way out and went

to T15.

The thing that I learned from using this AM bike

is that I need to get stronger before I can go around

like I do on my XC bike (duhhh). I mean everything

is possible : short, steep climbs / long climbs / running

over roots, rocks, drops ... but you better be sure that

you have enough gas in your tank ... did that come out right?

Ok, it's like this, on an XC bike, there are some roots

in Rooty Trail that I can not clear. The roots just stops

my bike. You may say that I need to lift my wheels,

yes, that's true, BUT on an AM bike, I just run

over the same roots... it's just that it takes a lot

out of me in terms of energy.

Anyway, I wanted to go and do Reverse Flowy

Trail and maybe roll over the bumps at Gangsa

but it started raining heavily... and so I cut the trail

ride short and went to Esso.

Once, I got to Esso, the rest of the MTB Brothers

came! Hehehehe in the end, the 7AM ride did not

happen. After taking a few pictures, Ken-san and

John came with their rescued rider, Christian in tow.

#226 - Giant Reign 1 2012

The cat's out of the bag :-) After four years of begging

for an All-Mountain bike, Santa Claus (AKA my wife)

has finally relented and so I got a Giant Reign 1 2012

for Christmas !

I took my own sweet time before I started any sort

of  'review' for this bike. To date, I have brought this

bike to four offroad rides (mainly in Rooty Trail) and

one city ride where I descended on all the stairs that

I could find from Kallang PCN up to Boat Quay.

But still, I think I have barely scratched the surface

of what this bike can do (especially the DH part).

Ok, let's start.

Fork - the bike came with a 150mm RockShox

Revelation. This is the RLT version and it comes

complete with lockout and a negative air spring.

The front wheel is connected to the fork using

Frankentein's favourite - a big screw! Also, the

steerer is now  1 1/4" at the top and 1 1/2" at

the bottom.  This promises unheard of stiffness

in the steering department. However, God help

you if ever you need a different length stem or

if ever you need a new stem.

Rear Shock - Giant equipped the bike with

a Monarch RT. Up to this day, I'm still scratching

my head about this shock. This is the picture of

the shock from RockShox's website. If you notice,

the blue lever on that picture is missing from the shock

that I have on my bike. In place of the blue lever, is

a gold dial which is something like a blow-off valve.

Now, on my Reba (and the Revelation fork on this bike),

you lock the fork and then you set up the blow-off

using that gold dial. So I am wondering how I'm

going to use this gold dial on the shock when I can't

lock the shock in the first place???

GroupSet - funny thing that I had my first taste

of a 3x10 speed groupset (SLX) on an AM bike

instead of a CrossCountry bike. My 3x9speed

SLX has never let me down since 2008 and

I expect the same from the 3x10speed version.

Brakes - The brakes that came with the bike

are Avid Elixir 5s. The brake disks are 180mm

in front and 160mm at the back. These brakes

seem to lack in the braking power department.

I am used to SLX brakes with sintered KoolStop

pads and these Elixir 5s are nowhere near the

power of that setup. The good thing though is,

I'm not sure how it happened, but I tend to brake

more using the front brakes with this bike. If I

have powerful brakes that may send me straight

to Endo City. So, all in all, I don't see any issues

with the brakes (yet).

Wheelset and tires - The rims for this bike are

DT Swiss E540 (which as the name implies are

540grams in weight). The front hub is Giant's own

15mm Tracker hub. The rear hub is a Shimano

Deore number. The tires that came with the bike

are Maxxis Minion DHF 2.35 (F) and Maxxis

High Roller 2.35 (R). However, knowing how

anorexic Maxxis tires can get, I decided to change

the tires to Kenda Nevegal 2.35 Stick-E compound

for both front and rear (hehehe bad move).

SeatPost and Saddle - Giant has been equipping

their bikes now with Fizik saddles. My Anthem came

with Fizik Tundra, I can't remember which saddle came

with Paolo and Bal's Trance (surely Fizik, but which model?),

and now my Reign came with Gobi. The seatpost is the

new Giant Switch telescoping seatpost with Remote.

What disturbs me is that the Reign 0 (the next highest

model for Reign) comes with a Joplin seatpost.

The Joplin seatpost, if you believe all the reviews

on the net, must be the worst ever telescoping seatpost

of all time... and it is not cheap! So when Giant

equips their Reign 0 with Joplin and Reign 1

with the Switch, what does that mean???

Having that in mind, for the first 2 rides, I brought

a spare Thomson Elite seatpost with me

jussstttt in case.

Stem and HandleBar - As I mentioned before, Giant

seem to be having this overwhelming urge to be different

and so the fork steerer is now 1 1/4". It follows that the

stem is also that size and the length is 70mm with 8 degree

rise. If this does not suit you, then you might be out of luck

as I think only Giant manufactures this size of stem.

The handlebar is the exact same handlebar that

came with my Anthem. This is another head scratcher

for me as I find it odd that Giant chose to equip their

XC bikes with the same handlebar as their AM bikes.

What does that mean? Does it mean that the bar is

sooo wide for XC that Giant expected us to cut

down the bar? But I didn't cut down my bar.

Is that wrong then?

Anyway, that's the rundown of the bike specs and

so we now go and ride!

Changes

1. The moment I sat on the bike, the first thing that I

felt was ... this bike's handlebar is soooo 'tall'. Coming

from an XC background, I can't stand this. I took all the

spacers from under the stem and placed them all on top.

The stem is now at it's lowest. BUT the handlebar still

felt 'high'. I complained about this to SR Deck and he

told me that since the stem has an 8degree rise, I should

go and flip the stem upside down.... I said ... uhhh that

might result on some weird and funky steering traits

so I better not do that.

2. I thought that when I press the remote for the seatpost,

my bum will just go down? No? It didn't do that. I 

thought I got a lemon. In the end, I realised I had to

give the seatpost a bit of a 'nudge' before it will go down.

Going up is nice and smooth though.

Now, off to the trails :

3. Tires - I thought I was going to pass out !  The decision

to change the original tires to 2.35 Stick-E Nevegals

was definitely wrong! They were sooo draggy! After

just one trail ride, I changed back to the original tires

and I am now even contemplating on putting on 2.1

Crossmarks at the rear when all the mud dries up in

Rooty Trail.

4. I used the Switch Seatpost for two rides, it was

very nice to ride with the saddle lowered all the way

when going downhill BUT I find that there is actually

no need to lower the saddle that much in our trails.

So after 2 trail rides, I took off the Switch seatpost

and changed it to a setback Thomson Elite seatpost.

The bike is not just lighter now, my backpack is

lighter as well since I don't have to carry a spare

seatpost.

5. The steering is very twitchy! Is it because I lowered

the stem too much? Anyway, lowering the stem seems

to have helped in the climbing department and so I will

not put back the spacers under the stem. ... and so I

went hunting for a 700mm handlebar ... not just a normal

700mm handlebar, it has to be low-rise (stock Giant bar

has a 19degree rise), in fact I know that there are wide

straight handlebars (e.g. Sunline) ... but it has to be cheap

too hehehehehe. Lo and behold, when I went last Saturday

to Hup Leong's X'mas Sale, I saw a ControlTech 700mm

flat bar that only costs 66$ before discount! I got that!

Lucky, since it was the last piece. See picture above

comparing the ControlTech straightbar with the original

Giant bar.

6. Did I mention that the bike does NOT come with

pedals? Yup, you need to fork out more money to

get pedals. Nice thing that I have a pair of new XT

Trail Pedals lying at home just waiting for this bike.

7. Lastly (whew!), there are lots of fallen trees

in our trails nowadays due to the never ending rain.

After two trail rides, I noticed that I have been using

my biggest chainring more as a fallen tree crampon.

I use the biggest chainring when I'm on the road going

to the trails but I never utilise the 11T on my cassette.

So I thought the biggest chainring had to go! Good thing

there are some cheap and good bashrings at Hup Leong's

sales bin. I got a black MRP bashring for 28$ and

I installed it myself at home.

That's all! I am very happy with the changes I made.

I went to go for a trail ride yesterday (Sunday) and

everything was almost perfect ... I said almost because

... my wheelset seems to be heavy? (evil laughter ensues.....)

 



#225 : of Marathons and Triathlons

It's a Sunday and as I write this I am waiting for the
rain to fall ... I should be in the trails ... but when I
woke up and looked through the window ... Sigh,
dark rain clouds are on the horizon. I have no problems
cycling in the jungle during a heavy downpour. I am
not afraid to get wet. What I'm afraid of is falling
branches or trees.

Anyway, the StanChart Marathon has just finished
and the office is filled with war stories coming from
several officemates who have taken up running as
a means to lead healthier lives. Most of the stories
are both hilarious and unbelievable. I have heard
of people completing the marathon in 8 hours!
Imagine that?! I normally sleep for 8 hours. 8 hours
is soooo long to be flogging yourself, your joints,
your knees. But hey, who am I to say that? Most
of my buddies raced the 12hour overnight
race at Tampines.

So, you must be wondering what's up with the eye
candy pictures above in this post? The lady above
is my friend Michelle and the pics were taken from
her FB account. After hearing all the war stories
from StanChart Marathon, I learned that my friend
went for the IronMan in Australia.

Of course, I have always heard about the IronMan.
It's a swim, bike, run race. However, all this time
I never realised that the distances that I often hear
are in miles! Now that I personally know someone
who joined IronMan, I went and googled it. The
actual distances are 3.8km swim, 180km cycle
and then a full marathon (42km)!!! Downright
crazy! Can you imagine that? If you are a participant
in the IronMan, even before you run your full
marathon, you need to swim 3.8km and cycle
180km first!

So, congratulations to my friend, Michelle,
for doing something that I still can't imagine
how to do hehehehe.

The thing now is that when I mentioned this
to my biking buddies and they all told
me that maybe we should give triathlon
a try this coming 2013.

Crazy!

#224 : Saturday Ride

Saturday and NoLights Louie was looking for a 'simple'

ride. I don't know her definition of 'simple' but I told her

I will be going to T15 and maybe do 2, 3, 4 laps?

Depending really on how I'm feeling on that day.

This seemed to satisfy her requirements and so

off we went to T15.

We met at Velocity and cycled to Rifle Range Road.

We then cycled to Zheng Hua Park and did just 2 laps

of T15 as she was supposed to pick up someone

at the airport. Some, of course, will say that that

was an easy ride. But the thing was since we started

cycling from Velocity we never stopped until

we were finally at Esso to clean our bikes.

I don't know, but rides like that ... I find it

good for the soul. There's another trail that's

good for the soul! Rooty Trail! I'll go there one

of these days...during the holidays, when I can

have the whole place to myself ... then I'll do 3

laps on my own pace... 

... but that's for another time.

#223 - Shimano XT Trail Pedals

XT Trail Pedals - image from BikeReview.com

 Early this year, Shimano has introduced their version

of the 10-speed drivetrain. But along with the new XT and

XTR drivetrains, Shimano has also seen fit to revamp the

ubiquitous XT and XTR pedals. Now the XT and XTR

pedals are available in two flavors. One is the normal

minimalist version and the other is the 'trail' version.

Naturally, along with the introduction of the new

10-speed drivetrains, all of the components had a sudden

jump in price... and here I was hoping that the prices

would remain the same and the 9-speed versions

would be cheaper. Sigh, how naive of me.

Anyway, it looks like the only XT part that I can

afford right now are the pedals (LOL). The internet

was abuzz with how these pedals are sooo good

and sooo stable. Even one of my ride buddies gave

this a glowing review. On the strength of those

reviews, I went ahead and purchased said pedals.

There are lots and lots of descriptions of these pedals

easily obtainable on the Internet. There are even some

reviews with weights. Hence, I won't be describing nor

weighing these pedals here.

What actually, got me buying these pedals is the 'cage'.

See yellow arrows in the picture above. I had this notion

that the reports of unparalled 'stability' was due to

the cage. I thought my shoes will be resting on the cage!

But noooo... your shoes will only be resting on the

unpainted area pointed to by the blue arrows.

This area is bigger than the same area on the

old XT pedals ... but not by much!

In the picture above, the blue arrow points to the

catch mechanism for the cleats. Note that I thought

my shoes will be in contact with the area pointed by

the yellow arrow....

Picture above shows my Shimano shoes connected to

the pedals. See how big the space is between the cage

and the shoes?! I think that even with my full weight

on the shoe there is still no way that any part of my

shoes will be in contact with the cage of the pedals.

I have used these pedals on two offroad rides

and ... yes, I can feel that these pedals are a 

little bit more 'stable' than the older pedals.

But I have to emphasize that any feeling of

stability over the older pedals is jussttt a little

bit. In fact, it may even be attributed to placebo!

So, do I recommend these pedals? No! If

your pedals have given up the ghost and you need

to get new ones, then go and get the version without

the cages. Up to now, I still don't know what the

cages do. 

#222 : Sunday Ride

I finally reached BT while there's still fog

While having my BB replaced yesterday at Hup Leong,

Mechanic John told me to join a group ride that will

be heading from Casuarina to Bukit Timah. Hmmm...

since I, nowadays, am more interested in spinning

on tame fireroads, my response was none committal.

So I left the house at 7:20 this morning and by around

8am, I met the trio of KK, Boom and Mer going to BT.

I also met FreeRider Eric blow Gangsa DH going up to

that trail leading to Casuarina saying that he'll be

meeting the rest of the peloton as they come into the

trail. I waved bye-bye and started spinning happily

in T15 ... ahhhhhhh ... peace and quiet and easy

trails. Bliss. I did four laps of T15 and on my 4th

lap ... I saw the peloton coming out of the T15 PCN?!

So, what gives??? I told them FreeRider Eric went into

the trail hoping to meet them! It turned out there

was a newbie with them and said newbie was really

scared of going into the trail! So they went to Mandai

Ave and entered T15 via the PCN !?! ... and the newbie

looked very familiar... it turned out she's my office

mate! She said she has been bugging Brother Louie for

any offroad rides but he said there were no such rides.

Hehehehe sneaky eh.

Apparently, Rochelle (the newbie) has been cycling on

PCNs all by herself until CrestPursuit Owen gave her

a phone number that somehow led to the MTB Brothers.

We continued riding and met the trio of Boom, KK and Mer

again on their way home. The MTB Brothers said they're

going to have lunch at Bukit Panjang and I told them

I will be going my way once we reach the Bukit Panjang

exit. Mike the (ex) Mechanic was leading the way and

he led us to this very short DH section which I can

tell leads to Bukit Panjang exit BUT I don't recognise

that section at all. Due to that, I descended very slowly

and at the bottom there was this mudhole which will

swallow half your wheel ... I sensed disaster coming and

so I just stopped near the mudhole hehehehe.

Mike showed Rochelle the newbie how to descend and

after the presentation it was her turn to go down.

She descended very, very quickly (I noticed she is quite

good in the DH sections) but of course when she got to

the mudhole, she didn't lift her front wheel and so

she endo'ed! She wasn't hurt but she was covered with mud

from head to toe hehehehe. Welcome to Mountain Biking :-)

By the way, while chitchatting with the peloton, I learned

Boom took part in the Tour de Timor last September!

Envious! 6 days, 600 over kilometers! I think the current

issue of SPIN has a writeup on this most Epic of all rides.

#221 - City Ride

Images above were taken during my City Ride today.
I was supposed to do my long ride in T15 (3 laps?)
today... but the BB on my On-One died on me.
I didn't want to bring my Anthem on muddy rides
as I don't want to foul the bearings with mud during
the after ride jet wash at Esso.

So, I went to Hup Leong and had my BB changed.
... and while my BB was being changed, I went and
ogled at stuff that I can never afford (e.g. 2011 XTR
Groupset, 2011 Fox forks with Kashima coating, etc.).
It was while I was trying to compute how many months
I have to save so I can get an XT groupset when my
eyes rested on the new XT Trail Pedals ...

These pedals have a 'cage' and they have gotten
good reviews in BikeRadar and MTBR.com.
Heck, even one of my riding buddies, Brother Louie
gave these pedals a double thumbs up ....
and so I got them :-)

Why no pictures of the pedals, you say?
I took some pictures but I'll post them together
with a short review in another post.

That's it for now ... and if I finish my
ride early tomorrow, I think I'll head on over
to Padang to see if any of my buddies were
brought to the StanChart Marathon Finish Line
in a bus hehehehe.