Group Ride

It's old age. That's what made me forget. I forgot to

take even one single picture for today's group ride.

Funny thing is I've always wanted to take pictures

at Sembawang Hill Hawker Centre. I just feel that place

is a quaint, little place offering not just a varying

selection of food but a bit of ambience :-)

Anyway, after breakfast at Sembawang Hill Hawker

Centre, we proceeded to go to T15. This is the reverse

of our normal loop.

There are lots of climbs in this loop. However, the climbs

did not seem to be that difficult. One of the group suggested

that maybe because we tackled the climbs first. If we go our

normal route ... and then at the end of it come back to T15

then that should make us vomit our lungs out!

Hehehe next time, I think we'll do that :-)

Also, we're hoping to do a night trail on the 1st day of CNY.

That's a Thursday. The start of the loop is the reverse of the 

BT loop exiting Rifle Range. This night trail route will not

be that difficult because ... it's at night! We don't want to

dial 911 and guide an ambulance to some far off

jungle in Bukit Timah, right?

Ok, here's the video for today and I hope the video

makes up for the lack of picture today.

BarEnds

Ok kids, here I am at home because I don't have anyone

to go with to Mt. Faber. StairRider Deck is missing in action

and NoLights Louie is climbing a molehill errrr... ahem.. a hill (???)

in Bedok Reservoir (??)

So, with nothing to do, I go and write about barends...

hehehe now that should give you an idea of how bored I am.

Anyway, I started mountain biking on August 2008.

Like any newbie, my greatest weakness is climbing.

I read through MTBR.com and went through the expensive

routine of upgrading/lightening my bike. After all the upgrades

were done, I realised I only needed three things to climb

decently : 2. SPD pedals and cleats, 3 light wheelset and

4. barends. That's it! Ok, no. 1 is missing. No. 1 should

be fitness and practice climbing but that's beside the point

because we are talking about equipment.

From left to right : Ergon, Cane Creek attached to an ODI grip,
and KCNC barends

My first barend is from Ergon that I bought from Hup Leong.

My second is a Cane Creek that I bought for 5$.

My third is a pair of KCNC anorexic barends.

I didn't bother publishing the actual weights because with barends,

weights don't matter. What matters is it's effectiveness in 

giving you comfort and additional leverage when climbing.

If you also notice, I grouped the 3 pairs of barends together.

This is because although they look like very different from 

each other, they provide almost the same hand placement

(for me). That hand placement is always near the end (side?)

of your straight handlebar.

Although I get addtional hand positions for climbing,

I always ask myself  'what if i could place my hand on top

of the handle bar'? Roadie Rio told me one night @Mt. Faber

that I need to get a Colnago roadbike for that because

the handposition that I am looking for corresponds to the

top of the hoods of a roadbike (!!!).

Long, curved barends. There's a screw at the base of
the 'horn' part of the barend which enables it to be angled up.

Now enter these cheap, old school barends which I bought

at this bikeshop at the basement of SM Megamall for 300PHP

(less than 10SGD).

I have been using this barends for my Sunday Trail rides since

last November. I put my hands at the top end of the barends

and I climb Rifle Range Road... and it's bliss :-)

I climb Mount Faber... sigh ... nice feeling :-)

I will not tell you that these barends gave me more comfort

or more hand positions or more leverage or that it opened

my chest area so that I could breathe more. No, you won't get

those from me. I could not feel those. The only thing I could

feel is that the handpositions that there barends provide

are the 'correct' ones.

Of course, these observations are purely from my point

of view alone. If you interview StairRider Deck about his

CaneCreek barends or CrestPursuit Owen about his Ergon

barends, I'm quite sure they'd think I'm smoking pot :-)

Left figure shows how I feel when I use Ergon, Cane Creek and KCNC.
Right figure shows me using the cheap, old school barends

Sunday Ride

@T15

 I stand corrected. Not all the fallen trees in T15 have been

cleared. See picture above for an example. There are lots

more @the PCN that connects Mandai and T15.

It seems the fallen trees are being cleared in a 'first in, first out'

fashion. Also, today's mud consistency is porridge.

Yesterday's mud consistency was clear soup (i.e. like

those served with chicken rice). So today's ride was

more slippery than yesterday.

Resting @Zheng Hwa on the way back

Guess who 'caught' me @Esso

I got 'caught' by a handful of riders from PadyakPinoy in

Esso while cleaning my bike. After the clean-up and post

ride bite/drink, we all went to Tay Junction for some

windowshopping and eventually, everybody went their

separate ways while calling out to me that next Saturday

is the RedBull DarkKnight Downhill Race in Kent Ridge.

Apparently, 2 guys we know will be taking part.

Hehehe yup, only two guys but I'm quite sure

that the Filipino MTB community will be watching in full

force. You definitely can't miss them. 

I might go and try to 'cover' the race... if my cameras

can take pictures in low light conditions ahem ahem...

i need cough cough new camera cough !



Group Ride

@Casuarina during lunch

There were only five of us for today's group ride.

Apart from that, there was this consensus that today

would be a shorter than normal ride because

most of us need to be home earlier than usual.

With that in mind, there was no choice but to skip

the BT loop. We went up to Rifle Range and went

straight to Zheng Hwa. On the way, we met a lone rider

doing his laps. The rider was Sam Cheng, my friend of

countless years and owner of HobbyLink RC Shop

in Far East Plaza.

From Zheng Hwa, NoLights Louie realised that the

guys she rode with today were really set on going home

early as nobody rested. Everyone straightaway went to

T15 via Bukit Panjang PCN and went to Sc.

Still no rest at Sc and when Sc was cleared,

everyone rushed to the exit trail that leads

to Casuarina.

But before we went to the exit trail, we went first

to this little secret trail that is supposedly an extension

of Gangsa. Don't go in there! There were lots of

fallen trees and it seems the trail has been forgotten

already. I'll try to go in to that trail every now and

then to see if the fallen trees have all been cleared.

...and finally! We all went for Chinese food today

instead of the usual chicken briyani. I forgot the
name of the restaurant but their roast pork is
really very nice and the skin is crispy
and crunchy.

All these adventures were done in record time

as we finished eating at 12:45pm.

Ooops! Almost forget. Here's a short video

of what went on today.

Mt. Faber Ride

Only tonight I realised that this leads to Henderson Waves... hence the sign hehehe

Henderson Rd

The Saturday Group Rides are getting longer and

the rich food I had in the Philippines as well as the

recent long holidays spell doom for my fitness.

There's no other way to get back on the groove but to

go back to climbing Mt. Faber.

Tonight I only did two laps ... I was actually on

my third lap when I realised that the sign to on the left side

of the road that reads "Henderson Waves" meant

that that point was the start of Henderson Waves (duhhh).

I took a peak inside... and then I walked the bridge with

my bike and ended in the Telok Blangah Hill side of the Waves.

I told myself two laps is not such a bad thing for a start

and so I took the downhill ride from Telok Blangah Hill up

to Alexandra Rd and then back home.

Maybe I'll do the customary 4 laps next time :-P

Sunday Ride



It's a miracle! I haven't been to T15 for

quite some time now... and I think the authorities

were only waiting for me NOT to show up and

finally get rid of all the fallen tress in there.

Yup, that's right, no more fallen trees!

Here's today's video clip... but apparently

YouTube recognizes that I have imbedded a

song clip in the clip and decided to suppress it...

so no music :-(   ... I'll try to upload it somewhere

with less stringent checking and update this post.

Group Ride 2011 Jan 8

Obligatory photo of the quarry

As i said before, the group ride on 18th Dec 2010 would

set the tone for the next group rides. True enough everybody

wants that particular loop... and I mean everybody!

We even got NoLights Louie going for the Bukit Timah part

of the ride.

We did miss AirTime Mark, who woke up late (Paolo

does not believe this excuse though), Sherwin who

had to bring his son to a soccer game and Rio who is

battling a cold from not biking for 1 month

(withdrawal symptoms).

However, instead of those regulars, Mike the (ex)Mechanic

showed up today. There is also Jun who volunteered to be the

 sweeper. So today we were a little bit more cavalier in the way

 we treated our bikes as we had a bike mechanic with us.

No problems in fixing anything on the trails :-)

Lunch was @Casuarina... we have to find another

place to eat guys! Chicken Briyani is nice but I'm growing

feathers! Also, we finally found a place to wash our

bikes @Upper Thomson.

Also, I almost forgot, we met these guys on the trail.

We inquired about their carbon frames and the

price seems very competitive. I have added them as

friends in Facebook. Who knows? My wife might

get me something for my birthday! Ahem ahem...

Anyway, here's today's vid. ... and since there are

lots of scenes there where NoLights Louie is pushing

her bike, let's see what happens to her next week...

New reality show? Stay tuned !

Bike Lights

7$ for one :-)

10$ for one

My friend Owen has brought these bike lights in and selling

them quite cheaply. I have been meaning to get a smaller

red light to fix on my helmet. I think the red one on the

first picture would do just fine.

Anyway, as I was surfing at the CrestPursuit thread,

I realised Owen is able to bring in a matching set of jersey

and tights for just 80$. See all of the current selections

here.

1st Group Ride of 2011

Finally! After a very long absence...

First group ride of 2011 and so the gang is still not
complete. Some are still on holiday in the Philippines.
Since there are just four of us on this ride, I took the
opportunity to be the slowpoke of the group today.
I went with the group to Bukit Timah loop and of course
after that we went to our new 'exit'.

This is the problem with me, I am in shape for almost
a year, then I go on holiday and one week later, all
my conditioning is gone! ... or I may be feeling the effects
of old age LOL.

Here's today's video and for those who were not
around today ... don't worry we'll be doing this loop
from now on :-)


New Year's Day 2011

I didn't do any bike stuff and it was raining so all I have are these pics from NTUC :-P

It's the first day of 2011. I think I may have to wax lyrical

about life in general and my hobbies in particular... uhhh that will be

boring ;-)

So today, me and my family went out to Orchard Road (yay!).

It has been quite some time since we last went there... and

guess what? The Christmas lights are already gone!

It was raining quite heavily today... So all the people were

all cooped up in the malls. Good thing that in Singapore,

the mall 'network' is such that you may spend as little

time as possible out of the sun (or in this case, the rain) and
still get from one mall to another.

We were able to make our pilgrimage from ION to Takashimaya.

Speaking of Takashimaya, I went to Books Kinokuniya to browse

for a while and look what I found!

All households need one... really.

I browsed the above book and it, indeed, teaches the reader

what to do in the event that the world gets run over by zombies! 

This means I can write a book about totally bogus stuff

and pass it for the genuine article? Something like :

10 Rules to Survive a Martian Attack.

Apparently, the book is a best seller ... which

means the author is now rich ?!?!

Sigh, some guys have all the luck...

Anyway, I was rummaging thru my backup CDs and found

a clip of me (in blue singlet) climbing a rockwall @Climb Asia near

RaceCourse Rd.

Now, that is one thing that I miss. Rock Climbing is a fantastic

workout. I used to do that as a cross training for my

dragonboat training. The logic was it helps me stretch all

those muscles that are heavily used in dragonboat

paddling. However, the exercise is very bad for the wallet

as one session costs 8SGD! ... maybe I'll do it again

and limit myself to 1 session per week ?

Ok, enough rumbling from me. Happy New Year, people.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll be able to ride with my buddies.