#269 - Rainy Day Trail Ride

From ZH Park going to Rifle Range Road

 

A vidcap from Ghed's video of their ride back
from Gangsa to Mandai

 

Sunday started bright and sunny and I was actually on

my way home due to the fast approaching rain clouds

and thunder.... but who did I see at the end of T15 just

completing their lap #1 ? It's all my teammates !!! and

they were all asking me to do another lap with them!

 

Sigh ... ok... last time we rode together was last year.

I rode with them for another lap ... and that was when the

heavens decided to open up and let it rip.

 

Weather like this, it's scary to be still in the jungle

because you may get hit with falling trees/branches.

It's also scary when you are out in the open (open space

going to RRR) because of the lightning ... don't laugh!

Lightning is not a laughing matter here.

 

Anyway, apart from the heavy rain. Everything was fine.

I even saved 3$ because I didn't have to wash my bike

at Esso ;-)

 

 



#268 - Back to the Trail

This was taken today (Sunday). I just put it here
because I don't have a 'cover' photo for this entry.

So, let's start biking again.

It is normal for Malaysia Jamborees to be 45km

in length. Bearing this in mind, I thought of starting easy

since I still have Dragon Boat practice in the afternoon

(hehehe) ... But the thing is there's nothing to inspire me

to go mountain biking. No new bike, no new crankset,

no new anything at all ... sigh.

 

Never mind, I have a new iPhone 5 and I just jumped

from Starhub to M1 .... and so let's test if M1 signal is better

than Starhub ;-)

 

Off I went to hunt for a cycling app in the Apple App Store.

There are the usual apps like BikeMate, MapMyRide, RunKeeper

... and then something caught my eye ! Cyclist Ultimate! That must

be some really powerful app, to call itself Ultimate. Anyway, I'm

not reviewing the app. Just wanted a little something to keep track

of my bike rides.

 

I started here. I'm looking back. I'm actually going to climb
RRR which is behind me. In this pic, left side is exit of Durian
Trail and right side is the RRR entrance to BT MTB Trail.

So off I went. I turned on the Cyclist app at the RRR

entrance to BT MTB Trail (see pic above). I climbed

RRR, went to Zheng Hwa Park, went to T15 via Chestnut

BUT instead of going to the PCN (which is on your

left hand side when biking towards Mandai), I turned right

to this grass patch which eventually makes a U-turn back

towards the direction of Chestnut Ave.

 

I came out of T15 via this exit that leads to Bukit Panjang.

... and then I bumped into Sugar Rush Rey with his wife in tow.

After a few minutes of chin wag, I went back to Zheng Hwa

Park and then up to RRR again and finally I turned off the

Cyclist app once I got near this wine shop at RRR (see pic below).

Phew ! 

Summary of the ride. That was just 15.5km ?!
I'm in trouble.

I then proceeded to see how I did ... and I was

disappointed. Not at the app. But with my route.

That was just 15.5km ?! I was exhausted! ... and

it was just 15.5km? Tsk tsk tsk and I want to go

for a 45km jamboree? Sigh, so again, I need to

train more or throw more money at the bike.

Hehehehe but since all I can afford for now is

just this free Cyclist app, most probably I will

take the training route and not the throwing

money at the bike route :-)

Map of the ride. Notice that I didn't get to Mandai.
I made a right turn near the entrance to the PCN in T15.

Notice something in the map above?

There was never a time when the GPS signal

got lost? M1 signal is great huh?

I finished here. I'm looking back again in this picture.

 

 



#243 - WeekEnd Ride

DirTraction @Zheng Hwa Park

See the guy wearing black on the right side of the picture

above? I didn't get his name but he is from DirTraction.

Last week, a friend of mine, Sam, posted in our FB group

page that DirTraction would be in Zheng Hwa Park in the

morning and Tampines MTB Park in the afternoon to talk

to mountain bikers about the current state of our trails and

the plans for mountain biking in the future.

The only time I ever hear/see DirTraction is when there

are races in Singapore... and if you notice, there are hardly

any more MTB races in Singapore now. Of course, lots of

people, don't think they are doing such a good job as we

tend to compare the racing in Malaysia versus here.

However, hearing this guy talk was an eye opener. He is

level headed and he is very realistic. He explained what

triggered the recent illegal trail usage hunt. He also talked

about what's going to happen to the trails that we are using.

He explained why there are few races now and why the

races in Singapore are so expensive. Too bad I didn't get

his name but my friends from PadyakPinoy/MTB Brothers

know him. Anyway, I left the session with a totally knew

outlook and even admiration for these guys who are fueled

by nothing but passion.

So, the things that I heard are the following :

1. Stop going to illegal trails. Scorpion is illegal.

ButterFly is illegal. WoodCutter is illegal.

2. Bukit Timah will be maintained in the near future.

Hopefully this will put a stop to mountain bikers

going to illegal trails.

3. More signages will be put up to warn trekkers/

trail runners that they are encroaching on trails

designed for mountain biking.

4. Tampines MTB Park will only be there for

the next 2 years.

5. It's ok to ride in T15 and Gangsa.

6. I might have to start going to Kent Ridge and like

that trail as it is one of the legal trails.

7. For 2012, the only place where races can be held is Ketam.

So, I might want to start going to and liking that place.

8. Lastly, if riders could donate a bit of their time

for trail maintenance, it would be very much appreciated.

I think a Facebook page will be created where DirTraction

will put the where and the when for trail maintenance.



#240 - Long Weekend

Above are pics taken during the long weekend rides

last weekend ... yup, I rode all three days :-)

... and by the way, see picture below.

Looks interesting, right?

Picture taken from wacycles.blogspot.com



#237 - A Week To Go ...

Mechanic John of MTB Brothers 'caught' me and riding
buddy Tabs yesterday at Zheng Hwa Park. 

A week to go ... before the KIP MTB Jamboree and

I am nursing my second bout of flu in a month. I think

that should already be a good sign that I have overtrained.

So yesterday and last Saturday I didn't have any choice

but to do a sloowww plodding ride in T15.

The rest of my friends sneaked to JB on Saturday to

go and recce the race site. Hehehehe from what I heard

they got hopelessly lost and didn't find the trail. They

did find the 'happening' places near the race site though

*wink *wink. There were a few of them who attended

last year's Jamboree but apparently, the race start site

will be in another KIP Mart site at Masai ...

If you take a look at the map below, it is approximately

opposite Pulau Punggol Barat. Actually, if there is

a ferry there, it would be perfect.

Anyway, at this time some of my friends have already

done their hotel reservations. That's right, hotel !

Our transport arrangements have also been done.

... and since last week, the talk around the office

is that if we will be doing this racing thing even

just once every two months, a nice little carbon

hardtail is beginning to look nice ;-)

#231 : Saturday Group Ride

Efren wearing goggles ... by Speedo hehehehe

Brother Oro looking peachy even after his early spill

Alvin on his way to jumping, and I mean JUMPING into
the first stream.

Alvin after his jump



Jun resting after his 2nd(?!) lap of that trail that leads
 to Casuarina.

Friday and our Facebook Group was finally abuzz

with late feelers as to who wants to go on a group

ride today (Saturday). In the end, Efren and

Sugar Rush Rey were the only ones free to go to

Bukit Timah. I wanted to wake up late and so

I didn't respond so that they won't have to wait

for me.

... Saturday morning came and I dragged myself

out of bed ... I really want to go on a trail ride, it's

the getting there part that I hate ... anyway, I

went inside Bukit Timah from the Visitor Centre

at 9:15AM and I took my owwnnnn sweet time

in getting to Zheng Hwa Park.

By the way, did you all notice that the mountain

bike trail has been invaded by trail runners? I mean

I'm ok with sharing the trail BUT some of them are

listening to MP3 players and are ambling like

spaced out zombies. I'm not sure if they hear the

bikes coming???

Ok, back to my trail ride... when I finally got to

ZH Park, I saw Efren, Sugar Rush Rey and new

guy Mon. They told me they will be going to Rooty

Trail and then go home. Hehehehe too bad they

saw me. I convinced them to go Casuarina trail and

back after Rooty Trail and they agreed.

After Rooty Trail, we saw a few guys from MTB

Brothers. Our friend Oro was sporting some nasty

scratches on the face that promises to boost his machismo.

No doubt you heard that saying 'chicks dig scars'. I

enquired as to the cause of the scratches on his face

and his helmet (!!!) and I was told that he had an endo

at the first downhill in Bukit Timah. Arrggghhh gnarly!

MTB Brothers went home early as this was their

first ride for the year and everyone was still lugging

excess pounds due to drinking and eating during the

holidays.

... and off we went to Casuarina Trail.

Casuarina Trail is quite dry except for the first

stream ... speaking of the first stream. We found some

guys playing in the first stream. One guy (we later found out

his name to be Alvin) was doing a banzai run coming from

the direction of the 2nd stream and he wants to jump that

2 or 3 foot drop that leads to the 1st stream. When I said

jump, I mean jump! I have seen many many people roll

that 'drop' ... but seeing his speed, he has no intention of

rolling it! He was literally gonna jump! Into the soft ground!

... Spectacular ENDO if he makes an error.

On his first try, he was going fast... and when he landed

his jump, he turned to the left, went into the stream and

he was thrown off his bike. Hehehehe if I was that,

I'd go home by then. ... He picks himself up and he

seemed to know what he did wrong. He picks up his

bike and pushes it back uphill.

Now every one was waiting with a camera pointed

in his general direction. ... This time I saw he is going

even faster than the first try! ... and this time he jumped

perfectly, didn't even bother to avoid the soft ground

and I think he landed almost at the first stream !!!

Everyone watching was whooping!

... after that, me and my mates continued with our ride

while wondering aloud, if we were 20 years younger

and if we have access to a decent FreeRide/DH bike,

would we do that? Me? No way! :-)

#230 - Weekend Ride

There was a small group ride yesterday (Sunday). Heh, but
I managed to sneak in a ride on Saturday hehehehe. I knew
the ride will be starting from the BT Visitors' Centre and so
I brought my Reign there just to see if I can survive one lap.

Fast forward to Sunday and the meet-up was as usual at
Velocity. All four of us were 'testing' different stuff. Deck
and I were still not used to our big bikes. Efren was still
coming to grips with his Ellsworth Truth and 2012 Fox fork.
Lastly, Paolo was testing his Garmin unit which does
everything including help him pedal when climbing hehehe.
(I know, i know, that last statement was an exaggeration
but that Garmin unit costs more than my 2008
RockShox Recon !)

This ride turned out to be longer than intended.
We went to BT, Rooty Trail and that trail that leads to
Casuarina. Although the ride was long, at the end
of it, StairRider Deck declared that he has come to
grips with his Reign ... this is quite obvious actually
since he managed to finish all the trails that we went to
literally without a single foot dab.

As for me and my Reign? Uhhhhh .... no comment :-)

#229 : New Year

It's the beginning of a new year and both NoLights Louie

and StairRider Deck decided to pair up and join the

synchronized diving event in the trail that we entered

from Casuarina. They had me worried for a while there

because I thought it would only be a matter of time

before I joined in the diving competition.

Anyway, this post is not about greeting the new year

by entering a diving competition!

What better way to greet the new year than by

acquiring a new set of useful skills? :-)

... and so I took off my XTR shifters, XT RD and FD, SLX

crankset and SLX brakeset from my On-One Inbred

and I transferred all of them onto my Giant Anthem.

It was easier than I thought. The best tip I could give

is that you should have the proper tool for the job.

Nope, the kitchen scissors will not cut through shifter

housing. I tried that. It can cut the plastic outer housing.

But there are wires running the length of the shifter housing.

Those are very difficult to cut. So! Go and buy real

cutting pliers for shifter housing. Mine cost 28$ from

Hup Leong. Later on I saw that shop at Changi Village

that sells bike tools are also selling the pliers but

I didn't bother looking at the price for fear that

those are lower priced hehehehe.

I did get some help ... from YouTube.

Here are my reference materials :

1. Changing Shifter Cables

2. Front Derailleur Adjustment

3. Rear Derailleur Adjustment

Since I learned these, now I will convince my wife

that I can buy a new light weight seatpost with the

money I saved :-)

#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.



#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.



#214 : Deepavali 2011

Deepavali ! Another holiday and an excuse for

us to let our masochistic proclivities shine
through :-)

Today's ride started from Casuarina at around
8:30AM ... well, my friends started at that time.
Me? At 8:30AM I was opening my mainframe terminal
emulator and working! Anyway, I got out of my
house at 10AM and reached BT at around 10:30ish.
I half cycled, half pushed my bike around the BT
loop and once I got to ZH, I started calling my
friends.

They just got out of reverse Rooty Trail after
coming in from Casuarina. So slow?! Anyway, they
made their way to ZH and once there they could
not be persuaded to stop being masochists. So on
they went to Bukit Timah leaving NoLights Louie
with me. ... Since Louie and I had time to kill,
we did reverse Flowy Trail and went to the
entrance of Rooty Trail. The peloton came after
about ten minutes' wait and off we went into Rooty
Trail again. At this time the sun was shining and the
weather was really very hot but once we got into
the trail that leads to Casuarina, the rain came!

The rain was so heavy we almost could not see where
we were going! Water was rushing down, turning the
trails into streams! Looks like it was just not
enough that we can't see where we're going, we also
can not see where we are putting in our front tires.
Lots of 'whoopps!' can be heard from the peloton
whenever we encounter drops that were concealed
by the rushing water.... there was even a dead monkey
floating at the downhill section before the 2nd
stream... I wonder how that monkey died? :(

The rain brought good things and bad. Bad thing
is it limits visibility and we can't hear ourselves
shouting (e.g. "THERE'S A DROPPP!!!", "WHATTTT???",
you get the picture). Good thing is we didn't feel
exhausted and so the journey to Casuarina was done
in record time.

But this ride has some expensive casualties, namely,
one Shimano sunglasses and one iPhone4 hehehehe.