#278 - Quick and Dirty Mini XC Race

Friday, Jan 31st is Chinese New Year in Singapore.

Those who have been living in Singapore for some

time now know that lots of commercial establishments

(even hawker centres) are closed for a few days. 

So what can we do when faced with this kind

of predicament? Hehehehe hold an XC Race maybe?

... and that is exactly what Owen of CrestPursuit

and the rest of PadyakPinoy SG thought so.

This is a very informal race. It was unsupported

and unsanctioned. You may even think of it as a

'timed' group ride and you get lots of beer

afterwards ;-) Hup Leong bike shop also donated

some items for the raffle draw :-)

The venue was supposed to be the Tampines Bike

Park where the Youth Olympics for XC was held

BUT of course later on it was announced that that

place would be closed for CNY as well. So the race

was held at the back where the Moonscape

and Kidneys are situated.

Anyway, I went to Tampines to join in the

heckling hehehe. When I got there, the Race Committee

told me that I am not too late and I can still join!

Huh?! No no no not today. I told them my wife

just told me to buy a bottle of vinegar and

that I just lost my way.

At that point, Owen of CrestPursuit and John

of Hup Leong was leading the racers on a 'neutral lap'.

This neutral lap will show the racers the complete loop.

I sat down at the Race Committee's hut and exchanged

"hi"s and "hello"s to people I only see in Malaysian

Jamborees.  After a few minutes, all the racers came

and lined up at the starting line. Owen mentioned that they

need more marshalls and the Race Committee

immediately volunteered me to be one of the marshalls.

There goes my heckling plans.

Owen explaining the rules : no biting, no headbutts, no hitting below the belt, etc.
- pic by Louie Aribon

The Race Committee

Start of the race !

The racers were divided into Beginners' and

Masters' Categories. I think Beginners would include

those who have not raced in Singapore and Malaysia yet.

Masters Cat didn't have anything to do with age.

If you've raced before, then you'll be grouped here.

I didn't see the actual start but it seems there was

a delay because Nick McHugh had a puncture and

Owen had to lend him a wheel. Anyway, after that,

the race started and the pack went on to the forest

and then they had to go to the Kidney (not sure which

one, lower or upper?), then they went towards my

marshalling point and then went towards the

ex-Moonscape part, went down towards the hut and

that would be 1 lap.

Beginners had to do 3 laps and Masters had to

do 4 laps. The first lap leaders were Anton and Bal.

After the 2nd lap, it was Bal leading by a margin of 10

seconds from Nick. At the 3rd lap, Bal was still leading but

Nick was already glued to his rear tire. At the fourth lap,

it was already Nick who was leading, followed 

by Darren (mechanic of Bike Haus 6th Ave) then followed by

Bal who I think hit the proverbial 'wall'.

First lap

 After the race, I immediately got down from my
marshalling point and did a lap of the race loop.
The forest area is nice and dry. The Kidneys are
nice and flowy too. Sigh... too bad this place

had to go to make way for some new development.

Overall nice guy Nick McHugh of PadyakPinoy SG won the race

The top ten. Notice the different team jerseys? PadyakPinoy SG,
Tropang Putikan, Lagalag and MTB Brothers are all represented

Me ! - wearing RED . It's Chinese new Year :-)

#271 - Thinking Out of the Box

Jungle Trail in TT

Most MountainBikers know by now that Tampines Trail will

soon make way for a new town (i.e. Tampines North). There are

plans to look for a suitable alternative site ... but I'm not holding

my breath for that one.

 

Anyway, MTB Chatmate Alex sent me a link this morning.

.... and that is why the title of this post is Thinking Out of the Box.

Apparently, Alex and his kakis were bouncing ideas around and

it dawned on them : Why not make the Tampines Bike Park

a unique feature of the new Tampines North town?

 

So instead of the usual shopping mall with the usual tenants

(e.g. Giordano, McDonald's, etc.), why not have a Bike Park

instead? Yesss, keeping the whole Bike Park as it is now will

definitely limit the space for new houses. So why not just keep

the BMX part?

 

So head on to this link and read the whole article. Who knows,

we might be able to save a piece of TBP?

 

 

 

 



#258 - Tampines Trail

I think this is the 6th straight day without rain.
Trails should be nice and dry!

 

 

Oh, right! I remember I have a blog !

It's been quite some time since I updated my blog.

I only remembered it because there will be another

Jamboree in Malaysia (Batu Pahat this time) and the

last post I did was for another jamboree.

 

Anyway, I am not posting on my blog lately due

to (1) being busy with work and (2) sometimes, pure

unadulterated laziness on my part. I still haven't written

my helmet reviews ... which reminds me, I can actually

do a helmet battle royal seeing the number of helmets

(either cheap or mid-priced ones) in my play room.

 

Lots of things happening in the MTB scene in Singapore

as well. If you haven't found out yet, there is a new organization

that was created to cater solely to the needs of Mountain Bikers

in Singapore. Here is their website. Be sure to check out the

explanation of why the 'S' on their logo has 2 blue bands :-)

 

MBA Sg also has a page dedicated to Trail Etiquette and

clearly does not condone irresponsible behaviour on the part

of Mountain Bikers. However, they are also the first ( and only?) 

ones who explain the behavior of Mountain Bikers to the

general public (see Oct 15 entry in their News Section). 

Unbelievable! I got 'lost' in Tampines Trail ?!

Attack the Jungle Trail!

Lately, I have been going to Tampines Trail.

My teammates told me that the jungle is very nice

now and so are the Upper and Lower Kidney (that is

if they are still called that). There was even this short

trail called Ewok Jungle!

 

We've been doing our Night Trail Rides there lately.

No neighbors to complain and the place is really well

kept. Kudos to the guys who maintain this trail.

 

... but the thing is, we all know that Tampines Trail

will be gone in two years time ... I'm not sure if the

Jungle Trail will be included in the redevelopment

or just the YOG area. Anyway, just to be safe, I decided

to make a short video as a remembrance before Tampines

Trail is finally turned into a Condo or whatever.

 

 

 

 

 



#247 - Tampines Trail

Green Trail. Nice!

View from the top of Teletubbies (not sure if it is still called Teletubbies)

View from the top of Teletubbies (not sure if it is still called Teletubbies)

View from the top of Teletubbies (not sure if it is still called Teletubbies)

There are five water points where you can wash your bikes.

HobbyLink's Uncle Sam with his RumbleFish.
I have a time to beat now : 5 laps in 1 hour :)

I have started heeding Roadie Rio's advice to not
flog myself doing two consecutive hard rides. So Saturday
was a hard ride and Sunday, I cycled to East Coast Park.

On the way to East Coast Park, I passed by Nichol Hiway
and saw a few stragglers from the last night's Sundown
Marathon. Hehehe these guys really look spent. I even saw
one girl who seemed to be on the verge of tears (Really!).
Anyway, a few minutes more and I saw this marshall on a
motorbike telling the runners/walkers to go to the sidewalk
as the lane is going to be given back to motorists' use.

Anyway, I cycled all the way to Changi Village even if it
was very boring. I wanted to do a u-turn and go back to
Fort Road but just imagining the mind numbing ride
back was enough to make me think about other routes.
.... and then it hit me! I haven't gone to Tampines Trail
since (around) New Year of 2011. Why not pay a visit?

... and so I went to Tampines Trail and signed in.
Instead of going full throttle into Trails A, B and C, I went
into the green graded trails first.... it was sooo nice. It might
be that the day was overcast and the sun was not beating on
me so fiercely but the place is sooo green. There are no visible
signs of the green trail being overly used. The green trail
eventually led to the carpark ... but before I reached the
carpark, I saw an area where you can play PaintBall wargames!

After looking around a bit in the PaintBall Area, I went into
Trail A (the old Teletubbies?). I used my granny gear all the way
...and surprise, surprise, I saw Uncle Sam doing his laps on his
RumbleFish. I have always thought that 29ers would be "slow"
in Tampines Trail because it is all twisty singletrack. But seeing
Uncle Sam with a 29er... he doesn't look slow at all !

I finished Area A and was going to Area B when I saw
Uncle Sam and he was telling me to go to Area C
(the old Ziggurat?)  and chase him! No thanks!
I went to Area B instead and continued doing the trail
on my granny. I must say that although there are lots of
switchbacks in Area B, the trail still flows nicely!

I finished Area B and went to Area C ... still on my
granny gear, Uncle Sam passed me!??! That was fast!
Since it was his last lap, he talked to me a bit. He told
me he normally does five laps in 1 hour and then quickly
cleans his bike, because as I said in my last post, he is
"paying" for 25 years of RC racing "debts" hehehehe.
So yesterday, he was again in a hurry because he needs
to run some errands. Too bad because I wanted to try
his RumbleFish and satisfy my curiosity about 29ers.
Next time maybe.

I cleaned my bike leisurely in one of the five
available water points ... free of charge :)
While cleaning my bike I chatted with another
cyclist named Anthony who was on a Jamis Dakota.
In hindsight I should have begged him to let me
try his Jamis Dakota as I really wanted to know if
the Carbon Fibre seatstays make a difference in
taming trail chatter.

Anyway, we talked about how well maintained
the trail is. Actually, the trail is not just well maintained,
it really does flow nicely and once you are very familiar
with the trail flow, I imagine it is very easy to attain
Zen on this trail.

... And lastly! 
1. I noticed Uncle Sam was wearing a Bontrager RXL
2. I bought threadlocking compound from him to
attach SPD cleats to my own Bontrager RXL
3. points 1 and 2 should be enough hint for me
to post the review of the Bontrager RXL :)

New Year's Eve Sneaky Ride

1 week later from original sneaky ride but still same weather!

It's New Year's Eve! ... and of course, we really just had

to test Paolo's new Trance and Sherwin just had to go back

to those rocky downhill stuff that he didn't manage

to clear last Christmas Eve.

Here is today's video and see if Sherwin did clear the rockies

and if the Giant Trance is really more than enough for

Tampines Trail :-)

See you next year!!!

Sneaky Ride on X'mas Eve

We really just had to test Sherwin's new Revelation Ti :-)

We had to cut the sneaky ride short due to lightning

It's Christmas Eve and companies here in Singapore normally

send their employees home early in penance for keeping them

long after office hours for the rest of the year.

However, some of us realise that Holidays are purely for family

gatherings and that it would be very difficult (nay, impossible!) for us

model husbands and fathers to get our trail fix. In light of this

logic Sherwin invited all our friends (via FB) to go to Tampines

Trail once we were dismissed from our respective workplaces.

But the holidays have claimed the riding times of most of us

and only Sherwin, Deng and I were able to go riding.

Here's the video clip of our sneaky ride. We had to cut the

ride short though as there was thunder and lightning. LOL. Clearly,

we were reminded to go home early to our families :-)

Leaving you with pics from the fresh section of NTUC. Had to do some last minute grocery shopping.

Tampines Trail

On Oct 23, 2010, a group of volunteers went to Tampines Trail to open

up the Jungle Section that has been clogged with fallen trees for a few

months now. Pictures of the volunteers' efforts were uploaded in

the Facebook page of Dirtraction.

This news has generated much interest in our office since a lot of

my friends reside in the East. A group ride was scheduled for today.

However, the ever unpredictable weather in Singapore decided

to dampen all the excitement by providing heavy rains from

last night up till morning today.

So, alone as usual, I went off to check out what has been done

in Tampines Trail.

First off, do not start your loop by the usual entrance of MoonScape.

The bridge that ends MoonScape is unpassable. It's going to go any time

soon. The other jungle trail that is near the MoonScape bridge is still

not passable as well.

The jungle trail is indeed passable now. But gone are all the twists

and turns. All the 'NorthShore' components are also gone. It is

now just an almost straight line from the entrance to the exit.

There even seems to be a swamp inside there now.

Also, for those dreaming of riding in the 'Rockies', I think when

the news reports said that the Rockines will be unavailable 'indefinitely',

they really mean it. It is still closed and people are still working  there.

Here's a short clip of the ride today

Tampines Trail

the bridge is missing some planks



tampines trail has been newly cleared of mimosas

Mountain Bikers are normally a patient lot when it comes to sharing the trail with hikers and trail runners who are not even supposed to be in the biking trail. However, today is The NorthFace 100km trail marathon. So, no choice, we had to go elsewhere. Kent Ridge is out. Everybody who's joining the MTB race tomorrow is practicing there today. Besides I think I'll be doing more bike pushing there than riding. Ketam was the venue for last week's ride. So, we're left with Tampines Trail.

The part of Tampines Trail that was used for YOG is still closed. There are lots of guessing going on in the online forums but here is the real story. So, off we went to cycle in MoonScape and the Kidneys (Upper and Lower).

Lucky for us that the powers that be have finally realised that human skin is not impervious to mimosa thorns! Hurray! The dreaded mimosas are gone. The grass and the mimosas have been cut and you can now see the trail. The bridge that signifies the end of MoonScape is missing some planks ... there are even a few nails sticking out ... the Kidneys are still muddy... there is no jungle canopy .... but apart from those, everything is fine. As I said the grass and the mimosas are gone (for now) and I think the trails were somewhat 'smoothed out' (trail maintenance?). Hopefully, the authorities open up the Rockies soon! ... and do maintenance in the jungle section ... and don't charge too much for entry fee ... and add bike cleaning equipment ... and...

Pics brought to you by 'AirTime' Mark

Tampines Trail

Tampines Trail

looking back at the entrance

last downhill of MoonScape ... and yes, there is a chance you might end up drenched

looks like some people have already declared the jungle segment 'open'. I didn't go in though. Maybe next time...