#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.

 

 



#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



#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 :-)

#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.

#213 - Sunday Ride

Randy and Deck

Long time RC friend Jack

My u-turn point in T15 was blocked by trees.

Efren

My friends know me very well now. They knew I won't

be able to make the 7AM meetup at Velocity. However,

they started calling me at around 10AM knowing that

I'll just be around the trails by then hehehe.

Anyway, Randy, Deck, Rey and Efren joined the

MTB Brothers' group ride that started from Casuarina.

Once they got into the trail they all went in the direction

of Reverse Rooty Trail. I think it was at the end of

Reverse Rooty Trail that they separated from the

MTB Brothers as they wanted to do a u-turn,

go into Rooty Trail again and exit back to

Casuarina.

While they were on that group ride, I cruised

T15, did a u-turn near Mandai and did reverse

Flowy Trail. By the way, thanks to the guys who

cleared that newly fallen tree near the end of

reverse Flowy Trail.

I then went on to do reverse Rooty Trail

and it was here where I met Efren, Deck, Randy

and Rey going the opposite direction. Apparently,

they have been calling me! But I couldn't hear my

phone, Anyway, they told me to abandon my sissy

route and go with them to have lunch at Sembawang

Hill Hawker Centre... and that was what we did.

Also, there's some logs missing in Rooty Trail

today. Whoever, did the clearing of those logs,

thanks guys!

#210 - Sunday Ride

Pic by Hup Leong Mechanic John

Sunday and I woke up late again. Good thing there
seems to be no group ride today. I was thinking of
taking my own sweet time in the trails.

.. and so being late already, I skipped the Bukit
Timah loop and headed straight to Zheng Hwa Park ...
only to find Efren, Sugar Rush Rey and Stair Rider
Deck waiting there with the rest of the MTB Brothers!
Arrghh they caught me!

The MTB Brothers group seem to be getting more
members? There are lots of new faces. After the
obligatory group pictures, every one went to Rooty
Trail. Everybody stopped for a regroup under the mango
trees and when we asked where they are going next,
everybody answered they're all going to Esso to clean up
their bikes ... and no doubt that will be followed
by the obligatory drinking session hehehehe.

So the four of us, Efren, Deck, Rey and myself went
to that trail that leads to Casuarina and had our lunch
at Sembawang Hill Hawker Center.

By the way, just before the trail exit, I almost
fainted when I saw people hiking and going the same
direction as us. I wanted to tell my buddies to do
a u-turn. But as I drew nearer to the hikers, they
turned out to be people playing with remote control
1/10 4wd crawlers. Whew!

#207 - Saturday Ride

3 fallen trees !

New fallen tree @Rooty Trail

Raining but still going to that trail leading to Casuarina

The Eastern boys still haven't gotten enough of
Pulau Ubin and so nobody was inquiring about
the possibility of a group ride in Bukit Timah.
Sugar Rush Rey and Stair Rider Deck have been
asking me to go for this Saturday Ride at BT
but the problem is I'm having difficulty waking
up early lately ... and so I couldn't commit.

Saturday came and I woke up at a relatively
late time of 9am... I knew it. If I said yes to my
friends then I would be making sooo much excuses
and apologies by now. I went to Zheng Hua via
Rifle Range Road and once there, I smsed Deck
that I am present although late and that I would
be going to Rooty Trail.

Surprise, surprise! The entrance to Rooty Trail
is flooded! I thought the lake has overflowed due
to the rain. But as I went deeper, my worries turned
out to be unfounded. But Rooty Trail was still
very wet and muddy.

Upon exiting Rooty Trail, I saw three guys who
seem to be playing at the farther end of the lake?
As I went nearer, the 3 guys turned out to be Sugar
Rush Rey, StairRider Deck and Fast Paolo.
Hehehehe it is turning out to be the season for
stupid accidents. Bukit Timah was soooo muddy
that these 3 guys thought to go wading in the lake
to wash off the mud that they have on them.
As Stair Rider Deck was stepping in barefoot
into the lake, the stone he was standing on moved
and so he dove into the lake! The dive cost him
his big toe nail!!! The stone chipped the toe nail
off his big toe! Nyahahaha needless to say, nobody
wants to go wading into the lake now.

It was then decided that we're going to that
trail that leads to Casuarina and have lunch at
Sembawang Hill Hawker Centre.

The ride was going very well ... until we reached
the third stream. I saw some 'official' looking
people with ID cards dangling around their necks.
I was saying a silent prayer : 'if you let me go today,
I will never again cycle to Upper Thomson on a Saturday'
Hah! My prayers were answered! Those guys didn't
even look at me. I am normally the last guy in our
group rides. But today, I pedalled like mad and
nobody caught up with me hehehehe. I only
stopped when I reached Upper Thomson. Once
the rest caught up with me, I asked them if those
official looking guys 'talked' to them ... Fast Pao
said they only asked if they were here last week.
I get the feeling that if my friends said yes, the result
will be different, but since Fast Pao said he just
came in to Singapore yesterday, those guys
just waved them away. That was close! Whew!

#206 - Sunday Ride

It rained very hard during the night and it only let
up around 6:30 Sunday morning. I asked StairRider
Deck if we're still going to Pulau Ubin ... the answer
was a positive ?! Crazy!

Anyway, we had to cycle fast because when the
Eastern boys set their meeting time, it's always
at 7:30am. ... and of course when we show up
at 7:30am, none of them are there. As usual.

So, people started trickling by 8:30am and by
around 9am, our group is complete and Team
MTB Brothers are also in attendance. This would
be a big group ride.

The group attacked Ketam trail and some even did
four laps non-stop. Me? Hehehe I don't like this
trail. I once did four laps non-stop but doing laps
isn't my thing. That what I like about the BT/Mandai
area. You can do laps if you want or you can do
a point to point ride.

Enough excuses! I just did one lap and then
a few of us went to get drinks while we left
the more hardcore ones to do their four or five
laps. By the way, Hup Leong mechanic, John,
lost an argument with a tree and he is sporting
some new scars on his right shoulder as a memento.
I told him to wear sleeveless jerseys from
now on as chicks dig scars hehehehe.