#171 : Tuesday Night Ride

Tuesday night and NoLights Louie surprised me

when she said 'Yes' when I asked her if she wants

to go to Mt. Faber with me and StairRider Deck.

I was thinking, that was quick? I normally have

to give a lengthy sermon about the virtues of climbing

before she says yes ...

... of course the main reason it was so easy asking

her to go was tonight was the night she was going to

pick up her new pride and joy from Hup Leong :

her new wheelset made up of Hope Pro2 Evo hubs

and ZTR Crest rims!

So, I told her that this new wheelset should be around

2 tons lighter that her last boat anchors ... errrr wheelset.

Not just that! This Hope Pro 2 Evo hubs should have no lag

when she pedals and all these points should translate

to better climbing performance.

To my chagrin, she said she can't feel if they are light...

and worst of all, she asked : 'What lag?'

Sighhhhh ....

Anyway, I lead NL Louie and SR Deck to a different

first lap. We went via Telok Blangah Rise instead of

going via West Coast Rd. This first climb should be a

lot steeper than our normal loop.

Well, either the wheelset indeed gave better climbing

performance or they are expensive placebos. NL Louie

was able to hang with us for 3 laps instead of her

customary 1 serious lap + 1 photo session lap.

Apart from the new wheelset, NL Louie was also

wearing a new helmet which is supposed to be women

specific. ... I still don't know what the difference

is between smaller men's helmet and a women specific

helmet ... might be just pure marketing gimmick?

Ok, now that I have sowed the seeds of doubt in

NL Louie's mind about the practicality of buying

women specific helmet, she did tell me that

this helmet is a lot airier than her previous Limar

helmet.

The 2011 version of the Uvex Onyx Helmet also

has mesh on the front holes to prevent insects

from entering the helmet. Also, it has that all

important sticker proclaiming that this helmet

is 'Made in Germany'. All that for just 69USD at

Jenson's USA :-)

Finally, on our way home SR Deck and

I were interviewing NL Louie and here is

the non-verbatim (and artistic license applied) 

transcript of the interview :

SR Deck : What's the diff between the Hope Pro 2 and

Hope Pro 2 Evo? (PS. looks like Pro 2 has been

replaced by Pro2 Evo. But Hope website does not say

the difference between the two hubs)

NL Louie : hmmmm ... it's faster?

SR Deck : Why?

NL Louie : Uhhhmmm... i don't know ....

MH : I told you not to buy that! If you bought

XT hubs and any ZTR rims, you would still

have change to buy decent brakes.

NL Louie : Damn the price! I want my hubs to

have that buzzing sound and it should be red!

MH : Why?

NL Louie : Duhhh! It's red and it buzzes! It's faster!

MH : Have you seen any Pro XC Rider using

those loud, buzzing hubs?

NL Louie : They don't?

SR Deck and MH : sighhhhh

*all pictures used with permission from

NoLights Louie



#170 : Sunday Ride



didn't say  'oh shit' this time




said  'oh shit'





we saw these guys playing at the 2nd stream



No wonder there is less people in the Mandai/BT

area yesterday and today, StairRider Deck and Fast Paolo

told me there's a race at Kent Ridge today!

Anyway, it was made clear from the start that today's

ride, although longish, will be at a leisurely pace.

Due to that I elected to skip BT and wait for SR Deck

and Paolo at Zheng Hwa.

After a short wait at Zheng Hwa Park, the two came

and the first sentence uttered by SR Deck is '... I'm dizzy ...'

Hehehe it turned out that my decision to skip BT was

correct.

So we had a long rest (around 30 minutes) and

after that, the route taken was NoLights Louie's

Personal Challenge, Reverse Flowy Trail, went

down to the foot of Gangsa and climbed the

first summit, went to first stream, 2nd summit,

2nd stream, u-turned and went to reverse Rooty

Trail, whew!

Lunch was at Bukit Panjang and once that

was over, we all continued the remaining

1/3rd of BT loop and went to Esso to clean our

bikes... which proved difficult for Fast Paolo

as he is suffering cramps on his hamstring, hands,

calves... basically he seems to have cramps everywhere.

Of course, if you ride with us, you'll know that you won't

get any sympathy from us. You'll get jeers instead

like : '...and you want to go to Muar?' ,

'mountain biking huh?' , etc. LOL

Anyway, all's well and good. The bike cleaning session

gave us all some rest and nobody cramped on the

way home :-)

I wonder if our guys did well at Kent Ridge...



#169 : Saturday Ride

Go to the entrance of reverse Rooty Trail. Now look back. This is what you'll see.

Practicing my bokeh technique

Me with an arty-farty shot

Couldn't get a picture of the train tracks as there are too many people.
Got this shot of this pole instead. Btw, for all you budding photographers,
the railways will be open for the next 2 weeks. You might want to check out
this great photo op.

Ahhhhh... Saturday.... my first real trail ride after three

long weeks. But is it just me or the cyclists in the BT/Mandai

area are getting lesser? Just an observation. It's good for me

anyway. I won't be able to attain that level of Zen with lots

of other mountain bikers around.

Today I skipped the BT loop and went straight to ZH,

reverse Flowy (Sc) Trail, went to the 'mango' trees and

went reverse Rooty Trail.

I didn't bother going to Summit 1 and Summit 2 as I noticed

there are less riders today ... I'm afraid there might be more

park rangers around. I'll just do the looonnnggg loop tomorrow

with Stair Rider Deck and Fast Paolo.

#168 : Random Pics

Been trying to find that little bit of fitness

I had. Three weeks without exercise, inadequate sleep

and two weeks of bad (but delicious) food will definitely

take it's toll.

I tried biking and slowly build the intensity level

of each ride ... but looks like all I've been doing is

taking pictures whenever an opportunity presents itself :-)





#167 : Farewell to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

I was writing this on a rainy Thursday (30 June 2011).

.. and since it was raining I couldn't go out for my 'getting

to know Bukit Timah all over again' ride.

Nothing to do ... and so I went to Instagram to go and

'like' some of the nice pictures there from creative people

from all over the world... and then I saw one of the people

I am following that today is the last day that the Tanjong

Pagar Railway Station will be open.

Hmmm... the railway is at Tanjong Pagar.. and it should be

near Hup Leong in Chinatown. So! I took an umbrella,

headed over to Hup Leong, ogled at stuff I can't afford

and then walked to the railway station.

There's an online contest going on. Search for #sgigktm

in Instagram and the above photos are my entries...

But I don't know what the prize is ... I also don't know

how they determine the winner... Anyway, I don't care.

It was a good photo opportunity and I got to see a piece

of Singapore history.



Spyder Jett Helmet

Ok, another helmet review :-)

I got the Spyder Jett helmet from Ross' at Cartimar for

800PHP. At the current exchange rate of 34.90PHP = 1 SGD,

that makes this helmet SGD22.92 !

Keeping that price in mind, I didn't bother weighing

the helmet. Not that it is heavy. It's just that at this

price I don't think I should be expecting much from this

helmet except that it should do what it was designed to

do ... that is to protect your head.

Fit is very good. Unlike other cheaper models of other

'branded' helmets (e.g. Giro), this helmet comes in different

sizes. So you will be able to find a size to suit your head.

Fit adjustment is via a dial at the back of the head and

foam paddings are also provided.

The Jett comes in various colors (yellow, green and blue).

I only chose yellow so that my riding buddies would see me

if ever I crash inside the forest.

As for cooling, it is comparable to all other helmets that

I have ... this is subjective anyway.

So, those are the good points. For the bad : At this price? NONE!



I'm Back !



Not sure about the name but I think this is North Ave MRT... this
was shot during Signal no. 1 of typhoon Falcon



Pond @Greenbelt Mall

Eastwood Mall

Manila Bay sunset

@Mall of Asia, center should be Pacquiao,
the rest I can't remember, but there's a farmer there
and a nurse

I'm back ! It's been 3 weeks since I had a
decent ride. The 1st week was spent holding
that damned prod support phone and the last
2 weeks were spent in Manila ! :-)

My family and I stayed at the Dusit Thani Hotel

in Makati and although it cost us a pretty penny,

it turned out to be for the best. Typhoon Falcon

landed in Manila during the first few days of our

stay there. This, of course, triggered some flooding

around the area but since we were at posh (ahem)

Makati, we did not see any floods and we just had

to walk around the various malls which are open,

business as usual, even with this typhoon around.

Also, this last visit to Manila I went to lots of

shopping malls. There's Trinoma and SM North Edsa,

Greenhills, Mall of Asia, Landmark, Greenbelt, and

the Gloriettas (there are 5 of them now) ... and last

but definitely not the least... I went to Cartimar !!!!

There are really lots of biking stuff in Cartimar.

Those things that you won't see in SG? They're all

there! ... and the stuff are all priced competitively

as there are lots of bike shops around all within a

stones throw of each other. Most of the bike shops are

literally just next door of each other.

So, when you go there, you better have a list of things

that you really need because if not, you will end up

buying lots of things that you already have in the first

place. Case in point? I just got myself another helmet

hehehehe. Come on, in my defence, the helmet was just

800PHP. How can you go wrong? I even wanted to

buy Exustar shoes ... except that I have bad experience

with them so I didn't.

I also got a set of Camelbak cleaning brushes for ... cleaning

Camelbak bladders. I think this set of brushes cost around

40$ here in SG, but over there it only cost me 450PHP hehehehe.

Thanks to my wife for looking the other way whenever I buy

more bike stuff :-) But this biking thing keeps my BP low,

so it should be good right ;-)

Sunday Ride

Going up to Summit2

What are these things doing here?

NoLights Louie trying my remedy for a slight fever.

Quote of the day : Oh Sheep !!!!!

Log jumps leading to the lake

While I was typing this post ride report, I was at NoLights

Louie's FB page and I realised that I was designated as

trailmaster for today's ride :-O

Anyway, today's ride was initiated by NoLights Louie

who is suffering from a slight fever and was looking

for a 'simple', easy trail ride just to let her sweat

a bit.... hehehe 'simple' trail ride ha?

So we totally skipped BT and went to ZH Park

by going opposite direction to Belukar Track.

Remember that fallen tree at the trail that leads

to ZH Park? It's still there. So after going under the

bridge, we went right and did the long-ish climb

to ZH Park.

After that, NL Louie complained of having cold

sweat. I know that the remedy to cold sweat is 1 lap

of reverse Flowy Trail. So that was what we did.

We then went to Gangsa and turned left to go to

the 1st Summit. After the climb to the 1st

Summit, NL Louie proclaimed that she is

cured of her cold sweat and so we went to

the 1st stream.

After the 1st stream, we pushed on to the 2nd

summit. When we finally joined the main trail to

the 2nd stream, I proposed to cut the ride short

as it was already 12:30. We went to the mango

trees, didn't bother going to Rooty Trail and

went back to RRR and then Esso to clean

our bikes.

I think this is the longest 'simple' trail ride I

have done :-P

Next week, I won't be able to ride as I am on

24x7 Production support :-(



Saturday Ride

Fallen tree blocking trail to ZH Park

Woke up and the sun is out ... no rains today !

So I took my own sweet time, had breakfast with

my family and cycled slowly to BT.

What a difference a proper breakfast makes :-)

I Climbed RRR and then went to ZH Park.

On the way to ZH Park there is a fallen tree at the usual

trail... had to push my bike to the right and

up up up the trail used for going to Belukar Track.

So if you all are cycling tomorrow, once you clear the

bridge, turn right and climb to ZH instead

of going straight.

I went to the Mandai end of T15, u-turned, did

reverse Flowy Trail and it was inside that trail

when the heavens decided to open up and pour.

I ignored the rain and went to the Summit ...

but while going down from the summit, the rains

started to get even harder and this time the

thunder and lightning seems to be just overhead

... so no choice, I had to cut the ride short :-(

Tomorrow, I'll try again :-)



Saturday Ride

Raining !!! .... but yesterday I had to deal with some

funky management style in the office resulting in me

staying late ... on a Friday! So, I don't really care

about the heavy downpour, I have to have my trail fix

today.

All my mates are waiting for the start of the 12hour

MTB Endurance Race at Tampines so I cycled on the

pavement until I got to Rifle Range Road.

Good thing that today is raining and there's a race

later on in the afternoon. I have the whole of BT/Mandai

Area to myself.

I went to the Mandai end of T15, went reverse Flowy (Sc)

Trail, went to the Summit, took the right trail instead

of the usual, got lost, found my way back, went to the

1st stream, detour to the new Summit, went too Second stream,

u-turned back, went to reverse Rooty Trail and then finally

went to the stairs at BT. Whew! I looked at my watch and ...

amazing! It took me just 3 hours to do all that !!!

Anyway, highlight of the day is when I got lost inside

the trail after the summit. All the time I was doing my

ride it was raining. So you could imagine that it was very

dark in the jungle.... I was doing my mindless pedalling

technique when all of a sudden, I realised the surrounding

area is no longer familiar. What freaked me out was that

I saw a pile of pots inside the jungle! Pots! Those where

you put plants in? Freaky! The atmosphere was good enough

for a B-grade slasher movie... and so whenever faced with this

kind of situation, I turn into Julien Absalon and pedalled

furiously awayyy until I saw the first stream. Ahhhh...

familiar surroundings, nice... tomorrow again :-)