#181 : Sneaky Ride

What else do I call a trail ride on a Wednesday

when all of my friends are working? Sneaky ride

seems to be a very apt title :-)

Anyway, I was on leave today. The first part of

the day was spent walking along Orchard Road for

the sights and any shopping that is on offer.

I went to the Mountain Biker's favorite store at

CineLeisure ... I don't see anything that catches

my fancy ... and when I was just about to leave

I saw it! They are selling 661 XC shoes! I checked

the price. It was 135SGD... hmmm... not cheap.

But not expensive too. My wife looked over my

shoulder and saw the price tag. She told me to

drop the shoe and come back for it 2 weeks later :-(

Fast forward to 5pm. I was cycling up Rifle Range

Road when I saw one mountain biker coming down...

Looks familiar...

why it's our good friend Sugar Rush Rey!!!

So SR Rey has been here for 2 weeks now! But

he can't come to the group rides as he works on

weekends ... for now :-) So after telling him that

I'm going to tell all our friends that he's back he

waved goodbye and I went to Zheng Hua Park.

From ZH Park, I went to Rooty Trail to get my

trail fix. After Rooty Trail I went to Bukit Panjang

exit and went out to Rifle Range Road exit

via the stairs.

#180 : Tuesday Night Ride

Very soon I may start changing the title

of the Mt. Faber Night Rides to NoLights Louie's

Climbing Progress Reports :-)

StairRider Deck was supposed to go with us

but he has been a victim of the 'establishment'

lately. So instead of cycling, he has been doing

over time work at his office. Tsk tsk tsk poor guy

hehehehe.

Nowadays, our first lap starts at Telok Blangah

Rise (instead of Pender Road). The 2nd and 3rd

(or sometimes 4th) laps then start from Pender Road.

Actually, I seldom write about our Mt. Faber nights.

There were two things that prompted me to write

about what went on tonight. First, NoLights Louie

has an iPhone4 which takes better pictures than

my iPhone3GS on lowlight conditions hehehe.

So since I have a picture, might as well write :-)

Second, I didn't miss SR Deck at all ! What do

I mean by this? While climbing, we normally talk

about what's happening at Tour de France, why

we must build a monument for Julien Absalon,

or photography. So tonight, I was pleasantly

surprised that I wasn't bored with my 3 laps

of climb. NL Louie was able to keep up and

we were talking about why nobody likes my

MTB pictures in Instagram hehehe.

So there you have it. NL Louie as leveled-up

and she's invited to Saturday's No-Stop ride!



#179 : Sunday Ride

Yep, I said yesterday that today is supposed

to be filming day. But a ride hungry NoLights Louie

sms'd me late last night asking where will I be going

... and that where ever it is, she's tagging along.

So, today turned out to be a proper ride

day. We went up Rifle Range Road and cycled up

to ZH Park. From ZH Park, we went into Rooty

Trail ... surprisingly high number of vehicles at the

entrance of Rooty Trail ?!

After doing Rooty Trail, we went to T15, all the

way to the end of the PCN at Mandai. We then 

did a u-turn and did reverse Flowy Trail.

The ride ended with us going to Esso to wash

our bikes and ... Lo and behold, the remnants

of PadyakPinoy/MTB Brothers are there having

'lunch' with a few rounds of beer !!! Of course,

those guys never fail to yank my chain as for some

reason they know I'm inside the trails in that area

but they could never find me hehehehe.

And! By the way, I still used my On-One Inbred

today even if I knew I was going into Rooty Trail.

But, of course, I changed the handlebar from my

normal 560mm Ti straight bar with barends to

a 680mm CrankBrothers  lo-riser bar.

I also changed the stem from 65mm to 50mm.

Day and night difference! Now, I won't be

scared to bring my steel HT into Rooty Trail anymore :-)



#178 : Saturday Ride

StairRider Deck is getting addicted to this

"No-Stop" long rides. Friday night and he has

already sms'd me that he wants the kind of riding

we did last Saturday. Actually, I was feeling

weak ... but hey, I won't be a mountain bike

"fanatic" if I let a small thing like flu to stop

me from riding today LOL!

Anyway, today Roadie Rio was not around because

he had to take some all important beauty rest as he

will be accompanying Fast Paolo to JB tomorrow

on a MTB Jamboree. Fast Paolo is getting addicted

to these jamborees as of late. Last week he just did

that Muar Jamboree.

If I am a 'fanatic' Fast Paolo should be labelled as a

'lunatic' as he will be cycling from Pasir Ris to the

Woodlands checkpoint where he will meet Roadie

Rio and the other guys (who also will be cycling

to get there) and they will all cycle to the race start.

They will then race for 40km, all off-road and

afterwards they will cycle back home. Ahhhh ...

I am not worthy!

Ok, enough about that. Today's ride started from

Balestier. Yes, Balestier! That's because both SR Deck

and I had breakfast at our respective homes. So from

Balestier, we cycled to the BT Visitor Centre, went

to Zhong Hua, Rooty Trail, Personal Challenge,

T15, Reverse Flowy Trail, Gangsa, Summit

and ended at the Mango Trees.

Last week, our timing from Visitor Centre up to

the mango trees was 2hrs 15mins. Today, we started

timing from Rifle Range Road entrance and we covered

a longer distance but we still clocked 2hrs 15mins.

We were faster today... but, it didn't feel like it.

We were complaining of being exhausted and

we were having aches and pains whereas last week

everything was fine.

Must be the hot weather today?

For tomorrow, I will be taking it easy

as I have learned my lesson last week.

If you see an uncle on a red On-One Inbred,

setting up cameras inside the jungle and filming

himself, that would be me! Do say Hi and

don't run over my cameras :-)



#177 : Random Pics



#176 : Sunday Ride

Fallen tree at Rooty Trail, there's a detour on the
left side (if you're going the right way. right side, if you're
going reverse).

Rant #1 :

You just know this will be a long-ish piece when

I start numbering my rants.

Anyway, I went home at exactly 12midnight last night

due to our company's Dinner and Dance. I got to see

all my usual riding buddies in 3-piece suits. I also got

to see NoLights Louie in her glamour girl disguise complete

with warpaint and itsy-bitsy purse. But I digress!

I woke up quite late but still quite happy and

elated because as mentioned in yesterday's post,

we were sooo fast hehehehe.

My wife fed me some wonderful hotcakes and off

I went to RRR. I made the trip in record time ...

remember this ... because I pumped my tires at 20PSI in

front and 25PSI at the back. They are tubeless Kenda

2.1 Nevegals, by the way. So the climb to RRR

was really easy. Hehehehe and I was congratulating

myself for being such an endurance machine :-)

I went straightaway to ZH Park and then to the

entrance of Rooty Trail. ... here we go now....

you know all those piles of logs jusssttt before you

really, really go inside Rooty Trail? I cleared them yesterday.

Today? I keep stopping at the top of all the log piles...

lots of head scratching followed.

... and so I continued on inside Rooty Trail...

and all the while obstacles that I can easily clear

yesterday stopped me today. Hmmmm... the last straw

was when there were these 2 chaps wearing the jersey

that exhorts motorists to give cyclists "1.5m to the right".

Those two just passed me! Nevermind, they seem

to be fit.... then later on a girl on a pink On-One

Inbred Steel HT also passed me?!

I just smiled and when I can't see the girl anymore,

I got off my bike and jumped and hopped and kicked the

nearest fallen log. By then I already knew what's wrong!

I deflated my tires until they became really floppy and soft

and then I started chasing those 3 who passed me.

I managed to catch-up with some ang-mohs from

Singapore Bike Hash (that's the jersey they were wearing)

and when I finally caught up with those 3 who originally

passed me, they were already exchanging war stories.

I wanted to take a pic of that girl with her pink Inbred

but I'm afraid the other 2 guys will mistake me for

a stalker and so I went straight to the mango trees

and dropped dead.

By the way, there's a fallen tree inside Rooty Trail.

There's a detour to the left of the fallen tree but it is

still unrideable due to the overhanging vines. I know this

personally because when I got through the detour, I heard

some gargling sounds coming behind me. I looked behind

and saw one tall ang-moh being clotheslined by a vine.

Hehehe, apparently being short saved me from

being clotheslined.



New Fox gloves from CrestPursuit Owen

Rant #2 :

This is not actually a rant but just a heads-up for you

guys looking for nice XC gloves. CrestPursuit Owen

has new Fox gloves .. which for some reason I don't

think he posted on his SMBF For Sale thread.

They're everything an XC glove should be. Simple

and they get the job done. The Fox logo and the nice

colour are just icing on the cake. Ok, if you want

me to nitpick, the only thing missing is the terrycloth

thumb that you can use as nosewipe. But that's not

too bad. You can use the sleeve of your jersey instead ;-)



Rant #3 :

I was literally down when I got to the "mango" trees.

I was lying down and waiting for clouds to make some

kind of formation so that I can take some pics for my

InstaGram... no such luck!

Anyway, while I was lying down there. It finally struck me

that "No-Stop ride" we did yesterday was too much for an

uncle like me. ... While I was under the shade I saw those

3 who orignally passed me and those ang mohs from Singapore

Bike Hash go up the trail that leads to that nice trail

that leads to Casuarina. I wanted to follow them but

this time I decided to be realistic :-(

Realistic means I need to go to Bukit Panjang, have lunch and

go home via RRR. No carrying my bike over the BT Staircase

for me today.

BUT! after lunch, I remembered I've always

wanted to go back to D-Loop! So I went to D-Loop,

and took some pictures. I was going really very, very slow.

My excuse was that trail is for hikers. But in reality,

I was just very tired. Who am I kidding? I've never seen

hikers there at noon! In fact, If you stop and look at

the mud patches there, you'll see MTB tire tracks

(and they're fresh!!!).



Ok, that's it. Before I sign-off, I leave you with

this video which Roadie Rio showed me. It shows

you / us how we should ride our XC bikes in general

and the Giant Anthem in particular.

#175 : Saturday Ride

Going into Rooty Trail

Going into Rooty Trail

Heh! Those two can have their action shots, I have this :-)

The past few days leading to this weekend,

people have been verrryyy quiet. Nobody wants to go

out and ride. All because of our company's Dinner and

Dance which is ... tonight !!! Everybody

seems to want some beauty rest ?!

Anyway, I don't think resting for a few days

is going to give me back my youthful looks so I went

out for a ride with StairRider Deck and Roadie Rio.

Fast Paolo is going for a race in Muar tomorrow

so he's going to need all the rest he can get.

Today's ride is quite and fast and there were

literally, and I mean literally NO stops at all !!!

We went into Bukit Timah via the Visitor

Centre Carpark, went to Zhong Hua, Rooty Trail,

crossed over to the Bukit Panjang Exit and went

up the Personal Challenge, went to T15 up to

Mandai, u-turned, went to reverse Flowy Trail,

went to Gangsa, went up to the Summit,

went to the trail that leads to Casuarina,

went back to the "mango" trees, crossed

over to Bukit Panjang Exit again but this time

we had lunch at Bukit Panjang. Whew ! All that

took us 2 hours 15 minutes

Roadie Rio was very pleased with our pace

and so he said something that I will use as quote

of the day : "Ang bilis natin !" (We're so fast).

LOL. Ok, I'll try to see if I can do all that

again tomorrow :-)



#174 : Random Pics



#173 - Sunday Group Ride

Obligatory shot of quarry

Original picture by Randy .... guess what is the title of this pic ....
hehehe 'Stolen Shot'

NoLights Louie busy with InstaGram while waiting for the rest

Brother Louie on the way to try his levitation technique

Resting at the summit

Dead motorcycle in Rooty Trail

I think the Eastern boys finally had their fill

of Pulau Ubin and Tampines Trail and so the

venue for today's group ride is Bukit Timah.

Yayyyyy !!!!

Everything was off to a good start as the peloton

assembled at Velocity in Novena just a little bit after

8AM. Breakfast was at 6th Avenue.

Everything went like clockwork. If this group ride

was a battle, I would have said there were no prisoners

taken and no quarters asked. Good thing there were

no newbies in the attendees.

Once the BT loop was cleared, everybody was

off to ZH Park and then to Rooty Trail.

At the exit of Rooty Trail there was talk of

having an early lunch but the leading uncles

said no to the walking wounded (AKA ElGuapo)

and that was that.

So we all went to up the summit via Gangsa and

went to the new trail on the right (instead of going

straight ahead) to get some experience of cornering

on natural berms.

At the first stream, NoLights Louie's patient,

ElGuapo, complained about hurting both left and

right shoulders as well as his spinal column (??!!!).

NL Louie showed her some stretching techniques

she learned in Electrical Eng'g and ElGuapo was

good to go.

Finally, a looonnggg lunch was had by all

at Sembawang Hill Hawker Centre.

After lunch, all of them went to YioChuKang

Road and I was left alone to cycle home :-(

Anyway, before I got home I took a picture of this

new bikeshop in Novena. This bikeshop is just

one block away from TEF. The shop's name is Elite

and they are selling ... no surprises here : Elite bikes.

#172 : Saturday Ride

My alarm clock went off at 6:30am today.

However, the resolve that I had last night of

doing a looonnnggg ride to and from Pulau Ubin

was badly eroded by what I saw out of my window.

It was still dark ... the spirit is willing but

the flesh is weak ... and so I told myself

'maybe another day' and went back to sleep

hehehehehe.

I woke up again at 8:30am and now I was feeling

up to the task of mountain biking. I didn't bother

sms-ing Roadie Rio and StairRider Deck since

I know they would have met earlier and might

be finished with their breakfast now and most

probably hitting the trails at Bukit Timah.

After wolfing down a proper breakfast of pasta

prepared by my long suffering wife (Hi Jen :-)  ), I went

and cycled to Rifle Range Road. I was thinking of

doing the BT loop but there's supposed to be a

group ride tomorrow and I thought I better

reserve some energy for that.

I skipped the BT loop, went up RRR and went to

ZH Park. Once there, I saw Lightning Lito schooling

some guys on trail bikes as to why a hardtail with

a capable rider is unbeatable in Sg trails :-)

I asked Lito if he's seen my friends and since the

answer is a negative, I gave SR Deck a call which

was unanswered and an sms detailing my route.

I went to the Personal Challenge, reverse Flowy Trail,

down Gangsa, up to the Summit, went right to the

'mango' trees and went to reverse Rooty trail.

After Rooty trail I went back to ZH Park and lo and behold!

I saw Roadie Rio cycling in circles without SR Deck!

Apparently, SR Deck has a sore throat and smsed

Roadie Rio that he can't come.

Roadie Rio and I completed what was left of the BT loop

and separated near the Visitor Centre carpark. He is

still supposed to do one more lap.

Anyway, for those going to the group ride tomorrow,

above is what you can expect of Rooty Trail. As

SR Deck describes it, it's just a flat trail with not too

many roots hehehehe.

Below this is a video I found in Vimeo of 2 guys

on XC bikes. Watch it for inspiration :-)

Introducing the 2012 Element Alloy 26 and 29 from Rocky Mountain Bicycles on Vimeo.