#201 - Saturday Ride

Last night I was chatting with a riding buddy
of mine saying that I would do a long ride this
Saturday. The ride would be from my house at
Balestier, to ECP, all the way to Changi Village,
to Pulau Ubin and then back.

Hehehehe rides like that, I wake up at 6am.
So I woke up at 8am today ... and decided that
I should go back to sleep and wake up again
at around 9:30am.

So in the end, the ride today was only 1 round
of Rooty Trail and Reverse Rooty Trail ...
which is actually a good thing since there's
an impending lonnngggg ride tomorrow
with the rest of the group.

#200 - Solo Ride

While watching StairRider Deck's video

of his Monday Sickness Ride, I got reminded...

it was 3 months ago since I uploaded a

video in my YouTube account.

Also, like I said in yesterday's post, all

of my friends were out riding while I was

paying back my sleep debt :-(

So today (Monday), it's payback time !

I went for a ride at Rooty Trail.

This time I don't have to describe the

ride as I video'ed it :-)



#199 - Saturday Ride

I just woke up from doing graveyard shift again!

On a Sunday morning! So while all my friends

have gone to the trails, here I am trying to remember

what it was that I did yesterday.

Actually, yesterday's ride was quite good.

I thought that I had to have a longer ride than

T15 or Rooty Trail. Good thing that a few of

my friends who are still into DragonBoat were

racing at Seletar Reservoir for the annual

Sava Sprints.

So, from Novena, I cycled to Bukit Timah

and went to T15. I went to the end of T15 and

went to Mandai Avenue. I cycled towards Yishun

Stadium and stopped at Seletar Reservoir.

I looked for my friends and after a short

chitchat, I went back to T15, continued

with the rest of Bukit Timah trail

and went home.

Whew! That was long! Anyway, while cycling

along Mandai Avenue, I saw this new-ish park

connector that leads all the way to Woodlands Ave 12!

I think I'll explore that park connector next weekend.

By the way, below picture was taken from

the Sava Sprints race by my friend Chay.



#198 - Solo Ride

Ahhh that's more like it :-)

I went for another solo ride today.

Most of the swelling on my right hand

and right knee is gone and just to

be safe I took my Giant Anthem with me.

I went to Rooty Trail and when I got out

I told myself if I cycled further on, I

might be pushing myself again ... and so

to be on the safe side, I decided to go

back home. But I went and did the reverse

Rooty Trail on the way back :-)

Lately, the trails have been dry and so

even with my balding Nevegals I did not

experience any slipping. I hope this weather

holds until I can finally get back to my

old routine.

By the way, below is a video done

by StairRider Deck. He got 'sick' last

Monday and went to BT, Rooty Trail and

Flowy Trail to cure himself of his

sickness. I think it worked because he

showed up at work on Tuesday fully

refreshed :-)

#197 - Solo Ride

While I was typing this post I have an ice pack

on my right knee. But before the ice pack, I had to

put a layer of cling plastic wrap on my knee

first because apart from the blue-black, I also

have scratches on my knee which I don't

want to get wet.

The base of my right palm is also swollen

and in the background I can here my son whispering

to my wife '... does he think he is still young ...'

I had irregular exercise for the past two

weeks. Not just that! The first of those two

weeks, I was on graveyard shift. Last week,

I was on call 24 x 7. So after those 2 weeks

from hell, I decided to give myself a long weekend.

To start off that long weekend, I went cycling

at T15. Just T15! I have learned my lesson

and I know that if I push myself, I will just

be courting trouble and since I am

riding solo I don't think I want to do that.

The thing is lack of sleep really has a way

of destroying whatever fitness you have built.

On the way to the trail, I had to stop near Tay Junction

for a breather. From then on I had to cycle slowly.

I went to T15 via RRR, Reverse Belukar Trail

on to Zheng Hwa Park. I rested at the Mandai end

of T15 and did a u-turn. I brought along my steel

HT because I was thinking T15 is quite simple.

But when I got back to Belukar Trail at the

part where the trail goes to the right to go

to the direction of the stairs, I encountered this

big root which suddenly seemed 'new' to me

and even before I could say 'Huh', I was

down on the floor. Sighhh ... I have to take it

really easy while I am still trying to pay

 back my sleep deficit ... so tomorrow,

I'll be back with my FS :-)

#196 - Random Pictures



#195 : Sunday Ride

Morewood Zula modeled here by Mike the Mechanic

Guess where all these trash came from

This Sunday ride was shaping up as the
same old same old ... that was until I went
to the 'mango' trees to do the Reverse Rooty
Trail and found the whole MTB Brothers
resting underneath the shade.

First off was a few hi's and hello's to friends
who are always on the trails but for some reason,
I seldom see. After that, Mike the Mechanic
stepped out and greeted me and said 'Have I
got a bike for your blog'. He then showed me
the newest bike in the MTB Brothers' stable.

The bike was a Morewood Zula and it had me
drooling. The bike was built like my ideal birthday
present. The bike's theme was black and red.
 It had wheelset from CrankBrothers, not sure if
it's the Iodine, but it was red. The fork was
black SID with red stickers and the groupset
looks like the new 10-speed SRAM X0 which
of course is black and red.

I asked Mike the Mechanic to be the model for
my photo and after shooting the pic, he grimaced
and said that it was a nice bike but that it was
very heavy. He then passed it to me so that I
could feel the weight and the whole group
laughed at the surprise that must have been
evident on my face. That bike in that form
was very very light !!!

After that, I googled Morewood Zula and found
a sterling review of it from BikeRadar. Hehehehe
I know one guy who's itching to burn some of his
money but does not know how to do it. This bike
might be 'it'.... ahem ahem calling Deck.

Now, if you notice I only took one picture
of the Morewood Zula (which I regret really).
That is because some of the guys called me again
and said to take a look at their 'harvest'. Their
'harvest' it seems consist of 3 bagfulls of
trash which they gathered from that trail
that leads to Casuarina.

The trash consisted mainly of plastic
water bottles ... which makes me wonder
as normally, cyclists carry water bags....

Anyway, be that as it may, there were also
gel wrappers and inner tubes. The water bottles
might be questionable but the gel wrappers
and the inner tube?

Lastly, there seem to be lot's of people
being introduced to mountain biking lately.
Almost all of these newbies that I know bemoan
the fact that they only have 500$-700$ hardtails
while we are on FS bikes.

Here below is a 4 minute clip. Ignore the first
1min 34secs and then find inspiration in the
rest of the video

#194 : Saturday Ride



Misty! Nice :-)




Misty background! Nice:-)



AirTime Mark contemplating what next to change in his bike.
StairRider Deck resting ... hehehehe he 'found out' he had flu
during the ride



Tabs after 2 years of hibernation

 There was supposed to be a big group ride
today. There were the usual suspects and then
there were supposed to be 8 newbies that we
were supposed to guide on their maiden Bukit
Timah trail ride.

All that was before the torrential rain poured
all over Singapore in the morning. However!
I don't think a full blown typhoon would be
able to stop the real mountainbikers :-) and
so the ride continued with StairRider Deck,
Airtime Mark, Efren and Randy in attendance.
Get this, even my original wingman Tabs who has
stopped riding for 2 years now, came for the ride!

Now that either shows passion or lunacy
...or both hehehe.

After the heavy rain, it was still drizzling the
whole day and the weather was perfect!
It was cool and windy and the trails were
covered by a light fog/mist. It's really
like riding in a country with colder climate.
Of course, there's the mud to contend with.
But if you have problems with mud then
mountain biking probably might not be the
sport/hobby for you.

Anyway, me and Tabs went up up up to the alternate
trail entrance/exit at RRR while Deck and the rest
started from Bukit Timah carpark entrance.

We went up to the Personal Challenge to see if she
would be able to conquer the climb on her first trail
ride after 2 years ... and ... tsk tsk she did it.
This means she beat a lot of guys I know.

We proceeded to the Mandai end of T15 and then
did a u-turn and next tackled the reverse Flowy
Trail and after that we went to meet up with the
rest of the guys at the base of the summit to
continue to that trail that leads to Casuarina.

Oh, did I mention that not a single time did we
stop during the whole ride?! Yes, it's official.
I now know at least two girls who can survive a
No-Stop Ride .....

By the way, did anyone notice anything about
the trail that leads to Casuarina? :-) To whoever
it is : many, many Thanks :-)

#193 : Sneaky Ride

I haven't been riding lately due to some projects

in my office... and that's a bummer. I always tell

my wife that I am no longer on high blood pressure

and high cholesterol medication simply because

I exercise. But now, not only I don't exercise,

the late nights and lack of sleep has made my

BP skyrocket to 140/89 ! But of course, my office

will not pay for my medication. They're just going

to give me a pat on the back and say 'Atta boy! Thanks

for the support'.

So the moment I saw my chance to sneak

out and get my trail fix, that's exactly what I did :-)

I went for a trail ride on Tuesday. There were no

people at all in RRR and in the BT loop. I didn't

see any people in T15 as well. But funny, there's

a group of riders in Rooty Trail and get this : They

seem to be doing multiple laps of Rooty Trail !

Not the normal to and fro thing but literally laps.

They ride the normal route (as opposed to the reverse

route that I favor) and once they get to the exit,

it seems they go to T15 and enter Rooty Trail

again! Must be nice :-) Why didn't I think

of doing that?

Anyway, since I was cooped up in the office

doing graveyard shift, here's a pic of me below

doing some laps in the office :-) Kept me sane hehehe



#192 : Saturday Ride

Singletrack
Orig Pic by NL Louie

I'm writing this post in the office ... and it's

a Sunday! Arrghhhh while my friends are

all riding, I'm stuck here inside my office

building in Tampines!

Anyway, Friday night and I got an SMS

from NoLights Louie. She told she is bored

of going to Tampines Bike Park and she wants

to go to BT for a ride. In short she wants

a tour guide.

Both of us just want a long-ish spin ride

on the trails and of course that rules out the

main BT loop as you need to pedal like a

hyperactive hamster in there.

We went to RRR and Zheng Hwa, after

that we went to Rooty Trail then to the

Mandai end of T15, did a u-turn and went

to do Reverse Flowy Trail.

If you were in that area yesterday, you might

have noticed lots of aircraft overhead and

lots of men moving in the bushes ... Let it not

be said that mountain bikers are thick skulled.

We took the hint and so we did not venture

to the more interesting trails knowing that

there must be some 'activities' over there.

We had lunch at Bukit Panjang and while

having lunch, it was only then that NL Louie

realised that she did all those trails without

any stops whatsoever :-) Hehehehe no wonder

lots of guys don't want to ride with her anymore.