Going Home

@the carwash

I was supposed to meet the PadyakPinoy group and 'StairRider' Deck

at the exit of BF Trail. Instead I saw Dennis C at Zheng Hwa Park.

He saw some of the gang coming home at around 8+ in the morning!

It turned out they went for the night jamboree in Malaysia.

I called Deck and good thing he did not show up or else he won't have

anyone to ride with in BT and BF.

Anyway, I showed the BKE exit to Mandai to Dennis C.

On the way home, we met Mike the Mechanic with two new riders

in tow.

So here's the video clip of me going home from the trails.

See you this coming Friday (Deepavali). Brother Louie says

we're riding Two Hills (Mt. Faber and Vigilante Drive).

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

City Ride

Boat Quay

Victoria St, right side leads to ChinaTown

Tanglin St, leading to Orchard Road

Sunday was supposed to be a quiet trail ride. But I worked

in the morning and after that, the rains came down and drenched

the whole of Singapore.

However! These things are not enough to deter an

avid biker like me :-) ... and so, here's a not

so short clip of my City Ride yesterday.

See you next week !

Saturday Ride

@Sc Trail

Some guys went to Kent Ridge, some went to ECP and some had to

work this weekend ... So this Saturday, only me and one other rider went

to T15 and Sc. We were supposed to do one fast and furious lap and

straightaway go home. But 'NoLights' Louie ran out of breath after

Rifle Range and so the "fast and the furious" became not so fast and

and not furious lap but we still managed to get to the gasoline station

by 11:30am. A far cry from last Saturday.

Anyway, I uploaded a short clip of the ride in Vimeo as I normally

see Vimeo clips having nicer quality... but after uploading, I see it having

the same quality as a YouTube upload.

Also, here's the clip in black and white. Don't ask why. It's just me testing

out some arty-farty stuff.

Bali Lane

almost all the shops here are cool



one of the few places in Sg where you can do graffitis legally



back alley, not in Bali Lane but in the same area

fixies are a common sight in Bali Lane

You ask why the interest in this area?

Lots of reasons :

- this is one of the few places where you can vandalize to your hearts content

- hangout of fixie riders

- you want limited edition shirts, shoes, etc? this is the place to get them

- lots of middle eastern restaurants

- said middle eastern restaurants literally roll out their carpets

   in the streets at night and everybody lies down while smoking hooka,

   reminds you of a big 70's pot session

- source for cool local clothing brands

- those are what i can remember at the top of my head, there's a lot more

   going for this place. go and visit it some time.



'Zhu Chao' @Jalan Besar Stadium HC

Mongolian Chicken and Mushroom and vegetables

Ok, first things first, 'zhu chao', are two words that literally means 'cook' and 'fire'.

That is if I remember how my wife translated it. But what it really means is

you order something and the they will cook it for you.

Today being a Friday is swimming night. We went to Jalan Besar Stadium hawker

centre afterwards (as usual) and decided to try this 'zhu chao'. Coming from the

pool entrance/exit, this will be the first stall that you encounter.

We ordered Mongolian Chicken and Mushroom and vegetables. What can

I say, either my standards are very low or I was lucky to find two good

stalls in the same hawker centre.

This is another 'must try' hawker stall if the Mongolian Chicken is

to be the criteria. The chicken tasted something like chicken barbecue

from Max's in the Philippines. As usual, no need to comment on the

mushroom and vegies as I think nobody would bungle cooking these.

Next time we'll try some of their more elaborate (and expensive) dishes.

Thai Ruk Cuisine

Store front of Thai Ruk cuisine @Jalan Besar Stadium Hawker Centre

Ground pork with Basil leaves, Seafood Tom Yum soup and Mixed Vegies

My wife has been bitten by the fitness bug for this past one month.

Her exercise of choice is swimming. Since she's still learning how to swim (with me and
 my son as her coach), she's so shy she does not want to go swimming
@Toa Payoh. She says there are many 'experts' there. We go to Jalan
Besar Stadium instead. After her swimming sessions we
go and have dinner at the hawker centre at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

While walking around there last Wednesday night, we decided to try this Thai food stall named

Thai Ruk. The employees of the stall (I don't know if they are the owners as well) are Thai.

There are Thai customers as well. Ergo, this must be good home cooked Thai fare!

Ok, the logic is flawed, but you know what I mean.

We ordered Ground pork with basil leaves, Seafood Tom Yum soup, Mixed Vegetables,

rice for the three of us and Tapioca with coconut milk for dessert.

My flawed logic did not dissappoint! This stall was a good find. The Ground Pork with

Basil leaves and the Tom Yum soup brings me back to the days when I was working for

a Credit Card Software vendor and I get assigned to Bangkok for implementations.

It was that authentic. The mixed vegetables, you say? Ok, it's good. But, how can

someone bungle mixed vegetables?

As for the tapioca... this is a bit of a letdown. The tapioca was a bit 'stringy'. It was

as if the tapioca was left in boiling water longer than it should have been. We've had more

'chewy' tapioca before. But, hey, I think that was nitpicking. For 19$ for everything,

how could you go wrong? This is a real "cheap and good" find!

Sunday Ride

Rainy Sunday Morning

Today's ride started with a very heavy downpour, thunder and lightning greeting me.

Good thing I met ReyToots and another rider on the road to BT. The ride to the trails

seem easier (and safer) when there are lots of you on the road. We saw all the other

Filipino riders camping at 7-11. They hollered at us to go and wait the rain out with them.

But we have to ignore them as we were riding with another person which will not be named :-)))

Anyway, the ride was quite fast as the rain really has banished all the effects

cycling in a tropical heat could bring. Every climb was easy and all the flat bits were

really taken very fast. Here's a really short clip of today's ride.

I went out of the house @8am and by 11:30am, I was already at our front door

with my wife looking at me disapprovingly because it looked like I played in the mud .... wellll ...

I did :-)

That brings the weekend to a close. See you next weekend !

Group Ride

Lunch in KFC @Mandai Zoo

Since the location of the past 2 weeks' Group Rides were all in the East, today's group ride

was done in BT area. 7 people had breakfast @ King Albert Park McDonald's and of course,

when we were jussttt about to go to the trails, the 8th member of the group showed up.

We cycled to Rifle Range Road and divided into 2 groups. The 1st group, led by

'StairRider' Deck, went to the entrance to BT carpark. I led the 2nd group.

We climbed Rifle Range and went in

the opposite direction of Belukar Track (I think that's the name).

We went to Zheng Hua and waited there for the 1st group. Once the 1st group came,

every one went to BF Trail. Well, that is every one minus two casualties (due to exhaustion).

I led the two casualties to the exit of BF Trail and I left them there so I can do a Reverse BF loop.

Once I met the 'leaders' of the 1st group inside BF, I took some videos, and headed back to the exit.

Once the group was complete, we then went to Sc Trail. 'Roadie' Rio decided that he has

had enough of Sc Trail and went home via Bukit Panjang Exit.

From Sc Trail, we continued cycling thru T15. It was there at T15 where 'SuperWoman' Dee

was stopped by a gang of monkeys which tried to take her bike away from her. 

She showed them that she can fly and land on her right shoulder unharmed.

When the monkeys saw that, they immediately proclaimed her as their deity and offered

her bananas to appease her. This is a true story. She has the battle wounds to prove it plus

there's the fact that monkeys didn't get her bike.

By the way, 'StairRider' Deck has prophesized that one day some thing like
 this will happen at the exact same spot!

After 'SuperWoman' Dee showed us the battle wounds she got, we then took the BKE exit to Mandai.

I think it was already 1PM by this time and everybody unanimously voted the KFC

at the Zoo as the place to have lunch.

After lunch, 'Superwoman' Dee said she's had enough of mountain biking in general
and monkeys in particular. So she decided to call a cab :-(

We awarded her the Purple Heart, made sure she got a cab and then all of us sprinted home.

Here's a short clip of the group ride.

Till next week !

Sunday Ride



stream at T15



I just realised that ever since I did the initial review of my Inbred, I have not talked about it again.

For my F1RST fork, I had to feel something wrong before I did the review.

So for this relaxed Sunday Ride, I decided to do a short video clip of how the On-One Inbred and the F1RST copes with the trails I frequent.

From watching the clip, I realised that I might have put too much air on my fork. It has 90PSI now,

maybe I'll make it 85 or 80PSI next time. Also, the GoPro Hero wide angle camera has this way of making all trails flat. In cases where the trails are not that flat, I slowed down the video.