Kayuhan Warisan Taiping2

Group photo

Pre start photo. Better take a photo now as tomorrow will be packed with riders.

All smiles now while we still have the energy

The first obstacle.

The VIP gave a short speech and the horn was blown to sound the flag off. Flag off was at 7.30am which was good as it meant cycling in the cool weather.

The first part was cycling on road lead by a pace vehicle. It should be a warm up ride but it turn out to be a road race! The pace car went fast with everyone trying to catch up. I was doing about 30 - 35km and struggling every bit as I had not warmed up yet. Mike and Ah Yang were the front riders and they said at times they were cycling at 40km per hour. Way too fast!

After riding on tarmac for about 15km we finally hit off road which was actually dirt road.

Ok, I thought, the best is yet to come

We cycled past beautiful ponds, lakes, rubber and oil palm plantations, kampung road, dirt road again and more kampung road but where was the track that will lead into the jungle, into the mountains that we saw on the way?

An ingenious idea of video taping the ride.

Bottle neck on a single track

Unfortunately, that was all we got. A long distance ride with hardly any challenge of mountain biking.

Waiting for our numbers to be called but we were not so lucky after all.

My precious.

IBIS Mojo SL.

After riding a full suspension bike, it will be difficult to go back to hard tail.

My old faithful Specialized is still with me. She's great for cycling on road and I use it mainly for night cycling now.

Thumbs up for a nice long distance pleasant kampung road ride.

The distance: 66km

Ride time: 3 hours 48 minutes

Time to go back.

Will I go again? Maybe, and only after I see the reccee photos.

The travelling journey was too long not to have a satisfying ride.

Tampin Hill Ride (4/5/08)

The last time I rode up Tampin hill in November last year just before PCC Ride in Kajang, I took about 50 minutes for the short 4.5 km ride. Why it took so long? It was riding up up up all the way. Some parts are about 10% gradient and most parts are 15% – 20%. I was panting and had to stop many times along the way to catch my breath.

A group of us went last Sunday to re-conquer the hill. It was an achievement because it took me only 35 minutes. I felt it was a good achievement as I considered the 3 short stops I made as moments that I put my feet down. My future goal is to ride all the way up without the feet touching the ground.

After the good effort by everyone to reach the top, Ah Chai decided to try the off road track on the way back. The track initially look good with potential for the coming MTB Jamboree sometime in July (I think). Then reality started to come in. We hardly had saddle time and each time we pushed our bike, I took comfort that we will reach the peak soon and the rest would be a nice downhill ride, but the peak seemed to elude us. After each hill top we reached, there’s the little break of flats and then it’s uphill again.
To make matters worse was when some shouted there are lots of leaches around. Suddenly everything moving bit on the ground became clear. The little twigs that were swaying on the ground were actually leaches waiting for hosts. They seemed so happy to see us with their rhythmic sways and I can almost hear small shouts of “Lunch coming!”
I looked at my shoes and there was a couple of them about to sneak into the socks.

Every few steps, we had to stop to swap away leaches from our shoes and legs. There were even thoughts of them crawling into our privates. Yuks! It was our journey to hell.
Again, I took comfort that the trail will have an ending and we would see the path to some clearing or road and so we pushed on.
The final hill was the toughest. We had to stick our feet into the soft mud and climb through bamboo trees. Our tough riders such as Doha complained how did such a track exist. Who did the clearing and went through this kind of obstacles? Must be someone crazy.

It was a table top peak with some clearing and a hut. But the trail ends there! All the trouble we went through was for nothing. I bet Low KW must have cursed a lot while trying not to get his precious Cannondale Rush scratched. We had to go back to where we started and go through all the obstacles and leaches again.
It’s now the 2nd day and the body’s still aching. No thanks for the 7 leach bites that itched all night and spoilt 2 good night of sleep plus I lost a good Sigma bike meter.

It was an exploration not to be forgotten.

Friday Night Ride 4/4/08

Details are as follows:

Alor Gajah Dataran Keris
Ride start 2030hrs.

C u…On..On..

Ride leaders – Alor Gajah guys

Night ride 3/10/07

It was supposed to be a nice night ride yesterday 3/10/07. "We'll use the same route as yesterday" (Tuesday night ride), said Captain. I would say last Tuesday ride was straightforward, almost no hill, going through kampongs and back. So easy was the ride that my wife completed it and it was her first longest ride!

Back to yesterday's ride. We were on the same path for about 1/2 hour and Captain decided to detour into a rubber estate. I happen to look behind at Siew Mai as he was the last man behind and saw him took a tumble. He rode over the centre part of the laterite road where it was higher and lost control. He took it in his stride as a learning experience.

Captain took us deeper and deeper into God knows where and all this while I thought he knew where we were going! Never mind, we have faith in his sense of direction. So we continued cycling into the darkness of the night, passed single track route made technical due to trying to avoid cow pies.

Lots of uphills and thrilling downs (the absence of light always makes the ride more thrilling) We finally reached civilization and it turned out to be Water City. The last strech was a race to our favourite mamak stall for a well deserve teh tarik and bragging stories.
Whye trying not the get his Giant dirty.
Our new Knight Rider, May. By the way, she rides as fast as the boys.
Tough night huh, Keong. Followed by Pang.
Konica moment.
Merida sisters in a row.