Ouch!!!!

I wonder if it was because someone bumped me off a particular slope at Track 15 that left me haunted of the crash. You see, what happened was I crashed again at that particular slope. This time it was bad....

Thank goodness for gloves... These babies, saved my palms from pain.

Minor scratches on my right arm.

A blood clot on my left thumb...


Huge abrasions on my left thigh...

Abrasions on my right thigh....

And to top it of, a "Holey" t-shirt for landing smack on my chest and sliding downhill for a metre... Ouch!!!


Anyway, I guess that's what makes MTB fun man...
I am gonna own that slope the next time...


Till next time....

Tour de Hills

Feeling itchy for a ride, I decided to do a slow easy hill ride so.....

Slow easy hill ride ok? Sure!!!
Coming down South Bouna Vista Road was fun till I met the unsurmountable wall of Vigilante Drive. The dream just ended there....

Then next up was Mt. Faber. We did this 2 times up different ways.

After doing that, I thougt to myself, I shouldn't be doing this on this bike.

I should be doing it on this bike instead!!!

Moi...

World Champ Nick!!! Dead out from the ride....

Total distance : 76km
Elavation : 1600ft
Ride Time : 4hrs 25 mins

Night Rides @ BT

Went riding with company at BT at night....

Look who showed up!!! Yellow canary on a full sus tomac....

Monkey god vs Pigsy...

Posing for a shot.

Gimme a hug says Nick....

Reservoir Pic. BBQ and beer would be a treat!!!


Thanks for playing.

Pet Rocks

Recently, I have just taken up a new interest in collecting pet rocks...

As always, I have never been a weight weenie so weight just doesn't bother me much. But alas, to my surprise, when I opened my first aid pouch, I discovered 2 pet rocks. I have decided to name them Ben and Nick.


Thanks for the ammo guys!

HS

KHS solo mini-epic

Bought a new bike and love it. It's the KHS F-20-R white coloured mini roadie... For the full specs check here...



Anyway, I attempted something I wouldn't have done on a new bike. I decided to try a mini-epic on this bike to find out more about how well it rides. The results were quite promising.


So the route goes as normal starting from the west area at Bt Batok Central and heads to Mandai, Yishun, Hougang, Kovan, Old Tampines Road, Changi, East Coast, Keppel Road, up Kent Ridge Park from Pepys Road, Winding up South Bouna Vista and returning back to West Coast Road to Jalan Buroh then to Jurong Hill (I over shot and ended up in Tuas), then Boon Lay and finally back to Bt Batok. Took intermitten breaks of 10-15mins to have a hot drink and also to rest my joints as I had not been riding for more than 3 weeks. Still got me legs! Yeah!

Ride Verdict!

This bike rides very smoothly especially after changing the tires to Panaracer Tough Minits and also a Scott Speed Saddle. Managed to do coastal park connector at 38km/h comfortably but was over-taken by a bunch of roadies but managed to hang with them on the whole stretch of Jalan Buroh just by spinning. Thought I would take a rest by drafting them. They were not very fast, probably going 35km/h so it was quite good considering that I had already done 100km by then. The soft-tail kept rough bumps and road trash comfortable to ride on and also lessened the stress on the lower back.

This is a very good epic road bike as it folds and has a wheel-base that is slightly longer than your regular road bike. About 2 inches longer. Considering that it is lower than your average bike, it's centre of gravity is lower and also more stable. Bull-horns help reduce the vibrations on the front but make it harder to pound up hills. Maybe will consider changing to drop bars in future. The soft-tail is a boon on rough terrain and road trash. The bike is generally stiff on the frame but has parts that flex in front and the rear making the bike a very comfortable bike to ride especially on long distances. Top speed for the bike can reach 45km/h comfortably and can easily cruise at 35-38km/h even with its small wheel size. All in all, as a comfortable training bike, and an all-rounder if set up properly.

Ride Details
Avg Spd : 23.1 km/h
Max spd : 53.7km/h
Ride time : 5hrs 55min
Distance : 137.38km

Long overdue photos from a month old ride...

Lucky day that the Singapore Flyer was lit for maintainence so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures. These are HDR (High Dynamic Range) images where I combined 5 identical shot but with different exposures at 1 stop intervals. This produced the following effects after the tonal and colour mapping which is a very tedious process. For more info, Cambridge has a very informative site that even teaches you how to do it in photoshop!

Basically, what HDR does is that it allows you to create pictures with the full colour resolutions that normal 8 bit(jpeg) cameras image formats cannot capture within a single shot. Raw(48bit) formats are better able to do the job of capturing more colour and exposure information but that also means that you will have huge storage and slow writing times during photo taking. The HDR process allows you to map colours and tones so that you are able to brighten under-exposed areas and under-expose over-exposed areas of a picture.

Back to the ride, I started at 1am and headed out towards BT when I see a flashing light approaching me at the junction in front of the BT fire station. Half-drunk and tired Ben just came back from a drinking session with the gang. We chatted for a while and he told me that the Singapore Flyer was lighted up and was worth a shot. And a good thing too. I was actually headed to the East Coast Park connector to take that picture that I wanted to take for so long so I had all my camera equipment with me. So I took the usual route but instead of turning left at Nicoll Highway, I made a right to the Esplanade Bridge where I started to take pictures.

Marina IR in the making

Ben, forget the 29er. Check out this baby's hubs and wheel diameter; 150m!!!

At the SG Flyer's location, I took some upward shots from the sidewalk. I was practically lying on the ground and using a super-wide angled lens for these 2 shots.

Reaching the canal between the East Coast Park Connector, I finally reached my photo site at 5am. It was cold cold cold.... The winds were blowing non-stop and the tide was high. I was forced to wear my jacket which I was thankful I brought along. So I unpacked and started what I set out to do.


That streak is the flying in of a plane for landing at Changi Airport. This picture was taken at 5.30am in the morning and it was actually pitch black at the site. However, using a tripod and setting the camera to manual with a 60sec exposure, I managed to capture this shot of the plane flying in from the horizon.

A moment in time

Tranquil morning

The rest of the pictures below are regular pictures.

Lalang

Fishermen in the morning

Trail of gas and pollution as each metal bird descents.

Sky high

2 modes of transport

Riding back, I passed the Castle Beach near the East Coast Food Centre and there was a sand castle exhibit so I took some pictures before heading back home.

kiss me baby

Overall, the ride was a good one with a very chilly morning and great things to see, all within one ride.

Long rides and Learnings

It has been quite a while since Ben and I took a long ride non-stop. Well, last night I had such a ride.

We rode non-stop all the way from Dairy Farm to East Coast Mac where I had a huge breakfast before riding back from Orchard to Old Holland Road then back to The Rail Mall for a drink.

Sounds very boring, but that was how it was. It was just plain riding. The interesting part of the day was not the ride but the conversation I had with a friend whom I met afterwards.

After listening to my friend's story, I discovered a few things.

1.) People need a purpose in life.

2.) They seek what they wish to seek only to find out that it was the process they enjoyed and not the end result. (So what if the ends justify the means? Even if it did not, one could still enjoy the learning process!)

3.) Contentment is so lacking in people today as they want more and more things. There is never a perfect something/anything for them.

4.) Pain is something that is only a small part of life but people make it seem as though it is a huge part of their lives and get driven/affected by it.

5.) Most of the things we concern ourselves with usually has minimal effect over our lives but we tend to spend so much time and energy focused on them, not doing anything about it and neglecting the things that really matter to us.

6.) There is a time and place for everything. To concern oneself before it is time, is a waste of time and there is nothing you can do in reality.

7.) The greatest lesson I felt after listening to my friend was that one needs to learn how to be happy. Happiness is something that people associate with things or people in their lives today and in my opinion, that is not truly being happy.

To be happy, BE happy. You need nothing else.
Just BE...

While coming to realization of all the above, I am sad to say that I too am guilty of the charges presented above from time to time. However, it is the constant conscious effort to work around them that make us better and happier people as we grow and learn. I had a wonderful lesson this morning.

Thank you my friend!


Ride Details
Distance : 115.97km
Avg Spd : 22.3km/h
Ride time : 4hr 58min

There is an answer, some day we will know,
And you will ask her, why she had to go,
We live and die, we laugh and we cry,
And you must take away the pain,
Before you can begin to live again;

So let it start, my friend, let it start,
Let the tears come rolling from your heart,
And when you need a light in the lonely night,
Carry me like a fire in your heart,
Carry me like a fire in your heart;

There is a river, rolling to the sea,
And you'll be with her for all eternity,
But we that remain need you here again,
So hold you in her memory,
And begin to make the shadows disappear;

Yes let it start, my friend, let it start,
Let the love come rolling from your heart,
And when you need a light in the lonely night,
Carry me like a fire in your heart,
Carry me like a fire in your heart;

And when you need a light in the lonely night,
Carry me like a fire in your heart,
Carry me like a fire in your heart;

And when you need a light in the lonely night,
Carry me like a fire in your heart,
Carry me like a fire in your heart;

To cry is to feel JOY flowing,
Allow that...

Jurong Hill

Another climbing route tonight. This time it's Jurong Hill. Ben seems keen to get me up every hill in Singapore. In no time, I think I should would be going up mountains if this keeps up. The route was simple, we headed to towards Jurong East then Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim before going all the way straight down towards Pioneer North Road. Wrong choice of road. It connects to part of the expressway. We should have taken the road to Boon Lay then go past the industrial estate and make a left towards Pioneer North Road. Lucky for us, it was very late at night and there were no cars on the road. We did meet many patrol cars though. We even saw a group of punk riders get stopped by a patrol car early in the morning.

Anyway, this seems like the season for hill climbs and short rides, but hell do I feel more tired after these rides. I have done 120km a night but hill climbing seems more tiring than long distance riding. Jurong Hill, just beside Jurong Bird Park starts with a long low gradient slope that gets steeper as you progress upwards. Hitting the car park midway, you will face another climb almost twice the gradient of the first part of the climb. Happy climbing!

Finishing the climb, we were aimless and headed to a Mac at Jurong West for coffee to replan our next destination. After much discussion, we decided to head for our regular Jurong West Nasi Lemak. At $4 a plate, consisting of ikan bilis, fish cake, chicken wing and egg, I felt that it was very expensive as the Nasi Lemak at Changi only cost $3 for the same stuff. The interesting this about this malay guy who sells nasi lemak is that he can speak almost perfect mandarin!!! Try talking to him. The stall is located at the market at Jurong West. After that, we headed back to Bt Batok for more food. We had eggs and toast and coffee. The funny thing was, we could still eat! I wonder if it was the hills we climbed. I don't eat as much even on long rides. This is like a makan ride disguised as a hill climbing ride...


Ride Details:
Distance : 28.2km
Avg Spd. : 18km/h
Ride Time : 1hr 39mins