Speeding Rules!

Before.

After.


Helmets saves lives and limbs.

The gorgeous crash victim.

Yesterday was the 6th time Isyraf and I went to Bukit Timah trail. I just love the clean air, and cool trail, sheltered by the dense canopy. I hate the long climbs though, tiring beyond words, for an unfit rider like me.

But I so LOVE the descents. Long, fast, bumpy. Just watch your speed, don't lose control and enjoy yourself. BUT, in the quest for more speed, some people forget control. And bam! Broken helmet, scratched up bike, and cuts, bruises and sprains that will knock one out of business for a week.

I remember telling myself before the fall, "The next downhill is clear. Time to speed. Just remember to slow down before the corner with the stupid logs, cos that's where you lost control the first time."

As I was enjoying the increased speed, (each time I hit BT, I try to go faster on the descents) the potholes gave their best at me. It was one hell of a bumpy ride. But nothing me nor my bike can't handle. Suddenly, with no warning, I was flung off my bike at that speed, landed forehead first, rolled onto my back, saw my bike flip over, and I landed on my back, with my ribs searing with pain.

Luckily a Caucasian jogger, Jamie found me, cos Isyraf was ahead. She helped collect my Oakleys, which thankfully came off, before I dragged my face on the wonderful forest floor, my helmet visor which broke off on impact, my bottle which was flung so far away, and my bike, 8 metres from where I was laying.

And the irony was, I hadn't even reached the corner where I was supposed to slow down.

I treat every fall as a learning experience. Don't overbrake with the front on slow steep drops, don't do this, blah blah. But this fall is different. I've got nothing to blame, the terrain was full of potholes and small roots, nothing I can't ram through. I didn't lose traction, nor did I skid. I can't blame my bike for the sudden fall. All I have come up with is, I was too fast and lost control.

I guess I have myself to blame. But who cares? I'll just go as fast the next time I go there again, and maybe lean back a little more than usual.

What saddens me is the loss of my Specialized Instinct helmet. A helmet is good for one major crash only, but I think I'm going to continue to use it cos I don't have the money to buy another. It cost $160 in S'pore, but I bought it for $60 in Japan. My XT brake lever, as seen from the 2nd pic above, is mauled beyond recognition Isyraf says its rugged, but I just say its ugly. Like a scar.

And now, i am rather afraid that my carbon handlebar may have internal damages after the crash, considering that the biked flipped and pivoted on the bars itself, cos even my Odi grips are scratched. I have to get the bike shop ppl to check my bar for damage. That bar is another pride I bought from Japan. Its hand made carbon fiber from a small British custom carbon fiber firm. The crash did more permanent financial damage to my bike than injure me. My shoulder, head, ribs and arm can heal. My bike can't.

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Anyways, time for confidence building again. I'll be off to Tampines trail next week once my shoulder and elbow gets ok again. I need the exercise and I think if I were to straight away go to BT to confront my fall area, I'll just chicken out and ride slowly. So visitor man, if you want to join me, be my guest. You were from VS also so I confirmed can click with you. So just contact me when you're free.

Oh, as for the other visitor, Yuva, thanks for the heads up at Kent Ridge. It wasn't useful at all. Haha. The trail there is undoable. Its not fun at all. So disjointed, and my bike is a hardtail, not a downhill bike. The trail is super technical, you need to be an expert to ride confidently there. I wouldn't mind trying, but if i lose my balance at certain points there, I'll just fall off the trail and into a pit of rocks. The whole trail is do or die. Make a mistake, and you'll fall off into a hole or pit somewhere. And once you're past the XC portions, which is indescribably dangerous, you have the downhillers section. Give me an $8,000 downhill bike, and I can definitely do the row of 20 insane logs down the hill. But my bike, with its laughable 100mm fork and no rear sus, is just insane. I'll wreck my wheels before I make it halfway down. And as for the trail, it has no clear direction and we were almost lost if not for the nearby road. Then again, maybe it was my first time at Kent ridge and maybe I need more time to get accustomed to the different requirements and difficulty of individual trails.

Well, that's all for this week and probably the next week too.

A Retrospective Perspective

ORD. A date many of NSF look forward to. But what lies ahead? School. Phooey. It doesn't start for 6 more months.

I miss my office! No juniors make fun and bark orders at, no tense confrontations with the overly sensitive grown man who has the emotional depth of a four year old boy, no more being the loved NSF in the office who gets free food and drink 'just because'. No more having CD to blame for my boring life. No more nightly sit downs with Fran or Michelle, and getting paid handsomely for it.

What irks me now is that I order no one. And I get ordered around, though politely and with quite a bit of wiggle room. Drive me here, pick this up, help me carry this. Argh. Shawn, I'm sorry I took you for granted, and you should relish the position you're in now. Dept IC there is the best job ever. All the perks, and all the subordinates to help with the responsibilities.

But I guess the biggest gripe I have with ORD life is too much time, no money. As the saying goes, no money, no honey.

I miss the expendable income I will get no matter what, on the 12th of every month, and the tuition money..

At least I secured another year of tuition with Fran. Michelle is going to be a challenge because I have to teach A maths. Told her to take 3 sciences, but she didn't want. I hate maths. Ugh.

I guess I'm a rather materialistic person. Not in the 'I will kill you for cash' kind. But I use it as a motivating factor to ensure that I succeed in life. Some people want to raise children, cure cancer, or save the environment, I want to be rich enough to buy my Carbon Specialized Stumpjumper, my Audi SUV to bring it to BT and M'sia, my Audi R8 for the weekends and my BMW R1200S which I will get when I'm around 40.

So it kinda of pisses me off that I only have a finite nonrenewable source of cash right now. Does not help that the job market now sucks shit.

Enough griping la.



My bike reached the 2,000km mark. Woohoo! Was going to send it for servicing when it reaches 3,000km but the NTU bike rally on 15 Mar means my bike needs to go for its first servicing, Can't have my precious hubs and BB getting worn down by year-old dirt during the 128km route.

Went to Bukit Timah trail for a 2nd time. It wasn't half as scary as the first time, and the place where I lost control the previous time is now highly doable, with the right application of my brakes at the proper time.

What I really cannot take is the stupid climb up those never ending stairs near the end of the trail. After going through almost the whole course, to carry my bike up so many flights of stairs really is bloody irritating.

All in all, BT is the most challenging trail I've been on so far, the most tiring one also. But hey, there's still Kent Ridge in the running. After a few more times at BT, I'll be off to try kent ridge, which would probably have easier climbs than BT but the here say on the forums are that KR is the most technical trail when it comes to the descents.

So wish me luck, and hope I don't wreck my bike, cos I'm as broke as an Icelandic funds manager.

Houston, we have a problem.

I just went to the Bukit Timah mountain bike trail with Isyraf on Friday.

One word to describe it, "HEAVEN!"

Beautiful singletrack, right smack in a rain forest, with streams flowing next to you, quarries to take your breath away, climbs steep enough to kill your legs from lactic acid poisoning, and last, but far from the least, descents long and steep enough to make you feel like a king for just being able to complete them without getting flung off your bike.

I would describe the trail as deceptively simple, but therein lies the danger. You climb a hill, push yourself, only to find a super long descent ahead of you, that is relatively even, or so it may seem from the top. Hurtling downhill, you find yourself enjoying the speed and trill of the descent. Suddenly, potholes, roots and rocks come into view in the middle of the descent.

You know you can't stop in time, for your tyres will skid on the slick forest floor, so jamming your brakes are out of the question. You know that you ride a hardtail bike, with suspension that's about to die, so ramming the obstacles at full speed would be suicide, so you have to select your speed carefully, not too fast or any deep hole or rut will get you flung off, not too slow or your momentum would not be enough to get you over the obstacles.

So all in all, it was a challenging trail. As you proceed further into the trail, once your apprehension starts to go away, and you start to get the hang of the descents, you start to relax. And there lies the trap that Bukit Timah has set for you.

I was going down one descent fast, relaxed, confident that the I could take anything the trail could throw at me. I took my hands off both brakes.

Big mistake.

Before I knew it, the straight descent had a left curve ahead. And as I got closer, fast, I saw rocks, and steps, one after the other, made out of small logs embedded in the soil. I checked my speed. 30km/h. Shit. Shit. I braked hard, but not so much so I would fish-tail.

I aimed to get out of the trail and onto the grass on the left, so that I wouldn't hit the logs and whatever else at that speed. Alas, it was too late. Trying to steer away from the logs, my front tyre and its insane sidewalls tried its best to climb the slippery berm, but it could not. I lost control and got flung off my bike, and rolled onto my back, thankfully onto the grass, and not into the trail.

I got up and dusted myself, and was highly thankful for my ass, which cushioned my fall. The only injury I got from that roll was the cuts my pedal studs gave me. My bike too, was uninjured, say for a few scratches on the side of the handlebar grips.

All in all, I'm going there again, this coming week, on a week day, cos I ORD next week! Woo hoo!

And yes, I'll be careful next time, and not be too overly confident despite the many other close calls.