Pertak

Pergh! Finally we were able to organise a repeat ride outing with the usual faces from Cameron's trip plus a few new ones. Mantap! Pertak it was. Nampak gaya macam last mtb outing before puasa month, but we have some stuff ready for the month itself.

Anyway, the usual faces made the trip worth of nonsense stuff & jokes & crazy talks. That's the fun of it. We met up at Sg. Buloh R&R around 7.15am & hit the breakfast table at Kaya Kopitiam. A value meal served with 2 half boil eggs, one thick toast & a cup of black coffee. Uish! Enough to make one to consider paying a visit to the loo before we head on to KKB.

The trailhead still the same except for a construction of box culverts were going on crossing the trail as we rode into the trail at 10.00 am.

As we went deeper after the river crossing, trail condition starts to deteriorate. Deeply carved trail from heavy 4X4 vehicles. Fallen huge tree trunks. Massive bamboo falls across the trail had us to detour into thick foliage. Some even forced us to pass around our bikes to get through.

The difficulty of the terrain claimed us an hour extra compared to our first trip here. We reached the dead end trail at 12.30 pm.

To overcome the exhaustion from the blistering ride in, we rewarded ourselves with an hour of nature's cool and refreshing deep pool of Sungai Pertak. It was totally awesome. Dah lama tak menirup...hehehe. A few bites of the sandwiches we brought & the rest of if was killing time.

We headed back down at almost 2.00 pm. Obviously the ride back was a self reward session when each of us tackled the cool technical descents in our own pace. Mutalib ran-out of brake pads, so tree hugging & bike flying sessions was his lesson of the day.

The rest of us rolled in at the river before we headed for our final rinse at the river behind our parked cars. The final reward was our big bites at the Kuala Kubu Bharu town at the mamak corner. All stayed numb & silence as we choked in the last feed and concluded our trip with a lousy massive traffic jam in KL.

Riders in non-alphabetical order :

1. Aimi
2. Mizi
3. Lias
4. Saiful
5. Alwin
6. Epol
7. Ija
8. Azhar
9. Mutalib
10. Nizam
11. Aku

The sky is the limit, the ground is hard...

After fulfilling this year's most awaited mtb race, a few of us decided to test the sturdiness of Kiara ground again by attempting the full loop. Maklum lah, race tak boleh nak bersuka ria macam macha dari Sentul.

We did the same route macam 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, Azahari who happened to be sitting in replace of Saiful who was abscent, made a face plant at the final technical stretch after the switchbacks & before the turn to lightning ridge. Handlebar terlibat sebab tersangkut kat tunggul yang comel. As a result, dia sudah bedal satu mangkuk maggi sup at devi's corner to regain confidence yang dah berterabur masa jatuh earlier.

We continued on with the usual route behind the school, on to barracuda & regroup at the pondok at the cross junction before hitting 2k. I was so anxious with 2k since attempting it twice the week before. Too bad for me, this time around 2k was a knockout round. I was soaring high into the sky over my handlebar before hitting the ground with my left shoulder...waliaoweiii! Location : Second left turning upon finishing the third rooted drops.

A mistake from chosing the line, ended up with the front wheel swallowed by a deep eroded root-hole. The unintelligent side of me stood there for awhile before Icecube rolled down passed me, also losing his line but didn't face plant.

The following day I declared my lazy day as I pampered myself with early roti canai for breakfast & reading the papers for the whole day. I missed pcc 120km ride to Kuala Selangor...huhu. Left shoulder, left arm, left thigh & right palm still aching from the fall.

Trail : Kiara kampung route
Mtbers : Aimi, Mizi, Alwin, Azri, Azahari Icecube, Hafiz (if I'm not mistaken) & me.

The Carnival

Last Sunday was another hit from Kiara. 7 of us did the full loop up to the kampung. It was so cool. It was a get together ride since all the Kiara faces were there & we were hitting the rooted climbs & rutted drops like machas from Sentul. Every attempt of the technical descents was followed either with huge laughs or handclaps. Hahaha!

After all those line chosing rides for the past few Saturdays & Sundays, I finally got to apply it today. As usual, at this time of the year, KL Mtb Carnival is held at Kiara. And all the familiar faces were there either to participate or to give their support or just to watch.

This year around, I was part of the 36-40 Cat. We had to race straight to the Final since there was only 15 of us. Race was resheduled, so we hit the trail at 8.15a.m.

It was awesome, though I finished 8th clocking 1hr02min46sec. Overall, it was a satisfying race since I managed to finish all the 4 gruelling laps and still enjoyed it despite my heart rate which was beating like a kompang. Yes, that's what we termed it each time we finished attacking those lung busters. Either you get kompang or you're busted. Hahaha! Thanks to my steed for another job well done.

Azri finished just ahead of me. Epol got himself the 4th prize.Mizi was playing manager for Epol.Saiful managed to survive one lap plus while Alwin made it to the final round in 31-35 Cat & satisfied his target. Thumbs up.

That was a gorgeous line...beb

Hitting the dirt & demanding singletracks of Kiara for two days in a row during my weekend was absolutely awesome. On Saturday Alwin & me started off with a warm up climb at the tarmac towards twin peaks before rolling down the race track towards the car park again. We did another round of the race track to get a feel of some lung busting climbs.

I decided for an early exit and spent the remaining 45 minutes at the bikewash area chatting with Jeng, ex-campus mate, Stanley of Bikezooka while Mizi & Epol joined a bit later after finishing their full loop.

Changing to flat bar with bar ends was not a good idea for tackling the switchbacks, even for the technical climbs. Turning radius was limited & shoulder was a bit tense. Not so gorgeous.

So, here come Sunday at Kiara again. I decided to abandon Bagan Lalang road ride with PCC & even Bikezooka series 2 for our full Kiara loop with 6 other Machas. They were actually the usual mtb buddies where our last ride together was Cameron. I named todays Kiara ride as the Machas ride due to the kecoh & huru hara we did on the singletracks throughout the ride.

Optioning back to my riser bar was an excellent idea. Every technical descents was picked with a gorgeous line hitting every drops one at a time in a rythm. Tyre preassure was perfect. Seat post height was precise. The delicate taps on the brake levers were magnificent. I had a great ride with great buddies.

After bikewash, we hit the lunch table at DU for some superb soto, curry mee & asam laksa. Around the table, we have Aimi, Mizi, Iwan, Alwin, Saiful, Epol & me.

Sayonara to downtown

Sayonara, sayonara...sampai berjumpa lagi. That song reminded me of my campus life orientation week. It might be useful to describe my post today. I'm leaving the busy neighbourhood of Jln. Yap Kwan Seng for another place in Ampang.

I'll be missing the busy and chaotic atmosphere. It was a great chance taking a job in the big city. Too bad it lasted for only 4 months.

My last day started off receiving a surprise quotation at my frequent mamak shop for my usual sandwich & canned nescafe. "Semua rm3.40 bos. Huh?! Selalu rm3.30 aje? Itu necafe sudah naik 10 sen, bos...sekarang satu ringgit sembilan puloh sen". Dang. 4 months, 10 cents increased for my breakfast. Lucky last day...hehehe.

The remaining 8 hours was 30% work & 70% non-work stuff. The following might be a summary of the things I'll miss :

1. Beef fried rice for lunch at avenue K
2. Cheap nasi kandar at KLCC
3. Tuna/sardin sandwich & cekik darah canned nescafe from the mamak news stand
4. The sight of arrogant looking arabs & stylish koreans student at the fountain
5. Late evening cityscape of towering KLCC from the meeting room
6. View of Yap Kwan Seng traffic jams during rainy rush hours
7. View of Klang Gate ridge from the pantry window
8. Friday prayers at the peaceful & spacious Maluri mosque

To all my ex-colleagues, it's been nice knowing you guys.