Newbie ride at Sungai Sedim, 18 Nov 2001

It has been two weeks since KOM3 I have not been really seriously biking. KOM 3 was really a killer ride for me. I did try to ride on Bukit Gambier after one week of rest. Guess what? I was virtually struggling from the foothill to the peak. To make it worst, I was riding my VooDoo Erzulie, which was supposed to be easier to climb than my usual Red Devil. Thing was not getting better two days later. Again, on my VooDoo Erzulie, I was struggling up to the peak of the Batu Kawan hill. I have to admit my recovery rate has not been as fast as before. I have to take it easy or slow down a bit! Seeing that I am still recovering from the fatigue, I was thinking of doing something light and easy. I did not want to do nothing other than feeding the cockroaches in the toilet on the Sunday morning after two weeks of rest. Michael came into rescue by telling me that he had a newbie ride going on in Sungai Sedim.

I met Michael at the second base camp. Fatt decided to join the fun as well. There were a lot of new faces and a lot of Cannondales! I think 60% of the riders present rode Connondale. Man, where the hell did they get the money to buy a Dale F3000? The sight of so many clean looking bikes had put my orange Erzulie into shame lah. We quickly fixed up our machines before the briefing. I had a chance to chat with few of them. Sorry lah, they are really newbie. Never heard of KOTRT. Never know that there's actually a web site devoted for mountain biking in the Northern Region. Can't blame them as most of them don't even have a dialup account to any ISP available in Malaysia. Sometimes it really makes me wonder how long will Malaysia have to take to catch up with the rest of the world? Forget about the rest of the world, even the neighboring countries are already way ahead of us and start providing broadband service! Have you heard of time based 128k/256k broadband connection service? No? Come to Malaysia!

We proceeded to the first base camp after Michael's briefing("Warm ride to the first base camp via the tarmac road. We will have the second briefing when we are all there!"). It was a quick and good workout for sleeping muscle. The newbies were trying to catch up with the oldies. Yes, you can guess it. Most of them went belly up even before reaching the mud trail leading to the first base camp. It reminds me of my time riding in Sungai Sedim. We had to ride from the "office" of Rapid Fire water sport adventure to the base camp. The road was not perfectly tarmac at that time. I was still riding my then brand new Claud Butler Zagato. The last climb before hitting the logging trail was the one that I never forget. Funny, how come I did not remember I had to push my bike on that slope one? Hmm...

We rode back to the second base camp and started the actual ride after the so-called warm up ride(It wasn't warm up ride for some of the riders!). I volunteered to be a sweeper for this bunch of new birds. No, there ain't any hot babes that I wanted to follow. I just wanted to make sure they would not lost in the bush. I have been riding on this track for godzillion times already. You can say I was so familiar with the route like a back of my hand. But one thing for sure, the trail condition was never the same for every single trips I ride on this trail. It was no exception. The slippery section became even more slippery. It was fun to see how they handled their precious machines. I could see some of them were still not familiar with their bikes. You can really tell one, you know?
We had the first casualty after we cleared the durian orchard that connects between the second and the first base camp. That rider decided to quit the ride as he had enough. I decided not to push him to the limit as I could see he would not be able to survive the rest of the journey!

The ride became more interesting after we cleared 80% of the racetrack. Albert, the trade partner of Viper Ong decided to take us to a trail that we had never been before. According to him, it was actually an extension to the durian orchard trail. We had to ride on the tarmac out from the Sungai Sedim to the kampong. It was quite a sight as nineteen of us riding in peloton. We turned into a kampong lane after we hit the main road of Kampung Sedim. It was a flat ride. We crossed the over hang bridge and viola, we were on that extension! Speaking of which, someone told me that I was not supposed to ride on the over hang bridge. I wonder why, hmm....

Since I was not familiar with the trail, I decided to follow Michael as he had better sense of direction. It was a twisty trail. There were a lot of sharp turns. If I were not careful enough, I would definitely eat dirt at the couple of tight turns. Michael went faster and faster as he realized that I was tailing him. I decided not to let him go but I was at the disadvantage side. He had larger XTR crank while I was cranking a compact Alivio. Spin wise, of course I cannot compete lah! It was a nice trail. The climb was gradual, which make it an idea trail for beginners. And for speed demon, they would love the flat terrain for them to crank their heart out! Those with larger chainring will definitely rule on this trail.

We finally hit the junction back to the second base camp after a high speed chase between me and Michael. The rest were still far behind. Someone would have to be at the junction to them to the right way. Well, you guess it. I volunteered!

It was a fun ride. I could feel that my body really appreciated the ride for it to be relax. Michael and I were even talking about possibility of coming to do the complete ride, which would cover the cobra trail. Tough? Well, lets say it will give you a chance to shed your sweat!

Stay tuned!