The Agong's birthday ride, 3/4 June 2000

Phew! Lets see, I have not updated my journal for two weeks. It doesn't mean that I did not do any rides. I am just being lazy. Having done the same old thing since October 99 has become a routine job. It has become a responsibility to do it. Admit it, not many people like responsibility. I'd rather do the ride and then forget about it later. Thing has changed when you get famous. Everybody would start wondering what happen if the homepage were not updated. This is the reason why I decide to two weeks break before I come back to writing board...err...pc again to write something on our weekly event. Luckily, K.O.T.R.T is not as popular as Paul Kok's Cycleflex homepage yet. I thought if I don't write something for more than two weeks, I might receive emails from our concerned knights. Do they really care? Sometimes I wonder!

I was told by Azmi that A2W was gonna visit Penang a week before. I also received an email from Farizul of A2W about his plan to come to Penang during the King's Birthday. Having heard lots of thing about Farizul the Tiger Hill and recent write-up about Adli the Ice Cube becoming the King of Fraser's Hill, we decided to come out a ride program that was going make their trip memorable! After a few email exchanges among me, Azmi and ST, we decided to take them to the Tiger Hill on Saturday and K5 to Penang Hill on Sunday!

The knights from Penas were with us during the Saturday ride. Haven't seen them for ages. Wonder what had they been doing. One thing for sure is they all looked fit and ready to beat anyone of us, which was proven later during our ascend to Tiger Hill! We all met at Sup's place at 8am. It was arranged to meet at 7.15am. Apparently, out guests of honor from KL were too tired due to the night drive a day before. They did not show up until 45 minutes later. After some introductions to the Penas group and group pix, we all set to go! The weather was with us on Saturday. There was no hot scotching sun in the morning. The ride to Air Itam Dam was, well, as usual as our everyday ride. Not for the A2W folks! Farizul and Adli were already nowhere to be seen. They already raced each other to the top. I should have warned them that there was another hill and a long ride home after this! I had already seen one casualty at the second entrance to Kit Lok Si. Sha(hope this is his name!) already showed sign of retreat. He was like "Man what a climb!" I was tempted to tell him that this was just a beginning. A much more breathtaking climb lied ahead in Tiger Hill!

After a short break at the AID parking lots, we proceeded to the ultimate challenge of the day, the Tiger Hill climb! I learn it from the hard way. It's always safe to presume that the climb will be energy demanding and keep your own pace. Apparently, the thought of reserving energy was never in most A2W folks' minds. Some of them started sprinting up at the very beginning and then lost all their pace halfway. Of course, if you are a strong rider, that shouldn't be any problem. A recreational rider like me would rather be safe than sorry! I saw more casualties along the climb. Sup was punctured not even half of the climb(burning overnight oil hmm???). Siew Bee, Kar Hong the Datuk's girl friend decided to turn back after half way to the climb(Wonder what happen to her. She used to be a very strong rider!!). Azlina the red riding hood was cursing under breath but still hanging on. She called my MTB nick("Turbo Snail. Turbo Snail...") when I overtook her. Sha and Azman decided to stop by to "enjoy the view"(I don't know what view lah but anyway, I am glad they enjoyed the "view"). The pavement was quite slippery due to the recent downpours. My rear wheel slipped couple of times. In several occasions I had to climb down from saddle to push the bike because of the slippery trail. Ice cube and Tiger Hill really lived up to their reputation, the strongest riders in A2W. They were among the first group who arrived at the peak. Me and Azmi arrived later.

Highlight of the ride was the 25km endurance ride from Titi Kerawang to Sup's place. The first part of the ride before Teluk Bahang was a gradual uphill climb and then a fast and twisting downhill. DH on tarmac is always my favorite. I enjoy the wind breeze , the excitement and the thrill of the high speed on two wheels. This time I got new challenge from Ice Cube and Farizul, they were trying to outrun me in downhill. Tough luck buddy, you are in my territory. Furthermore, the tires they were using, the Michelin Phyton apparently were not suited for tarmac high speed ride. It was proven when Tiger Hill skidded at one sharp hairpin turn and the bike slammed to the door of an incoming Kia Sephia. It happened so fast. I was the first rider to attack the corner. Tiger Hill came few meters behind me. There were two incoming vehicles from the opposite lane. That Kia apparently cut into ours. I managed to avoid them but not for Farizul. A huge "wham!" ended Farizul's ride of the day! His Gary Fisher's front wheel was bent beyond repair! A Mavic 217! Luckily nothing happened to Farizul. Only a few scratches on his elbow. Since Farizul couldn't proceed anymore, Azmi decided to ask Gary's help to taxi him back to hotel and fix the wheel. The rest of us? After a short break at Teluk Bahang's coffee shop, we all started our journey back!

It was the hardest part of the ride! The afternoon sun shone high and hot! Azmi and his brother Sany were doing a team relay. I was all alone riding and trying to chase after them while fighting the gust and oven hot afternoon sun! I tried to make it home before 2pm since the delay of time due to Farizul's accident. It was one of the loneliest ride since I join the group! I finally reached Sup's house just 5 minutes before 2pm, an one hour of torturous road ride!

Dinner on the first day was done at Restaurant Fishing Village Seafood of Kampung Nelayan, Teluk Bahang. Thanks to Azmi, we all enjoyed the dinner very much. We also discussed the ride on the second day. Most of us agreed that we should do easier ride on Sunday. The initial plan was to do K5, which would definitely kill if not all, but most of us! I still remembered the expression of the A2W folks face when I mentioned K5! Man they couldn't say no coz if they said it, it means they admitted to the defeat! With my, Azmi's and Sany's devilish smiles, I think we have made a chill to their spine but hey, this is not a killing field. We don't kill to earn medal. So, we decided to do some easy ride, a relatively "easy" climb to Bukit Gambir.

Again, A2Ws were late to the meeting point on Sunday. Maybe they were overwhelmed by the Saturday ride. I later came to know that Gary worked overtime to fix his wheel so that our Tiger Hill would be able to ride on Sunday. Well, dunno what happen to him. He did not show up! Azmi's site of story, "Gear's engaged. Bike on the rack. All the sudden, "Sayang oh sayang. Marilah..."" The rest of story? You know I know lah! My high school buddy did not show up either. Other knights had been wondering what had happened to him. Hmm...for a guy who's just deeply involved in the girl thing, normal lah. We all will have to go thru this thinggy sooner or later! Anyway, we all went to our routine breakfast place at 1997 and set to go half an hour later.

Sun was already rise and shine when we are on our way to the trail head via Paya Terubong Road. It was a gradual climb to most of the Penang riders but not to most of our KL visitors. Technoman busted his bike's new chain twice on his way up. The chain job took him almost twenty minutes to get them fixed. We all regrouped at the durian hut, which was just next to the trailhead of the trail that we would be visiting. We continued the journey after the last rider showed up since we ran out of time.

I only have one word to describe the ride from Paya Terubong to Bukit Jambul - Awesome! This is a mostly downhill trail with a short bust of moderately steep uphill climb. The trail is quite challenging especially at the last stretch before we reached the foothill of Bukit Jambul. I was thrown off from the bike when I tried to break my own speed record. It was very bumpy ride. I was imitating a technique that I saw in one downhill video - no front brake. Next thing I knew I was already in the air when my bike front wheel hit a big rock in front! I felt exactly like the time I was in the air when I flew downhill in our Gopeng ride. Suddenly the time stood still. Everything seemed lasted eternity, and then wham! My instinct rescued me by twisting my body to the side, which would minimize the injury if there was any. I quickly climbed back up and continued the rest of the journey. I thought nobody saw it until I reached the foothill. Xiang was the next rider after me. Immediately he busted out what he had saw, "Oh boy you have to see how Alan fell! Like Kongfu movie man!! A twist in the air and fell with left shaulder touch the ground first!"...Was I lucky or what? Fell twice in front of this young chap own eyes! My last fall in front of him was during our Gertak Sanggul ride, which I had to put myself a blame since I was too thrifty to change my semi botak real Velociraptor! That was another story though!

We continued the journey 10 minutes later. Yeah, the ride did not end after that downhill fun at Bukit Gambir. We went to another climb in Sungai Ara. I could see the face of Little Red Riding Hood. Her face turned red to white. "Another climb again?" Pity her. I hope we won't discourage her from joining the Penang ride in the future! It was already 11am when we started the climb. It was a scenic climb but it would be a torturous one under hot scotching sun! I was there before so I knew the pain!

Time was approaching 12 noon by the time we tackled the climb. It had become a race against time rather than a scenic ride while stop halfway to enjoy the breathtaking view to Balik Pulau and Sungai Ara. It was not fun when there was no shade under the afternoon sun. The sun took the toll on riders, which I started to see riders in front of me stop halfway one by one. This is a very scenic trail. You could see riders in front of you riding up the slope from far away accompany by layers of greens. I wish I have pix to share it with you. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera with me!

It was a fun ride. I hope the A2Ws enjoyed them as well. Special thanks to Azmi for his treats on Saturday's seafood dinner and Dim Sum lunch on Sunday. Also, a big thank you to Gary for coming over to rescue during the unfortunate accident happened to Farizul. I owe you guys one!

Stay tuned!

An afterthought:

It was one hell of the weekend rides. My first time ever to do two tough MTB rides in two consecutive days! I am still having the aftereffect of the ride after resting for two days. Maybe I should skip my routine ride tommorow evening! The ride in Sungai Ara really worth visiting again. I think I am going to the same place to ride if we have another visiting MTB groups from other place again!

I have observed lately the email traffic has been very few. Is that because of everybody starts to feel like we are having too many rides in the weekends? Hmm... Maybe they are sick of going to the same old trails doing rides over and over again. It is time to look for new trails in the mainland now. That's why I start skipping some rides to look for new potential trails in Kulim. I'll probably do it again this coming Sunday!