Mt Erskine Easy Cranking, 17 June 2000
It all started when I received an email from Mr. Don McTaggart, a Scotchman who is now living in New Mexico, United States of America requesting a possibility of joining the ride with us during his one month stay in Penang. My reaction to the email was like,"Wow, K.O.T.R.T has gone international!" One thing for sure, K.O.T.R.T has gained more and more "recognition"(sorry lar, I can't any other suitable word in my limited English vocabulary) among cyclists not only in Malaysia, but also in neighboring country like Singapore. Anyway, after a few email exchanges, I decided to fix a ride for him on the first Saturday after his arrival. As a start, Mt. Erskine was chosen.
I went to Equatorial Hotel to meet him, where was he staying during his one month duration in Penang. A quite well built middle age gentleman. I could tell he was a frequent cyclist by just looking at the two bulging muscles on his legs. Oh yeah, he brought along his travelling bike, a foldable from Bike's Friday. I think I have read about it somewhere. Probably from one of the Paul's journals? First reaction when I saw the bike, "What? A foldable bike? Joking ah?" I was wrong! I later discovered that this bike rode well! Five of us, including our guest from US met at Mark Ostyn's house. After a brief introduction of Don to our ride leader of the day, Mark, we all set to go to the trailhead.
Trail in Mr. Erskine had changed a lot since my last visit few months ago. The trail had been widen to become a double track. There were couple of additional drop-offs, which were very new to me. Also, I found the gradient was a little bit steeper than before. Maybe because of haven't ridden for two weeks(busy schedule!), I found it quite energy taxing, especially when I was trying to fast spin my bike to climb up the drop-offs. Our guest has no problem to tackle the trail with his foldable, 20 inch wheel travelling bike. Of course, due to the small size of the wheel, he would have to climb down from the saddle to push the bike if the slope were too steep for his bike to handle. Tom later found out that actually that bike rode like a mountain bike, except the wheel was smaller!
Going back was the fun part. I just forgot my role as the host to our visiting folk. I was just storming down the trail. It was the bumpiest DH ride I had had so far! The drop-offs were great. Although I was not able to build up speed to fly over, it was quite a challenge to ride thru. In several occasion, I was nearly thrown off the bike due to the bumps and pot holes. Tom was trying his best to outrun me. I was able to stick to him until my front wheel punctured due to the heavy drop at one of the drop offs! It happened so quick. There was this third drop-off. I was trying to gain up speed to chase after Tom. All of the sudden, after a heavy landing at the third drop-off(It was quite heavy. The front fork just bottomed up!), I felt my front started to wash away! When I looked down, the tire was already flat!
The ride was rather short. We started at around 9am. We were already at the end of the trail at eleven! I have not done such a short ride in the weekends since I join this crazy bunch of overgrown kids! After almost two weeks absence from the saddle, it was a nice workout. At least, my legs and myself feel okay now. I was in a very bad mood in the past two weeks. It was so bad that my colleagues don't dare to talk to me! Oh yes, thanks to Don for coming. I hope he enjoyed the ride. Also, thanks to Francis, Mark and his son, Tom for joining. Actually, I already have plans to bring out guest to other trails in Penang. A "scenic" ride in Sungai Ara maybe? We'll see!
Stay tuned!