Gertak Sanggul Scenic Ride, Penang, 9 April 2000

It takes me a day to think how am I going to write this ride report. It is not because the ride was boring or something. In fact, it was fun! The zigzag and undulating ride in the farmer trail at the peak, the slippery downhill pave(where I had the most spectacular fall! Don't believe? Ask ST!) and the food that we ate after the ride made us wanted to go there again. It is just the thing like sometimes your mind is not in the condition to write. You know, kind of like "no mood lar!" thing?

Anyway, we had not ridden for two weekends due to the Cheng Meng festival. Yeah, the day that Chinese will have to pay their homage to their deceased relatives graves. Since I have six grandparents(Yeah six! My pop's own parents, my pop's adopted parents and my mom's parents.), I will have to visit them in three different cemeteries, Kubang Semang near BM, Sungai Bakap and Sungai Pasir near Sungai Petani. Speaking of Sungai Pasir, boy the slopes rock! I wished I had brought my bike over there and had fun man! I always wanted to ride in the cemetery. You know, the bumps here and there make it an idea place for a thrilling technical downhill! Okay okay, I think I have to stop here about the ride in the Chinese cemetery, or someone will sure spam me for not showing any respect to the death ones! So you know, I couldn't do it in one day so my family decided to split to two Sundays. Furthermore, ST, Ong, Mike and other big players that organize rides will also have to play their role in Cheng Meng. So, no rides for two weeks! It doesn't we will just stay in house, eat potato chips and drink our favorite beers. I believe some of the riders have taken this opportunity and secretly trained for the big day to come!

This time, we decided to join Michael Ooi Gertak Sanggul's abandoned golf course adventure. The original plan was to go to Ulu Mahang but we decided to postpone it to next Sunday since most of us had never been there before except ST the cOOOl kNIGHt. Michael reccee the trail using his own 4x4 before but he didn't reveal much about the condition of the trail except he mentioned there would be climbs, which we later found out that the climbs were too much for some riders!!

We started the ride right after we met the Mike's group in Gertak Sanggul. Well, I apologized for the inconvenience caused at them that they had to wait for me. I was half an hour late because I turned back half way to ST place after I discovered that I forgot to bring my socks. The initial climb looked moderate and similar to Batu Kawan climb. Still, we started to see the first casualty after the first bent. One of the riders from Mike's group decided to push his bike and fell far behind. Something was going on in this ride. No one wanted to be a sweeper! A big surprise to Fatt the Rubber Knight, he climbed all the way up without stopping! Boy, we are talking about a slope that is as steep as the one in K5! Though it was not as long as K5, it was certainly a feat to riders to complete the climb in one breath!

We were greeted by a bare terrain after the climb. No trees, no nothing. Just a wide bare red earth plain that I did not see any green. A major EV disaster! We decided to wait for the remaining riders since there were still some of them after me. During our stopover at the plain, Kenny showed sign of trouble. He looked pale and weak. Something wrong with him. We later found out he had fever a day before! I would like to point out here, if you don't feel well before the ride, cancel it. Nobody will blame for not turning up. Yeah the usual teasing and sarcastic remarks about your absent but they are harmless. It'd better be safe than sorry. Luckily, we were not at the point of no return, where it was too far away from the trail head and it was still two "more" kilometers to continue. We decided to let him go back to the trailhead since it was only about 1.5 kilometers away. There was still no sign of the last rider when Kenny went back to the trailhead alone. We did not know what happen. Maybe he thought the climb was too much for him to continue and returned to the trailhead. Mike decided that it was not worth it to wait any longer. He suggested that we should continue and left a note to tell the last rider to turn back to the trailhead and wait for us.

We only managed to continue a few hundred meters. We were hit by a thick bush that covered an abandoned trail. According to ST, there was supposed to be trail that would lead us to a waterfall. Someone would have to check it out if that bush covered were still rideable. Oon volunteered to check ot the trail. All the sudden, I heard big scream from the bush and everybody was running like hell! Oon was the last one coming out from the bush with his hands flapping all over his body! Later I learned that there was a bee hive in the bush! Poor Oon, he was stunned by the bees.

After the incidence, there was no point for us to continue. We tried another "trail" before we turned. The "trail" turned out to be another dead end. ST suggested maybe we should try another trail, which would take us to Pulau Betong, another side of the hill. Seeing that we hadn't really had enough yet, this was a welcoming suggestion. I always the one eager to go down first. The downhill was too short to be considered as fun! By the time I started to feel the thrill and the excitement of it, the foothill was already there! This was the shortest downhill I had ever had! I went back to the place we parked our car and waited others. Kenny was next to my car sitting quietly. When I asked about the whereabouts of the last rider, he said he didn't see him. Hmm...

Fatt showed up 2 minutes later and then the rest. Me and Fatt decided to go on first since we were always the slowest riders in the group. The climb was not as severe as the first one. We rode with cruising ease without realized there was actually another rider following us! As we were pacing along this gradual uphill slope, I started to change to the heavier gear to build up speed. With one click on my front gear shifter, the front changed to the second gear, a 34 tooth chain ring. I could feel the speed was considerably faster and need more paddling power to maintain the speed. Without giving up, Fatt followed the pace until we hit the fourth turning. You know, when the Rubber Knight is at your back, you can tell by a very distinctive clicking sound coming out from his Le Run. At that stage I did not hear it. Maybe he had spent all his energy to tackle the first climb, or maybe he thought he would enjoy the ride rather than busting his ass trying to go faster and faster, he was no where to be seen. I continued the pace until I reached the sixth turn, the heavy gear finally wore me out. I then changed back to the 22 tooth chain ring to get an easier pace. All the sudden, someone from behind asked me if we had reached the end of the climb. Shit I nearly jumped from my saddle! A shadow rider who silently followed us all the way! I then realized that it was Yeoh. We were already at the last turn before the end, I motioned him to go first and I followed. We both finally reached the end of the climb and followed by Fatt, who was just one turn away.

We finally reached to the best part of the ride, the downhill thrill on slippery tarmac pavement. There were already couple of riders went down first. Since I was the last rider during the return trip from the last stop, I was with the second group. The few falls among the riders had also slowed down the pace of the group. When we finally reached starting point of the descent, I was so eager to go down first that I didn't care about others and engaged my warp engine. The zigzag turns made the ride down to the foothill challenging! As the speed built up, the control of the bike became more and more demanding until I hit a turn. Suddenly, my rear swayed to one side and I lost control of my Dianmondback. The bike and me skidded on the hard surface for the entire turn! Worst of all, it was witnessed by Xiang and ST! Boy they laughed like they had just saw a comedy moment going on! Nothing happened to my Diamondback, just a few scratches on pedal and body but there was a big scar on my left elbow. It was hurt! Wish my fiancee was there and gave me love treatment...

It was a scenic yet in some portion, a quite demanding ride. The view was breathtaking. This is a track worth visiting again. What happen to the food? Oh yeah the food, we tried the koay teow soup and dried koay teow at a coffee shop across the street. Surprisingly, both koay teow soup and dried koay teow were excellent. "Maybe we are hungry!", exclaimed ST. Well, I don't know but I think I have the best koay teow from that coffee shop!

Stay Tuned!