Ulu Mahang XC Adventure, 16 April 2000

It was a fun ride. 21 riders decided to try their guts at Ulu Mahang, a 14 km kilometers pure offroad XC in the Gunung Pongsu Forest Reserve. Actually the original plan was to finish the whole loop, which means a torturous 30 plus k ride that covers 25 kilometer of uphill battle on logging track, thrilling and long downhill kamikaze and another 5 on tarmac riding back to trailhead from Mahang. We decided to put this on hold due to the presence of new riders. There were so new that some of just got their bikes for two weeks!

The riders all gathered at the Shell Gas Station, BKE at 0800 hours. Since I had to fetch my high school buddy, Fatt the Rubber Knight at his house in Juru, I told the group that I would wait for them after the Kulim Toll plaza. Everything went smoothly except the ST's group was late. I later found out that they went to Qwan Nam of Chai Leng Park for breakfast! Anyway, we all set off to the trail head and arrived there half an hour later.

Our last visit to this trail was a year ago. To my surprise, the road still looked the same. Nothing much had changed. Even the house that was built half way a year had yet completed! Boy, it seemed we had entered into the Nexus, the dimension where time has no meaning! Oh finally, the eternity! "Captain Kirk, I thought you were dead!" Boy, I swore I saw him chopping wood at one of the back yard of the kampung house. Okay enough of it. We started the ride at 0930 hours, which some riders already some comments like time already and we would have to get it done as soon as possible.

It was a fast ride. Even though we had few new riders with us, most of us decided to ride in a fast pace. I really felt sorry for them, first time rode with us and they already had to burst their ass to keep up with us. In just a mere few hundred meters, one of the riders already gave up! I was the last rider who started the climb. I was supposed to be a sweeper. A sweeper I was. Instead of waiting for them to catch up with the rest, I swept them aside! Bad, bad, bad! Maybe I was in such a "good" mood, I decided not to wait them and sped thru to catch up the first group.

The secret training at Batu Kawan really paid off. Rubber knight showed another surprise by being the one in the first group! Kudos to Fatt, you have done well! I finally caught with the first group as they were having a pit stop at half of the journey. After few chats with them and some pictures taken, I decided to continue the ride. I asked Fatt to be with me since we two were always considered as the slowest riders. Kenny decided to follow us. He was moaning about fixing the wrong tire for this ride. Hey, a Tioga mud tire was supposed to be very suitable for this trail okay? We are talking about a 100% off road trail here! Yeah, the "I can't swim coz my balls are heavier today" syndrome! My rear Desert Raptor was turning into a semislick already but I still charged the downhill slope with full confidence, err, with few skids of course!

The downhill portion of the ride always fascinate me. No matter how many godzillion times I had mentioned it in my previous journals, it was just thrilled me. Maybe the quest for speed is part of my gene. I don't know. I always find going fast gives me all the excitement. This time it was no exception. The ride after the pit stop was just a long downhill ride from the top to the bridge of river. It was bumpy, it was dangerous because of the falling branches and the knife cutting leaves and it was fun! Speaking of which, I think I nearly lost my head when I was charging down at high speed at a portion of the trail. All of the sudden, a string wrapped around my neck and I couldn't slow my bike so that I could get rid of it. Instead, I stomped thru the thick bush and the string snapped away. It was painful, and there was a long cut on my neck. If the string were a non-breakable fiber string, you won't see me writing this journal again okay?

We reached at much earlier time mainly because of most riders were capable and had themselves trained during the two weeks of absence. After the time me and Kenny arrived, Fatt and the rest reached the meeting point 5 minutes later. I can see the long uphill climb and bumpy downhill ride had taken the toll on the remaining riders even though their bikes were much better spec'ed than mine(full sus versus hardtail). Maybe they were not used to the off road riding yet but anyhow, I am sure they all enjoyed it.

We only stopped for a brief moment and decided to cycle back without dipping ourselves in that crystal clear stream. The long downhill thrill became a torturous uphill climb for a lot of riders! I volunteered to be the last rider to climb again. You know, you need at least one rider to be a sweeper right? At least, the group would know who had left behind when most of us reached the trailhead. I had been to this trail before, so I knew I'd better not to be hurried and conserved my energy for the coming demanding climb. I started slowly and gradually picked up speed as my legs accommodated the climb. It was just few hundred meters and I started to see some riders had come down and pushed their bikes. Not surprisingly, those new riders ate the bullet the first.

As I continued, I saw more and more riders coming to push. Oh yeah, Kenny challenged me to chase after him. He would go as the first rider and I would the last to start. Chain suck also helped me to increase my speed. Let me explain: my smallest crank, the 22 tooth developed chain suck during to the climb, so I had no choice but to use the 34 one. Tough? Yeah it was but once I spun to my natural pace/cadence, thing wasn't that bad. It helped me to increase my speed actually!

The climb finally came to an end and the rest was just a downhill all the way to the trail head. I was just charging down with one thing in mind: Kenny was at the very front, and I had to make sure I would catch him before the trail head. Time was running out and I became nervous. I decided to take the most daring decision I had ever made in mountainbiking: No brakes! Boy was it "chee kit"! My bike just hopping on the trail and I was nearly thrown off from bike in a lot of occasions! The bike just took whatever impact she could take during my daring ride. The front fork virtually went flat bottom up and the rear just threw off ground. All kind of sounds you can imagine came out from my bike when the effect of the bumps, flying rocks and skids applied to my trusted Diamondback. I think I was the noisiest biker on the way down, not because I shouted. It was because of the crunches and thump from my bike! You could hear it far away before I approached you!

Despite all the effort, I still finished as the fourth rider to reach the trailhead. Well, I still considered as an ultimate feat for myself considered that I had to overtake 17 riders on single track. Will I do it next time? Maybe, maybe not! The bike's front Rock Shock Jett T2 was about to give way if the distance were longer! I did not know how fast I went but I was sure it would be my own downhill record. My shoulder is still sore due to the impact! Oh by the way, I cheated in one way or another. When there was hair pin turn or riders infront of me, I slightly pressed the rear brake lever. Can this consider as no brake? Hmm...

It was a fun ride. The distance was not long but the terrain was sure a challenge to most of us. Although we just covered 7km, there was still another unknown kilometers ahead that we did not know for sure if it would end up somewhere, or maybe Titiwangsa mountain? Or maybe as I mentioned in the first paragraph, a 30 km loop? Or both? We all don't know. I am planning to come back again with fewer riders. This time maybe we should bring our camping gear incase we have to camp!

Stay Tuned!