There was no biking involved yesterday. I helped Mum collect her medicine at SGH and since I had about 2 hours to spare till 6pm (meeting Jing Kai at Bugis MRT), I decided to walk over to Bugis through the CBD area. I took a couple of pictures along the way and realised, in the shoes of a tourist, that our country can be very attractive and in some sense, unique. Our CBD boasts the tallest buildings you can find on this island, and in fact, from here to KL (you find some tall buildings in JB but but until you hit KL, you are unlikely to find any building taller than a typical HDB block). Yet in our CBD, co-existing among skyscrapers, are relics, or rather, refurbished relics. Raffles Hotel, a building full of heritage, is a fine example. It is of little wonder that foreigners find Singapore intriguing.
I cycled to Tampines MTB Park in the afternoon. It has been months since I last visited the trail, and it was a good opportunity to test out my SPD shoes. It turned out to be a rather eventful ride, thanks to a few falls.
Teletubby land was the usual narrow, twisting singletrack. Erosion had made things a little more tricky but it didn't pose much of a problem. When I encountered the rocky climbs, I realised that the once bare slopes were overflowing with the greens. More rocks had been compacted into the trail, but the bad news was that many large pieces on the climbs were loose, making it a lot more tricky than it looked.
I got the first taste of this death trap when I chose the wrong path up a very tight and steep corner. My misjudgement had placed me right in the middle of the steepest part with big loose rocks. As I tried to power the bike up the turn, I felt my tyres slip. Shifting my weight back, I had lost too much momentum to push through and that was it. In the split second which I failed to unclip, I fell sideways, breaking the fall with my left palm. I realised a sharp rock had ripped a hole in the palm of my left glove and obviously the rocks presented my left leg with bloody kisses.
Call that a morale booster! Spirits dampened, I carried on. Down the slopes, across a wooden ramp and into the forest. The huge mud pool (it was green!) caught me by surprise. I took a gamble and cycled right into it, expecting to move through. For the first time ever on a Singapore trail, my front wheel sank till the level of my v-brakes! Of course, I didn't manage to unclip in time and toppled to the left again =P
My bike emerged a mess. The front tyre, rim, spokes, hub, fork and suspension were totally encrusted in mud. I think it's the first time I had gotten so much mud that I had to strip off the front wheel to get rid of all the crap when I reached home! But it was cool.
The jungle portion was a mess. A lousy trackstand sent me toppling when I was too undecided on which path to take. In the end, I took the longer path and found the platform obstacles to be in very poor conditions. My heart leapt every time I encountered a missing plank or two and I prayed for my wheel to clear the gap and not stall and send me flying off the platform. As the plaforms got higher and narrower, my worries increased when I saw the gaps. Thankfully, I got through just fine, with a couple of close shaves here are there.
Out of the forest, I explored a new path but it was crazily steep, twisting and almost impossible to manoeuvre before disppearing altogether. Turning back, I took the usual route back to the start point and cycled to the highest point to catch the view.
The skies threatened to pour but no rain fell as I headed for East Coast Park. After a more leisure pace at ECP, I took the Lavender, Thomson and Sembawang Rd route home.
Total distance: 76.3km (on-road); 10km (off-road)
Money spent: $0
Participants: LSH
I cycled to Tampines MTB Park in the afternoon. It has been months since I last visited the trail, and it was a good opportunity to test out my SPD shoes. It turned out to be a rather eventful ride, thanks to a few falls.
Teletubby land was the usual narrow, twisting singletrack. Erosion had made things a little more tricky but it didn't pose much of a problem. When I encountered the rocky climbs, I realised that the once bare slopes were overflowing with the greens. More rocks had been compacted into the trail, but the bad news was that many large pieces on the climbs were loose, making it a lot more tricky than it looked.
I got the first taste of this death trap when I chose the wrong path up a very tight and steep corner. My misjudgement had placed me right in the middle of the steepest part with big loose rocks. As I tried to power the bike up the turn, I felt my tyres slip. Shifting my weight back, I had lost too much momentum to push through and that was it. In the split second which I failed to unclip, I fell sideways, breaking the fall with my left palm. I realised a sharp rock had ripped a hole in the palm of my left glove and obviously the rocks presented my left leg with bloody kisses.
Call that a morale booster! Spirits dampened, I carried on. Down the slopes, across a wooden ramp and into the forest. The huge mud pool (it was green!) caught me by surprise. I took a gamble and cycled right into it, expecting to move through. For the first time ever on a Singapore trail, my front wheel sank till the level of my v-brakes! Of course, I didn't manage to unclip in time and toppled to the left again =P
My bike emerged a mess. The front tyre, rim, spokes, hub, fork and suspension were totally encrusted in mud. I think it's the first time I had gotten so much mud that I had to strip off the front wheel to get rid of all the crap when I reached home! But it was cool.
The jungle portion was a mess. A lousy trackstand sent me toppling when I was too undecided on which path to take. In the end, I took the longer path and found the platform obstacles to be in very poor conditions. My heart leapt every time I encountered a missing plank or two and I prayed for my wheel to clear the gap and not stall and send me flying off the platform. As the plaforms got higher and narrower, my worries increased when I saw the gaps. Thankfully, I got through just fine, with a couple of close shaves here are there.
Out of the forest, I explored a new path but it was crazily steep, twisting and almost impossible to manoeuvre before disppearing altogether. Turning back, I took the usual route back to the start point and cycled to the highest point to catch the view.
The skies threatened to pour but no rain fell as I headed for East Coast Park. After a more leisure pace at ECP, I took the Lavender, Thomson and Sembawang Rd route home.
Total distance: 76.3km (on-road); 10km (off-road)
Money spent: $0
Participants: LSH
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