After meeting up with Vincent, we proceeded past the customs and on to Plentong. We used Jalan Tebrau, turned right at the junction past Taman Sentosa and headed on to Permas Jaya. The weather was turning bad when we arrived at our destination. We happened to run into Vincent’s friend, David, who was expecting several more riders. We decided to join them and as it turned out, the other riders drove in from Singapore.
The rain lasted almost as long as our breakfast and when we were quite done, the weather was clear and the other riders had arrived. We proceeded with the ride which turned out to be an enjoyable experience. While the terrain was generally mild and not technical (in comparison to the man-made trails in Singapore), the fun came in the form of mud pools, fast single-tracks, scenic views and narrow bridges across various streams.
Mosquitoes were really irritating pests throughout the 30km ride and I almost regretted not covering myself with insect repellent. Without a GPS, it was almost impossible to find your way round (unless you are familiar with that area) – I was reliving the jungles of Brunei, but with a bike this time round!
The pictures of my muddy bike provide a clue to how deep the mud pools we had to traverse were! Just look at the cake of mud on my rear suspension. Certain pleasure came in the form of unpredictability in the depths of the mud pools. Deep and sticky sections threatened to hold us down and there were a couple of times I got caught right in the middle of the pool! Mountain biking in Singapore never got this muddy! =)
My rear brakes have been out of action for several weeks now and all my braking power had to be concentrated on the front. Some of the steep single-tracks required pretty hard braking and after the most major downhill of them all, I found myself without any braking power! The front brakes had failed.
The last few kilometers out to the car-park were not exactly fun. I had no way to stop my bike other than to jab a foot onto the ground. A downward sloping section with a turn saw me desperately grinding my cleats into the ground and I managed to clear the turn since the path ahead of me was clear. However, when I spotted an oncoming scooter on another downward sloping turn, my heart nearly leapt into my mouth. I missed the scooter narrowly, the motorist probably unaware of the predicament I was in. I could only grin weakly.
Back in the relative safety of a sports hall where we could wash our muddy bikes with a hose, I set about dismantling the pads from my front brakes with Vincent’s help. I was horrified to see a gaping section burnt off one of the pads. At the same time, it was pretty interesting because I have never seen such a thing happen before! We were racking brains on how the brakes could be fixed out in the field, minimally the front brakes so that I could get home safely, when Vincent came up with the splendid idea of swapping pads with the non-functioning rear brakes. The idea worked – I got just sufficient power up front to slow the bike.
We found the others at a coffee-shop, thanked them for the ride and headed back to Taman Sentosa. Midway, we stopped at a stall selling tau huay and it was pretty good. The you tiao and hum jin peng went for RM0.60 apiece, very reasonably priced for today’s living standards. Lunch was a welcome relief when we reached Taman Sentosa and we lazed around till 4pm.
As expected, traffic (cars) was pretty heavy at the customs but a bike could easily squeeze through the jams. We found ourselves back on home ground pretty quickly and I pedaled my creaking bike home. =)
Total distance: 30km (off-road), 36km (on-road)
Money spent: RM15.50
Participants: LSH, Vincent
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