KUALA LANGAT MTB JAMBOREE 2012

So, I went to my last mountain bike jamboree for this month last Sunday. Nothing has been planned for this coming weekend as yet although I am sure that our fellowship would not just let the precious week go without some sort of mountain biking activity being thrown into it. Even if there's none by the group, I will still have mine planned for me. Didn't I say that I always look forward to my day and to my biking? More so over my weekend.

How much should one cycle a week? Once, twice, thrice? Can one cycle once every day for seven straight days a week? Well, I suppose only you and your body can tell. They may recommend you a certain number of days per week that they believe is right for you. This is to prevent it from becoming counter-productive to your health instead. You need a day or two of rest for your body to recover and rebuild. Over- exercising they say, is bad for you. But then if it doesn't seem to hurt you and without a day of cycling life seems incomplete or even unbearable for some of you, who's to say no to you doing what you love to do most? So go ahead and cycle to your heart's content if that makes you one happy and healthy person. I will be with you.

So Sunday last the 13th of May 2012, I went to the Kuala Langat mountain bike jamboree as  I had earlier planned. Rather than remembering and predicting the worst like some are wont to do for this most unfortunate day in the history of our country -- I was a young army cadet then when 13 May 69 happened and had the opportunity of passing through the city some days later and seeing the destruction it wreaked-- we decided to do something more rewarding to ourselves instead. As set out by the organizers, the objective of the jamboree was to promote the healthy habit of cycling and to bring all kinds of mountain bikers in our community together to share their common passion in the spirit of comradeship, goodwill and unity. I can't say the exact number of participants who were there to take on the challenge, but it was quite large; maybe close to five hundred participants or more were there judging by the crowd size. I was also aware of another mountain bike jamboree which was being organized on the same day somewhere not too far away from our venue and this could have affected the overall participation at the jamboree. Mountain bikers will go all over the country to join in the jamborees they like to participate in.

Since this jamboree was to take place somewhere close to to coast, I had the hunch that it would not be one roller-coaster up and down affair like the last jamboree that I participated in although the organizers could still chart a hilly course for us if they chose to. We could tell this from the little knowledge we have of the geography of the area. Still, it didn't matter too much to us but thought that if it was, it would be one easy ride for all of us. If it was not, it would not matter still. After all, it was the challenge we had all agreed to seek for ourselves or we would not have waken up in the early hours of the morning to be where we were and in good time so as not to miss the chance for an adventure over the weekend.

So, how do I rate the trail after the ride? Well, I guess we mountain bikers are still a lucky lot. We have choices and don't have to rely on tarmac or paved trails alone all the time doing what we love to do. Being mountain bikers, we can enjoy the best of both worlds -- on or off-road. Nowadays, there is always more than one jamboree going on at any one time each week and at different places  that you could just choose where you think you would enjoy your ride most. You can thus choose the venue, the type of terrain and trails whether near or far that you wish to ride according to your liking and preference.

In the Putrajaya jamboree, I had a relatively easy and an almost level ride around the wetlands, a hard and challenging one with its unforgiving hills in Shah Alam, and a flat though far from drab ride in Kuala Langat. But what Kuala Langat might have lacked in intensity and challenge, it made it up well in distance and character. Flat as the course might have been, it was a fifty-one km plus ride recorded on my cyclometer ( the organizers claimed fifty-seven and I like to believe them) across country over some newly cultivated areas, oil palm plantations and population centres. The trail was a mix of paved and gravelled tracks as well as single paths travesing across country ending with a beautiful stretch of paved track by the sea side. It was to me a beautiful and most gratifying ride set in a completely different environment and style. Most of the trail in the oil palm plantations is of peat soil, soft and moist unlike the drier or hardpack kind that one usually finds in hilly oil palm areas. Peat soil also known as mire tends to bury and suck your wheels and get you mired down as you ride; more so if you happen to be a heavyweight. Because the area is close to the sea and low-lying, the soil is always damp requiring plenty of ditches -- which also form the obstacles to your ride -- for an efficient irrigation or drainage system to keep the soil cultivable.The damp soil becomes easily mushy and slithery after a few rides and can become challenging to some riders. However, good tyres would still keep their grip and the skilful rider steady while riding over it .

To me, Kuala Langat was a relatively forgiving trail with no reason for me to stop pedaling except by my own design which I did but only once at one of the check points for water and a banana. I had enough water with me not to stop at all the other check points. Only the obstacles and the actions of riders ahead of me would force me to stop and dismount which happened several times during the ride. I took it easy and all in my stride yet managed to push my heart to its maximum limit by virtue of my almost continuous pedaling until the end. I heard the same sort of remarks from others in the group stating that the trail was so flat that it kept them pedaling and going drawn by the momentum and challenge with no desire to stop until the end. The trail at Kuala Langat was certainly a new kind of experience for me.

So, it has been another satisfying and rewarding weekend for me. I believe it has been the same for the others who were there with me. Already I am thinking of what it's going to be next this coming weekend although the one following that has already been set well in advance where I will be away from terra firma -- and my bike -- for a few days and will be riding the not too high seas instead. You may know for what reason if you have been following me closely.

So see you then. Happy mountain biking.

CYCLE 4 CARE 2012 CHARITY RIDE

So, as I said earlier, I did go to the Shah Alam jamboree last Sunday -- three mountain bike jamborees over the weekends in a row with one more to go this coming Sunday. The ones after will be scheduled accordingly. Enjoy it while you still can.

For me, life after retirement has never been better than what it is today. I always look forward to my day and that includes biking amongst my other pursuits. Didn't I read somewhere that most great people didn't even come into their own until they were in their 80's? Well, this is not saying that I am great at my age or will be great when I get to become 80. I am only saying that life is great for me and has never been better and more wonderful than what it now is. I love that bit of motivation about refiring your passion instead of retiring it and the reminder that people who think that age has only negative consequences such as decay, disease, degeneration etc will only help to create those outcomes for themselves. As they say, we are what we think and I strongly believe in that wisdom. In the same breath, I also remind myself that for all the good things god has granted me, I should not forget to count my blessings, always.

I like to think that I am 64 years young instead of 64 years old. That helps to create in me the spirit and attitude to keep me going through whatever life there is left for me; something I can't be certain of but must try to make the best of as long as I continue to breathe. I believe in the wisdom that aging is not optional and that if I love life and want to enjoy it and keep it going, I should not get old; at least in my mind and spirit if not in my body. I should instead grow old which I have learned to interpret it to mean to continue to seek new wisdom, new passions, new things that can excite me; to create new relationships as I continue to keep cherished old ones and to learn from my mistakes and not to be afraid to make new ones. I should take care of my body and health by exercising, eating right and taking risks. In other words, I should continue to live. That brings me to the subject of mountain biking, a new passion I discovered after my retirement as one of the ways for me to keep going.

Listen to some of these motivating words about aging I read from some books that came from people who know what they are talking about: 'Before you decide you are too old to run across mountains, rock-climb in canyons or take up scuba diving, remember: It's never too late -- muscles never lose the ability to improve, no matter how old you are'; or this: 'I may be over eighty in age, but I will never be old in mind and spirit'. Or, how about this: 'We are raised with the idea that when you hit fifty, you should relax and take it easy. I think this is a mistake. The more energy you spend, the more you get back. I get more tired sitting all day then when I run fifty miles'. You can replace that last quote about running with mountain biking the same distance or more instead for the purpose of this posting.

Okay, back to the Shah Alam jamboree. Oh! what a great jamboree that was. Never did I have it so good as this one. Sure, there were other equally exciting and challenging jamborees before this but this one was different in the way it gave my heart and body the thumping and beating that they went through. Although the response was low (still, close to three hundred bikers participated in the jamboree), it was a great jamboree nonetheless and a well organized one including the trail that they drew up for the bikers. Since it was a charity ride aimed at raising funds and support for an orphanage, some welfare homes and the needy in the state, no prize money was offered as incentives. This could have contributed to its relatively low response. The overlapping jamborees that were being organized at other places the same day could have also contributed to its reduced participation. Still, the organizers did not lose heart and gave the bikers their money's worth which was the fee they paid for their participation to enable the organizers to initiate and run the activity.

The trail was great; a mix of everything in true mountain biking fashion and in the right proportion that one can expect from a good mountain bike trail. The organizers promised us a great ride with some sections and nature of part of the whole trail being kept secret until it was ridden to provide the bikers the excitement and thrill they were looking for. What a surprise I had when I rode the trail. Just when I thought the hills were finally over, more came to challenge me further. So were some sections of the single trails with their roots, rocks and ruts going either up or down that had me pushing my bike more than pedaling and the freewheeling downhill over some parts which proved treacherous and menacing (crashed again at one rutted section because I missed the line) both ways up or down with their twists and turns which stretched and challenged my skill and endurance to their highest limit  For me, it was certainly a torturous ride as they promised and a tortuous one as well as I later found out. It has got hills more than I had hoped for that really tested my fitness and endurance to their highest level and rocks, roots and ruts (some quite deep) for my skill and reflexes.

In any jamboree, I try to pedal as much and as long as I can and refrain from putting my foot down as a way of meeting the challenge and for the purpose of improving my fitness and stamina. Only when it becomes impossible for me to continue to do so would I put my foot down and push my bike. Such a situation may arise as a result of insufficient fitness on my part or caused by the nature of the trail itself or other factors such as being forced to dismount by riders in front of me .

I have to admit that I did more pushing this time than I did in previous jamborees. Reason being, there were just more hills to climb compared to previous jamborees. The hills in Shah Alam really sapped my energy and took the breath out of me forcing my heart to beat beyond my maximum. Curse as I did, still I think it was an exciting jamboree to ride. The hills were most challenging and the single trails, beautiful and almost pristine as they are, proved tough and trying. But then, that is what mountain biking all about: a test of your fitness and stamina as well as your skill and reflexes.

The areas around Shah Alam are fast developing, At the rate development is taking place, I am surprised, though glad, that there are still areas where mountain bikers can still exercise and enjoy their pursuit. How I wish for some of these areas to continue to be preserved so that mountain biking and other outdoor related activities could continue to be enjoyed by bikers and other members of the public alike. But such a possibility may seem remote or even far- fetched considering the manner and the rate by which development is taking place in the country. Perhaps, one way to achieve this is to increase our mountain biking activities as much as we can and to make our presence felt and our voices heard so that the level of  awareness amongst members of the public and those in authority can be increased. Development isn't just about economic consideration alone but also the well being and interests of the public at large.

I pray that Shah Alam will continue to provide us the ground and the trails for us to enjoy our pursuit in future. I believe there are still some good trails remaining there capable of providing mountain bikers the challenge and the thrill they need. I hope to be able to enjoy them again next year and the years after for I still owe Bukit Ramlee -- so far considered by me to be the mother of all my cycling hills -- the challenge I failed to meet.

See you there next year.

MOUNTAIN BIKING AT NIGHT

It took quite sometime before I finally decided to give it a try i.e. mountain biking at night. At my age, I was unsure whether I should attempt such a ride. Considering the tropical nature of the country with its thick lush vegetation and poor visibility made worse by night and the obstacles and other unexpected traps I can expect to bump into while riding, I didn't think it was wise for me to go mountain biking at night. Rocks, roots, ruts and all sorts of other obstacles worry me while riding even during the day forcing me to be on my toes all the time. Trying to deal with such encumbrances at night could be worse even with the aid of night lights.

The thought of mountain biking at night worried me quite a bit initially. The few times that friends had invited me to go along, I politely said no.  Falling off my bike wasn't something foreign to me. I know how it felt and what it could do. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, twice I had suffered injuries for falling off my bike which cost me a cut palm and a fractured humerus that required some suturing and a sling.That does not include a number of other falls I suffered before those two or in between them and after which had also cost me some cuts and bruises though minor, on my shins and knees including my face (on my left cheekbone just below the eye, thanks to my helmet; it could have been worse). Twice during those occasions when I thought I would suffer yet another fracture of some sort on either one or both of my arms while flying in mid-air before finally biting the dust (no pun intended), all caused yet again by my own ignorance and lack of skill plus, perhaps, a bit of poor luck. With all its accompanying difficulties, a night ride could prove more hazardous for me if I were to fall or crash. As I said many times before, I love to mountain bike and wish to do so for as long as I can. Getting myself hurt for some silly thing that I did isn't going to help me achieve that aim. Though a cut palm did not stop me from pedaling my bike the next day and after, a fractured humerus did for more than three months so much so that I had to purchase for myself a stationary bike to enable me to continue pedalling the three months that I could not do so due to the injury.

But the idea of mountain biking at night was just too tempting to me to be given a miss. I thought that if I could do it just as well as they did during the day, there was no reason why I could not do the same at night as they had. Sure it's not going to be as easy as doing it during the day but it's still possible even for people like us (our fellowship, that is) so long as we have the resources necessary to enable us to do so. They told me that the night jamboree they went to a year earlier was so well-organized that no one ended up lost nor hurt along the forty-kilometer trail. All of them completed the ride and had a good time.



And so I did it, finally; mountain biking in a night jamboree that I participated in late last year dubbed the 'Night Owl'. It was a forty-kilometer ride the major portion of which was ridden off road. No, it wasn't really a difficult ride because other than our own lights that we had fixed on our bikes as well as on ourselves, we had those lanterns hung on trees placed at intersections as well as tiny cateye-like reflectors placed on the ground along less visible sections of the trail to guide us along.

Now that I have had the experience of going through it, it is possible for anyone healthy, fit and alert -- even for someone my age -- to mountain bike at night provided they have all the resources necessary to enable them to do so. Sure visibility isn't as good as riding during the day but night ride has been made possible with all the lighting equipment now available to enable us to ride safely and effectively even in an environment like ours. At night, if you can see the trail, you can ride. The more and the clearer you can see it, the better you can ride. So light up well and you can go mountain biking in the dark.

Why not give night mountain biking a try. It's a ride any reasonable mountain biker should be able to manage. Getting your bike and yourself well lit front and rear is highly important. Good lighting is necessary not only for helping you see your way, but also for ensuring your own safety and that of others. If you happen to like it, that gives you an extra dimension that you could add to your cache of mountain biking experiences and exploits. If you don't, you can always stick to your daylight hours.

But I take it that any mountain biker worth his salt would at least give night mountain biking a try.

See you some night sometime.

BACK TO BACK JAMBOREES

Now that I have got myself involved with it, I now realize how active mountain biking activity in this country really is. It did not occur to me then that mountain biking could be as active as I first knew it to be and as I now do. Even back in 2010 when I first got myself involved with mountain bike jamborees, there were already in existence then a number of mountain biking groups or enthusaiasts who were already actively organizing mountain bike rides and jamborees either on a weekly or monthly basis. Although mountain biking has continued to grow steadily over the years, it still remains a relatively isolated activity.

I am unaware of what the actual percentage of  the population's involvement with mountain biking really is; from its sporting or non- sporting capacity. Be that as it may and isolated as it may appear to be from mainstream public activities, it is, however, an activity that is slowly but steadily gaining strength as well as popularity.

When I first started mountain biking, there certainly weren't many mountain bikers that I could see pedaling around the area where I live. Nowadays, I can expect to bump into a few coming down or going up my favourite hill nearby every time I go out biking, or, meet a large number of them over the weekends riding the same favourite trails that I do; and that number is steadily increasing, influenced by what they see or by what others are doing.

One has to only surf the net to find out the number of mountain biking jamborees that are being organized in the country each week to know its intensity: how active its pace and how high its level of involvement. I have personally participated in at least two jamborees in the last one year which had attracted more than two thousand participants each jamboree while figures close to or more than a thousand bikers participating in a jamboree are now becoming quite common. Those that have proven to be well organized will usually attract the highest response. This does not include the races or competitions that are being organized by some sporting organizations or bodies though the number is small.  The overall response towards these jamborees can be said to be quite large considering that there may be more than one or even two jamborees that are being run at any one time usually over the weekends. Mountain biking can be so consuming that anyone robust in body and spirit can get bitten by the so-called bug and end up possessed or obsessed by its harsh and rugged appeal.

But unlike some popular sports or other health related physical activities, mountain biking remains a relatively less known activity that I feel still  lags behind in terms of acceptance and popularity. Perhaps, such a situation is due to the harsh nature of the activity itself and its lack of promotion as a sporting or health oriented activity although this country has all the prerequisites and conditions  for its adoption and advancement. I am, however,confident that mountain biking will one day gain its appropriate place in society.

The fact that one can now easily participate in mountain biking jamborees at least once or even twice each week goes to show how active the state of the activity really is. One has to get aquainted with that special world however, in order to know and feel its intensity. Not many are really aware of the real situation unless they are active mountain bikers. I have participated in jamborees back to back these last two weeks and quite regularly before that and will be doing so again these coming two weeks.One good thing about these jamborees is that one can also enjoy the vast and varied range of venues and trails they offer whether one chooses to do it far or near depending on one's means and preference. However, if you do not wish to participate in jamborees, you could always organize your own rides either individually or in groups although it is highly recommended that one should not do it alone. I consider myself lucky since some of the mountain biking trails available to me are just a stone's throw away from where I live. Unlike walking or jogging, mountain biking enables me to be in more places and many times further than what walking or jogging can give me.

For a sixty-four-year young man like myself who has suffered some form of knee injury, it is also more forgiving on my legs and more importantly, my knees compared to walking or jogging or other forms of physical activities which I am now not encouraged to perform; or, out of my own personal preference, choose not to.

As for the risks and dangers mountain biking can pose to me,  the subject remains a moot point.

See you in Shah Alam this Sunday.