ARMY AIR AVIATION & SUTAMA CYCLO MTB JAMBOREES

                   Sutama Cyclo MTB Jamboree, Sg Buloh (19 May 2013)

I participated in the mountain bike jamboree at Saujana Utama last Sunday. It was a good jamboree I thought, and so was the trail. The day was bright and sunny and looked good for mountain biking. As it turned out, it proved to be a warm and dry day though there was still enough moisture in the ground left by a previous day's rainfall for the soil to remain a little tacky good for traction and for mountain biking.

               Sujana Utama - a thousand plus participants were there... 

            E.T.Riders at the Saujana Utama Jamboree - three of the six who were there...

As usual, the trail was a combination of paved and off-road tracks where the off-road portion took an 80% share of the 30-km overall trail length. We had double and single tracks for the off-road portion of the trail that ran through some cultivated and uncultivated areas grown with oil palm, some types of cash crops and scattered areas and clumps of thicket and secondary vegetation.

                               Taking on Bkt Nangka -- at Saujana Utama Jamboree

There were several hills we had to contend with -- which the organizers named as Bkt Sayur, Bkt Nangka, Bkt Babi and Bkt Penat -- with gradients stiff enough to provide us the challenge and our hearts the beating. These hills, however, are not really so steep as to be impossible for strong bikers to pedal on yet stiff enough to push our hearts to their maximal limits or beyond if we choose to. While some bikers succeeded  in doing so , many however, found the hills a bit too stiff for their strength. Some were forced to dismount by virtue of the presence  of other bikers standing or pushing their bikes ahead of them. With bikers blocking the way on an already tight trail going uphill, pedaling became impossible without losing balance or getting dismounted from their bikes.

Army Air Aviation (881 PUTD) MTB Jamboree, Kluang, Johore(7 Apr 2013)








The last jamboree that I went to before the one last Sunday was the Army Air Aviation MTB Race/Jamboree organized by the 881 PUTD (Pasukan Udara Tentera Darat) in Kluang, Johore. It's another jamboree in a series of mountain bike jamborees that I wish to keep record of while memories are still fresh in my mind. 

I note with interest on the recent development in mountain biking taking place in the Malaysian army. It's the second year that this particular unit had organized a mountain bike jamboree that was opened for participation by members of the public. I believe it's a good thing for them to do. Not only is the activity good for encouraging health and fitness, it's also good for fostering the spirit of goodwill and understanding between the army and members of the public. It's also an activity that fits in well with the profession and their lifestyle. Besides, the organization has all the expertise and resources needed to help bring the sport/activity up to greater heights. With the expertise and resources available to them, I can expect them to come up with the best of organization and the best of trail that I can think of when organizing jamborees. I have also been made to understand that one particular infantry brigade in the northern part of the peninsula has in fact been equipped with several bicycles -- I am uncertain of their type though -- to be used for carrying out operational tasks/ duties. I can imagine how these bikes would be used for these purposes especially for operational tasks/duties along our fenced off border with a neighbouring country to prevent say, any incursion or illegal entries or even cross-border illegal /criminal activities.. The use of bicycles for military purposes, at least in the army, is nothing new. It reminds me of the Japanese soldiers who had once used bicycles to assist them to advance southwards through the the peninsula after their successful landing in Kota Bahru during WW II.

                          E.T.Riders at the Army Air Aviation Jamboree

Like the jamboree in Saujana Utama, I enjoyed the one organized by the army in Kluang, Johore. You couldn't run away from the usual trail and terrain you would normally expect to see in most mountain bike jamborees organized here in this country just like those that I went to before this. So was the case with the Kluang jamboree -- bit of tarred trail at the beginning and end of the ride, plenty of oil palm tracks, with some through rubber and secondary vegetation plus the usual obstacles you would expect to meet along the way to provide you the challenge and the thrill you need during the ride. Not forgetting the hills, though I would say the ones in Kluang were however, not as stiff and challenging as those that I confronted in Saujana Utama. In Kluang, I remember that we received more than the share of the trail we were promised. We rode 44 kms instead of 40 which was fun actually. As for the organization of the jamboree and the ride itself, it was an effort worthy of commendation.  These people have all the resources and the expertise they need to run a successful jamboree. I wouldn't expect anything less; not at least from the military. Still, I look forward to a better and more interesting jamboree next year.

                                     
For the last three months, I had been unable to post any entry in my blog due to my very own appetite for cycling which appeared to have increased lately. My urge for biking has not waned a bit but continues to remain routinely and habitually, an important element in my daily life and forms a major part of my daily physical activities. The urge has grown so much stronger that I have now been drawn into exploring new grounds to find out more about what the pursuit and its related activities have in store they could offer me.                                          

                                               
The latest urge to try something new that seems to have caught up with me is cycle touring, a form of cycling not completely unlike mountain biking depending on the kind of touring you choose. For now however, I am more inclined to try the road type than the off-road one.

The first time that I had gotten any close to the subject of bicycle touring was when I met two senior cycle tourists touring Fraser's Hill sometime early last year. They were touring western Pahang and I was climbing Fraser's and biking the Thompson Trail as part of my own mountain biking group's activities. Their activity, however, did not at all appeal to me then for I was fully hooked on mountain biking and loved the challenge and the spirit of adventure the pursuit offered. I thought bicycle touring wasn't anywhere close to mountain biking and I wasn't attracted to the laid-back or easy-going style it seemed to reflect -- until I realized its true nature and the varied challenges it could pose. I am attracted to some statement made by someone who said that the type of cycling that had probably shaped him more than any other was touring! That's interesting and I want to know why or how. Now that I have had a taste of what it's like (only a bit though), I think I am beginning to understand why and I want to know more.

It's not all cycling though. But whatever little work that I do, it's done the way I like it: work a little and do what I love to do more and as much as I want. I love to cycle and I love to fish and I love to do these two things -- plus a few more  -- more than I love to work. That's the way I like my retired life to be, at least for now. I want to make the rest of my life the best of my life to borrow the words of some famous writers I read somewhere. But I want to live it the way I see it and the way I like it.

At 65, I have no intention of giving up my pursuit which I started almost five years ago; not just yet. I still feel strong and still feel up to it although I do need to be a little more cautious than if I were younger. I do realize that I am no spring chicken any more and that my body might have become a bit less flexible, my muscles a little less strong and my bones a little less dense. But this is to be expected. Today, I can easily tell how much my body has yielded to the ageing process biologically. I believe it would be worse if I didn't keep myself physically active or if I were to live a less than active or sedentary life. I am certain that I would not be able to do what I now can do and just as well as some of the younger ones if I didn't cycle or mountain bike, just to prove the point. But I guess I am lucky since I really like and love what I do and that helps a lot.  I know that I can't prevent the biological clock from ticking its time away but I do believe that I can slow it down a little so I could do some of those things younger people do. For how long I will be able to do so will depend on what I do with my life right now.

But for all that I do, I do not do it to compete with others more so with my younger counterparts. If I did compete though, it would only be against myself and within my own limits. I have always reminded myself to be always aware of those limits although things could still go wrong or out of control just like they did a couple of times before. But even if I did not mountain bike and did something else instead, such things could still happen to me no matter how careful or how good I could be. These are things beyond our control like believing that one day our luck might just run out no matter how careful or how good we are. If it's not due to your own doing, it could be due to someone else's instead. There will be a time when circumstances might just take you out. But then again, there's always a chance that they might not. So we just need to continue to be cautious. Hopefully, luck will always continue to be on our side, in sya Allah.

                                            Army Air Aviation Jamboree

                                          Saujana Utama MTB Jamboree

Whatever the case may be, I will still be going out biking tomorrow just like I did today. And, I will also be participating in my next mountain bike jamboree soon, in sya Allah. Until then, keep those wheels spinning!

Regards.