Gambir Hill Trail prt. 1

Gambir Hill trail is XC type trail and is definitely perfect offroad trail for high speed rider. It doesn't have any superb tough technical drop or jump but holes, rocks and drain on the trail is enough to get the rider's adrenalin rush when go high speed. I believe most of offroad type rider will not fully enjoy cemented trail, me too, this trail mixed with cemented trail (40%) and loose soil offroad trail with rocks and holes (60%). This trail not consider very steep and thus, if want to go real high speed, rider need to do some pedaling to gain enough adrenalin rush speed.

Sunday morning, heavy rain in midnight. The trail become wet and slippery. After do some preparation, such as seat angle adjustment and tires pressure check up, Teoh and I start ride. It's easy ride up, can still chit chating while pedal up (I would consider this trail is super easy ride up) while enjoying the green of the trail. If you look carefully on the grass beside the trail, you can see frogs, some unknown insects, bugs, lizards and some time you can see snakes (eventually I saw snake yesterday). But, this trail is very safe to ride, those creatures will not attack human unless their life in threaten. We take the trail heading to Paya Terubong, took us about 40 minutes to reach the junction to Paya Terubong. Take some rest then we start our video action.

Every time do video, sure very exhausted pushing the bike up again and again to get best shot. Teoh and I quit after few times push up our bike again and again and we decided to continue the video for the rest of trail section next week. Just to share the video we got yesterday and hope everybody enjoy the video. This video is just sneak preview part 1 and we will do another video this coming Sunday and will be sneak preview part 2. We have no idea when we will have full version video for this trail but for sure we will try to do our best to record the whole trail and share with all riders. Nothing big deal than sharing, cheers Teoh and Dan

Duo on a BP - TB Dam - BP Road Trip

In conjunction with the Penang Dragon Boat Festival. Jessie and I decided to cycle from home (Balik Pulau) to Teluk Bahang Dam. It will be a 30km round trip.. and we will also be able to witness the opening ceremony of the Dragon Boat Festival 09.

We left late around 10am... We are on our way !! 

Our first stop... The starting point of uphill stretch along Sg Rusa -> Sg Pinang.

We are then intimidated by some superbikers.. who later on turned back and overtook us at 10 times the speed.. 

Yeay !! We reached the Dam.. We are allowed to cycle into the park where the Dragon Boat  rowers' tents are and the sponsors tents too..

We got free 100 Plus :P Jessie and I took turns to grab them as we were kinda thirsty..

After taking pictures around the Dam.. we headed back... 

Oh my... 18KMs to reach home.. and it is already lunch time.. 

The downhill section.... wwweeeee...... Jessie nearly fell, emergency brake and the bike skidded nearly 90 degrees one way and then the other...  Thank God she did not even fell off the bike.

Our route today... Total of 30.5 km...  Not too bad...  Let's see what awaits me tomorrow.. 

Balik Pulau 25km round trip

May 17th.. A long awaited date for our long distance round trip. Found the trail in Everytrail.com http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=133031 and we loaded into our bicycle GPS. We had it in 3 units.. GPS 60, HT Diamond and another one.. just in case we really got lost in the jungle.

Started off from Taman Mutiara, we took the Botanica.CT road to avoid traffic and head towards Balik Pulau town for brunch and to stock up on energy bars, lunch packs and water...

Cycling up from Balik Pulau town towards Kpg Titi Serong is simple. Mostly tarmac and slight climb. However right after the first Hut built in the middle of the road, the climb became intense. Certain parts are as steep as 30 degrees. So, I ended up pushing my bike in most parts of it. To add on to the pain, it started to rain. We sheltered under a huge Durian tree for 25 minutes and alas, we were drenched, so decided to continue on... the rain stopped right after we had out lunch on the hilltop hut.

From hill top hut, we cycled another few KMs and we lost out way.. found out that we had to make a turn in the a jungle track.. to our surprise, the track is a 1 foot wide cemented path in the jungle ! Some of the cement path were cracked or washed away, but 80% of it is still quite nice.

We also met with a few fallen trees. Had to push the bike over it, under it and sometimes adventurous enough to ride thru it..

We met another gang of riders shortly, and the world is so small, we found Jane Lim's blog with their ride's updates.

Some part of the track, our GPS signal was lost due to thick trees and valleys.. But we were on track as we can follow the trails that the others left behind. Our main problem was always the Y junctions and the cross roads.. We need to ride an additional 50 - 100m to check out the trajectory. (we went off course a total of 3 times.. )

Anyway, right after we reached the cross roads to Tiger Hill, IronX, Dam, Sg Pinang.. The ride became easier.. Weee....

Then we reached this Vegetable Farm.. with Water Crest plants and Mint plants !! The air was filled with smell of fresh mints. We stopped and took some pictures... and me, the crazy one tried an Iron Man pose.. which I regretted later as it ached my already tired muscles on my body...

The ride from there towards the final stretch of cemented road towards Titi Kerawang main road was nice... I was nearly bitten by a dog...

and Ooi drifted and nearly crashed..

We cycled a bit uphill to Titi Kerawang Waterfall after reaching the mainroad. All because our CamelBaks and HydraPacks are all dried up already.. Went there to wash our faces (and hair), bought drinks and we even washed our bikes.. 

After which, we just cruise our way back to Taman Mutiara.. and I got the GPS tracks loaded and plotted this out.. Our first contribution to GPX mapping.. hehehe

- THE END -
Stay tuned for more next week...

Team AEG's first event of the year will be NTMTBA's event on 21st June  2009 !!

We have got ourselves registered !! 

More info @

http://ntmtba09.blogspot.com/

The trail :

Elevation - Click here