Saturday, March 15, 2008

1st Trail Ride

This morning we took our MTBs for a trial ride in the trails. There was something stiff about my front wheel, it was not spinning smoothly. Dom said we would need to "bleed" the hydraulic disc brake fluid, but we did not have the tools. No choice, had to pedal extra hard just to get the bike moving. And still lagged far behind the two guys.

Dom led the way to Dairy Farm and up to Chestnut/ Zhenghua trail area. Everything was a first for me. The roads, the trails, the surroundings. But it was fun! Pedalling up the slopes and flying down. Heave, huff, pant, steady steady pedal, don't stop as I commanded the bike up the slopes, rolling over rocks, gravel and mud pools (courtesy of the torrential rain in the past week). Grrr grrr grrr grrr... my vision blurred as the bike rushed downhill with me suppressing between a smile and scream. I bounced over roots and potholes, flew over the edge of a rock to land on the path below....... well, okay, the edge was not very high, probably raised 20ish cm above the ground. But when that was your first time, hurtling downwards at high speed, and suddenly chancing upon that gap where the path sunk 20cm below your wheels, it seemed like going off the edge of Grand Canyon. Yeah well, somewhat exaggerated, but you get the picture.

After a short ride, we headed to a nearby coffeeshop for breakfast. Cycling through the HDB carparks, rolling over kerbs and void decks, I discovered that I could go over the kerbs without flying off my bike! :) Post-event, I was advised that I should have lifted the front wheel of the bike when mounting a kerb. Uh... that information had outlived its timeliness!

Now, if only the MTB segment during the race was as easy as this. Imagine doing this repeatedly over 3 days. Eeeks!

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