Bukit Kiara - First Hash of 2008

The secondary jungle and rubber plantation estate of Bukit Kiara witnessed the KLBMH's first hash of 2008. Personally, I have mix feeling about it.

First, despite the tearing of prestine and hand-built singletracks at Kiara by the DBKL to build horse trails, the hash managed to carry about 19km of technical and endurance off-road riding. I enjoyed every bit of it. At one one time, I asked myself.. "Are we still in Kuala Lumpur?"... still wondering.

Second, I am very sad to see that more singletracks (e.g. Janie's Addiction, Pure Quill, Dirty Deeds, Plan C and Pondok-to-Pondok trails) were destroyed by the new, ridicilously wide and erosion-prone horse trails.

Third, while enjoying the tight, twisty and downhill switchbacks at Thunder Valley, I fell down (endo) and hurt my left ribs. It felt like I had been punched by Mike Tyson, and I initially thought I broke my ribs. After an x-ray session, I'm very happy that there was no broken bone. But still, it hurts.

Some photos, and more to come very soon...

[Patawi at the briefing]

[Great barbeque.. courtesy of Tan Boon Foo of BikePro]

These were the routes:
Start at Taman Rimba Kiara > Short tarmac in front of Tun Hasmah Foundation > Carnival via Lungbuster (Halfway) > Halfway of 4K and its full loop until Rubbish > 2K > Apollo > Tarmac > Lower Short > Snake & Ladder > Twin Peaks > TNT > Horse trails until halfway of Boner > Boner > Reverse of Penchala Lama > Lightning Ridge > Thunder Valley > Tarmac of Kampung Sg. Penchala > Flinstones > Carnival > Short tarmac in front of Tun Hasmah Foundation > End at Taman Rimba Kiara

Beijing Olympic Mountain Bike XC Course

This year, Beijing will host the Olympic 2008. I wish I have the time to go and enjoy the cross-country mountain biking event.

If you're like me i.e. can't go to the Olympic, enjoy the following graphics and photos of the Beijing Olympic Mountain Bike trail.. The Laoshan Mountain Bike Course.

[ 3-D Course Elevation]

[Course Elevation]

[Smooth singletrack, but... ehmm.. quite wide for overtaking]

[The climb with rocky feature]

Kiara Underseige Again..!!!

The pristine, flowly, hand-built and well-maintained singletrack trails at Bukit Kiara are undergoing extinction process, due to the underseige by the lust to satisfy the appetite of horse riding.

As of today (Thursday 17 January 2008), my adopted trail (Pure Quill) is gone. I'm devastated. Furthermore, I was planning to carry out general trail maintenance on Pure Quill this Saturday (19 January 2008).

Pure Quill is about 400 meters of singletrack. It connected several trails at once, such as the Janie's Addiction and Around The Mountain trails at Taman Tun Dr. Ismail side and the Upper Short, TNT, Dirty Deeds trails on the center of Bukit Kiara.

The picture below shows the destruction of Pure Quill trail from flowly singletrack to unchallenging 3 meters (plus-minus) wide horse trail. The picture was taken by one of the Fakawi Tribe members.

One of the trail users has written to the local newspaper urging the public to protect the Kuala Lumpur's only green lung. Click here to read more about it.

I also wrote a blog about this earlier. Please click here to redirect.

Some of the photos of prestine singletracks at Bukit Kiara can be viewed in my previous post on Kuala Lumpur Mountain Bike Carnival 2007.

SAVE THE SINGLETRACKS...

Awal Muharram Kiara Ride

It's Awal Muharram, the first day of the new year for Muslim calendar. Awal means early or first, and Muharram is the first month of the year. Got it...

So, I rode Bukit Kiara today with Jimmy and Yee. The trails that we rode are:

Uphill tarmac > 2k > Apollo > Tarmac > Barrakuda.. oppsss... >Tarmac > Upper Short > Snake & Ladder > Twin Peaks uphill > Twin Peaks downhill > Shirner Convention > Rock Garden > Carnival. About 13.5 km.

Why Barrakuda.. oppsss...? We could ride through Barrakuda now. DBKL is building horse trails for the King of Malaysia (see my previous post) and they are taking over the hand-built mountain biking trails in Bukit Kiara. I'm very sad.

For information, by the attributes of mountain biking and horse riding, they could not share off-road trails. It's too dangerous.

A few of other trails were also invaded and converted to horse trails, such as Plan A, Plan C, Lower Short. Again, I'm very, very, very sad.

2008 KLMBH's Monthly Mountain Bike Hashes Announced

Kuala Lumpur Mountain Bike Hash (KLMBH) holds monthly Mountain Bike Hashes ("bashes") in the Klang Valley area, usually on the last Sunday of each month.

[KLMBH Banner]

The following monthly schedule for 2008 was extracted from the KLMBH website:

Sun 27 Jan 2008 - Pat Brunsdon at Bukit Kiara
Sun 24 Feb 2008 - Rob Schorr & Ying How at Ulu Yam
Sun 30 Mar 2008 - BBB at Bandar Tasik Puteri, Rawang
Sun 27 Apr 2008 - Stapo, Venue TBA
Sun 25 May 2008 - TBA
Sun 29 Jun 2008 - TBA
KLMBH EPIC 2008 - Scott Roberts & amp; Ying How at Ulu Tamu
Sun 27 Jul 2008 - Phil Bee & Jane Gapang (TBC), Venue TBA
Sun 24 Aug 2008 - TBA
Sun 28 Sep 2008 - B. Emby, S. Allen, R. Larsen & Andrew Rhodes, Venue TBA
Sun 26 Oct 2008 - TBA
Sun 30 Nov 2008 - TBA
Sun 28 Dec 2008 - TBA

TBA = To be announced.

If you guys like to join the ride, go to their website by clicking the above KLMBH banner to obtain latest information about the ride and direction.