News on Bukit Kiara

This article was taken from The Star:

Friday June 29, 2007

HUGE PARK AT BUKIT KIARA

By NG SI HOOI

KUALA LUMPUR: The 188.93ha public park, equivalent to the size of about 300 football fields, will be in Bukit Kiara here.

The biggest park in the country will be bounded by Taman Lembah Kiara in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, the KL Golf and Country Club, the Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club and Sri Hartamas, said Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting yesterday.



“The park is our own version of London’s Hyde Park or New York’s Central Park. The park will reflect Malaysia’s identity.

“It will be a sprawling green lung recreational park for city folks to relax in and enjoy Mother Nature. The park will change the image of the city as a concrete jungle,” Ong said.

He said the theme for the park was “design with nature” and not only the natural habitat of the area would be preserved but more trees would be planted too.

“We want to make sure this park retains its identity by adding more greenery to make it more attractive and environment friendly,” he said, adding that the Government would decide on the name of the park later.

He said the park would have various facilities, including jogging and bicycle paths, and space for people to have picnics or camp and courts for various sports like basketball,” he said.

“The public can take part in various activities such as hill climbing and biking, science exploration on flora and fauna, and study tours to the arboretum and herbarium,” he said.

A portion of the park will be reserved for research and development projects.

Ong said the planning and designing of the park would be done by the National Landscape Department under his ministry together with other related agencies including Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia and the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute.

He said the Cabinet approved the proposal presented by his ministry together with the Federal Territories Ministry on Wednesday, and his ministry would build and manage the park.

“The Cabinet feels that it should turn Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding areas to be a place for healthy living and a better sustainable environment for the people. We should save the limited green areas now before it is too late,” he said.

He said the park was on land owned by the Government as 146.3ha was under the purview of DBKL while the remaining area belonged to the Information Ministry.

Trail Maintenance 7 July 2007: Carnival

The Carnival trail is loop trail which starts at the Taman Rekreasi TTDI. It hosts the annual Mountain Bike Carvinal at Bukit Kiara every year.

Today, 07-07-07, the turnout was good. About 10 of volunteers, and as Pat put it in order of appearance... Yish, Joe, Simon, Pat, Stan, Mike, Soon, Shi Fun, Tony, Umar. I was the last to arrive, about an hour late.

Check out the trail guys cool photo below, taken by Joe.

Pat divided us into 2 teams. Me, Simon, Soon and Micheal repaired the switchback on Carnival trail leading to the Rock Garden trail.

[A section on Carnival: Before]

[A section on Carnival: After]

[Another section on Carnival: After]

[Just before the switchback on Carnival before entering the Rock Garden]

Knee Injury

While riding the 2K trail in Bukit Kiara on the morning of 23 June 2007, I tried to clear a log, about a foot in height, but somehow my pedal and rear tyre stuck. I nearly endo. My right knee hit the handlebar.

I was not that painful, but I felt like the knee cap was dislocated. After a few second, I checked my right knee visually... no blood, no funny looking knee cap around. Phew.. lucky me. It didn't hurt at all, but I was jittered.

I purposely didn't go to the hash to make sure the knee was OK.

However, come Sunday night, my right knee felt a bit of pain. Time to check-up...

Serendah Uphill Bash

The May 2007 was at Serendah. Most of the trails were old logging trails with not much of forest canopy.


It was hot and look at the GPS evelation... nearly 6 kms of pure climbing. That was for the scenic ride. The long ride was even worse, with 12 to 14 kms of climbings. The rewards were fast and open downhills, and prestine & cooling waterfalls. Torture but rewarding...

Trail Maintenance 13 May 2007: 4K

4K trail connects the Bukit Kiara crossroad to the KLGCC water tank. If you start from the crossroad, it has a bit of log and jumps ala North Shore, lots of technical downhills, a few other wooden structures and typical Kiara style cross country riding.

The earlier part of 4K is called Rubbish (ala North Shore riding style for the steel-hearted riders), and of course it also has parallel trail.

[Someone correct me if I'm wrong...]

The works that was done is at the technical downhill adjoining of Rubbish and normal 4K.
So, here you're...

[View from the top]

[View from the bottom]

Today orchestra team:
> Pat (Conductor)
> Simon
> Me
> Cougar

Faulty Fox

My rear shock (Fox Float RP3) for my beloved KHS XC904R failed me on Labour Day (1st May 2007). It doesn't hold the air anymore.

It is now at the LBS for repair. There goes my riding time on such excellent bike.

Luckily, I have another bike, the KHS XC604, to keep my adrenalin flow.

[My bike hanging at the LBS]

[Close up view]

Rolling weight

I upgraded my wheelset, from 1988 grams to 1696 grams, and yeapp.. I sound like weight weenies. Mathematically, that is a weight saving of 14.7% or more than half a pound.

The new wheelset consist of:
Mavic XC717 silver rims
DT Swiss Competition double butted spokes
Brass nipples
A set of Ringle Flea hubs

It might not be as light as the XC racer wheelset, but I chose durable components like more durable nipples and spokes. I could have gone to alloy nipples and DT Swiss Revolution spokes to save another 80 gms, but I saw to many of those failed.

I had two rides with the new wheelset. Both rides were on wet and muddy trails. It performed far better than I expected. Climbing was definitely easier now. Cornering felt so much better. A downhill rolling felt like butter.
However, I think I need to test them on dry trails to see its true potential.

Even the lightness can be felt when fitting the bike onto the car rack. That must be good.

Trail Maintenance 02/2007

I'm beginning to like trail maintenance. The wet weather in April just going to ruin the trail if something is not done.

On Monday, I compacted some soils (with outslope) at Carnival trails to try to force the water away from the trail surface. I also re-arrange several rocks (about 1 foot in length) to avoid water from puddling around them. After that I reinforced them with smaller rocks and pegs. That was hard work.

It started to rain when i was about to finish. I saw the water just drain away from the trail surfaces, and I was smiling.

Trail Maintenance 01/2007

The Plan C, Rumpy Bumpy and Barakuda trails are in bad shape, after DBKL widen the trails to accommodate horses.

DBKL just widen the trails, but didn't carry out any soil compacting work. The result is just muddy and soft trails, and unsuitable for mountain biking. It is also probably not suitable for horse riding.

In my opinion, the Plan C and Rumpy Bumpy trails are important trails in Bukit Kiara. Both of them give access from Hartamas to Taman Tun Dr. Ismail and vice-versa. They need to be in good condition.

Friday, 20 April 2007 is also a birthday for my friend, Normy Marziah. I send her SMS for birthday wish. But, it's also the day that I committed to repair Plan C.

These are what I did:
1. Six trail-side retainers with compacted soil filling,
2. About 15 meters of soil transfer and compacting (uphill).
3. Four on trail retainers.

It was a little bit though job because it rained heavily the night before. This made the the soil muddy and heavy. It was also difficult to compact them. I just hope the weather is dry today so that the compacted soil bed in.

It took me about 3 hours, 1.5 liters of isotonic drink (Excel) and lots of layers of mosquito repellent.