13.03.2011 - Seri Alam 1Malaysia offroad with Wa Cycles

L to R: Nick, Steven, Akmal, Meng, Joe (lawyer), Joe (Titus)

 

0600 hours - drizzling outside, dark and wet.

0730 hours - text to Reza, Kadafi, Atuk & EG: "Kayuh?"

Replied by EG and Reza, they are in their hometowns. No reply from Kadafi and Atuk.

 

Hmmphhh... I've prepped with the essentials for offroad the night before. License granted by the missus. However, I can see my missus smiling while she's still asleep that morning, thinking that I won't be going offroad. From the look of it, seems that I won't be going after all. She asked me to get her a loaf of bread of breakfast, which I obliged.

 

I went to the Petronas Mesra at 7:45 am and went up to Cactus Inn on the way back. Not really a detour, rather a farther distance home. I went there around 8:00 am to check if the guys from Wa Cycles are riding, and perhaps to say hi and a short chat before heading off. Joe (Titus) and Nick were there waiting since 7:00 am for the others to turn up. Koh came over some 10 minutes after. Apparently there is going to be a ride that morning. And, the rain had stopped by that time. I'm at a junction now. To ride or not to ride? Steven, their ride leader is coming; and as soon as I see Joe (the lawyer) driving in, I made up my mind. There'll be at least 5 riders including me. That's a good number.

 

So I went home and suited up. Bike's ready and after a quick bite of bread and jam with tea, I went off pedaling to Cactus Inn. Lucky me, it's only around 2 km away. When I arrived (panting), Steven was already there, and Meng also. Koh is not riding, so there'll be 6 of us. We went off at around 9:00 am.

 

The plan: Plentong Epic Ride in reverse, towards CP1 and CP2, badminton, Permas Go Kart (yes, it is in Plentong), and back. The route chosen was awesome. There were flowy downhill singletracks, lung bursting climbs, speedy flats, and a detour to the unknown (read: lost). Along the way, laced with good humour (mostly lawyer jokes, haha), chatting, and lost GPS signal.

 

We started off with a flowy singletrack downhill and followed with slight uphill to what the PG riders call Bukit 9G. Went down and took a left towards a singletrack and more flowy downhill ensued. I enjoyed it tremendously. It has been a long time I've been into that particular trail.

 

We went out eventually to UniKL, and crossed over to Flora Heights rubber estate. Went down towards the Indian settlement and up towards the top of the hill. From then on, downhill and the rodeo section. After that, we went deeper into the rubber estate and all the routes from then on are quite blurry (or much too lazy) for me to describe. I should mention that we did a detour just to try out the route less traveled. And we managed to get back to where we started, alhamdulillah.

 

Anyway, we did go down to badminton and headed to go kart for replenishing our thirst with 100 Plus. Went back from there via the canopy, and we ended at 12:30 pm. I parted with the other riders at the jongkang-jongket, went back alone smiling.

 

What I like about the ride is about the spirit of the riders - joyful, lighthearted and with good stamina. The fact that the number of the pack is small also plays a big role in us getting a good ride. The best part is that we hit all the nice trails and downhills plus those which I haven't ridden for some time. All that, and the awesome scenery of fresh green leaves on the rubber trees contrasted with fallen leaves covering the ground.

 

To the folks at Wa Cycles, I thank you for having me riding along with you guys. There will be a next time, insyaAllah. 

 

Have I mentioned that the 6 comprises of a Malay, three Chinese, an Indian and a Sabahan?

 

Ride stats:

distance: 34.14 km

ride time: 2h 37m

average speed: 12.9 km/h

 

photo taken from Wa Cycles' facebook album