RIDE REPORT 2: Shriners Convention Trail Revisited

#savekiara #ridetheothertrailstoo 

2 weeks ago, we pay a visit to Pure Quill Trail, and last nite, the hash tribe also seems to have a good bash there, cool.

"How To Roll Lower Carnival's Triple Terrace On Cobblestone for Dummies" ebook by jak the snake on sale at Kinikunaya Book Store. photo by Tengku Faisal

And today, after 14 days, we were back to Kiara, with the usual suspects, riding the full loop again, but with a slight twist.

**what we rode today, just another day in the office => doing overtime => upper carnival => magic carpet => twin peak => pure quill => janie's addiction => clenched schpinter => lightning ridge => kampung tanah jawa => penchala baru => mont kiara concrete jungle => plan C => wasteland => lowershort => snake n ladder => lower twin peak => shriners convention => lowercarnival => big smile throughout the day..

Instead of closing the session to roll at Flinstone Playground, we detour the bunch to rock the "Shriners Convention". Another forgotten trail connected with Upper and Lower Carnival trail.

Little bit of history, if we were not mistaken, the idea of this link, was to be used for climbing to Twin Peak from Chunder Junction without ever riding on tarmac. 

But due to the nature of our laziness, we ride the other way around. Down, and down all the way to the Lower Carnival. 

cobbles covered with green slimey lumut, but still the Gary Fisher 29er tackles the "switchback batu" smoothly.

The trail, if you really got the speed, its heaven..complete with quiet a few lovely switchbacks, berms, roots and rocks, ironically still the Shriners Convention not a popular choice amongs regulars. 

Most regulars avoid this trail maybe because of one scary, but legendary switchback, called, "cobblestone switchback" or simply "switchback batu". (well it is not part of the Convention, but its interconnected in order to complete the flow).

Its one of Penghulu Pat's masterpiece, even some "Kiara's B Full License" riders, still may not succesfully tackle it. 

During its heyday, this switchback heavily used for the Kiara Mountainbike Carnival race. Paramedics, photographers and fans will line up here to see who got the balls made of steel. 

On our ride re-visit today, we found out, the trail still in good shape although some of them now criss crossing with the so-called new DH track.

Rock N Roll pie..

Last but not least, since this maybe the last series on our Kiara trail review, so long, obladi oblada.. life goes on, we will back to our Lefty Ridge, to pick up the pieces, continue the last cangkul of Jahanams loop.

All photos by Joy Mango and Jak The Snake. 

Except "Triple Terrace" photo courtesy of Tengku Faisal

Leave no trace, sampah masuk, sampah keluar!

"..buffalo soldiers in concrete jungle cafe" says the rastas during subhuman mid-ride refreshments at Sri Hartamas near Segambut Dalam.

RIDE REPORT: Pure Quill Trail Revisited

In the middle of forgotten Pure Quill trail, Kiara, with the NamJahanams. photo by Jason Koh

Its been a while since our hiatus from Kiara. As usual, we start the new year by choosing to ride with different flavor.

On new year day, for example, we test the Unity and Harmony (Kdcf new jewel), cranking from home for the extra mileage, but due to the nature of kdcf, which is short but still sweet singletracks, the legs still itchy on the next day, not a good sign, we reckoned. Kiara still got the remedy for that.

New Year day-off, cranking up to kdcf. photo by jak lefty

Pitstop at Harmony Hut.

At the Unity, the switchbacks remind us to the legendary Clenched Schpinter in Kiara. blurred photo by jason koh

So, back to Kiara story, today on the 11th day in 2015, we decided to revisit Pure Quill and Lightning Ridge (to ease the itchy legs, and to check on the damage done by the so-called soil tester, who bulldozed Penchala Lama trail. Damn you!)

Before that, salute to the other Jahanams, whom they rode Lefty Ridge today, did some maintenance on S1, and having fun. Kudos!

Note the s1 Moots signage, if you know what we meant. Selfie is not a crime.

Parang first...

 

.. and ride after. All photos at Lefty Ridge trail by Abg Gary and Abg Fisher.

Back to Kiara story again, we had a good warm up at the Office to Magic Carpet, off to 2k and reversing Mission (oh poor switchback, whoever always skidding their tires on Mission, please avoid 'em) exit the Horse Stable, climb-up to the Twin Peak via Lower Short and Snake N Ladder. 

..and, at Twin Peak, here we went into the forgotten Pure Quill, (a sharp right hand turn on the way down to Around the Mountain).

Just for the record, Pure Quill was abondoned during the "coldwar" i.e. "Perang Pagar yang dibina oleh Jabatan Landskap untuk diskriminasi minda".

It was abondoned because, the pagar criss-crossing the trail network twice, and thus, ruining ride flow. 

During its heyday, Kiara Regulars (you know who you are) often use the trail as alternative to TnT, to enjoy Dirty Deeds.

But as for today, the Pagars is "open" and we ride Pure Quill with smile and feel blessed. Thank god, its Sunday.

Joy Mango chit-chatting with his Van Nicholas Redwood while ripping Pure Quill. Yeah, the bike can talk. Photo by jason koh

From there, we directly went up to Jane Addiction on our way to Clenched Schpinter entrance, blast a few switcbacks and ... arrived at the ground zero, we were devastated, to see the destruction at Penchala Lama junction, the truth was really hard to digest, the trail is gone, and about 50meter lenght of Lightning Ridge climb is not ridable, and bulldozed. 

Image above is Lefty Ridge's penghulu, had a big grin whenever he rode Clenched Schpinter, he even nicknamed one of the finest switchback in the photo above as "corner rothmans", in his memory of Selekoh Rothmans at Batu 3 Racing Circuit in Shah Alam. Really, look how he swing the corner, a la Eddie Lawson seyy. photo by Joy Mango.

sap sap soi he chewed happily. 

Then, we continue to Lightning Ridge, passing by Kampung Tanah Jawa, had a few words with the villagers, and according to them, its been very quiet now in term of mountainbikers passing by their kampung compare to a few years back, maybe because of the pagar, landslide at the Roller Coaster, or just simply most newbies in Kiara now just know how to ride 2k, 2k, emm, and again 2k, emm, little bit of Flinstone on the way back maybe, and yet with super fancy full suspension bike. Ouch.

We were eager too, to ride Roller Coaster, because, since the landslide a few years ago, we just cut short our loop to exit Concrete Hill at KiaraMas.

To our surprise, the trail is still fine with little diversion and we drop by the river for refreshments.

"Down by the river, I shot my baby..." said mr Neil Young and his Crazy Horses. Pristine!

And the rest is history...

Leave No Trace, Ride with Ethics, not mathematics.

NOTE: the story merely from our own perspective only, maybe different from others.

do u know what is the meaning of clenched schpinter? "jubor terkemut" indeed..

ride the Lightning ridge

good waste managment at wasteland

"we'll be back for this.." comment the Tennesse bred Litespeed Cohutta's singletracker

Its New Year, Get Your Gear and ...

too much of magazines skimming on new years eve is bad. photo taken just from one of 'em.