Freedom To Ride

The Flag Cat. photo courtesy ofAbg Zali sifu

"The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask." - Jim Morrison

to be continued..

our merdeka day Cross-country ride

#bilaxcbontotkusakit

#dahkonikenapaasyikmenebangpokok

Sunday In Hell With The "Iblis"

Trail News

Yap of Pedalspot on Ibis Mojo Hdr ripped the singletrack at Leftys S1 trail like nobody business.photo by Jason Koh

Last Sunday was a very good day to ride,  the hellish climb of Leftys trail leave only 7 out of 12, survived the mosquitos and 2 hours of ascent, for the pleasure of only 4 minutes of descending Loose Rock and the infectious Kurma trail. 

The result is pure adrenaline fix, enough to hold on for the next 6 days.

Next Sunday, rumours spread out that the penghulu suggested to ride Colorado - the Wall - Leftyridge - uppershort - Rockgarden - tt serong - upper bkt botak  - S1 from above - reverse good morning - the return to Greenhill - Salak South -lungbuster - kg budiman- Resort - Bandung - MoU - and back to Colorado.

From S1 with Love

Weekday Trailday At The Bollocks Switchback

TrailNews Today

Before..

After..

After nearly 3 months of maintenance crew hiatus, the penghulu decide to "menyapu" the trail on his own, yes on weekday!.. for our enjoyment on Sunday.

(yeah, this Sunday the 24th, will be our first ride at the Leftys since May).

Van Nicholas Redwood and the old rake.. partner in crime for the day. photo by Jak Lefty

However, a bit of a bad sign instead, the capitalist has been bulldozing the trailhead near MoU. So, it became the norms now, every trail is very vulnerable, just the same case like Boner in Kiara last year.

Its nightmare for trail lovers and it seems the unfortunate things will continue at Leftys.

Enduro Sadis? photo by Jak Lefty

Just hope for the best and keep riding while they still exist.

Here are more photos update from trail maintenance done by our penghulu today. 

Surely, adrenaline junkies like us feeling high on deisel and gasoline already pabila tengok trail sudah bersih bersapu and we are ready to rumble again. Nevermind the Bollocks! 

Oi! Oi! Tq Penghulu!

At the S2 long lost bridge.

At the Bollocks switchback yo!

"Scoobi dooo ..ex-hippie mountainbikers use side trail"

LEFTY RIDGE - PART 2 Behind the trails name.

Note: all the trail names may have been called differently or built or used by others, this story merely from our own perspective. 

"Tiada kena mengena dengan yang mencangkul atau pun tidak." 

For those who we've forgotten, or twist the story you might think of, you know who you are and the truth is out there to ride. 

(a la X files ejen Mulder pulak)

Lefty Ridge - Haluan Kiri

- this trail is named in our tribute to mr lefty for his dedication and believes, and he used to have canondale lefty which he rode extensively during the recce. But now inherit his rig to mr headshox.

On top of that, the "ridge" is always on the left side.

During afternoon session, the ponteng ride. photo by headshox.

the Masterpiece

- name simply given by our sifu, bro Zali,  because of the natural flow of the trail when descending from peak garden. Classic when you ride it fast. Repeat, Only when you ride it fast. 

masterpiece trail .photo by headshox

Loose Rock

- named due the condition of this steep descend, (during the test ride, the small batus were flying all over the place) which also can be very slippery when wet, and loose gravel  panic kinda thing when in super dry condition.

stairway to heaven loose rock descend.photo by headshox

Kurma Trail

- while recce for this link, tok batin, bro sifu Zali and bro Meor eating buah kurma for brunch. So, whenever they were dicussing about the sweetness of the singletrack during post-recce, the dialog was like this "tempat yang kita makan kurma tu la.." 

Kurma consist of RootBloodyroot, and Double Rotten Log. 

RootBloodyRoot

-is named after the switchback which originally got big roots criss-crossing the switchback to challenge the skill of us also to differentiate between the boys and the men. 

But the enjoyment was cut short when, again a stupid fella "potong" the root. Until now, the serial root-cutter remain mystery. Dont tell us he is the same person who cut the root at KDCF.Darn.

clunkers style at bloodyroot switchback during the signage installation phase. photo by headshox

Flores

- the trail frequently used by the flores indons to hunt wild boar. The Flores consist of River Rock, where a little sungai runs thru it. 

Rocks Reggae Party. photo by headshox

Good Morning

-"good morning" trail is tok batin's idea, with the help of tok penghulu mr lefty, and Chip Mubin, they recce the loop together. 

The purpose of this trail is for warming-up, if riders choose to start from Alam Budiman. The trail consist of "bukit skodeng" and "single rotten log" drop and not-so-tight switchbacks.

single-rotten log drop and "lipat" at Selamat Pagi! photo by jason koh

Basuh Muka

- according to Alam Budiman's Tok Batin, he explain to us while we were "hired" by him, this nasty hill is the correlation of Good Morning, meaning, its like after someone woke-up in the morning, then basically you wash your face, refreshed.

After this hill, usually our mentally not-so-prepared visitors will request to bailed out.

S1 Trail

- This is the little  but lovely reward after your huff and puff climbing the Basuh Muka, designed for descending, consist of a few switchbacks. 

It was the first phase (thats why it called S1) of the so called revival project funded by the Tok Batin. But unable to get the CF (certificate of fitness, chewahh..) due to the not-user-friendly kind of switchback as what he claim it was.   

Ironically, we got a very positive Kiara regulars feedback after their test ride, they said "emm quite easy peasy to be honest". 

S2 

- the S2 stretch consist of batu hampar n bollocks switchback, it was touted as the 2nd phase (thats why its call S2 obviously). This trail partly built with the help of Saidi's gang, who built the now defunct engineering failure bridge.

The trail also not awarded the CF by Tok Batin, but actually when you learn and open up your mind, once you master the line, you got your bragging rights. 

The last cangkul of S2. photo by headshox.

However, the original stretch never been cangkul to the finish due to some reason.

maberik! photo by headshox

to be continued..

Battery

Upper Short

Rock Garden

Titi Serong

Colorado

Bandung Underground

LEFTY RIDGE - PART 1 Behind the trails name.

The trails now is on tee shirts design - out for sale for trail maintenance fund raising. Photo by Jak Lefty

We were glad, when we were told that, the trail network has been publicly shared on social media and appreciated by a very nice Persatuan from the other side of "the wall". 

And they are the one who actually built the ever lovely MoU (is actually PoC, we are terribly sorry to override that from our own perspective).

Since our last updates, the Lefty Ridge trails network has gone thru series of unfortunate events. 

One of the trail signage destroyed by the stupid gang. Photo by Headshox

Some of them was very hard to digest, like the chainsaw masaccre, root-cutting party by the bastards and signboards vandalism (yes! they were actually destroy a few signboards because they are stupid) and lastly, the tragic forest fires threat.

Snapshot from Nusa Rhu. The smoke on the forest, fire in the sky. photo courtesy of Chief Mubin

Ironically, on March, a week after we unofficially launched the trails with signboards and all, our heart melted when we heard the news from Aizar that the forest is on fire. 

The wildfires finally gone merely 2 weeks after and thanks to Tok Batin and the Bombas whom risk their lives to fight the fires day and nite.

The aftermath. We brave the haze and check out the damage. Note the fireline was actually stop right on Masterpiece trail. photo by Headshox

A couple months later, some part of the trails witnessed a very high visitors due to jamboree and weird enough they actually training to ride 'em. And as expected, a few route and obstacles have been modified by the organizer for safety reason. Sigh.

During a month of Ramadhan, the Penghulu, done a few solo ride, and share his observations that, he feels the trail is in good shape and maintained by somebody. 

somebody with good heart rake the trail even on Ramadhan?. Photo by Jak lefty.

We just like to thank whoever that good samaritan, may god bless ya' for your love to mothernature.

On top of that, we heard the bike hasher group also had their monthly bash there a week after Hari Raya. Well done guys.

Last but not least, since the trail network is now "popular", we would like to share a few story behind the trails name, so that, visitors will understand why we trailbuilders have got to named them akwardly during the process, it is just for our own rememberance and memorization.

One of the 1st blueprint of the trail network map was actually drawn by hand with the trail in mind. photo by Headshox

As per the masterplan 4 years ago, it started with:-

Lower Sapu Tangan 

- this is the link to Taman Pertanian, instead of climb up Shah Alam highest point, we use the lower part of the valley.

Kampung Peter

- we named the trail after mr Peter himself, the chief indons gang who live and play sepak takraw in the jungle. 

Lake Edge

- the trail behind Nusa Rhu area, the route to the Peak Floyd, consist of ToTw, Pinang Sebatang.

Peak Floyd

- named after the Roger Waters band, with the slight twist to the "peak" instead of "pink", while we do some earthwork there, the "darkside of the moon" album play non-stop in our mind.

The Zinc

- the first link we found to exit Setia Alam. A very technical descent and during the development, we bump with Indon gang carry tonnes of zinc in the jungle, for their kongsi roof houses. The Zinc is actually the same idea as the new Piece of Cake (PoC) or we called it MoU, the different is PoC is ridable any direction towards the Wall but The Zinc is purposely built to descent, and exit Setia Alam.

At the Zinc during his prime. photo by Kohmeng kal

The Wall

-the wall is named after the Peak Floyd, its like a continuation or "kesinambungan" since the Wall is one of Pink Floyd all time favourite song, and coincidently, the trail is actually lies on the edge of the last forest survive to separate either side of Shah Alam i.e Setia Alam and Puncak Perdana.

Zoom-up and you will see a bunch of Kiara guys on the way to rip the Leftys.

Photo by headshox.

to be continued ... 

check out how Good Morning, Basuh

Muka Trail, MoU and others got their names.