The Wild Geeks Adventure Club: Bukit Mahkota Trail in Kajang

The Wild Geeks Adventure Club: Bukit Mahkota Trail in Kajang

I Did It! I Jumped The Jumps in Bukit Kiara!!!

Well, today I went on the downhill in Bukit Kiara, TTDI with the Wildgeeks and I crashed thrice. Once was not from jumping but from getting my front wheel caught between two rocks and basically, I flew off the bike and the bike cartwheeled and basically landed on me... LOL.


The location of my first ever jump!

My helmet, goggles, knee and elbow guard protected me real well! And my hydration bag saved me from major injuries when the bike landed on me... phew! I just bruised and scrapped my right thigh and right arm.

Then I started doing the downhill jumps. The first run was flawless and it was the first time I have ever attempted something as foolhardy as this! There were many natural ramps for small jumps and two man-made ramps for major jumps! It was excellent!

During that first run I almost ran into Azril the Ranger at the first man-made ramp! At that time I did not even know it was him. I remembered seeing Edwin aka Tau Foo Fa standing at the side of the ramp and everything else was just a blur as I was going really fast! Flawless! What a rush!


Thanks to Naga, I have a video to view how close I came to running over Azril. Creepy!

It was then that I decided to go up and do only the ramps again... LOL. And that's when I crashed twice at the second man-made ramp! Both times, it was because of bad landing. I further bruised and scrapped my right thigh just above the knee, bottom right arm and pedal-whack the back of my left leg (the imprint of the pedal is still very clearly marked out in the bruise... LOL).


Naga shooting video of one of my jumps... and crash!

Now that I am back home and watching the video Naga shot of Ranger's crashes and my jumps, I feel really creep out. Man... Ranger really needed to put on some major protections. He was wearing a helmet and that was it! And he was jumping the ramps!

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

This is my lesson learned:

• There is never too much protection!
• When you are ready, dun think, do it!
• Know the downhill route.

Now, I gotta get my bike fixed! 44 and still jumping! Mad!

Giant Moth from Giant Caterpillar

Back in August, I discovered some giant caterpillars feasting on the leaves of the tree outside my porch.

Well, today, turns out that these caterpillars bloomed into this beautiful type of moth (I think). The wing span is at least 6 inches wide.

Guess what I have gotten myself into?

It all started with me declaring myself to be overweight in June this year. Then my purchase of a mountain bike in the hope of using it as one of my means to loose weight.



I spent RM400 on an Exitway - Mr Sub mountain bike, a really heavy "hardtail" (see... now I am talking biking jargons... LOL... must be progress), that I personally referred to as the "Lorry" bike! LOL.

Since buying the bike and riding to so many places these past months, I have discovered some must-buy gears for anyone wanting to go mountain biking on a budget!

One of the things I needed was a bicycle lock to lock my bike when I carry it behind my pick-up. So it was a must have item for me. The lock has seen better days since! The RM25 lock still works, but has lost it's casing after a week! Made in Taiwan! Quality?

I also bought a Cateye tail light for night riding for RM34. Excellent quality!

Aside from the bike, the next single most important thing I bought was the SixSixOne Helmet!



I spent RM120 for this notorious US brand but made in China helmet that after the first day of use, the protective foam just came loose! I think I have a big head... Hahahaha... Check it out below! Quality? Sucks, I guess, but still usable as a protective helmet as long as I fasten the strap properly. I will not recommend anyone to buy this though.



After a few cross-country rides, I realized that a set of gloves would be an important piece of safety equipment to have, especially on downhills!



So I dished out a reasonable RM80 to get this nice pair of SixSixOne gloves, which has since save me from a lot of potentially nasty cuts and bruises on my hands! Quality stuff, yeah! A must buy for all bikers!



Liters of water are a must for cross-country biking. A friend of mine managed to get a 2 liters High Sierra branded hydration back-pack for me from Bangkok, Thailand, for RM110.



On the day I was going to use it, while filling in water, the bloody water bag was leaking profusely at the joint between the bag and the "straw"! Quality sucks big time! Major disappointment!

So now I am just using the back-pack to carry a spare bottle of water! Sad? Pathetic? Hell yeah! Still bloody sore about it! High Sierra sucks man!

About a week ago, I bought myself a nice pair of padded cycling pants! Since I started cycling, I have torn more than 5 pairs of shorts.



For RM110, I have basically reinforced my ass and save myself from a whole bunch of nagging from my wife regarding torn or split shorts... LOL.

A couple of months back, a friend gave me some MTB videos to watch! Man... my first thoughts were, "What? How the heck did that guy do that?" I was referring to Ryan Leech! Man... that guy is inhuman! Ryan Leech is the king of trial riding! Check out this video on YouTube!

Since then, I have been trying to learn track-standing, hopping and jumping on my bike! One of the painful lessons I learnt was that you gotta watch out for your shin hitting the pedals!



Which is why I bought this RM18 shin guard 2 days ago!



Check it out! I have yet to try them on. Probably gonna do it next opportunity I get.



Since I started MTB, I have amassed a whole bunch of stuff, some defective and disappointing and some really lifting and useful.

All in all I have not spent a whole lot of money. Including a child seat, a cyclometer, fixing a crooked crank and a broken headset, and 3 set of punctured tubes, I have spent only a total of RM 1277! (Btw, learning jumping and hopping are expensive if your bike's parts are only good for normal biking. I could have save RM200 if I hadn't tried jumping and hopping like an overgrown clown... LOL)

So what have I achieved since the time I bought the bike? Did I loose weight? Unfortunately, I did not loose weight! So what did I gain? I became a Superhero... that's what! LOL...



Just fooling around after a ride on the KL-Putrajaya highway in Sri Petaling... :-)

Basically, I now have more stamina. I do not feel lethargic from lack of exercise. I feel healthier. But most importantly... now at 44 years old, I can track stand reasonably well, hop like a bunny and jump over speed bumps... LOL.... HAHahhaa..

It's just gonna get better from here on... LOL!

Blooming Orchids, Absolutely Beautiful!

Beautiful... maybe I should put my friend's brand new Nikon SLR to good use by capturing these beautiful orchids blooms; instead of using my Dopod phone camera. Btw, this was in a house in Batu Gajah, Perak.











Please don't ask me what the names of these orchids are. I am at a total lost here. I just tagged along my wife when she wanted to look for some plants to decorate the house. She is no green thumb either... LOL.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Kuala Lumpur Hilton

Last Friday, I attended a knowledge sharing session organised by MDeC in KL Hilton, Sentral. The main guests were Kevin Eastman of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) and Heavy Metal Magazine fame and Joe Pearson of Epoch Ink Animation. I must confess that my single minded objective for attending the sessions were to meet Kevin Eastman and to get an autograph from him... LOL

I am a fan of the black and white TMNT comics and the Heavy Metal Magazine (acquired by Kevin Eastman in 1991). My first experience with Heavy Metal was in 1979 in Singapore. I really admired the artwork of Jean Giraud aka Moebius and Richard Corben. I have quite a collection of Moebius' work, favourite being The Incal! Anyway, that's another story... LOL.

There were easily more than two hundred attendees at the knowledge sharing sessions. The organizer had to add a few additional rows of chairs due to the overwhelming turn out.

I certainly did not expect the knowledge sharing sessions to be so very insightful and sort of rekindled my yesteryears' desire to be a comic artist cum animator. (My once upon a time attempted foray into the industry was restricted to book cover designs, book illustrations and writing children stories.)

Both Kevin Eastman and Joe Pearson shared their trials and tribulations on their journey to success. The bottom line was that it would not have happened if not for the many sacrifices, persistence and hard work.

I for one, was really inspired by them... :-)

Giant Caterpillar

I have never seen a caterpillar that's about 5 inches long until that day when I decided to trim the tree in front of my car porch. The car porch and driveway were splattered with some sort of "fruit" shredded from that tree, at least that was what I thought until my maid told me that it was from those giant caterpillars. Those "fruits" were actually excrement from those caterpillars. Upon conducting a CSI type of investigation on the "fruit", I concluded that it was indeed excrements made up of digested leave fibres... LOL

Wild Geeks Hashing

Since the day I bought my mountain bike on June 12 2007, I have been very busy cycling. (Everyday I made it a point to cycle at least 11km or more to build up my stamina.) After watching Wild Hogs, it inspired me and George to start a "Wild Something".

By June 26 2007, the Wild Geeks Adventure club was formed.

With the formation of the Wild Geeks Adventure Club I have been very busy hashing with the guys. The first trip was to the Rubber Research Institute and there were only three of us - George, Daniel and me.

By the second trip, which was to Batu Dam, there were 7 of us - George, Daniel, John, Azril, Izaini, Ken Wei and me. We hope to get more people to start cycling and hashing with us.

I have gone on three MTB hashing trips and they were all fun and exciting. The joy was to be in an unknown place not knowing what is down the road or the trail, or around the next corner.

Thanks to Daniel and Azril, I have some photos of myself on our last hashing trip to Batu Dam (view GPS photos on Google Earth here).

Photos by Daniel:






Photos by Azril:




I had just completed a trip to the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) with Joe and Azril yesterday - July 21 2007 (view GPS photos on Google Earth here). And now, we are already planning another hashing trip for next Saturday (28th July).

George proposed and planned this next hashing to the Lata Kijang Waterfall, Negri Sembilan. The Lata Kijang Waterfall destination is not exactly a MTB route. It's famous more for 4WD and there are a lot of 4WD 3D2N tour packages to the falls, with tour activities such as spending an evening in the orang asli village.

Hopefully Micol and Ken Wei will have bought their bikes by then to be able to make it for the trip; and also Henry and Jason, fellow MTB adventurers whom I met in FRIM, will be able to make it as well.

Here are some information about Lata Kijang Waterfall:

• http://www.waterfallsofmalaysia.com/42kijang.php
• http://www.mudtrekker.com/lata.htm

For more full reports of the Wild Geeks hashing trips go here:

• http://wildgeeks.org