Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Dirt biking in Malaysia - December 2008

After a mountain biking trip in Yuzhno that did not allow us to cover as far as we planned, a trip on dirt bike in Malaysia was planned before departing Yuzhno.

The day was a Sunday, and we agreed it is time to take the bikes off road. Breakfast was part of the plan, so we arrived 1 hour before the trip start to have our meal. It was about 830am when we arrived.

Everyone arrived around 945 and we were told to take the bikes for a spin to make sure they are in good condition. Alex, the shop owner gave us some protective gears, e.g. riding boots, knee/elbow guards, gloves and we took the bikes for a shakedown.


Here are the monsters.


Our first stop was at the Shell station, to fill up the tanks. Everyone took this opportunity to fill up their system with some 100plus or RedBull during this time.


Yours truly posting for a shot with his bike.


Trial #1, to cross this small river on planks. Good balancing skills and balls required to acomplish this first task, especially for beginners. Ok, I didn't manage to pass this.


A short break after our first 15 minutes of ride.

Some pointers on how to handle the bike going in and out of muddy waters.

The bikes...

Getting ready for some more action.
The lack of pictures for the later part of the trip explains the difficulty levels and weather conditions. We went through hilly slopes, muddy waters, palm oil estate dirt tracks and crossing some drains we never thought possible.
We arrived back at our starting point at around 5pm, exhausted, wasted, dirty, breathless, bruised, but glad we made it back and most importantly, made the trip happen.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Yuzhno - Autumn 2008 - Mountain biking in Yuzhno

It was 18th October and still a sunny autumn day in Yuzhno, so a few of us Malaysian flers decided to do some off-road mountain biking to enjoy the fresh air around Yuzhno. We had hoped to try our will power to reach Chekov peak, a 25-30km trail.


As usual, we went to bed early and got up on time, gathered in Yubileinaya hotel, about 15 minutes walk to where we should pick up our rental bikes. As you can see from the above picture, these guys looked pretty energized.
Part of the trail we followed.
Another picture of the trail.


Again.

It was about 15 minutes before we decide to take our first break, and the subsequent ones were about 5-10 minutes interval.

This helped us conclude that we brought the wrong tools for the job.

And the little tiny narrow seat didn't helped us much.

Our fire starter + burner.

Found a nice stream about 1 hour later, and everyone thought the view was much better than Chekov peak, so took a break and enjoyed our lunch there. Managed to cook some sausages and bacons. Also, we brought some fresh scallops but had to leave them for the bears due to some *#@&% reason.
A picture taken after our meal and before we proceed downhill.