I have a feeling that even “Take 10” wouldn’t be the end of it, this trail never ceases to impress us.

Take 2 was an “impromptu” thing because technically, it was cancelled due to the weather. But about 4 of us persisted and the rest was history. Take 3 was the planned re-scheduling, but this time most of the people agreed to the “rain or shine” stipulation. Good thing the stipulation was made, because this is how the weather was at one point:

In fact, just as when we were just about to hit the trail, it started pouring!

Summary

We basically did a “newbie” ride (at least for the most part) with the same (or even worse; it certainly felt that way) weather conditions as the previous ride. Because of the situation and concern for the safety of the women with us, we had a different “action plan”

1. We would ride together right up to the first “resting place”
2. The men continued to ride the singletrack to the lake/reservoir
3. The two groups would then meet up with the girls in another point
4. We would go downhill till the fork where you could go back or branch out to unexplored territory
5. The girls went straight back to the base while us men would do one new long hellish singletrack area
6. Trail ride ends when both parties meet up at the base.

New Observations

For the most part, I was able to “adjust” to a lot of stuff that I had a hard time with from the previous rides.

Carlo’s Rock

There’s a place we call “Carlo’s rock,” because the last two rides, I would get dizzy whenever I would get there and sit on a rock. It’s not an “official stopping place” but we tend to take a rest there because of the 3 succeeding hellish inclines that come before.

Given my past experience, I decided to just pace myself on all three… and sure enough, I wasn’t dizzy when I got to my rock!

Singletrack to the lake/reservoir

This is where Alan and I fell the last time, so I was extra careful not to go fast despite natural urges. So now I guess I know how to tackle that area regardless of the conditions.

A shame the girls weren’t able to come with us to that part. Technically, the lake/reservoir at the end of the singletrack was one of the highlights of the trail.

Mud guards

One of the best decisions I ever made; getting mud-guards despite people at the shop telling me they don’t look cool hahahaha. I got those detachable ones so it wasn’t like they’ll be on the bike all the time.

I was the cleanest person in the group – up until everyone started falling in the mud hahahaha.

Also worth mentioning that I’ve confirmed with a mech at Dan’s Bike Shop (Official Fox distibutor/service center) removing my fork’s cable holder assembly is safe. This was awesome because not only was that assembly considerably heavy for what it was supposed to do, but I also got to, once again, use my front air fender on the fork!

Here’s an interesting realization as well: the rear guards basically protect you from the splatter that gets your back dirty… that’s about it. The rest of the issues (mud getting in your eyes, face, etc.) is all from your front tire. I didn’t experience any of those problems (which I had from the second ride) once I had the front guards on… the only dirt from the front I had to worry about was from the rear tires of the people in front of me.

Semplang city

The reason why I think this ride was more difficult than before (despite the same general weather condition) was because everyone fell sooner or later. Even our guides had to plant their feet down once (not at least once hahahaha, once lang! in the same place pa!) Sure, planting a foot down is hardly “falling,” but given that these guys win races (which means they’re probably at least 3 times as good as our best rider) that made everyone feel better about falling down.

Of cleats and cramps

I’ve decided to “graduate” and go full-on clipless from now on – I took out the platforms on the other side and here’s something I came to realize.

If you’ve got one of those dual sided pedals with removable platforms, ¹ “Dual-sided” meaning one side is clipless, the other is a platform. This is not applicable to those “dual-purpose” pedals where both sides can accomodate clipless and platforms try to minimize cleats usage for as long as you have the platforms installed. I know, it sucks, but it seems the best way to learn going clipless is to just jump at it immediately and have all your pedals’ sides “wear” at the same time. Else you’ll have the same problem I had.

The major problem I had during this ride is that the sides of the pedals that used to have the platforms (i.e. haven’t been used with cleats) were considerably tighter even at their loosest setting. This variation in tension fucked with my muscle memory severely; I was used to a certain amount of effort to clip-out, then suddenly I can’t because it wasn’t enough. I had at least 3 “timber!” moments ² Not counting the normal falls which everyone else were victims of because of it.

On the third “timber” moment (at the end of the ride), I stressed my calves so much trying to clip-out when I lost balance that I ended up cramping both legs. Good thing Aids was there to help me out and push my feet towards me to counter the cramps (because I couldn’t do it myself) I couldn’t even stand up at that point!

On the bright side, based on what I’ve experienced… going clipless on the trail seems to be manageable. My issue was not that I forget to clip-out – but that of the imbalanced tensions of both sides of the pedals. I’m guessing if the sides had both worn at the same time, I wouldn’t have any issues at all.

Another plus is that I discovered that most of my scratches was because of the platforms! The clipless pedals have rounded corners overall; so scratching your legs once in a while on them ³ Like when your feet slip, etc. isn’t that much of an issue.

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Pics at the gallery (pics from my cam and Bruno’s)