What an experience-BM Jamboree

Saturday the 3rd is the day the “Bike Pushers Gang” was getting ready to try out the BM Jamboree Trail before the actual competition next week as part of our rigid training preparing to meet the challenges of our first jamboree together. ( talk about shiok sendiri). We planned to meet at Dinas at 6.15am and I got up at 5.00am because I could not sleep peacefully as my dreams were all about riding and the jamboree, so I decided to get up and get ready to head towards Dinas. It was dark and I do not have any bike lights…shame on me for not buying it any sooner. I was there first and no one was at sight, later Idris came and followed by Suri, Suffian and Yazid. Murphy’s Law came true when things go wrong they will definitely go wrong as Sufian's bike hit a double-whammy of flat tires bur our own Major Suri saved the day with his technical prowess by changing the tires not once but twice and Suffian was feeling bit uncomfortable for holding us back. We did not gave him a chance to back up as he has been training secretly practically every day to gear up for the Jamboree!

Idris "bike-mobile", which is not a 4x4 but a 5x5 (5person with 5 bikes) was loaded onto his pickup truck and he even suggested that his truck can carry 6 bikes but the last passenger need to be tied on the truck’s roof top! We met and greeted the Cranky's team at trail start which was a flat hard-packed “ tanah merah’ (red earth) path. Some twenty riders assembled slowly at the meeting point and we quickly made friends and Suffian seems to know quite a number them, which is nothing to be surprised about. I met Ang Poh Hin and several others whom I could not remember names but two less serious riders by the name of Lau and KK warmed up with few jokes on how we are going to manage this ride!

The first 5-10 minutes were pleasant till we reached the foot hill of Bkt Langkap where the painful long and very steep ascend on tarmac started it was a real challenge to most of us but surprisingly Yazid who claims not to have trained since Puasa ( fasting days) were among the lead and I was trailing behind with Lau and KK.

It was really a difficult climb as usual we lived up to our team motto…if you can’t ride..don’t push yourself but instead push the bike. We pushed our bikes and the four of us sticked together; Yazid, KK, Lau and I. After climbing two hills the aerial view of Mengkuang Dam was an awesome and we took some photos as it is a must in our every ride. The path led to a rocky and loose rock trail then followed by uphill soft red earth (tanah-merah). Our tires collected the mud along the way and the bike weigh as if it added 10kg going thru the uphill till we reached the palm trees. Suri, Idris Suffian and few more rides were awaiting the fabulous four to join them and it followed with photo session as we wanted to look good and to show to our spouses as a symbol of achievement.

The ride through the palm estate was great followed by the rubber estate was equally bumpy and rough as the tree roots were protruding above the earth that gave us some excitement going downhill. We found another downhill hero in KK as he was going very fast till we lost sight of him many times.

Finally we reached the underpass and made a pit-stop at the BKE Shell station wanting to know which way to head back. We heard that one cranky member met in a little accident and Sufian helped him to BKE Shell gas station. While resting a while the other team members came and said that we could not pursue through the rubber tree trail as there are no indicators on how to head back to the Kampung. We decided to head back using an alternative road and but came to a dead end after a while! We became creative in managing ourselves out of it by sneaking and crawling under the fence to come to the main road. It was total teamwork that all our bikes were safely carried under the fence and we rode on the expressway. Within minutes all of them disappeared including Yazid as I was slowly enjoying the ride hence I need to catch up L ater I heard that Suri broke the 40km speed as he tried Pak Shah's technique. What was the technique only a few of us know that include Idris, Suffian, Yazid and I! It was wonderful experience which shall be in memories for a while and we are looking forward to next week for the real challenge!
(Photos to follow)