Epic Ride or 8 Peaks Ride?
KOTRTpit view by Rin The Jinx

It all started a few months back not long after Kulim Lee and the Ipoh group organized the Simpang Pulai-Tapah-Cameron ride.

All of us were so hyped up, it was decided that P2K organize the next ride but at their level of playing field! The Broga they called it!

So the challenge was thrown, accepted and preparation was soon under way.

Since then, every weekend without fail Kulim Lee's group has been regimentally clocking mileage and training on hilly terrain. This would be in anticipation and preparations for the most sadistic ride in the Central Region...or so it was claimed!

I recalled Sany taking us thru’ part of the road during the 100th KLMBH at Teratak Tekala. It was notorious for its steep ascend especially if one were to start from Batu 14 towards Sg Tekala. "Kalu kereta dok tukar gear banyak kali…faham-faham lah”

So I have taken the lead for KOTRT and invited our members to take take up on the challenge (read SUFFERING!) as well! Initially a lot were keen but later as the date line drew near, ada pulak yang KFC, McD, Ayamas etc. In the end, only 3 brave souls were left ie. Self, Adrian and Chen were committed to ride. Macam-macam ada…

We loaded the bikes on Fri afternoon, Chen was helping me when Pang turned up at my place for KPC(kae-poh-chee) Ok, ok, ok…actually he came over to send his XTR rear hub, so that i could drop it at Bike Pro for servicing.

We spent over 2 hours figuring out how to load all 3 bikes into my car but in the end we gave up trying and we settled on 2 bikes inside while Adrian's CR1 has to go up the roof rack. Btw, Chen and I would really like to “THANK” Adrian for NOT cleaning his bike as it made a mess when we were loading his bike in and out figuring how to fit his bike with ours in the car! Habis tangan, car upholstery, seat etc. Everything that came into contact with his chain received a good smudging!

We have agreed to start our journey with the following itinerary below :-
· 7am depart from my house to KL
· 10am Brunch at Tang Lin
· 2pm Lunch at Sri Hartamas
· 3pm-5pm Lepak-lepak and visit bike shops
· 6pm Check-in Sany's Villa
· 7.30pm Uptown PJ Curry Fish Head dinner with Sany, Jan, Fuji, Lina, Bernice and Andrew
· 11pm off to bed!
Everything nicely planned, right? We shall see how it turned out later…
I woke up at 5.30am although I went to bed late at 1.30am after packing my bag with riding gears, jersey etc. Normal lah…mana jersey nak pakai, mana bibshorts nak match, which helmet, which shoes, which gloves…kalah tak pa…siru mau! :)

I was so lazy to wake up with only 4 hours of sleep. I wished someone would drive so that I could continue sleeping in the car the whole journey.

I was ready by 6.30am, Adrian texted me early that he was all set to go BUT Chen was no where to be seen. I text Adrian back hinting him to opt for a quickie(more of this later!) since Chen would likely be late…AGAIN!?

7.15am…still no sign of Chen! I foresee my Tang Lin Wan Tan Noodles sprouting wings already!

7.30am…I called Chen. “errrr, I'm just leaving my house” came the reply from him! TING! TING! TING! My Wan Tan noodles definitely flew the coop liao! <sob-sob-sob>

Slightly past 7.40am…Chen finally arrived! We headed to pick Adrian at Solok Pemancar, mana itu tempat ah? I never knew where Solok Pemancar is even though it’s located in the same vicinity I live for the past 35 years! I discovered it was just 10mins away from my house! Nope…don’t ask why we had to pick Adrian up from there! Now you know why I mentioned “quickie” earlier!?

Adrian was very sleepy and tired! He claimed it was due to his hectic Bangkok day trip the previous night but Chen and I begged to differ! Ini mesti bayar “bill air” in advance!

We swung by Shell Bukit Gelugor to fuel up. Adrian suggested breakfast at the Tun Sardon food court before we headed to KL. What a capital idea!

Chen and Adrian helped themselves to Beehun Soup since there was a long queue for the nasi lemak stall. I bought some Serabai Bakar to be eaten with Gula Merah gravy! Yummy and filling! Mesti mau carbo-loading mah…hard ride the next day wor!

After a hearty breakfast, we headed to our destination – KL. The drive was cozy with dark clouds through out the way. We stopped at Tapah for a pee and coffee break. Guess who we met there? None other than Mithi! Nice chap, we look forward to ride with him in the upcoming IS2008!

After our short stop, lepak and TC, we continued the final leg of our journey to Bukit Damansara aka Sany's Villa, where we would bunk-in for the night!

I called Sany but he wasn’t home. He was still in Shah Alam visiting his In-Laws, so we adjourned to PBD for a quick lunch and I informed the potential buyer for my TIME to meet me there too. Opppppppsssssss! Kalu jadi lah…

Subway sandwiches else where never tasted so good as in PBD, maybe the “traffic” was equally good kut? U know what kind of “traffic” lah!

I excused myself when Halek called me. The guy was looking for a road bike while waiting for his new steed to arrive later in June. So I was cross-selling my Time to him so that I could "explore" new steed for the upcoming IS2008 :)

We chatted for almost 2 hrs, discussing different bike performance, parts etc. Ok, ok, ok…I'm gonna skip this part!

We adjourned to Sany's Villa next. We unloaded our gear and lepak for a while before our pilgrimage to the local bike shops.

I have this intuition about these two bike shops in KL…I have long suspected they use “charms”…some how every time we’re in KL, mesti mau pi and mesti kena belanja duit when we’re there! Ironically, I was quite disciplined but I can’t say the same for poor Adrian! He was so “charmed” he ended up spending a few hundred ringgits alone at Bike Pro! Kesian tak? Imagine, he bought 6 water bottles alone in that shop! Short lah, long lah, insulated lah! Now tell me the shops don’t have “charms”?

We met many regulars there including Kulim Lee's group and the Khaw Bros.

Then we came across a burly chain smoking guy who bragged he has THE lightest Scott road bike in Malaysia! Ok lah, Scott Addict R1, full Record Red, FSA cransk set, Cosmic Ultimate, Zero Gravity and many more chi-chi stuff. 13.2lbs! Very light lah. The guy claimed he has spent RM30k plus for "an American born in Taiwan" carbon fibre bike? Then it came to mind an old wisemen’s advice; "better to loose your weight then your bike's weight, as it’s much CHEAPER and HEALTHIER!...." Betul jugak ah? Ooooppppppsssss!

After spending much $ and time at Bike Pro, we headed to KSH pulak. I was almost “charmed” myself by the Fulcrum Racing Zero (Black/Red) edition hanging on the rack! Lawa sial!

We even swung by Reliance Optical and Adrian was “charmed”…again! This time he bought a Ducati Edition Oakley Crosshair! Few hundred ringgits went flying again!

It started pouring heavily and I really gian to have my favorite Uptown Curry Fish Head with steamed chicken, but looking at the weather we decided against it.

We headed to Sany's Villa but he still wasn’t home. He went out with Fuji to view Fuji's new dream car…2008 Subaru Impreza 2.5 STI at Naza Motors.

Adrian pulak has a date with "some" friends at BSC. So it was just self, Chen, Sany, Jan and Hady going for dinner.

We ended up at Jake's for a "simple" dinner lah. The American Charbroiled Ribs was tasty as before! Yummy! And a BIG Thanks to Sany for his generous dinner.

We chatted and TC way past 12am. The clock was ticking away and the Broga ride was hours away to reality!

We finally called it a night around 1am. It felt like mere minutes of sleep before the alarm woke us from our slumber at 5am! Wah…my body was so lazy to wake up but I was on a quest to uphold the pride of KOTRT! We dragged ourselves from bed to get ready.

We left Sany's Villa around 6.10am and were running late. Kulim Lee warned us the P2K folks were very punctual with their time. To make things worse, I have never been to Batu 14 myself! All I had were some verbal directions from William and Fuji the night before. We prayed hard to get there before 7.30am without any glitches.

Roger and Kito were already waiting for us after the Kerinchi Link since 6am. Apa lagi, all the @#$#%$%&*! came out thru’ my phone lah when I informed them we were "on our way!"

We sped thru’ the Kajang highway and Roger’s car was struggling to keep up with our speed!

Luckily the directions given by Wiiliam and Fuji were spot on, we got there slightly past 7am! Phew!

Chen quickly excused himself to "lighten up" and Andrian followed suit after I parked the car.

We were given a briefing by one of the P2K Senior, "1st stop, 51st KM at Lenggeng, then 2nd stop, 81st KM at Titi, then all the way back to carpark for next 50+KM. Sure hot! Make sure enough water! Happy riding!" Errr happy riding? How did we end up coming for this ride? Too late, we got conned…bugger!

We rolled out sharp at 7.30am, gracefully we rode thru’ Kampung roads, with some SMI factories along the way. We chatted, TC with Kulim Lee, Simon of P2K etc on the "toughness" of the ride. I was fishing for info if there was taxi service along the way!

Just slightly past KM4, we saw a sharp incline ahead of us! What? Our legs were still cold and we had to climb this hill? The locals called it Bukit Hantu but my GPS showed Tekali. Mother kau, this hill really kau especially climbing so very early in the morning! I could even see vapor steaming out from the riders' body! Must be the heat generated from the body cycling up the torturous climb in the cold weather!

The climb lasted for 3.8km…phew! Then it was a fast sweeping descend to the Tekala junction. At the junction where we regrouped, it looked as tho’ there was some fancy party going on with all the assorted colors worn by riders!

The pelaton moved from there and we passed Sg Tekala Recreational Park and Teratak Tekala soon after. This place is a mountain bikers' haven loh! Nice trails in there and we hope to ride at this place some time later this year during the PCC Presidential Ride.

The speed gradually increased to high 30s as soon as we have clocked 15KM. Natural selection took over! I made sure Kulim Lee was within sight. We passed thru’ a few small towns. Seminyih was one of them and the development there was rapid!

Suddenly I saw a signage Kg Sri Broga 5KM! Damn! That meant we would have to start our climb soon! The pelaton kept maintaining the pace and they just ignored the sign. We rode thru’ a series of undulating hills around the Broga area until we hit the town of Lenggeng.

At Lenggeng, we grabbed some drinks, bananas, bread and any snacks to ensure our body has “fuel” to tackle the big climb coming later.

Some of the local riders warned us the "big climb" would be coming soon. Ok, I grabbed a bottle of Coke to charge-up for the upcoming climb!

We left Lenggeng and slowly we increased the pace, suddenly at approximately 4KM we saw it! The Jeram Toi! The climb was sharp and painful! The climb was less than 1.5KM but the inclination was bad followed by a fast descend but our joy was short lived as we tackled the 2nd phase of Jeram Toi!

I eventually separated from Chen, Adrian and Kulim gang; I was too obsessed descending Jeram Toi fast and before I knew it, I was all alone in front. William came with his bike and helped me pace to catch up with some of the even faster riders up ahead. I even passed PK and wife in my quest to chase after the fast pack. Macam Pro konon! Cheh!

Pro tak Pro, suddenly another hill loomed ahead of me! Mak oi! It was open, hot and stee-eep! It was Bukit Tangga! It was really “tangga” as my pedaling stroke slowed to a crawl struggling up the stairs! Slowly, step by step I conquered Bukit Tangga. I found out this is also the training ground for our National Squad and Le Tua!

The ride up to Bukit Tangga was torturous! The song/lyrics “step by step oh baby...”was running repeatedly thru’ my head as I took on the challenge!

I managed to catch up with Khalib, Mimis (remember the guy always in Polka Dot suit?) and most famous guy, Boon Foo! Ha ha ha...

The descend was good heading towards Kuala Klawang and the flat sections provided a really nice shady route. Our speed was in the mid 40s! Then we had 2 guys trying to test their fitness by breaking away, 1 Chinese chap on a Bianchi and another Jap on a Trek Equinox. Alas, their breakaway was an attempt in vain as they were quickly overtaken by Kulim Lee’s group leaping collectively with other local riders.

Later on, I saw Sany's car parked with other Subarus at a rest area. They were out for their weekly drive. Wanna race?

We stopped at a sundry store by the road side for quick drink. All the tengkars like YM Lim, Kimberly and many others were also there. Next, we headed for lunch in the town of Titi.

Sadly or disappointingly, lunch didn’t materialize for the Muslim riders as all the Muslim makan joints were closed on Sun. The organizer overlooked this detail and we were left stranded without any 'KOTRT Standard' lunch. We had to settle for toast and bread while the non muslims enjoyed their Wan Tan mee etc.

The next killer climb waited for us; Genting Perez! This is another notorious climb crossing the Titiwangsa range! Imagine you’re on this side and crossing to the other at midday!

Slowly we cruised and eventually I and Mimis went ahead of the rest. We were even assisted by William! We drafted behind his bike for almost 8km before the foot of Perez!

We caught up with Boon Foo for the 2nd time. We stayed with him for a while before proceeding to tackle the climb. It was a long climb! Almost 14km and just as you thought you’re done, the climbs continued, one after another.

I couldn’t recall how many sub-climbs I had to do… all I remembered was my very numb crotch! Mimis dropped me shortly after! Bye!

I saw a stranded and mangled Subaru by the road side! The driver must’ve lost control negotiating the chicane and ran into the wall of the road divider. Poor guy, later I heard from Fuji and Sany that it was the driver's 1st outing with the group. It would be a long time before he could rejoin the group as it would probably take months for his car to be repaired.

Back to riding! The weather was too hot for some riders; they got off the road and showered at a nearby mini waterfall! It was very tempting but my quest was to finish the ride before 2pm! Boleh kah? Entah lah...cuba tengok?

I was so happy when I saw a big signboard demarcating the border of Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. Phew…saved by the bell?

Then I noticed the Chinese Bianchi rider who broke away earlier…cramping by the road side!! Tu lah, ride elok-elok tak mau, padan muka!

Jordan and some of the P2K seniors were waiting for us with drinks! What a lucky break! Lega!

After I replenished my water, I headed straight for the much rewarding descend! Yippee!

However soon as I noticed the Semenyih dam on my left, I knew the Tekali hill is just around the corner!

Bukit Hantu as locals call it, was painful to climb especially at 1pm! The sun scorched my back while the heat from the ground literally sizzled my crotch! Slowly I paced myself to clear the hill.

What a relief when I saw the fimiliar landmark to our carpark which was just a few KM away! I cranked hard! My goal was to reach the carpark by 2pm.

I was so happy when I finally reached my car at 1.55pm with 5mins to spare! Ha ha ha...

Shortly later, Adrian, Chen and rest of Kulim group joined me at the carpark.

Total ride data as follow:-
· Ride start : 730am
· Ride end : 155pm
· Mileage clocked : 137km
· Riding hrs : 5hrs 36mins
· Average speed : 26km/h
· Maximum speed : 72.2km/h
· Maximum Altitude : 1615ft above sea level
· Calories burnt : 4024 kcal
· Calorie rate : 581 kcal/hr

We freshened ourselves before we headed back to KL for lunch, I suggested Mont Kiara beef noodle! OK! The other 2 hungry monsters heartily agreed with me!

We zoomed thru’ as fast as possible since it was already past 2.30pm and we have yet to have our lunch. All that we had since 5.30am was:-

1) A bowl of Maggi mee
2) Few pieces of Gardenia raisins bread
3) Few bananas
4) 2 bottles of Coke and 100Plus each
5) Chiak hong!

Mana boleh tahan mah?

We feasted well at the beef noodle restaurant! In my humble opinion, they serve the best Halal beef noodle in KL! Some of the recommended dishes were:-

1) Beef Kuey Teow with Beef Brisket
2) Ox Tongue soup
3) Poh Piah
4) Meat Ball soup
5) Minced Beef Wan Tan noodle

After filling up our empty stomachs, we headed for Sany's Villa for a much needed shower and repacking before heading back to Penang.

It poured heavily soonest we finished loading our bikes inside car. We wondered where to have our dinner later with this heavy downpour going on!? I must have my Uptown Fish Head Curry before we head for home!

I insisted to the guys we should go for the Uptown Curry Fish Head! I then called up Chew to join us. He chauffeured everyone in his Jag to Uptown for dinner! "Ah Toh, pegi Uptown ya! Makan kari kapla ikan…." we instructed the over-paid limo driver! Ha ha ha…

At the Uptown food court, Sany did the ordering while we shared our Broga experience with Chew. We tried very hard to CONvince him to get a road bike since he loves all the "Mega Burning Calorie" work outs!

Soonest the food was served, our table went silent! Excuse us ya…the ride was just too hard, so we need to focus on the reward served on the table pulak!

Burrrpppp! Thank God for letting us enjoy the excellent meal, above all, THANKs Chew, for the treat. God bless you! Amin!

It was an enjoyable ride with good company, a self achievement for completing the ride without much “training, equipment testing, buying newspaper nor watching the sunset”. Then again this ride would not have happened without P2K organizing it, Kulim Lee’s regimental weekend rides and 2 great fellow Knights who accompanied me for the weekend escapade conquering Broga!

Thank U all! God bless!

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