A HASHing we will go!

I decided to check out the HASH.

Well, it started with all the talk about the days of riding kemansah being numbered on the fakawitribe.com forums. I casually thought… “shit! I must try that place”.

OK, I usually ride the rough stuff but I have been known to dabble in a bit of trail riding with my soulmate in FRIM and between the 2 of us, we have always wanted to check it out. ((plus... Black Beauty has not gone out for a spin for a long time. Back to topic…)

I don’t know what made me click on the HASH website (http://groups.msn.com/klmbh) but I was stoked when I found out that the next HASH was going to be in Kemansah! Sweetlah! Spoke to the wife… and we are set.

Who can I rope in???

I knew Ben Viermann (Team ????) rode a bit of XC so during my usual ride in Kiara I told ben in passing that I wont be riding “next Sunday” because I’ll be doing the HASH. Ben’s eyes poped… “I want to go!” Ben = IN.

Later in the week, somehow… Jason, of the bike boutique, must have found out we were going because I got a text from him asking me for spare forks and skeweres coz he really wanted to do the HASH. Jason = IN.

In the FRM chatroom a couple of nights later, Zure (AG Suspensions Racing) wants in. “But I got no bike!” Little did he know I got an extra hardtail albeit a 4X race bike with one chainring. Hehehe… “I am going to wear my kneed pads!” Why I asked. “I love my knees!” hahaha… Zure = IN.

Day before the HASH, I was riding Kiara with Fadzlee (KSH Cycles/Oakley), Derek (Insane Riders), Aaron (Elemental Riders) and a few others. By then, most of them already know that some of us will be HASHing on Sunday. Fadzlee tried his best to persuade Ben and I to ride Kiara or Kajang. By 10pm, I got a text. Fadzlee = IN.

Another text soon after. Derek = IN.

0830. My House. RV point. Fadzlee to pick Zure up at 0700.

0800. Ben calls. Fadzlee at Zure’s apt. but his phone is off (Zure watched the WC race earlier in the morning. Hahaha). I call Zure’s alt. no. Ringing. Sorted. Change plans. Meet at Taman Melawati.


Carpark Taman Melawati. RV point HASH 27th July 2008. Hardtails galore! Soo many!!!

Zure comes up to me. “Rizal, Fadzlee wants to do a wheelie when we flag off!” Hahaha… friend, this is a HASH, not a race!

I yelled to Jason, “Hey, you may want to run down the basic rules and regulations for a HASH to these downhillers here! Hahahaha!!!” Coming close to start time. We got registered. Long or Short? Scenic or Suffer? As typical 1st timers, we went for scenic (should have gone for the Long!!!).

We’re off in the 2nd wave! Scenic wave. Next thing you know, Zure and Fadzlee is gone. OK. Knowing the pedaller Zure and fadzlee is, I thought. Ok. Bye… bye… See you at the carpark while the rest of us enjoyed a slower pace…


A visitor from Germany armed with a Japanese camera and an American bike! Achtung! baby!!!

Nice initial ride on the tarmac to the trail entrance was a gentle introduction to HASHing and its nice to ride in such a big group that basically comprised the MTB community as a whole including DH/FR riders. Hehehe…

My weapon of choice is now a SC Chameleon. Black Beauty. Setup for trail and XC riding complete with dual chain ring, e-13 Dual Ring Security chain guide and a pump!!! Hahaha… that’s as XC as I get. 30lbs of goodness. I really have not ridden Black beauty for a bit so this gave the a great opportunity. I was a bit worried about my tire choice tho. 2.35” Kenda’s Small Block 8s on Mavic XM819’s but that was soon proved to be a waste fo time, worrying that is. The Small Blocks 8’s performed superbly under those conditions. Nice!!!


Jason “tubeless” Tan. Sorry dude, had to be done! Hehehe…


Its just as I had imagined. Its all up hill in 4 stages. Climb flat… climb flat… climb falt… short teaser downhill… climbbbbbbbbb… and then… We’ll come to the end section in a bit.


Push up session

We passed some really beautiful stuff (shows I don’t ride outside Kiara much does’nt it?) and a really beautiful bamboo tunnel along the ride. In truth, the climb was not that bad. We managed to get there pretty easy. Well sometimes we needed to join the crown and push the bike up but definitely nothing like hauling 40lbs of race machine up kiara a few times a day. Hahaha… This was easy. PROVIDED you are on the right equipment. Did I mention our Hero Derek riding a V-10? The terrain was a mix of single track, some technical bits and climbing. did I mention climbing?

But in the end, the trail was relatively fun to ride and not too dificult for a beginner or even a 10 yr old. In fact, a 10 year old did ride (I think he is 10). Mr Simon Jeffries’s kid if I am not mistaken. So there u go. If a 10 yr old can do it, so can u lot.

Back to the last section…

2km of the sweetest singletrack downhill!!! Woo Hoo!!! Reward!!! Before setting out, I remember thinking to my self… “100mm Rockshox Judy and 90mm stem!”. Down we went. That was fun!

Back at the carpark, we arrived and Zure and Fadzlee was already cleaning their bikes and changing. I think they had fun. Looked like they had fun. Zure comes up to me and asks me, “Rizal, so what was your time?”. A racer to the end!

It was fun! It was a good time! I’d do it again.

Rizal
dirtworks-Fakawibikes/Banshee

Kudus Merdeka DH race Djarum 76

ROAMer A-Mud will be going to Kudus, some 10 hour drive from Jakarta for the Djarum Merdeka DH. I believe Adam and maybe Yammy will be joining him too.

He is actually in JKT now actually... with his wheels and other minor stuff and will be coming back for his frame... dont ask!

Lets wish them lots of luck and lots of photos of hotties. Berjuang untuk Negara!!!

Road Trip anyone???

I'm off to Penang from the 25th to 27th

ROAM Trip anyone???

Places to cover:

Penang Hill
Mt. Erskine
Youth Park

Amacam?

Fadzlee " Fast Lee" New DH weapon sponsored by KSH Cycles & Turner Cycles USA

Hola,

Good news to share, our champ had just received a brand new bike from:
KSH Cycles
Turner Cycles USA
Spinergy USA
Race Face Canada

So Fadzlee will be racing this new rig for the rest of 2008 season and early 2009 under KSH Cycles - Oakley Malaysia flag.

The specs are:
Turner DHR M size (white)
Marzocchi 07 888
Spinergy Fall Line wheels
WTB saddle
XT brakes
Sunline bar
OTA stem
Intense Tyre
Race Face Diabolous cranks
E-13 LG1

look at the face, he must learn how to smile hahahahaha... joking ProJam...

congratulations.......

a big thanks to all sponsors:

KSH Cycles

Turner Cycles USA

Oakley Malaysia

Spinergy USA

Race Face Canada

P/S: Yamm, ours u know i know lah ye!!! hehehehehe

KDD3. My Race Report

An amazing ride. I have now raced with this rig for 2 races and the verdict is: Just what the Doctor ordered!!!

Anyway a brief race report for my race in KDD3.

KDD3 registered the highest number of DH participants Malaysia have seen. A truly great achievement and one that is well deserved on pure volunteer power (The FRM Guys+++, Powerstik, the comittee) and support from sponsors like (dirtworks, Folker, Redbull, Camelbak, Redbull, electcom and especially KSH Cycles)

The trail was well prepared for the race. The entire trail swept of leaves and other distratctions. Very nice to race "between the tape" with such sweet trail conditions. Every section was in tip top shape. Teams were going up and down the trail to look for any repairs to be made. A new section at the end of Angel or shriners was even built to connect Buniens, avoiding the need to get into the tarmac. Very nicely done! Good job guys.

Back to racing...

I injured myself on Saturday pushing it too hard at dirtdrop. Ended with a swollen ankle. Ice and many prayers allowed me to race on Sunday albeit in a little pain... But hey... pain i can take for 3+ mins at a time.. hehehe...

The Scythe was setup with about 30% of sag in the rear suspension. I chose a 7" DH setting because I wanted the HA to be as slack as I can get it (65 degrees) and a much more lower centre of gravity esp with the 30+ inches of rear suspension sag. Looking at Kiara, its a very fast track and a slack HA helps. I was running a 64 degree HA on my Demo8 b4. Fox 40RC2s with a personal setting for HSC and LSC. I also lowered the cockpit for a more aggressive feel. Diety 30 bars and the machine is set!






Pushing up to starting point. A common scene for the DH scene in Malaysia.

Sunday - Seeding Run.

I did not want to put any pressure on myself so i decided to cruise down instead of pinning it all the way. It is usually a good idea to go about 80%-90% in seeding to see where you can push more and to feel the conditions esp when the trail has been exposed to with 90+ riders all hammering and braking, but with my ankle condition... I decided to save it for the finals...

Avoided some of the big jumps along the trail and too the chicken runs esp the wooden drop at tokong where the impact usually is harsh. Running at 70%, I was able to negotiate all sections with ease and was very happy with my run. At the dirtdrop, my heart stopped for a second. After crashing yesterday at dd, i decided to take dd at full whack to make sure my new line choice is the correct one, one where i launched more to the right (FYI - I crashed because I had pumped and pedalled down the slope approaching dd and landed a little to far to the left of the landing and crashed into the bushes... hahaha).

Anyway, I did not know that another slower rider was at the same time exiting the chicken run and was almost on my flight path. If i did not try to check out the new line, I would have surely landed on him or crashed on him... we scrubbed shoulders and rode away!!! THAT ladies and gentleman was CLOSE!!! Seeding done.

There were no other incident except for when Zure and Amad finished together at dd. Amad actualy started earlier and stopped at the start of Gardens to wait for Zure... hahaha... in hindsight a good idea ala Matti L in Champery.


Sunday - Final Run

Ankle felt good. Bike felt wonderful and ready. Waited for my "turn", what an agonizing wait. The winds and the probability of rain kept on increasing with time and I was not relishing any amount of time with the off-camber root section in the wet!!! All I was thinking about was... "come on!!! Lets go!"

Anyway, a short survey of the bike discovered I was ill prepared for a wet race. So on with the prayers for no rain. Some riders was already doing the Rain Dance hoping for rain. Usually i would have my tire tube mud guards for rain. Too late now.

Nothing much I could do so Amad and I decided to walk down the trail to tokong and check out the HT and Juniors...


Yamm.... Step Up


Bully, Step up...

Finally, I saw amad take his place on the starting platform. Now remember, in seeding, Amad lost a min waiting for Zure and he basically catapulted himself to start 1st. smart guy!!!



My turn came. Prayers answered. No rain. Winds were blowing very hard and the trees were swaying from left to right. Cant do anything about it now so time to get focussed. A blast of the "cold spray" and special strappings and I am off.


fighting pain and going fast after my over the bar tumble at the end of Angel Section

Pretty smooth and fast all the way till I came towards to end of angel... knew what i wanted to do and wanted to get that nice line into the new section connecting to buniens. Did I mention Diety30 bars earlier? Ouch. Going down this final bit u have 2 line choices. 1) straight down or 2) go left of a tree where you will get a smoother line into the new section but awfully technical. the approach need me to move right b4 finally lining myself for the left... long story short, too far to right and bars hit the tree. and over the bar I went... lost precious time but did not injure my ankle further.. ARGH!!!

Pick bike up and all i can remember was... its still not raining ! Now to pin in 110% until the end... and so my lactic nightmare began. hahaha... passed the entire section well arrived at the off camber and i smoked it!!! A real nice feeling when one of the most technical bits of the trail works exactly to plan...

Garden Gap was pure fun and dirtdrop. I executed my final drop as I wanted. sneaked 3 pedal strokes in and whoosh... sweetness... just mu POV of My race... The Scythe has really surprised me.

9th with a time of 3:49min. Content.

Its a great bike for DH and a very capable racer... The Scythe took everything I threw at it and reacted exactly the way I wanted it. Cornering into tight sections was nice and easy and the pedaling efficiency is truly non DH like and much welcomed.

Now the wait for the legend!

Other Pics:


Hermann Flying own root section


Gig... end shaolin


FastLee pt1


FastLee pt2


Ameer... End Shaolin
Roamer's results:

Yamm - 2nd Masters
Bully - 3rd Masters
Rizal - 9th Open
Amad - 8th Open
FastLee - 5th Elite
Ameer - 18th Open
Hermann - 4th Elite

Guest Roamer
Gig - 16th Men's Open

More pics: All Right Reserved. Amir Hon