MTB ride: Puncak Mountain Feb 25, 06

Puncak Ride, February 25, 2006

Hi,
This is my very first post...

Last Saturday I decided to join the guys who regularly do mountain biking at Puncak mountain with me. It's kinda quick decision, since the night before I still thinking of joining the B2Wers gang for a Saturday ride around the town.
Anyway it was cold and foggy at our starting point. There were around 14 bikers from Jakarta area which gathered at our favourite parking spot, Sederhana Restaurant at Ciawi - Bogor. There was also 2 guys from Balikpapan, Steve & Jenny. But they had to rush early to catch their flight home. We quickly put our bikes at the angkot minibus, and head to the top. We reached Puncak at 8.



After quick Nasi-Goreng & Egg breakfast, the 14 of us started pedaling toward Gunung Mas Tea Plantation. Puncak ride has a combination of tracks. There are rocks, loose rocks, soil, wet soil, pavement, rough asphalt, smooth asphalt. The track itself varied from wide fire road to technical single track. They said it consist of 65% downhill & 35% uphill. But in my opinion, the uphill always longer than downhil...hahaha.

There were some technical problems along the way. Dody broke his chain twice. I almost lost my tyre pressure due to snakebite. But other than that, it was a great ride.

The first section consist of technical downhill singletrack. As usual, Erick the freeride guy lead the pack using his Stance flow equipped Giant AC team. We regrouped in front of Gunung Mas tea factory. Then we rushed downhill up to Safari Park marketplace where we stopped for a while to re-fill our backpacks with supplies.








The left picture was taken just after we got out from the jungle singletrack. Here Eko was riding over a small bumps. I did ask him to jump, but he was a but reluctant....hehehe

Here on the right is my old friend Ibat. I thought we had lost him for good when he decided to get serious in his 4x4 hobby. Well, eventually he returned to ride with us again.













This on the left is also my old friend Belly. I haven't met him for more than a year already. That's because he's a very busy news photographer that travelled around the world. So this ride was kinda special for me. It was some sort of a reunion.

Have you ever heard of the idea of outsourcing your ride?.....the left photo will explain it to you. Anyway this is the long up hill section. I wouldn't blame Erick the bike owhers. His freeride bike setup is waaaaaay to heavy for long uphill.. Furthermore, he's helping the local's economy.

This particular section is so called "Ngehe 1". Ngehe is a slank for "damn" or "curses" or whatever violent category languages describing your short breathed lungs and painful legs...

The uphill track consist of 2 parts. "Ngehe 1 & Ngehe 2". And in the middle of "Ngehe 2", there's a beautiful hut overlooking the valley that we always use for rest.

On the right is my picture with my new bike...ha! This was taken in front of the hut.

Now about my new bike....ehm...it's a great all around bike, with 5.5 inches of travel in back and 4.9 inches of travel at front, VPP technology with propedal shock and a pair of crossmax SL wheelset. I can brag more about the bike ability. But let's save it for later, OK?

After a light snack, we proceed to finish "Ngehe 2". The ride was slippery and tough. It was quite foggy at top, visibility only 23,7 m (I made that up ..hahaha).

Dody broke his chain again at top. Well, it was because I told him that I was about to take his picture in action, so I guess he overdid it...hahaha

The ride from the top of Ngehe 2 till finish point at Sederhana Restourant was a wet one. Rain poured heavily almost along the way. There was a slippery section that I managed to took some pictures. It was so slippery that Deny ran into a banana tree, Dody fell of his bike, and I fell while trying to walk my bike...sigh..Anyway, these are the rest of the pictures.

Denny ran into a banana tree....don't laugh! it's THAT slippery.

These sequence pics is Dody's attempt to rule the slippery track. Eventually he failed. That's why the rest of the pack decided to walk the bike.....

This is the end of my very first post...

Hendro Purwanto