So, I’ve not attended a KLBMH night ride bash I think since HYH’s bash sometime 3 years ago hence when this came up and hearing how Ben Tan’s (hare) team/friends have been building the trails here (Sg Long), I had to make this one. It has been 8 weeks since my last ride and I knew it was going to be tough…but it was overly enjoyable. It was a good night!
Got there at 6pm to the usual suspects setup and the weather wasn’t looking great. It started to drizzle, then the rain came shortly. After last minute discussions, the strategy was to ride the other half of the planned ride which consist of lovely, I said lovely single-track. The first half of the hash was about 8-9k long, was supposedly in the open and since there was lighting and rain, committee and lead hare decided to abandon the first half of the ride. Not a bad plan!!
Also, we were delighted to be welcomed by 30 Liters of ice cold wheat beer, which tasted like Belgian Ale - maybe better! This was prepared by Ben Tan the lead hare.
Onto the ride, I decided to start pretty late and at the back as I was going to take it easy. We were greeted with a 1.5KM tarmac climb to warm up and into an open construction area which I could barely open my eyes due to the rain. From what I remember it was nice open downhills through a construction site before entering climb to single-track valley.
Caught up with Tarik and Paul for most of the ride into really really lovely single trails. This reminded me of a combination of Dream Trail (FRIM) & Playmate the whole way. I believe at least 7KM’s of zigzag single tracks both up and down with nice speeds giving us relatively moderate technical trails which only used perhaps 46/42/38 gearing depending on your configuration. It was fast with Tarik and Paul setting race-like pace throughout the ride. Rain stopped and it was cooling throughout most of the ride. I don’t know about riders in the back as paper sipped into the ground, however for the FRB’s it was just splendid. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
It was probably one of my best rides for 2019 and we should do this again in the morning and ride the whole trail. It was well organized with contingent plans in place and the after ‘party’ with the beers which we had two types to choose from gave a nice ending. Families, friends and riders alike I believe had a good time at the gathering point!
Great job guys, and to Ben Tan and team, it was awesome!
Cheers – Johnny Monteiro