Bukit Beruntung a town which is approximately 50km north of Kuala Lumpur city. A town that has lots of greenery and shares certain trails with Sungai Buaya. This time round KLMBH has made it different and a lot more flowy and wider tracks.
Briefing was at approximately 9.15am conducted by Caesar giving a description on the shredded white and pink papers. Most of the trail consist of double tracks, and I can’t recall since when was the last bash with double tracks. The number of riders present was excellent, kids, parents, ladies and some fast riding bastards (FRBs). For the long, there are a total of 4 checks. Each check is a massive 250 meters.
The ride kicked off and riders were initially on the road. Eventually towards the palm oil plantation. Riders on the long and short faced with a task of lifting their bikes over an almost perpendicular incline which is approximately 1 meter high. The fringe were soggy with slight presence of moss. Once on the top, riders are on the way via a greenly covered single track.
On the double tracks, there were long and super steep climbs. One can conclude its going to be a challenging terrain to ride through by looking around noticing the steep hills. There are a mixture of rubber and palm oil plantation, plus mosquitoes. It is not a bad idea to keep it going. Due to the rain on the previous night, the ground is muddy. On those steep climbs, despite of the hard pack, the surface is slippery and riders with less gripper tires will have difficulties in the climb. Well if one can’t climb all the way, just get off and push.
The ride went on with some flowy sections and I noticed at the valleys and trough of hills has puddle of mud. One need to be careful not to have the front wheel bog down. The muddy sections were challenging as it is difficult to obtain grip and has high rolling resistance. As I approach the short and long split, I took the left uphill. The hares were very helpful in assisting on the checks, guiding the riders towards the right direction.
After those challenging climbs, the downhill sections were awesome. Those full suspension bikes have an advantage over those hardtails. Most riders will just blast down the hills and tend to forget, “look for papers!”. After a few climbs and descent, riders on the long realized that as soon as we were enjoying the downhills, there will always be a sudden left or right turn. Twice, I’d experienced a U turn back as riders missed out a junction. So if you are enjoying the descent too much, most likely you have missed out a junction, “bastards”.
Throughout the ride, there are certain natural technical features which makes it interesting. Multiple short step descent, downhill switchback and undulating double tracks where riders are able to apply their bike handling skills. There are also a mixture of trail surface conditions, loose gravel, hard pack, loose soil and mud. Towards the end, riders reached the sign “home” where short and long loop riders will head back via tarmac. To my surprise, one rider did the short loop on a unicycle! That’s a challenge.
Many thanks to the Usual Suspects, the hares, for setting up this trail. These plantations are private land and lots of effort has been made in negotiating with land owners for riders to have an enjoyable weekend.