五峰山+烧烤

today went with david and a group of 40 riders to 5 Peaks Mountain and BBQ organized by the Suzhou Merida. the overall ride is shorter than last week ride but we still clock 84km in total. we left early in the morning at 7:15am and meet up with other riders at the mudu merida shop. as usual, the morning ride is cold at about 5 degree celsius to begin with although the temperature pick up later in the day but probably still at about low 10 instead of 17-18 as forecast.


a picture before moving out from the shop. everyone was excited about the ride plus the bbq.


top left. Start of the dirt track. Not that easy as the road center is at least 20cm higher than the wheel track. Need lot of focus while riding. top right, the first slope with a gradient of 60degrees. Pushed up. bottom left, 2nd slope, less steep and shorter, still push up. bottom right, rode down. pretty challenging. after this downhill, there is a 20cm wide 2m long bridge, so some skill is required.

We reached a quarry after couple of uphill and downhill, this is the place that we will bbq our food.

setting up the fire took us awhile as many do not have experience with it and no one brought any fire starter. haha... anyway, we managed to start the fire for the bbq and we had a good bbq lunch. i took 10 half chicken wings, 5 sticks of the meat skewers and 2 cups of soda. although i do not think it worth the 30rmb that we paid for but it is the fun with the local guys. this is really something local local.

david and myself left the bbq at 1pm and we reached home at 3:30pm with a 40km distance on the return trip.

more pictures can be located at SZR web.

another 100km ride

wanted to join some SZR (Suzhou Rider) yesterday to tian pin shan for a ride but there are some family matters need to take care of so did not join them. so, today meet up with another group of SZR at Giant and rode to Yu Yang Shan. the ride was tough due to weather as well as lack of long distance riding. 2 weeks back I rode to the same place with the same group. my fitness did not really improve. today, got a few cramps on both leg while going up the mountain on the metal road. butt still pain after the long ride, could be due to the saddle that i changed it sometime back.

a group photo from the SZR website. i am third from the right.

tian ping shan riding

went to tian ping shan with a group of merida guys. the ride was not long but tough... lot of slopes and of course i push up and down the slopes.

here are the videos.

finally

traced back my pictures, it been 2 months that i had not been riding for more that 50km per trip. very shameful about this. finally, today woke up early and head to yu yang shan with a group of ten. the sky was clear and sunny. let cut the talkking and here are some pictures for your viewing.

in sumary, my fitness has drop tremenously, the whole trip was 95km and i was having butt pain, ankle pain. look like i have to restart the whole riding but the temperature is getting real low of 2 to 10 this week. it will get down further to 0 to 5 in the next few weeks. i wonder how can i do the riding. maybe wait till spring.

plan did not happen

www.szriders.com is organizing for a leisure cum mountain riding to suzhou east mountain this saturday. during the weekday i was planning and making sure that i do not have any event crash with this not so leisure ride since i would like to make another trip there. my first trip to the place was a torture but i believe this time, the total of 150km will not be a problem to me and i am going to enjoy it. i even push back my nanjing trip with my family to sunday so that i could join the ride but...

it rained two full days on thursday and friday, the organizer fill that due to that, the event is postphone to sunday, so... i am not able to make it this time round... just my luck... sigh...

hate myself

i hate myself.

why? i had not been riding for long distance or mountain riding for at least 4 weeks or 28 days or 672 hrs, . my physical is dropping... blame it to the weather or maybe just my laziness... knn... don't know what i have been doing the past 4 weekends... nb...

someone help me please...

The Rack on Oyama Skyline Pro

added a goods rack to my oyama skyline pro. this aluminium rack is very light weight and cost 50rmb including installation at the beatle down at suzhou city. with this rack, my dear can ferry keith to/fro the nearby mcdonald. good value for the money spent.

very nice and sturdy rack

Another upgrade

I usually will feel butt pain with my current saddle when I ride long distance like 100km, so as I was at the Trek store, I browse their saddle and purchase one. This saddle costs 188rmb.

The old Merida saddle. I had use it for 1700km.

Mountian Riding - 穹隆山

Went mountain riding yesterday. This route is my first time. Very challenging with an dirt track of 8km. A total of 17 of various physical standard went to the ride. I would love to do this again since it is physical demanding with an height of 300m.

Meeting at Mu Du overhead bridge

Ready to climb

Long dirt track ahead

Almost reaching the hill top, there is an airport runway down the foot of the mountain.

At the top of the mountain

Enjoying a good meal after the hard work. I perspired more during the meal than the ride.

Mileage from home to the bottom of the mountain. I had to ride almost 40km before I ride up the mountain.
Mileage at top of the mountain, a 8km dirt track to reach mountain top.
A 4.7km downhill on the metal road.
With a max speed of 57km/h... shiock
Total trip distance 90km. Yet another good ride

Leisure Ride - 拙政园 (The Humble Administrator's Garden)

I wanted to go for mountain riding with the Suzhou Riders but woke up late due to a nite outing yesterday. So, in the Saturday afternoon, was idling at home and though of going out for a ride in town again. This map shows the route.

Point 1 - Pretty white flower along the road side. As autumn is here, flower start to blossom again.
Point 2 - By the old transport canal (运河). Across the canal is the Suzhou Zoo. I have not been there and have no interest to visit. Probably just another zoo.

Point 3 - (2 pictures), By cycling across a bride, I can to this huge monument. It is so huge that my Merida mountain bike is so insignificant.

Point 4 - Cycling further down west along Eastern North Street (东北街), I had reached The Humble Administrator's Garden. This garden was built in 1509 with an area of 52000 sqm. For more information, please refer to here.

This picture was taken when my family visited me during early part of June. We visited the garden back then. Well taken by the guide who advice us to to pose in the picture.
Point 5 - Shops selling souvenir along the street outside the garden.

Point 7,8,9 - Riding back along the street, there is a small street that is more like a open market. It was very crowded. Stall selling fruit, snack, vegetable and illegal (the guy wearing red flower short) selling fish heads.
Point 10,11 - After about 2 hrs, I decide to head home. I passed by a bridge. This bridge reminds me of the bridge span across the Kallang river outside the Singapore Indoor stadium. The atmosphere is definitely not romantic comparing to that of the one in Singapore though.

Nanjing Mountain Bike Race

Yesterday race was difficult. I am still feeling sore on my leg today. We took a bus from Suzhou with a total of 15 participant for all the 4 categories (men, women, student and senior). I wish I could join the senior categories but too bad, I am not at the age yet. hehe...

About 6:40am, loading the bikes frame onto the bus. We actually disassemble both the wheels and load the wheel separately.

In the bus, right at the back are bike frames stack together.

Reaching Nanjing by 9:30am.

We recce the race course before lunch. After the recce (rode 35km, 15km from my place to the bike store, 20km the recce plus going to a town for lunch. Lunch was pretty good, just 20rmb each. Dishes are tofu, duck, pork, fish, 2 greens, 2 bottles of coke. We need all these to provide us the energy during the race at 2pm.

We registed at 1:45pm with a fee of just 10rmb (S$2). I understand Singapore races cost at much as S$20. That's too much. Anyway, race started at 2:40pm for men open.

A 1.2km uphill of rocky road. As many do not have experience going up on such road, one a person stops, he will block the rest and everyone slow down. I am no good at it so I started slow.

Look at how steep the slope can be. Most of us are not able to cycle up except those solid one.

After the rocky road, it is another 3.5km of up hil on pavement road... siong... it doesn't look steep but try it out, you will know what is the difficulty.

After the pavement uphill, here come the interesting part. A 2.5km down hill on dirt track with many turns. One side is the wall of the mountain the other side is the cliff. Must be very alert and careful with guts and good brake so that no mishap can happen. No picture of it but here is the end of the dirt track.

For men open, a total of 1.2km rocky uphill + 3 x 3.5km uphill + 2 x 2.5km downhill dirt track (16.7km)

The race ended with prize giving ceremony at 4:45pm. We left Nanjing by 5:30 and reached Suzhou by 8:30pm. Went to KFC for dinner and cycled back home at 9:30pm. Washed up and sleep by 10:30pm. Good weekend but tiring. I will need more of this type of weekend.

Morning Ride

Went riding again this morning. Rode a total of 37km but today speed was slow. Went to some villages, took couple of pictures. Rode to Suzhou train station and Ren Ming Lu (人民路) and finally had a You Tiao (油条) from road side stall and rode back home.

Tomorrow, I will be going for my first mountain race. I had 2 road races and this will be my first mountain race. Very excited but have to wake up in the morning 5am and set off at 5:30am to Giant store for the bus pick up to Nanjing. I will be going with a colleague. Family stay at home. Hope to snap some pictures and post it here.

Farms along a village. I can here pig oink when I was there. So, there must be a pig farm nearby.

A Chinese metal door.

This is next to the train station and Ren Ming Lu

Road side stall selling snack in the morning. Don't ask me the hygiene level. I can only said it looked clean and I did not get any stomach upset after taking the Yu Tiao, but the taste is similar to what I had in Singapore.