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Weekly Newsletter – 9 September 2009 / Issue Number: 457-36-2009

PCC, Your Perfect Cycling Companion

Sub-Editor’s Note This issue

The week ahead M+D P2
First and foremost, a very happy birthday to The week ahead T+G P2
our editor. To mark his 21st birthday, he has Rules of road riding P5
gone and bought himself a carbon Ellsworth Guidelines to Trail Etiquette P7
Spare wheels project P8
Epiphany 2010 frame. You should be seeing it
Club membership P8
on the trails soon.

Secondly, we welcome back with open arms

Su Chin and Kim back into the world of MTB.
Kim who has had suffered a very bad fall
before Chinese New Year was off saddle for
awhile. Its good to see her on the trails again.

Thirdly, we are looking for some young blood

who is interested in joining PCC’s Editorial
team. Do email us and let us know if you’re
interested.

And finally, the muddies do apologise as

there is no ride scheduled this week. We are
needing more ride leaders to help us out.
Please do e-mail us at pcc_news@yahoo.com
should you want to offer us a hand
 Weekly Newsletter – 9 September 2009 / Issue Number: 457-36-2009

The week ahead – M + D Sunday ride 13 September 2009

There will be no ride this weekend for M&D. Things will resume back to normal from next week onwards.

The week ahead – T + G Sunday ride 13 September 2009

Tar + Grime by The Don

After that incredible ride to Gap last weekend, it hard to find a ride to match or
even come close to it. Yeah, easily the best route I’ve been in a while. So, we’ll
be riding to Batu Arang town via Batu Berjuntai & fruit farms. A total of 115km
of rolling roads & some climbs near Batu Arang & Guthrie Corridor.

Newbies & returning riders should opt for Option A for a nice cardio workout.
Fit people should try Option B: it’s no walk-in-the-park but then if it was, you
probably wun be waking up at such an ungodly hour to ride, would you? Option
C is for people with big kahunas and lesser grey matter! You guys rock my
world!

Date: 13 September 2009

Time: 7:00 am sharp (this trains leaves on schedule, so please come early)

Start/End: Centrepoint carpark, Bandar Utama (CP)

Options A: CP-Kota D’sara-Kg Subang-Guthrie Corridor-Persiaran Kuala Selangor- U-turn- Guthrie Corridor- Kg Subang-
Kota D’Sara-Tropicana- Riana Green-CP (42km);
Option B: CP-Kota D’sara-Kg Subang-Guthrie Corridor-Persiaran Kuala Selangor- Ijok Petronas (regroup & U-turn)-
Persiaran Kuala Selangor -Guthrie Corridor- Kg Subang- Kota D’Sara-Tropicana- Riana Green-CP (82km);
Option C: CP-Kota D’sara-Kg Subang-Guthrie Corridor-Persiaran Kuala Selangor- Ijok Petronas (1st regroup)- Batang
Berjuntai (turn Right)- Batu Arang (2nd regroup & refuel)- Persiaran Kuala Selangor -Guthrie Corridor- Kg
Subang- Kota D’Sara-Tropicana- Riana Green-CP (115km)

What to bring: 2 water bottles, hydrating salts sachets, energy bars, spare tubes & pump, hp & $$. No helmet, no ride.

Ride leader: Don is the Ride Leader for the ride. He can be contacted at 017-8830538 if you have any queries. See yuh on
Sunday!

Safety & general comments: Road works are still in progress in Jln Sungai Buloh stretch plus heavy traffic, so advise alert &
single-file riding. Be courteous to other road users, don’t hog the road & offer hang signals (no, not the finger!) to fellow
riders. Pace yourself, ride at your own tempo & at a good cadence.
 Weekly Newsletter – 9 September 2009 / Issue Number: 457-36-2009

The week that was – T + G 6 September 2009

Bentong-The Gap, Fraser’s Hill, Sept 6, 2009 By Lee Yu Kit

For a ride with an advertised high pain quotient, some two dozen riders still turned up at Bentong on an overcast morning. The
air was crisp and clear with no low cloud or mist, so that you could see the grotesque multicoloured abominations up on the hill
that Genting passes off as hotels, defacing the landscape.

We took off a little past 8am, passing the bustling Bentong market on a Sunday morning, onto the Bentong-Raub trunk road,
which was busy with traffic, including big lorries and buses.

Fortunately some 6km later, we veered left into a small road marked “Bukit Fraser”. This was a long 20-plus km stretch with
very little vehicular traffic. There were old rubber plantations, secondary jungle, small settlements, small farms, and the
occasional factory along the road, which was gently undulating.

Our pace was leisurely and measured – perhaps everyone was mindful of the long climb up ahead and holding back. At a T-
junction, we came to a few shuttered shoplots. This was Tranom, surely a backwater if there ever was one. A few minutes
cycling to the right brought us to Kampung Tras, two rows of shoplots flanking the narrow main road.

Tras looked as if it belonged to another period, a quieter, less busy, more innocent age of less care, more trust and cleaner air.
The wooden and brick shoplots, although well maintained, were decades old; a comfortable gloom seemed to inhabit the few
shops that were open. We seemed to have stepped back in time – an old Morris Minor passing by would not have looked out of
place. There was an air of abandonment, or perhaps it was contented decrepitude.

And so too it was with the Pahang approach to Fraser’s Hill: we backtracked to Tranom for the 21 km climb up to the Gap,
which marks the border between Selangor and Pahang.

Dense jungle rose in a sheer wall to our left, while the right side of the road fell away into deep green verdure, steep ravines
clothed in the rich fabric of equatorial rainforest.

The road wended up steadily, a narrow ribbon of asphalt with almost no traffic other than us. It was mostly well-surfaced, but
seemed hardly used.

The gradient was steady but not particularly steep so that I could maintain a steady cadence in the top few gears without
getting winded. And it was cool, with the sky still dull.

Other than some roadworks which spilled mud across the road, it was a cool, quiet ride, the sort that puts you in a trance-like
contentment. At the Gap, we had a short break in the cool air, before turning back.

Downhill was an exercise in cautious braking or an opportunity to let rip, depending on your disposition. It was intoxicating to
be able to set up, lean into and slingshot out of twisty turns. Halfway down, I slowed down to see Bernard recover his water
bottles from what he called a “wipeout”. Minutes later, he overtook me, pedaling like mad, bloodied from the crash.

A motorcycle group on mostly flat-twin BMWs had the same idea as us, tearing down the straights, cooking the tyres on the
corners, to disappear around the next twist in a flash of angry brakelights.

We regrouped briefly at Tranom, as did the BMW motorcycle group, and started the long haul back to Bentong after the heady
21-km downhill stretch. I fell into a peloton headed by the indefatigueable and undefeatable Vong, who kept up a steady speed
in the mid-20s with a bunch of us clinging onto his slipstream all the way back on that long, empty stretch.

He picked up the pace somewhat – the *&^%$!! – as we hit the main road, right into Bentong town around 1.15pm. My
tripmeter read 103km. on a route that surely rates as one of the best cycling roads around.
 Weekly Newsletter – 9 September 2009 / Issue Number: 457-36-2009

The week that was – T + G 6 September 2009

Fuel for my fire, Gimme what i desire.

Torn between dirt and tar last weekend , tough choice but knowing there is a climb and a longer descent will always be desired.
Pooled with my neighbor, so sleepy we ask ourself how do we get there. The weather seems to be holding but roads already
wet , surely positively it will be a nice day.

The riders starts to trickle in at bentong's ice kacang place, doesnt seem much but least there is a safe car park,petrol station for
a dump and a quick grab of Red Bull to fire a higher thermal growth.

Pretty much a gradual warm up to Tranum , kinda of steady progressive pace like " I aint gonna go any faster because i wanna
enjoy this weather, kayy.." but everyone knows thats just a slice of the journey.Steady state all the way till we grab a quick drink
& fuel back at a nice village before the incline.

Fraser is always kinda subtle in its terrain with all sort of debris . Never mind ,its still gonna put some fun between the legs.
Knowingly the main culprits would be playing snake and ladder, throwing with the dice up the corners. Its easy to get venomed
on the rhythm especially when someone set the frequency a lil louder with tempos alil more tighter but what a feeling beating
to it.

Regrouped and rest , everyone refreshed.

Leaving the Gap , we all sat in letting gravity enthrall by setting up the dives , sweeps and curves. But as any gambler knows
when to hit and when to back off in situation. This gambler got cheeky with greedy knowing to artful dodge all but the sharpest
corner with enough cards on hand but the tarmac decides to let loose with losing bite by bite,it's ugly alright. Being a descender
has its reprecussions and one of it is biting the dust, and it ain't yet talking about about the chain reaction. Hey wait,whats the
sound? someone else is coming down.....indeed some drama-rama but we still need to ride down. Brush off , let's move on.

Fast Forward , got some aid back on the 1st rest village, some coffee and took a steady ride back. Top notch domestiques with
boutique wheels came to aid this rider back with pulls.Grateful indeed,honors back the deed.It was an excellent ride with good
weather with good riders@the ice cream shop.

Fast Forward 2X , today this rider aint too sore but unable to sleep on his favorite side , but gonna fueled to smack it right back
this coming weekend.
 Weekly Newsletter – 9 September 2009 / Issue Number: 457-36-2009

The week that was – T + G 6 September 2009

Bentong to Gap Ride By Teik

Is it too much to ask for clear and concise times and directions?! For goodness sakes man... Last week I was the laugh of the
peleton as I slid into the MTDC carpark at 7.45am. Now the PCC newsletter said the grand depart was at 8.00am and this was
subsequently overridden to 7.30am but who knew?!

Fast forward to this week and the directions in the newsletter were as clear as mud (thanks again Don!). Take the Karak
Highway 26km's after the toll then turn left he says... yeah, right. You mean turn into the &*#@!!! highway barrier?! So I call
Don and he says I've got a long way more to go... just great! Suffice to say, I cover the next 20km's in less than 10 minutes
(that's more than 120km per hour for the mathematically challenged among us). (That’s what’s GTi’s are made for….Ed)
But I finally make it to Bentong and was thankfully not the last one too...

But enough about my travails. More on the ride. It was a pleasant surprise to see both Dennis and Jeff back in the saddle again.
And a good turnout for the fasting month. It's 8.15am and we're moving out through Bentong town in a group of 30+ riders.
Traffic was heavy on the main road heading out of town and it was single file for a good 7km's but then Don took us on an
amazing back road with low vehicular traffic with a minor upward grade all the way to Tras - superb!

As per normal, Vong unselfishly did more than his fair share pacing and pulling the peleton while PK swept the rest of the back-
markers as we made our way into Tras. And then a quick re-fuel before we hit the foot of Frasers.

With 20km's of climbing ahead, everyone was sussing out each other but before you knew it, Don was off with Clarence and
putting the hammer down. Us mere mortals were right on the rivet hanging on to dear life and thankfully, the pace slowed
down a little to let us climb back on. Bernard was then off, leaving everyone for dead while a smaller breakaway group of 4
including Don and Tycoon Tan were narrowly behind as the leaders crested the top of the climb to the Gap.

So with some ego's well satisfied and others mildly bruised, everyone regrouped, rehydrated, refueled and then set off for the
long and windy road back down. From what I saw, everyone made it down unscathed despite having to share the road with big
bikes save for Bernard who took a spill - but he bravely soldiered on all the way back to the car.

So all back in one piece by 1.30pm to enjoy the famous kow-wow ice cream and yong tow foo before setting off for home. Total
odometer distance was 105km's and while Bentong isn't near for most, must admit that it was a more fun albeit challenging
ride compared to our normal KKB to Gap route - kudos to the ride director and ride leader for another great ride!

So my only request in this - please, please, please get the @#*&!!! time and directions right in the newsletter next time ok?!
(Mr Road Editor - we you know who you are. Don? Are you listening?!)
 Weekly Newsletter – 9 September 2009 / Issue Number: 457-36-2009

Rules of Road Riding – T + G

Change positions correctly Rules of Road Riding

• Slower moving traffic stays to the left; faster traffic to
the right. Never overtake on the left of the group! By The Don
• Pass slower moving vehicles on the right; announce
your intention to do so
Announce hazards
• Most cyclists do not have a full view of the road while
riding in a group
• Announce potholes and other hazards so others can
avoid them
• Call out the hazard and point down to it, either left or
right. No need to yell like a maniac tho.
Watch for traffic from the rear
• The last rider should frequently check for overtaking
cars
• Announce "car back" clearly and loudly
• It is also helpful to announce "car up" on narrow
roads or when riding two abreast
Watch out at intersections
• Leader should announce slowing or stopping at
intersections, if necessary Practise Good Peloton Etiquette
• Cyclists should not follow others through
• Everyone in the peloton has to contribute to the
intersections without first looking for themselves
workload. That means taking your fair share of pulls at
• Each cyclist is responsible for checking cross traffic; if
the front. It’s ok to do shorter pulls, especially if you are
you must stop, signal tired. Just do a token pull, indicate and pull off to the
Leave room for cars right & back after you’ve established it is safe to do so.
• On narrow road or during climbs, leave space • When you go to the front, always keep a constant &
between every three or four riders steady speed. Do not accelerate or show how fast you
• Motorists will utilize the shorter passing intervals to are. It is not a race, moron!
pass the group • Typically everyone climbs at their own pace. So after a
• Good relations with motorists is the responsibility of climb, recover & regroup before setting off again.
every cyclist. Remember, we share the roads with • Do not pull too long at the front. Always reserve some
others; it’s not our Grandfathers’ road. energy
Stop off road Ride single file
• When stopping for mechanicals or regrouping, always • It is illegal in some areas to ride more than two abreast.
move clear off the road Avoid doing this.
• Always indicate you are stopping with your right hand • In our country, the roads are narrow and winding. It is
asking them to overtake you on the right. better to ride single filed in this case, unless it is safe to
• Always yield to traffic in the roadway ride a double pace line.

Impromptu Saturday M + D rides

Spare Parts Choy with his ever willingness to ride, be it morning, noon AND night will be taking calls with his mistress
Rachel from the Yeti Clan by his side, he would certainly ride anything and everything as often as he can. So contact him
for the Saturday Goodness at +60123955255. All levels and ride suggestions are always welcomed.

Weekday T + G rides

TUESDAY NIGHT SPECIAL – TAMAN TUN (SUITABLE FOR ALL LEVELS)

NO HELMUT, NO RIDE
Ride distance: 25km (TTDI – Damansara Heights – TTDI)
Time: 830pm (check in 15mins before)
THURSDAY NIGHT RIDE – NEW (SUITABLE FOR ALL LEVELS)
Meeting place: In front of KSH (Taman Tun Dr Ismail)
Ride distance:
Contact person: Kevin (012 354 7181)
Time: 700pm (70km) / 830pm (35km)
Meeting place: Putrajaya Mosque Car park
Contact person: Vong 016 287 2066
COMPULSORY TAIL LIGHTS Ride Guideline: Well maintained flat to undulating
roads.
FOR ALL NIGHT RIDERS Objectives: Improving endurance,leg strength and
road bike skills (eg. Drafting technique,
signalling, road safety)
 Weekly Newsletter – 9 September 2009 / Issue Number: 457-36-2009

Guidelines to Mountain Bike Trail Etiquette

FROM VARIOUS SOURCES IN RELATION TO SHARED TRAILS AND NON BIKE

SPECIFIC TRAILS.

PERSONAL SAFETY
- Wear a brain bucket (yes..that’s a helmet) whenever you ride.
- Do not travel into remote areas without informing others
- Ride within your capabilities. Ensure that if you want to push your
limits, your buddies are around to support you.
- Know your bike and bring the necessary/essential spares.

RIGHT OF WAY IN RELATION TO OTHERS (NON RIDERS)

- Give way to non motorised trail users, i.e. hikers, horse riders, because
people judge all cyclist by my actions.
- Give way to motorised trail users, i.e. motor cross bikes etc, because
generally we will end up worse off in a an accident.
- Alert others when approaching. Get a bell, or “Excuse me” works quite
well.

RIGHT OF WAY IN RELATION TO OTHER RIDERS.

- Riders have the right of way. If you are pushing your bike, leave the
riding line open for others to go past.
- Rider up hill has the right of way.
- Allow faster riders to past

SPEED
- Approach turns and bends in anticipation that there’s someone there.
- Make your presence know when approaching someone or any turns.

IMPACT ON THE TRAIL

- Leave the wildlife and fauna alone. Magic mushrooms are bad for you.
- Stay on designated trails and avoid destroying vegetation if possible
- Don’t take short cuts over/around technical sections. If you can’t ride
it, walk it.
- Learn how to use your front brakes so that you minimise skidding your
rear wheel. If you refuse to learn, then ride only in bike parks where
people are paid to maintain the trails.
- Do not litter. Take out whatever you take in.
- Practise minimal impact riding, take only photos and memories with
you.

FUN
- You are to have loads of fun, talk lots of cog, and make good friends on
your ride.
- Develop of sense of humour. Some people say it’s good for the soul.

FEEL LIKE YOU WANT TO ADD TO THIS? DROP US A LINE. WE WILL ADD IT IF IT MAKES SENSE.
 Weekly Newsletter – 9 September 2009 / Issue Number: 457-36-2009

Spare Wheels Project

Your friends have heard you rant about the drops and
the endos and have seen the breathtaking scenery
from your flickr, Facebook and not to forget the fridge
door photos.
They finally want to get off their bum and join you for
a ride but running behind you, sitting on your top tube
or dinking them are probably not the best ways for
them to experience it with you. Of course, he/she
could be shit hot, then no one would probably say
anything.
In all SERIOUSNESS, if you have someone who wants
to join us for a ride, please do not hesitate to drop us
a line and we WILL do our best to get them a bike for
the next suitable ride. Take note that there will be a
$15.00 charge to cover expenses such as ferrying the
bike around (only if you are riding with us), washing it
and of course its ongoing maintenance.

In any regards, PCC has the SPARE WHEELS PROJECT

underway. Currently made up of generous owner's
bikes, they are available for people to borrow and
ride. Some of them have been ridden more than the
village…er…never mind. They've been ridden a lot.

Boon Foo has recently offered his assistance to put

Rob (012 6191 308) / Peter (012 227 4443) /
together a few hard tails, and together with what we
have now, we should be able to cater for height Alvin (012 3070 830) / Adrian (012 383 2618)
ranging from Snow White's pals to the Yang Mings
who want to give this ago.

PLEASE DO NOT CALL US AT THE 11th HOUR ASKING FOR A BIKE. ALLOW 2 DAYS NOTICE MIN

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all, we got another job to tend to which unfortunately demands more priority from us.

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