For the Love of Biking
Xiao, why go all the way to Pagoh to eat durian?
This type of durian ride is not for those xiao durian one. It is for those xiao riding one. Have durian good. No durian, also never mind. Can get out and ride can liao.
For the love of durian
Most Singaporeans love durian. But I noticed that many Singaporeans pronounced durian differently. These are the few different versions I hear before:
- liu-lian
- niu-lian
- dew-lian
- jill-rian
You got hear others?
The
Our Ride Plan
This is the ride route. I cut-and-paste the intro given by Spectrum of Hornet’s Nest in the singaporebikeforums.com. Save me from thinking:
“There will be 5 Phase to the Ride.
1. Breakfast @ Ayer Hitam
- So come Hungry.... But some may want to save their stomach for the durians
2. Ride for the Durians
- Looks like will have to spread All thru the 5km stretch
- So it is Important the everyone comes back to the Coconut stall on Time
- Safety... Parking along the trunk road is not safe... be careful.
3. The Road to Bekok- This is the road J32 I would always like to return to...
- 62km of sheer pleasure
- the convoy will stretch here... ride at your own pace
- let the faster bikes overtake on the right.
4. Bekok Waterfall (Mini)- It will be nice & refreshing dip
- It is a series of small water fall
- Recommend u get wet (toilets & showers available)
- For others... go trek into the jungle but be back on time.
5. The
- then on the highway back.
- Will most probably end up @ GP town KT Kafe Tiam”
The people who signed up to go are:
1.Spectrum (Hornet 900)
2. Endlessloop (Fazer1000)
3. Earlybird (Blackbird) & Annie (SP)
4. Natureman & Cougar (Hornet 600)
5. Gabng (Hornet 600)
6. Vincent (CB1000)
7. Dino (Blackbird)
8. Mr & Mrs Paul Mai (Blackbird)
9. Ano (Blackbird)
10. Media Velocity (Hornet 900)
11. Eazie (90%) (Deuville)
12. Raz (R6 leavin after Durian)
13. St Du Du (Comin afternoon... 1pm Esso 2nd Link)
14. Ben (S4)
15. Snail (Zx12 Leavin after durian)
16. Gianni (Hornet 600)
17. Denden (SV650)
18. Zod & Gf... + 2 RVF Friends (3 RVF)
19. The Koo Teow Man (SV650)
20. BotakMonk (ST.. Leaving after durian)
21. Chi Yen (Hornet 900)
22. Silver (Bandit 1200)
23. Takumi18 (Hornet 900)
24. kennethy (S4)
25. Rage & gf (Hornet 900)
26. HamsterZ
27. Kinwei (GSX750)
28. Dahun ( ST1300 ) and 2 Friends ( Vmax ) ( GW1500)
29. Lopes430(R1)
30. Fraser (Hornet 600)
31. Jason (Hornet 250) & Ah Huat (Honda*SSP)
32. Wildcat (SP)
33. Blue Kiss (TA200)
34. Roger (S4)
35. Sfowner (VFR)
36. SV650 (SV650)
Meet Up at Petronas
Lucky, Spectrum chose the Petronas. The riders for our trip flooded the whole Petronas.
Everyone down here all are going for our durian trip.
Then I itchy backside. I see got Honda Pan European STX1300. At one time I thought of buying this bike. Think long long then end up getting my Frost (Fazer1000). Scared I cannot handle the STX’s size and mainly, wallet not big enough.
I must say it is a big mistake for me to go and ride the STX. Because it make me a bit regret never go and buy the STX.
The STX looks and feels big when you hop onto it. But once moving, even at first gear speed, it is very agile. Even more agile than my much lighter Fazer1000! I love the feel of it’s braking. It’s brake very jiat one. Then it is sooooooooo smooth. The gear level is light to press. And flicking the foot gear is sooooooooo light. Sooooooooooo siok. I faster return the STX back to Dahun. If ride any longer, wait I ride the STX home.
Spectrum doing the pre-ride briefing.
Because the ride group is so big, it make Spectrum very busy. I think the OC or Encik during army exercise also not so busy. It takes a lot of energy and effort to organize and manage such a big ride group. Pay me also I don’t want and cannot to do it. Lucky we got Spectrum.
Too big.
Some times I don’t understand this Spectrum. If he every time like to arrow me to be sweeper, why does he need to get such a big marker vest for me?
Time to move out. All the bikes assemble. Spectrum asked me to count how many bikes altogether. I count 1,2,.3,…Then lost count. Count again, then lost count again. Too many bikes. I think agar agar if not 45 bikes also got 42 bikes lah.
While waiting for the group to move off, got chio bu walk into the Petronas. I quickly take photo and show you. You may need to zoom a bit.
Off we go.
Those wearing vests are the markers.
North South ride
For this ride, I tried something for the first time. I want to try taking photos while I am riding. I got no pillion so got to take myself. How to?
I learnt from Silver in her blog silverbendit.blogspot.com. Use handphone camera. I just bought the Sony Ericsson K750. I brought along a normal digital camera. But the K750 was good enough that I ended up not using the normal digital camera at all. The photos in this blog are lower-resolution of the actual K750 photos (about 500KB each photo).
Sony Ericsson K750.
The other piece of the magic.
I attached the K750 to a “dog-collar” line. I think call lanyard or something.
I operate the camera phone using my left hand (without gloves). My right hand holds the throttle. When finished shooting, I just let go of the camera phone and it hands around my chest. Frost’s windscreen blocks the windblast so the phone does not fly around at my chest level.
Like this shot of our convoy riding along the north south.
The convoy of our 40++ bikes stretched very long.
Here are the video clips of the convoy, taken using my K750. The first video is the mid-section of the convoy. The second video is the head of the convoy.
There is quite a bit of background noise from the K750 being in the air turbulence.
Our ride group is so big that it takes quite a few minutes just for the group to clear the Kulai toll. The group reforms after clearing the toll. Breakfast at Ayer Hitam
We had our breakfast at this kopi tiam by the main road.
Our bikes flooded the whole kopi tiam. The tow kay keep smiling cannot close his mouth.
This is what I ate. Wanton noodles and “phoenix claw” (chicken leg).
After breakfast, assembly before moving off.It takes a while to get the whole group to get assembled before we can move off.North South to Pagoh
Sometimes I buddy with the other markers: Vincent, Ah Kwang (earlybird) and Saint DuDu. We would confirm with each other who is fixed (the last last bike).
This is my friend Kinwei on his new black GSX750. Beside him is Wildcat on her SP.
Kinwei wants a relax ride, so he is hanging around the rear. It is an interesting sight.
I can’t help it because I keep seeing their rear. One is so small and one is so big.
When following the Honda SP, I don’t have to watch my speedometer to know my speed. Whenever I start to smell a lot of 2-T oil in the air, I know the 2-stroke SP is doing at least 130 kmh.
There was a stretch along the NorthSouth when suddenly I saw a bunch of tiny dots in the air start heading towards me at great speed.
*Bang* *Splatter*
The tiny dots hit my helmet. They are some very big insects. Some yellowish-green glue start to run down my visor.
Then I spotted one of our bikes by the break-down lane. I stopped beside it.
Blue Kiss (on the cruiser) got hit by those insects as well. They could be bees.
One of them suay suay hit Blue Kiss’s exposed neck and could have stung him.
Beside is EarlyBird, our sweeper pair. Luckily Blue Kiss is able to ride on.
We moved off. A short distance later. I saw another of our convoy by the road side. It was my friend HamsterZ with his new Yamaha R6 (2006).
He stopped to check whether his beautiful R6 remains beautiful beautiful or not. I itchy backside and ask him, can I try his new R6? Can.
Riding the 2006 Yamaha R6
I riding the new 2006 R6!
This 2006 Yamaha R6 is very interesting. It is the first bike to have computer-controlled throttle, derived from MotorGP technology. This means that when you twist your throttle, it does not pull a cable to open your fuel valves in your engine. The throttle will send a signal to a computer instead and the computer then tell the engine what to do.
The 600cc engine has one of the highest redline for a production bike: a stratospheric 17,000 rpm!
The seating position is interesting because when upright and I looked down, I can see the bike’s headlight! That means that my head is almost over the front of the bike and it shows how far forward the riding position is.
I moved off. I love the engine sound. It is sounds like the angry engines of the car Formulae F1. Very shiok! Open the throttle more, the angrier the engine sounded. Even more shiok!
The engine is a very very high-revving engine. When cruising at 100kmh mark, the engine rpm is about 5.7-5.8k rpm. Not much lower than my previous 400cc Super4 Version S which runs 6000k rpm at 100. Frost runs 4.1k rpm and my previous CBR954 Honda Fireblade runs at an even lower 3.4k rpm.
I love the fly-by-wire throttle. The bike pulls very smoothly and has power, throughout the rev range. This is very good when curbing corners along the track.
This is the video of me taken when overtaking traffic on the R6.
Hear the angry scream of the R6 engine! It is very shiok and very entertaining to ride the R6.
Then I play the R6, play until forget where was I going. We forgot to exit off the NorthSouth highway at Pagoh!
So HamsterZ and I rode to the next nearest exit at Takang to make a U-turn back. This U-turn is sibei far. 30km away. Almost from one end of
We exited at the Pagoh exit and found the marker Denden patiently still waiting for us. He said he waited for 30 minutes!
Eat Durian
To go to the place we went to eat Durian, at the T-junction after the Pagoh exit, turn left towards Muar (right is Pagoh).
Just ride straight and along the way, you will see several durian stalls. We stopped and ate by the roadside.
Eating durian by the roadside at Pagoh.That day I ate 2 types of durian. Got pale yellow skin one. This one more bitter taste. Got orangey yellow skin one. This one sweeter. You prefer which type, just tell the stall owner and he choose and open for you.
I eat durian.
It was an interesting experience. Just stand there and eat. Eat finished, don’t need to look for dustbin to throw the seed. Just piiiiiiuuuu, throw the durian seed onto the grass, where there is a large pile of durian husks and seeds.
Look what you can do when you have a STX.
Dahun tah bao durian back to
After eating durians, we go and drink coconut juice to wash down the durian. It is also along the roadside.
Coconut by the roadside, Pagoh. Near where the durian stalls are.
Then, it is time to head to the Bekok waterfalls.
Again, the assembly by the roadside looked like a mini-traffic jam.
J32
To go to J32, we just head back to where we came from the NorthSouth exit. This time, head towards Pagoh.
First, we topped up our petrol at the Petronas, Pagoh Muar. It was a huge orgy when our 40 bikes cramped into the tiny petrol kiosk. We have to form long queues at the pumps and the queues are all our own bikes.
Orgy at the pumps.
Spectrum urging: “Gentlemen, please hurry up with your business.”
Because of our big group, not only are there long lines at the pump, there are also long lines at the toilet. Even Superman also has to queue for his turn at the toilet.
Then, it is off we go through J32. J32 is nice to ride because there is not much traffic. The surrounding scenery is very green. And the road condition is good. Ideal for motorcycling.
Beautiful roads for motorcycling at J32:
These are shots taken while I am riding J32. The model with the orange vest in the photo is Vincent CB1000.
As to exactly, how to get to the Bekok waterfall from Pagoh, I shall not repeat here as I had already described in detail in my previous entry on the Bekok waterfall.
Rain
After J32, we hit Route 1. Just before reaching Bekok town, it started to drizzle.
We stopped to put on our rain gear.
The drizzle stopped. We exited Route 1 and took the minor road towards Bekok village.
If not for the gloomy weather, the route is also rather nice.
Come to think of it, almost all my rides with Spectrum all rained. Next time I must ask Spectrum he got changed underwear or not. How come every time he go sure rain one.
This is the small little road leading towards the Bekok waterfall is covered by tall trees. My K750 made the road like very bright. Actually, the road was wet and very dark.
Bekok Waterfall
We were all forced to take shelter under the make-shift tents of the stalls by the car park.
We get packed like vertical sardines, trying to squeeze into the little space below the tents.
The rain turned into thunder storm. We get our helmets and raincoat on to shield us from the rain. We stood there like a good 30-45 minutes.
Finally, the rain slackened into a light drizzle. We walked down to the waterfall to explore.
Rain Walk.
There is still a light drizzle going on. We explored the Bekok waterfall with our helmets on.
This is the photo taken during my previous trip to this Bekok waterfall, when the weather was sunny.
Today, because of the rain, no one is in the water.
For me, I got hungry. I went back to the stalls where we took shelter. I ordered a beef burger. It is only 1.50 RM and it is delicious. Yum yum. I also ordered a glass of kopi. At least I did not go back empty (stomach).
Identical wings.
There is a group of scooters amongst our 40 bikes. These are Silver Wings.
Then it is time to go home. It is about 5.30 pm.
This is Saint DuDu with his blackbird. The background is Bekok village.
Return Trip
We took Route 1 to Yong Peng. We topped up one more time at the petrol kiosk there.
I split off from the main group with 4 other bikes: SV650, Fraser(the new Hornet600) and one Hornet600 (is it Gabng or Gianni?).
This photo was taken by me during our NorthSouth journey back.
Reached Singapore Customs at 2nd link loh.
Ibbly, ibbly, that’s All Folks
It was a Bekok waterfall trip alright. Correct what, water fall on us at Bekok.
Even though we went all the way to Bekok waterfalls and never even touch the water, it was not a wasted trip at all. For us who love motorcycling, the breakfast, the durians, the coconuts, the waterfall are just connection points for us to do our motorcycling. Waterfall or water fall, we did get out and ride.
So it was a fun ride. The journey is the reward.
Am looking forward to the next ride.
Aiyah, today I pang chao bui. I fart smelly smelly many times. Must be from all the durians I ate.
