Souvenir From Hambalang

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Saturday Dec 13th, 08, another trip for another great panorama.

May be some of you do not know where Hambalang hill is. It’s between Citeureup-Cibinong and Sentul. The highest part of the hill is about 700 meters from sea level.

This place has been a cycling track for years. I don’t know exactly when the first time is. Hambalang, Bukit Pelangi, Gunung Pancar & Sebex are in line hills where become favorites for mountain bikers. They have many type of tracks, such as Cross Country (XC), All Mountain (AM), & Down Hill (DH).

This is my first time to Hambalang, although it just around 20 Km from where I live but the chance to go there is substituted with other places. That’s OK, finally I got the chance. I rode along with T2, Widi, Anang, Feby, Ismail, Edi, Andre, Romli, Mrs. Toni & Toni Kamurang. The last three names are considered as the host. They were the guider of that trip; they ‘grew up’ at that hills. Mr. & Mrs. Toni have a bicycle store at Citeureup where most of bikers around Jakarta put their names as one of reference for buying & assembling bicycle. The store is Kamurang Bike.
The trip was started from our place in Cibubur at 06.00 am. We went to Toni’s store at Citeureup. It was 07.00 am. when we got there. It’s surprising me when I found out that Mrs. Toni would go along with us. I thought her age is in the mid of forty, and I didn’t think she will be able to go to the top of the hill.
The track is just like what I thought, climbing is the menu for that day. We had never ending climb for about 4 kilometers. It’s been a long time for me to have another climbing track since Curug Panjang. So I must rewind the memory to find out the right technique to climb. I was so surprise to see Mrs. Toni who could cope the track easily like she has “a long breath”, while I had to stop for some times. I felt like I ran out of breath. But the eager to be on top was the main reason why I keep on fire. Then I decided to control my pedaling technique as light as possible. I set the front gear to the smallest one, and the rear gear to the biggest one. The speed became very slow, but it was succeed to bring me to the top.
A simple menu was waiting for us at the small ‘warung’ at the top of the hill. The menu is consisting ikan asin, eggs, sambal and kerupuk, and not forget to mention for the special one: pete. This pete was bought by Toni on the way up. He bought it for only Rp 750,- per length…what a cheap one. He bought more than 20 length. May be you won’t believe if I say that those menu was very delicious. May be because we ate them through a hard journey. Big laughs were there after the meal, and finally I got the answer why Mrs. Toni was so super. It was Mr. Toni who told us that she was an ex-athlete for 400 meters sprint run for the local district…hihihi…No wonder!!!
After taking few pictures we went down with smiles on our faces. The downhill session was so exciting. Usually every bikers are very happy to have descend ride. It just like having bonus after the climbing session.
Total distance we had that day was 40 Km, and total duration was 6 hours.
By the way, I still have some extra pete. Do you want some? This is my souvenir for you.

BIKE ANATOMY

The Beauty of Rindu Alam-Gadog (Nov. 29th, 2008)

Dec. 29th, 2008, for the second time I have a wonderful cycling trip at Rindu Alam-Gadog track. Along with other 6 bikers, we went to Rindu Alam to have an semi All Mountain session.

This track was started at Rindu Alam Restaurant and then entered Gunung Mas’s Tea Plantation. The track is not always on the tea plantation, some times we had short cut tracks through the forest just beside the tea plantation. These short cut track was the most challenging part. There are many types of tracks; muddy, riverside and rocky track. Each has their own risk, but the most risks are the cliff at the right side and also so many slippery stones which will crush your bone for sure if you fall down. In the middle of rainy season like this, we have to put more attention on the track because the track becomes wet & slippery. This time we have to very careful in handling the brake. Like the master said, if you can manage the brake then you’ll get through at any kind of track.

We are gifted with a bright day that day, the sun was so kind to us; he smiled just like telling at us to enjoy the trip and have a safe ride. With a brief guidance and pray, we started at 09.00 AM. First track was muddy because there were big rains the day before. We didn’t want to fall down because of the mud and certainly didn’t want to crush into the cliff at the ride side. Remember the track is descend track, and you must know the technique to handle that track, we don’t have to do much pedaling, the bike will go fast by it self. This descend track made more difficulties in handling the bike and it got worse when the track was muddy. We must squeeze our brake lever more often, and at the same time we must be careful not to squeeze the brake lever to much to prevent the brake in locking position. So many times we had to put our feet on the ground and doing TTB (TunTunBike)…hahaha… a local term for get your feet out of pedal and walk with the bike with you. Because of that reason, our speed was so slow…but it didn’t a matter, safety is always be our first priority.

The second track condition after the muddy one was the slippery rocky track. The track was made from stones with soccer ball size. The stones move when you step on it. Again we have to put more attention on the brake while our concentration must focus on looking for the safe path on the track. Unfortunately, at 45 degree slope track, Mas Anto - one of our friend – could not manage the braking power. The brake was squeezed to much and the brake was lock; he felt down with his face landed on the rocks so hard. His lips and nose are tore. But he was able to continue the trip. It’s a sign for us to be more careful for the rest of this trip.

After 1 hour, the most dangerous part was over. The uphill part was the next track. This track is well-known as a difficult one, but not on the dangerous wise. The tracks are mostly on the tea plantation with almost 2 kilometers uphill. Most of the bikers could not finish the track with their feet still on the pedal. Every body gave up. We did TTB at last. But we were very happy to find that even when we were exhausted, we’ve been blessed with very beautiful sceneries at the tea plantation. Just see how beautiful they are at the above photos and the next photos here.

Wow!!!! the sky was so blue. You can see the greatness of the clouds sitting on the blue sky.

You also can see the charming faces of the tea pickers with their big hat.

I thank God when I see those two….

The next track was the descend track again; crossing the tea plantation and a village. Another incident was there when Mas Widi’s Rear Derailleur was broken. It was hit by a wood which stuck into the spokes. Lucky for us because the chain was still can be used to became a single speed. Mas T2 was the mechanic for that. And then after that, it was my turn to have a flat tire. My front tire was suddenly losing the air. I could not find the hole, and I just change it with the spare I always bring.

We arrived at Gadog at 15.00 PM safely; and we decided to ride the same track at near future to have another beautiful scenery.