This weekend the lack of biking has really hit home and I’m finding it increasingly difficult to enjoy my precious weekends. All that quality time riding, exploring new places and routes, feasting on the simple wonders of street food, lusting for another hot new bike and chilling out with like-minded brothers from the biker brethren. I am missing it all! Oh, the heart wrenching ache!

I need to get myself a ride soon, very soon! But what could be legendary after the Thundera? (Remember, Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats! Ho!) Initially, on the short list were the faster-in-red sports-tourers:

• Suzuki Hayabusa – (well, she’s more of a drag strip racer!)
• Honda VFR – (love that viffer growl and the lines on the bike. All red!)

However, (I think) now I’ve made up my mind to go for a second hand scrambler/trail bike. For one, it’ll be a first for me. I’ll also get a chance to learn some much needed skills and exposure to trailing/off-roading. Then I can then consider more far flung, off the beaten and paved path places for a riding holiday. Think India, China, Africa, Morocco. Endless desert dunes, rocky mountains with precipitous drops, lush green verdant valleys. Sweet mother nature!

 Unfortunately, scrams in Singapore are not exactly a category where one is spoilt for choice. I’ve narrowed down my requirements to a 250-400 cc 4-stroke light trail bike that can be used for the occasional commute during weekends. Under consideration are a Kawasaki KLX 250, Honda XR250 Baja and Honda XR400.

I would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts or recommendations on these or other similar bikes. Look forward to getting in the saddle and hitting some berms and mud.

Here’s Google Maps working it’s wonders. I have traced part of my enchanting ride through the Gerik Highway on Google Maps for a visual of the twists and turns on that road. It’ll probably explain the title of that ride report to you.

(If it doesn’t display here, or for a expanded view, you will need to click on the link)

View Larger Map

One way to get started on a ride is to speak to your biking brethren. Prodding and daring by what the rest of the population terms friends and copious amounts of alcohol are part of the brew for some ill-advised adventures. Justification for such foolishness or bravado demands showmanship, so if it is going to be done, you might as well do it like it has never been done and stake a claim to your pioneering glory or lunatic credentials.

If you’re riding cross country, why not attempt to beat the clock and ride your glorious derrière into the league of the the Iron Butt Association – the world’s toughest riders?

If the pavement’s too flat for you and you like to roll in the sand, why not try the Baja 1000 or Paris-Dakar Rally?

If riding at normal elevations isn’t stretching your lungs or imagination, why not race to the top of the world in the Rally Raid De Himalaya?

Ah! A veritable cocktail for biker psychosis. No unpronounceable pharmaceuticals for us, just unadulterated masochistic adventure, thank you very much.

With this year’s Dakar Rally cancelled for the first time since its inception in 1979, due to fears of terrorist attacks and reprisals, the Raid De Himalaya sounds like a good way not to lay waste participants’ preparations. Medical opinion too strongly advocates it is dangerous for loons to stay off their medication.

The Rally Raid De Himalaya dosage appears suitable. Covering 1366 miles in 7 days and featuring dry, desolate deserts, freezing chills, precipitous plunges, inevitable crashes, and heavily manned military outposts and elevations high enough to send heads spinning, stomachs churning and reversing the journey of imbibed sustenance, the Rally Raid De Himalaya sounds like the Dakar rally redux. Someone else put the two races in perspective: “the Dakar is the equivalent of doing the Raid de Himalaya in a Mumbai cab, backwards and blind folded.”

Read more about the Rally Raid De Himalaya in Bike Magazine’s March 2007 issue. Pages scanned and uploaded for your viewing pleasure/treatment @ Bike Rally Raid De Himalaya Article

Excerpt from Bike, March 2007 by Damon I’Anson:

“A seven-day race (with bike and car classes) covering 1366 miles of the world’s most challenging roads and trails. A third of the distance consists of closed-road time trials, the rest time-limited ‘transport’ stages. There is a maximum permitted lateness (MPL) limit: exceed this and disqualification looms. Each year only around one-third of the field completes the super-tough first day.Even if they keep going, competitors may snap under the mental strain of trying to race with a rock face on one side and a 1000-ft plus drop into a raging river on the other, especially 12 hours into the day, after nearly a week’s racing and little sleep.

The course varies in altitude from around 1000m to more than 5000m (which it exceeds six times). This can mean altitude sickness – dizziness, poor decision making, shortness of breath, dehydration, and a tangible loss of physical performance from oxygen-starved muscles. In October, it’s also cold enough to put hypothermia on the menu. There will be river crossings, landslides, ice and possibly snow. Freshly fallen boulders will randomly plonk themselves in the road. In the high-altitude deserts there is sand, in other places mud, bare rock, shale and, just sometimes, tarmac.”

Wow! When can I go?

The less driven dreamers like me have to content our biker hearts with journeying vicariously with the Round-The-World (RTW) by bike community, but not Goh Mia Chuan and his wife Pan Ling Hong.

The plucky couple from Singapore are 23 days into their 18-month trip that will take them through 48 countries. They almost did not get on the road. Their fully prepped Africa Twin with all the bells and whistles one needs for a undertaking like this and the SGD $24,000 that went into it vanished in minutes during a stop for a test-ride in Malaysia in October 2007.

Now, how in the world does one circumnavigate the one world without the two wheels?A ceaseless spirit and a never-say-die fortitude saw them through that ordeal. Not that it was their first. Nor will it be their last in a journey as this. As another one of my RTW heroes, Glen Heggstad aka Striking Viking epitomises, “the adventure begins when things stop going to plan.”

Resolute about not giving up on his trip, Goh bought another Africa Twin, ploughed more cash into it to get it adventure-worthy and christened her Hope Too. The unexpected expenses have almost wiped out his budget. Worst, Hope Too has been acting up and her road-worthiness has only been through the tame roads of Malaysia and Thailand.

Currently, crating and waiting to fly from Bangkok to Nepal for the next leg of his journey, Goh is relying on a merry-band of biker brothers in Singapore to help him with raising funds. Ever the entrepreneur, he is now sending home stickers and keep-sakes and auctioning these to readers of his blog to fuel the next and the subsequent day of his amazing journey.

Surf on to his blog @ http://singaporedream-rtw.blogspot.com and join him in his once in a life time journey. If you have any way of rendering assistance, encouragement or thanking him for the vicarious pleasure please drop him a line. I look forward to sharing more of his journey.

In time to come, I will endeavour to write about some of my other RTW heroes and my almost lunatic fascination and obsession with bike travel.

Note:

I do not know Goh Mia Chuan or Pan Ling Hong personally but I am moved and encouraged by their indomitable spirit and I would like to do the least for a fellow Singaporean, ardent biker, and kindred travelling soul. As an aspiring biking nomad, I am absolutely hanging on to his every word and picture.

Route

• Day 1 – Singapore to Kuala Terengganu via Route 3 – 544 KM
• Day 2 – Kuala Terengganu to KL via Gerik Highway (Route 4) & N-S Highway – 730 KM
• Day 3 – Kuala Lumpur to Singapore via N-S Highway- 320 KM
• Estimated total mileage – 1600 KM

A plan to ride the coastal route 3 and the Gerik Highway had been brewing since I got my Fazer in January. Unfortunately, a good opportunity never presented itself until the National Day weekend. Very unpatriotically, we decided to escape these stifling shores to ride the roads and hills of Malaysia, the country my biker’s heart keeps returning to.

We had been planning this for more than a month but as the date of departure neared, we had no formal itinerary or destinations, apart from the vague plan to ride the coastal road from Johor to Kelantan, ride the twist-ies on the Jeli-Gerik Route 4 and end up in Penang.

However, a day before the trip we almost came close to calling the trip off. The plan was for 3 bikes to ride this trip – my friend (rajoana) on his FZS1000, my brother on his Super4 and myself astride my FZS600. Unfortunately, twenty-six hours before our departure my brother had a bad crash. His bike was totalled but thanks to the almighty, my brother escaped without much injury. With his bike out of action, he was out of the trip.

This incident was enough to fill the two of us with much trepidation and raise the usual ire and concern of loved ones at my persistence to carry on with the trip. As the saying goes, the adventure begins when things stop going according to plan.

Without being able to sleep much, I woke up at 0230 to meet my riding buddy at the Tuas Link. We had to ride in via the Second Link to get a Malaysian Visa for my friend’s pillion from India. That explained the start at the ungodly hour.

We completed the visa formalities and rode on to GP Esso to tank up for the first leg. It was quite a sight. Before the first light of dawn, and a group of BMW bikers and other riders were already there doing their final preparations for their respective rides. It seems there is a unspoken feeling that the best way to celebrate our island state’s independence is to ride the country that ended our Federation with them in 1965.

The rumble of thunder and the streaks of lightning cast a burning orange glow in sky. Impending rain clouds sparked and immediate frenzy to suit up, crank the engines and gun out of GP Esso before it poured. Alas, we did not make much headway before the rain caught us.

We rode on in the rain in the direction of Kota Tinggi to hit Route 3. We rode this route all the way to Pahang and the Islamic states of Terenggau and Kelantan. Route 3 is a wonderful country road, which hugs the east coast all the way to one of the border crossings into Thailand. It has some gradual bends to ensure you are awake and kept me alert even though my teeth were chattering and the cold was wracking me a shivering wreck. Thankfully, traffic was sparse in the early morning and we were able to pick the pace to our first stop.

Our first stop was Mersing for breakfast – a coastal town in Johor famed for its kelongs (fishing houses on stilts built out at sea), seafood and the ferry terminal to Pulau Tioman. We reached Mersing just as the sun started shining but I was still quivering in the saddle form the downpour earlier.

Mersing

After some warm prata and squeezing rainwater out of our socks, we were on our way. We rode on, stopped for petrol once we rolled into Pahang and topped our stomachs off at Chukai.

After lunch, we decided to head for Kuala Terengganu and stay the night there. Pulling into Kuala Terengganu we checked into the first hotel we came across, had dinner and called it a early night since neither of us slept much prior to our departure.

View from our hotel in Kuala Terengganu. The city seems to go sleep at 7 PM. We were rushed thorugh our dinner for them to close in time for prayers.

We set off at about 8 am to find our way to Jeli. Our early start came to naught when we backtracked because we thought we were on the wrong road. Alas, we had actually picked the right road. We detoured back to the road to Tanah Merah, which would lead us into Jeli.

Tanah Merah

Looking for breakfast along the road in Kelantan proved to be surprisingly difficult. Being and Islamic state and Friday being the day of prayer most places were closed. Thankfully, we managed to find some surprisingly good mee goreng for breakfast at a stall along the road.

Satiated and with tanks filled it was on to the hills for the twist-ies on the Jeli to Gerik Route 4, commonly known as the Gerik Highway. This is a fantatstic road that starts from Kelantan and deposits you in Perak state.

It involves some awesome 30-50KM (guestimation as I was having too much fun to look at the odometer) of non-stop left and right sweepers in hilly terrain and some of the landscape is amazing. We did not stop for much pictures though as the twist-ies were the main draw for us.

The only place we stopped for pics. This was already half-way down from the height of the hill.

Is this a cliff? But gorgeous all the same!

The road was smooth and traffic was light but we had to manoeuvre past the usual coach or lorry lugging logs

Part of the highlight of the Gerik route is Tasik Banding which is a man-made lake. It was created because of the construction of a dam at Temenggor in Perak. Very scenic and tranquil. Well, at least until we and another group of Singapore bikers tore through the hills.

Some other SG Bikes we happened on at the Tasik Banding bridge

Tasik Banding

Tasik Banding

The hills were alive not with the sound of music but the roar of engines

Upon exiting at Gerik we headed in the direction of KL to show my friend’s guest some of the sights and sounds of the capital city. We decided to leave Penang for the next pilgrimage to the race track in the clouds.

Donations, sponsorship, offers of beer and invitations to “lim kopi” will be accpeted with utmost gratitude. Pointers, tips and suggestions on bikes, gear, destianations will be mucho appreciated.

Most importantly, this venture is in preparation for the time when I can ride the dream. Ride the world (RTW), say hello to the people of the world, experience their culture, cuisine and beverage and all in all not have to work a regular job. Someday, somehow I will ride this dream. For now, I content myself with riding and writting and believing that truly, the best is yet to be!

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.”

- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

(photo from popagandhi.com)