KLMBH @ Setia Alam

It's all started in Facebook when one of my friends posted the info about this bash organized by KLMBH. My friend and his PCT gang, as well as 2 of my friend and colleague from KL decided to join since it's at "my territory" (hehe...) and I was curious to find out what route / trail would the organizer plan. However, on the very morning at 7am, the PCT gang decided to go for other option as 9:30am was too late to begin a ride. So it turned out 3 of us went to join the big crowd...

This is the first time I join the KLMBH event. The event was well structured that everyone must register (be it member or not) and get a tag. This is for safety purpose and tag must be returned to the organizer upon return...

23 taken up so I picked my old house number 久發 (98) ;)

The crowd kept coming even just left few minutes before the official flag off time at 9:30am. Sun was already blazing right on top, I thought it's gonna to be a late start but fortunately the organizer kept to the time...

Briefing started 9:30am and the journey begun right after the briefing! There were 2 rides planned by the organizer, one was a short and the other was long. Certainly "want-face" buggers like us joined the long one and this was my virginal offroad experience :") 

The initial part of the route (the onroad part) was similar to what I have been exploring these few weeks during my daily training. Hmmm... look good (rideable to me)...

With a scenic lake welcoming us for the starting and my colleague got over excited...

-.-

And the real offroad journey begun with the first killer climb awaiting upfront...

That's the only photo I took throughout the entire offroad! Look good?! Sound good?! You should get what I meant right? It's a very tough offroad experience - climb of more than 45 degrees slopes and the downhills were full with tree branches and trunks. Pushes by pushes snailing to advance further...

It's not rideable, well perhaps to newbie like me but many experienced riders also complained along the trail. Most of the times we were pushing the bike up and down the hill, one hill followed another till we came out from the forest...

And we had to carry the bike to cross a big drain...

The trail was more rideable (from Batu Arang onwards) after this but we were already exhausted and running out of water, therefore no more photos after that.

Upon return to Setia Eco Park, I decided not to follow the guided trail to Setia City Mall. I detoured directly to the finishing, less 4km (the area highlighted in blue) from the guided trail. The right (with red colored track) is my track and the left is the official track from the organizer (can be obtained here). 

Total of 24km and the speed was just slightly over the average human walking speed. >.<  Some other stats...

Will I join future KLMBH events? Likely not. I love technical trails and I think I can take up the challenges (with more practices) but a trip with more push than ride is not my preference. Analogy, why I need to buy a car if the times of servicing the car is much more than the times I drive the car? And the bash was started kind of late when sun was already rising high. This might be inevitable as the organizer might need to prepare and ensure the guides were intact throughout the entire journey prior to the flag off. Anyway, I appreciate the efforts by KLMBH and they really made an impact in Setia Alam, my neighbors all asking me about the ride and seem interested in cycling, encouraging eco lifestyle in Setia Alam. It's also a good lesson to me, my PCT friend told me that I must learn to push before I learn to ride in style o.O and he already assured me that their offroad is definitely "rideable", not "pushable". LoL.

Last, some good write up here by KLMBH if you are also about to start your offroad biking.

p/s: some of the photos were shared by my colleague taken with his GoPro.

Update: my colleague did a video with his GoPro...