off the bike – the stuff behind our DirT crew

Pincher Rock Garden, 2ft rollable drop followed by 1ft drop and a bunch of tube pinchers after that.

we are finally done with Kent Ridge:

- a total of 4  new switch backs

- 2 x rock gardens

- 2 x dropoff/jump lips

- 7 x contour line trails

- 1 x bridge reroute

- 10 fallen trunks cleared

We hope that both XC and Super D ride will flow a lot better with these modifications.

The sizable turn out for the Trail Day on 2nd Oct 2010 is great!  Don, Arnold, Jina joined us in a 3 hour workout, digging a crowned switchback and 30metres  of contour trails for the XC exit.

here’s some photos from the week.

Trail Day 2nd Oct 2010

Pincher Rockgarden before the build, note the ruts and erosion

Pincher XC line (uphill) on the left, Pincher Rock Garden soon to be on the right

Pincher XC line. 2 straights with a crowned switchback

pincher switchback, need more compaction later on

rock garden in the making, top section almost done, working on the bottom scattered rocks.

stuffing soil into the cracks, this is 3hours after we get the load of rocks in, good to work in groups of 4.

High Pitch, bench cutting

High Pitch turn, will need more work after the race to widen it.

simple bench cut for this tight trail

moonbase alpha get a rework, padded!

Been a daily affair at the trails for this week.

we managed to fix most of the critical problems at Kent Ridge,  sweeter uninterrupted ride.

Plastic Tree turn at the start of Super D and end of the cross country ride developed into 1ft gulley over the seasons.

the slopes includes crazy 40% at some portion, is almost a certain dismount for most riders.

(plastic tree turn is named after the flaky rotten tree stump that is plastic like when we crash our hoe against it)

To cater for both Super D and cross country ride, we made a double turn for this corner.

cross country continue further along the contour and turn around a 9ft-10ft wide switchback

and a new technical section in the form of rock garden for the Super D riders.

We are glad that, over the week Arnold and Jina helped out with the trails making these labour intensive work alot easier. Thanks!

The Plastic Tree double turn

The cross country crown switchback for the Plastic tree section

Top of the switchback, gulley backfilled and made into the form of a dip. Super D riders get to ride off the logs into the rock garden

Plastic Tree Rock Garden, read the lines!

Fern hill get a new reroute that brings the fall line ride to a manageable contour ride. The initial cut is beautiful.

we should stay on track for this section, keep the single track tight..

Fern Hill summit route, initial cut, benchcut to be done

We are back at Kent Ridge!

With a busy first 3Q of 2010 taking up most of the trail building effort elsewhere, Kent Ridge is left with fallen trunks, ruts that drains the  heavy rainfall of recent months.

been the 4th day at Kent Ridge today.

We took the first 2 days to clear most of  the fallen trunks,  and is the first time we’ve to clear these manually (good ole saw and machete),  not a fun job especially big girth trunks everywhere. Let’s hope the National Parks contractor is available again to help with their chainsaw soon.

The 3rd day was spent fixing the bridge at the bottom of the Snake.
A big trunk overhangs the bridge and making it impassable, and the bridge that we build 4years back is lucky not to be crush in the process.
A new reroute is now made, allowing the fallen trunk to span the drain, while we moved the bridge to a new location upstream.
By moving the bridge, we solve yet another trail problem ahead, in which riders are now riding across a natural drain instead of on it.

Today we focused on the Snake detour.
This switchback turn was not made properly in the first round, as there’s lack of manpower and rocks available there 2years ago.
The situation for manpower doesn’t change much (2 person!) but the rocks are now unearth around it,
making the job easy for us to harvest and gather it for a mini crown switchback turn.

8 manhours is spent on the contour line reroutes and in the 8ft wide crown turn.

should be a lot more fun to ride as we place in some grade reversal in the process, allowing one to pump through into the slight berm up turn.

so let us know how the new turn rides!

The before state of the rocky wasteland

The new reroutes before the turn

The new turn, 2 ft higher and a lot safer.

This video summarize the 2 exciting weekends for Dirtraction’s team at the Youth Olympics Games

the full coverage of mountain biking, BMX, Road time trials and mass start, in various roles.

we need a rest!

Youth Olympic Games BMX Boys Final

With the National Mountain Bike Championship coming up in a couple of weeks,

a joint project by SACA-Dirtraction-National Parks Board is in hand again to rework the various sections of Bukit Timah Mountain Bike Trail.

the primate climb, series of short switchbacks back to the carpark

The section in question this time is the exit of the trailhead to the visitor centre, where for years (at least a decade!) this fall line climb been eroding, patch up with quick fixes,

rebuild with water bars and tarmac blocks, and the cycle goes on years again.

With 1 month of pre-planning, we managed to gather the resources needed, rocks, earth, surfacing material and manpower for today build.

A series of 5 switchback will be added to this short section, cutting the fall-line into 7 segments.

The trail resemble previous work done a few months ago at Tampines Bike Park, with rollers and dip incorporated into tight corners to keep the ride interesting.

What made today different from other trail project done, we spent a good amount of time reforesting the old trails, replanting and relocating at least 15 young trees so to keep the old trail out of sight, and presentable the moment we finish it.

the old fall line

transformation - a totally different trail

the flat climbing turn

the last 20metres.

shady shade entry is a ‘W’ shape mellow descent with tight zigzag and a series of easy drop off just before the finishing straight.

disturbing the grass

tight slight inslope corners brings the speed on for a good flow

putting the finishing touch into the raptor technical section (used to be papaya drop) took us the whole afternoon.

nice greyish shale are placed into the scattered rock garden, crash test dummies sent in to determine the line and flow.

and we have a very nice section that rewards the technical riders and slow down the newbies.

the chicken line (detour) is 80% completed for this section, with the workers placing the final tight turn to slow down the detour rider further.

shale raptor

alpine look in the tropics

detour visible on the left

tight turn tight exit, we've to place some trail furnishing before this to slow everyone further

raptor drop on the left, raptor detour on the right

the last major turn to be build.

Angry – angry man turns is a fast turn with a big berm bringing the ride almost 90 degree  to the left and allow expert riders to take the speed up the next climb.

take a comparison of the same turn 4 years ago, is certainly very different from today’s new revision.

big berm big turn

turfing the BMX area. we wish we've similar budget for biking, nice cow grass turf instead of weeds.

angry - completed with nice reversal and drainage

rocks imbue into this one and only fall line climb around

another rock moving day today and we are lucky to have 5 ground crew instead of 3 of yesterday

With the slope gentled out at the bottom,  the excavator can do the rock shifting instead.

almost done. nice pave on the left, random rocks on the right, top down i mean..

rocks averaging 150kg, fitting them on a mega jigsaw puzzle.

will be one solid ride feature

rock and roll. pick your line

The last rock garden.

with the front facing the spectator stand, this garden got to look good.

we cached a great amount of rocks for about a month and the work start rolling today.

ironically, we got a total of 3 ground crew, myself and one excavator dude for the day.

and we are all surprised by the end result at sunset.

the rock base at the top

dropping through the fall line

3 man crew and a few hours later.

entry almost done. chicken line on the right

the slope is too steep for the excavator today. 3 manpower rock moving afternoon

half done. and we are happy with the result