off the bike – the stuff behind our DirT crew

..on my not-so-new Voodoo Wanga.

Had it singlspeeded previously, but lacked the power to muscle the thing up climbs. However i loved the fact that the bike was so quiet, no slapping of the chain on the stays or front derailleur cage. And you gotta admit bikes just look cleaner and better that way, one chainring in front, one sprocket behind, nothing else. Plus my bike has sliding vertical dropouts, so no need for an ugly chain tensioner.

After doing some e-research, I was surprised to find that the Alfine is now being specced on certain hardtails, albeit by more niche companies like Charge Bikes and Genesis from the UK.

You also have the Zerode prototype DH bike from New Zealand that mounts the Alfine hub centrally in the frame, similar to 2007’s GT IT-1 except that it uses a Nexus hub. Alfine is supposed to be the higher-end version of Nexus, sortof like XTR for commuters. Anyway, knowing that companies and individuals out there were speccing Alfines on their MTBs without issues convinced me to go for it.

Was about to order off CRC, when I so happened to bump into the local Shimano distributor at a course, and after some poking, found out that they were available locally for a very reasonable price and were well stocked. So, after some excited cardboard-tearing, plastic-ripping, spoke-measuring, nipple-twisting and wheel-building, I present to you my Alfine-equipped Voodoo Wanga.

Hub came supplied with 2 sprockets, 20T and 18T and has 8 speeds. 20T is supposed to yield a similar gearing to a 12-38T cassette (most standard MTB cassettes go up to 32 or 34T). Shifting is via a Rapidfire-style unit, but only one click at a time. However it is instantaneous and independant of pedalling, so you can shift while coasting or trackstanding or whatever.

Shifting is also Rapid Rise or Low Normal in shimano-speak, meaning clicking gets you to an easier gear while pushing the big paddle goes to a harder gear. It makes sense for XC use I reckon, since shifting to an easier gear tends to be more critical when faced with a sudden sharp climb.

Haven’t had the chance to test it offroad yet, but I did manage to put in 20kms while doing bike escort duties for a 10km run over the weekend. So far so good, loving the instant shifts and silent engagement. Will update when I get a chance to roll on some dirt.

*for DH use, I’m not so sure the super wide 12-38T range is gonna suit everyone’s tastes. the jump from one gear to the next is pretty big. i wonder what the Zerode guys have to say about that…

Bukit Timah Trail Head - the new trailhead with sentry rocks guiding the ride up an armored slope.

It’s been some months since we’ve touch the trails.

Bukit Timah Mountain Bike Trail, centred around an important conservation area is heavily used every weekend, and with the combination of heavy traffic, user conflict adding to a pretty much ‘old-school’ mountain biking trail design,  the trail is in need of some work in order for it to sustain our tropical weather and conditions.

With the upcoming Singapore National Mountain Bike Championship,  we took the chance to fix one of the critical yet easy fix for this 13yrs old trail network.

The trailhead is an important gateway to a mountain biking network. It provides visual clues on what’s expected and prepare riders to meet the trail challenges ahead, pretty much a natural signpost in some way.

With the importance of a symbolic trailhead in mind, we figured a rock armored climb would be ideal to fix this once and for all, a good and highly sustainable solution for this 23% graded slope.

The previous season(s) effort by general civil engineering contractor trying to do a quick fix, with the all almighty cement, was horrible. The trail head looks dreadful weeks ago, with sharp broken cement blocks creating cutting surface for some unfortunate shin and knees, in which the earth had hollowed out below the cement surface, there no other way to fix this unless we take away what’s left of the cement and redo the trail with proper mountain bikes rock armors.

Bukit Timah Trail Head - before the rebuild

National Parks Board coordinated the effort with SACA and Dirtraction. Our plans is to to get the trail head fix before this major event.

Supply chain for rocks choke up in the past weeks and we finally got the call from Nparks late last week, that we are to do the fix early in the week, in which normally we wouldn’t want to touch the trail so close to the event.  We guess is better now or never and we started the process on Tues 13th Oct 2009.

The excavator came in and removed the concrete within 30minutes, paving our way to work on the rocks all day.

Bukit Timah Trail Head - healthy earth ready to breath again

With some help from general workers, we got the rocks man-hauled up the slope one by one, barrow by barrow, roll by roll.

The process is lengthy and Jason, Jeff and me toil through the afternoon with the meticulous rock puzzle which will make or break the climb.

A total of  34 man hour is spent today, in which we managed to all the rocks pitched, minus the last 2metres of the exit in which we are forced to stop as nightfall.

The last 2 metres is completed the next day, together with some test riding (that’s always the interesting part) and further modification so to make it flows better.

Stuffing earth between the cracks will be on going for the next few day and we hope this will give Bukit Timah Mountain Bike trail a new image of sustainability and fun.

Bukit Timah Trail Head - rock armored in place after a 7hrs effort.

More Photos available at Offthebike’s Media site