Kent Ridge MTB Trail

divert and switchbacking

Kent Ridge MTB Trail, recce / /

Yes a new section is carved out today.

a few reason for this,

  • to divert from the usual park walkway
  • to preserve some of the flora available
  • to create a better flow to the ride line

to do so, a big bridge is done up. This bridge formerly known as MB200 in my posting is almost ready. Alvin and the gang of workers are getting it done up throughout the day.

Chi, Max and me took the time to recce and route the new diversion, and later on work on a new hairy section, something that requires some good bike control, and of course chicken runs for this section.

We took the day slowly, with planning taking most of the time.

Love these shot, new atmosphere for the trail.

30 manhours – MB200 Bridge
9 manhours – routing and minor trail work

divert and switchbacking Read More »

the question of resting a trail

Kent Ridge MTB Trail / /

questions on ‘when will we see the trail re-open again?‘

I got to say, I really have no idea.

We are adding extension to the trail, re-routing some part of the trail, re-addressing certain muddy section so there’s a better solution to the ever muddy pool, some new challenges, and of course MB200.

3 pallets of wood is now in the process of stacking around the dropoff, MB200 is almost complete.

The sandbags are now removed from the staircase, that means we will not be reusing that temporary section anymore.

Until the trail is ready.

24 manhours – material transport

6 manhours – Project MB200

the question of resting a trail Read More »

the trail get a quick fix

Kent Ridge MTB Trail, races / /

Is race day tomorrow.

With work still yet to be done on the ‘mud slope’ just before the 3rd bridge, the focus turn to getting it ready first thing in the morning.

With a workforce of 4 labourer, I get to have a good load of granite chips transported to the site, together with cement to secure the landing.

We gathered from previous rain that water drainage might simply be the main problem for that slope. Two drains are dug up, one at the top of the slope, and other other cutting diagnonally at the bottom face of the slope.

the top drain being a simple flat drain, get a good dose of granite chips pounded in.

the bottom drain took some extra effort to finish.

A cement log is buried in together with 3 bags of granite chips.

By mixing the granite chips with 6inches of mud available on site, and with a handful of cement powder sprinkle all around, the mixed up compound is then pounded around the curve and landing itself.

We are forced to divert the trail for the day, so to let the mixture harden up as much, gathered that 24hrs is good enough from our previous experiment on the Snake berm on Thursday.

The early afternoon is spent on getting the snake bend fix up, one of the 7 cement log is lifted so to get a smooth flow again, again handful of cement powder and clay are mixed in to harden the unbermed corners.
While this part of the course doesn’t allow any alternative rerouting, do check your tires for cement powder if you ride through them.

I guess I’ve taken most of the cement chunks during the 5 test ride I did around the new lines for the Snake slope.

I’ve been an advocate of not having cement as one of the trail maintainance/building material. But these 2 days had brought new use for this greyish powder. Water vapour and mud simply do the job naturally, creating good sticky mud-like lumps gel together and harden in the rain, instead of softening as natural mud do when water is excessive. I guess slight usage, as in handful and not spadeful, will do most of the jobs.

As far as the trail is concerned, the trail is ready to be raced on.
The race course is only complete when every section of the course is ready.
The trail is part of them, the Kent Ridge Park walking/cycling track is another, so is the granite climb.

As one of the course director for tomorrow race, the afternoon is spent fixing up tapes , evac points and course redirection.
The whole bunch of helpers for the day, Max, Ling, Alvin, Liyana, Pling, RenHao, Chi, Jaymes and companion turned a bare carpark and grass patch into a proper presentable start finish area.

workforce for trail
24 manhour – mud slope and snake slope fixes
90 manhour – race specific setting up
is a long day…

the trail get a quick fix Read More »

touching up

Kent Ridge MTB Trail / /

We are finally back with more workforce for the trail.

We have a big turn up of 8 labourer from Nparks, together with Alvin and Liyana. Mas gave his bit in helping out with the trail, fixing the trail as he explore it first time.

We added 2 drains along the route, 1 of them nicely hidden between bridge 1 and 2, the other just after the yellow open space staircase.

With the workforce available, granite chips are brought in from the trailhead to fill whichever muddy gap that we can find. the whole trail should be totally ridable, traction speaks, except 2 sections, the Snake Slope and the ‘mud slide’ just before bridge 3.
The snake slope is still filled with loose granite chips. the curve 1 of snake slope get the much needed berming. We made it out of mud/sand/clay/granite chips and some sprinkle of cement. Riders can rail the curve alot better .
Although much work is done on berm 1, the 4 logs around snake curve still give most riders a hairy descent. More clay and cement when we get the chance.


The ‘mud slide’, get a temporary fix. Granite chip mix with mud, spread on the slope. with the curvy landing getting de-mud. We should be able to work on this later on Saturday.

20 manhours – mud puddle and drainage

2 manhour – snake slope berm 1

20 manhours – material transport

touching up Read More »

snake bend is offlimit till Thurs

Kent Ridge MTB Trail / /

We are doing some more permanent anti-erosion measures at the Snake slopes.

To make sure nobody is caught off guard, ride with care/push down this section till we are done with it this Thursday.


Today works include adding more sandbag to the temporary stair ride section.
the stair should be smoother now.

Initial work on ‘Project MB200’ is done. will reveal more on this Project once it’s done, as the current state of this section is simply too dangerous to ride through.

5 manhour – snake slope berming and erosion work
15 manhour – Project MB200 construction
3manhour – stair sandbagging

snake bend is offlimit till Thurs Read More »

trail repairs

Kent Ridge MTB Trail, races, rides / /

The Saturday is spent more on repair, riding the trail ourselves to make sure it works, mark out danger points, determine evacuation points, brief the medical, marshal team and photographers on the trail.

Nik and PLing do their rounds on the safety, while Max guide the medics, the photographer and the marshal through the whole course.

Me and RenHao took the chance to fix 2 patches, the ‘Japanese Rock garden landing’, the ‘yellow slide’ after the roadie’s ramp.

We gathered after lunch again to refill granite chips onto the Snake Slope. Before taking our chance to ride around the trail rounds after rounds, to determine all is right.

At 5pm, we start our first bike clinic. Samuel rode down after some rest from his morning trainings, and we ran the clinic for around 1.5hrs. We are certainly happy to see the clinic participants learning something new in the process.

8 manhours – odd and end fix

trail repairs Read More »

A ladder day

Kent Ridge MTB Trail / /

It’s been a while since we have 3 consecutive day of rain. The trail is wet, and we are hopeful that the water drainage is withstanding the test of the tropical rainfall neatly.

We hit the trail at around 9.30am.
With Alvin, Liyana and around 3-4 labour force joining me in the trail.

The labour force is helping out with the transportation of bakau wood and granite chips deep into the trail. Specifically the bridge 1 and yellow space area, where heavy slope reinforcement is needed.

While Alvin took inspection on some new wood, I took the chance to walk the trail, check the trail existing drainage.

The drainage are holding up pretty well, with the 2 slopes after bridge 1 catching some of the rain. very minor problem compared to what it was before the drainage are set in.

The snake bend is getting more like a water park slide. We secure 3 bags of granite to mix it into the fresh top mud. This will be needed for the next few rains to compact the riding surface as much before the berms are fully done up.

We took the time to dug up the ‘Japanese Rock Garden’ slope, buried another big stone slab into the underground drainage, and a quickfix with more granite chips into the ‘1st root slope’.

Further up after bridge 2, the ‘2nd root slope’ is holding up well, giving traction even after 1hr of rain.
The rest of the trail is withstanding the rain pretty well, mud patches appear, seems more of a mix of top soil and mud, therefore not going to be a big problem.

The afternoon is spent laying the ladders that we build on Saturday around mud patches that might erode further.

the first two pieces is placed on top of a big root making a nice ramp, protecting the root and covering the muddy patch of the entry and the exit.

next come the small 1 ft drop. We would want to keep the drop eventually, therefore a ladder is now placed on top of the drop to armor the mud below until the dry season and the pebbles is properly mixed in.

The final big downhill of the course get a good dose of 3 packs of granites, half pounded and badly need manhours to sit the granite chips nicely. A small ladder is secured against the bottom of the slope so to keep the roots of a nice tree from being ridden over. giving the slope a better flow too.

The infamous ‘Log drop’, a 3ft dropoff is going through major rearmoring for the landing.

2 pools of mud at the ‘Log drop’ landing encouraged us to start building more drainage and wooden berms so to cut the contact to the mud to the least. We couldn’t finish it today. to be done tomorrow or on Friday.
Will be updating this posting soon with photos.

Work done

25 manhours – material transports
2 manhours – building new ladders
10 manhours – securing and placement ladders on 3 sections
3 manhours – log drop landing
1 manhour – bridge 2 repair
1 manhour – japanese garden slope and log slope 1 drainage
1 manhour – snake slope armoring

A ladder day Read More »

Pre-jamboree Preparation

Kent Ridge MTB Trail, rides / /

It’s 24hrs before the Kent Ridge trail 1st jamboree ride.

the available work force for the morning session is enough to get some of the cengai/bakau ladder build up and transported to problem area. While the rest do some shopping to get some new material in so to make the ride safer.

With a road ride in the morning, I pop by just after lunch. Just in time for trail work/jamboree briefing.

jamboree roles are clarified and discussed, so are the schedule.

With some work still needed to be done, work group is form and various task spread out for completion.

PLeng and Chi to put up trail signages, which Alano being the only one who haven’t venture into the trail, ride just behind them to check on the signage placement, to give us as much first-timer feedback.

Alvin and Liyana from Nparks try to flatten and pound in the granite chips at the main climb, while superwising the labour force to pound and spread the granite chips.

Max, Ling and Ren Hao, ride/walk the trail with patch up tools and danger markers to make sure the trail is safe for the event.

Jaymes, from SportingSpectrum, Nik and me took the task to net up the staircase ride, so to capture any stray cyclist going right into the 2ft drop at the left side of the trail.

upon completion of the task, we took the time to pour some granite chips over troubled area, and to take advantage of 60+ cyclist, who average 2 laps each and 1 lap of walking the trail to stomp down whatever loose pebbles. This long walk took us 2hrs, and we are suprise how dehydrated we are, not mentioning how hungry i grew.

work hours done

approx 40 manhour clocked on various task for the day.

Pre-jamboree Preparation Read More »

The bog climb

Kent Ridge MTB Trail / /

the day objective is to address the bog climb after the 2nd bridge to the yellow space.

KeeMeng, Sam, Max and me made up of the 4 person workforce for the day.

We tapped on the racing line that Sam feedback on, corrected 4 sections for the bog climb.

  • 1. off camber ride line fix with pebbles and bakau lining reinforcement
  • 2. ‘roadie bridge’ is now a ‘roadie ramp’ to prevent further riding on the muddy slope. to be completed with 3 more loads of rock chips.
  • 3. sunken wood fix to create 2 false flat, allowing more traction for the climb.
  • 4. bare patch of mud, to be mixed with granite chips later on.

the later part of the afternoon is spend digging up a drainage system for the U-bend dropoff

this drainage is deep and sunken in with 3 big rocks, 3 loads of granite chips, layered with mud on top and a replanting of a small tree as seen on the right!
Further work on the incomplete log jump is made

as the trail runs downward,

much testing is done to ensure the jump is stable, and provide a safe exit.

Granite chips extraction filled the long day, clearing most of the chips from bridge 3 to bridge 4

statistics

6 manhour – bog climb

2 manhour – Log drop drainage

2 manhour – log jump

2 manhour – granite extraction for bridge 3 and 4

4 manhour – armoring various slopes and post rain survey of the whole trail.

The bog climb Read More »