Bikepacking, Rawang - Sekinchan Expedition, Part 3

Sand, everywhere...
We've entered a place lost in time.
The Batang Berjuntai Tin Mines were a source of revenue for the state and country back in the 50s and 60s. 
Today, there are little remnants of the tin-mining days.
All that's left, are holes in the ground.
Master Siang had stated earlier in his communication to the cyclists that sand-mining is a very sensitive issue in Selangor.
We had to thread carefully around 8.5km of sandy roads leading to the spine of Tanjung Karang, one of the state's rice producing districts.

Michelle, near a sandmine in Batang Berjuntai

Riding with the sun directly above our heads

Power of the sun
The heat was reflected directly onto our faces from the white sands that we were riding on.
This is the route leading to Tg Karang.
We packed enough drinking water to stay hydrated and by the time we rode across the vast sandmines, only seven of us were continuing the journey.
Siang, the lead rider signaled to stop at a shaded area.
We parked our bikes and made ourselves comfortable to savour the packed lunch.
Michelle and I carried two packets of chicken and roasted pork rice. We did away with the cucumber and sauce to prevent the meal from going stale.

Our packed lunch

Chowing down under the shade...

 Lunch break was well-deserved.
We made our way to the exit of the mine and found a herd of wild water buffaloes.
The critters made a quick dash across the lily ponds to the higher ground.
We mostly ignored them and continued riding towards a peat swamp off Tg Karang.

A water buffalo making a run for its life

The Bikepackers at the end of the tin mine trail

Into the peat swamp...
Riding the tin mine was an awesome experience.
We were skidding along the way with some loose sand causing loss of traction, this adds to the fun on cycling offroad.
Siang said the KL Mountain Bike Hashers would salivate at the route. We could have done better with lugged tires, but the Schwalbe Marathon Supreme held up very well.
As soon as we made an exit, our next course was the Raja Muda Musa forest reserve.
This is a borderline between Batang Berjuntai and Tg Karang. In the past, numerous peat swamp fires were reported here.
The ride was pretty straight-forward as we made a loop towards the Sungai Burung village near Sekinchan. At this point, we were getting near with only 35km to clear...

Bikepacking, Rawang - Sekinchan Expedition, Part 2

Foldies on the trail...
People, especially cyclists on larger bikes are skeptical about foldies on the rough. Basically, a folding bike has more moving parts bolted together, so, the fear that it would fall to pieces while being ridden on rough roads persists.
So far, we've covered about 10km of dirt road and the bikes are holding up pretty well. The smallest bike of the lot was a 16" Dahon Curve SL rode by Angela, while Siang and Chris brought along their Birdy Disk foldies.
The only 'average' ride was Andrew's Dahon MuP8. Along the way, Chris Wong had experienced a puncture on his rear wheel.
We went to work in this right away and spent neary 30-minutes changing the wheel's inner-tube.
After the fix, we proceeded towards a Kampung that leads to the road towards Batang Berjuntai.
From there, the ride was headed towards the Selangor River where we rode alongside a bund.
There, we linked-up to the road perpendicular to UniSel and made our way down to the Batang Berjuntai Mines.

Chris Wong experiencing a rear tire puncture

A bridge-crossing

Siang pushing his bike across the bridge

Climbing a slope

 Testing the Jetstream's suspension
We had no issues clearing the bumpy path
Michelle did not complain about the bike at all. A few months back, I had it tuned by Ben Thiew from Putrajaya  Rodalink. The bike was making some really loud creaking noise.
For the amount of money paid, the Jetstream P8 is a bang for the buck.
It has a simple RST front suspension, and even though the shock travel was short, it was able to take away the thuds and vibration from the dirt track.
A rear Suntour air suspension gave it excellent handling.
We were also surprised with the performance of the Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires. It was grippy on the trail as well as on the road.
The only issue I had the night before on my Jetstream EX was the hydraulic disk brakes.
Humidity had caused the fluid to 'swell' and unequal pressure in the brake lines had caused the calipers to lock on the brakepads.
Having learned about this issue earlier, I took a small syringe and bled the DOT4 fluid from the reservoir.
This did the trick and I am able to get the rear to freewheel without dragging.

Riding along the Batu Arang - Batang Berjuntai Road

The link to Batang Berjuntai Tin Mines

Michelle riding her Jetstream

Arriving at the second checkpoint

Detailed planning..
Siang had mapped out this trip in such a way, the route takes us through 70% offroad tracks.
He and Chris had a full-suspension ride while Angela, who was a seasoned bikepacker, had only her Dahon Curve SL to depend on.
The other two old-timer Yeoh and Tan had their large 26" MTBs.
If you are one of those urban cyclists, you might want to think twice on bikepacking along the rough trail.
I recommended the Schwalbe Big Apple 2.0 tires to Siang at Batu Gajah. It served me very well with zero puncture in the four years that I had been using them.
So far, Chris was the only casualty with only one puncture. The rest had no issues.
From the first to the second checkpoint, we've covered at least 25km of the route.
The ride to the Batang Berjuntai ex-tin mining ponds was really amazing. 
We get to cycle on the dirt track and linked out to the oil palm plantation and later rode for 8.5km on sand before turning out to a peat swamp...

Bikepacking - Rawang - Sekinchan Expedition, Part 1

The much anticipated mail-call..
My last bikepacking trip with Master TT Siang, one of the country's leading bikepacker, was late last year when we traced the Kinta River route from Batu Gajah to Ipoh, Perak.
It was a magnificent ride and from that point, I had always looked forward to any incoming trips that were planned by Siang.
Earlier this year, he led a small group to Northern Thailand. 
Unfortunately, Michelle, my wife and I were unable to join the group.
Last month, Siang had sent out an email about the Rawang - Sekinchan bikepacking route.
I was very excited about it and both Michelle and I had jumped at the opportunity to cycle with Siang and his wife Angela.

Re-united
Two of my Batu Gajah expedition kakis were also riding in the route. 
I met Chris Wong sometime back at a bike shop and linked him to Siang while Tan Kim Hwa joined us at the Kinta River route ride. 

The new guy
We had Uncle Yeoh Chee Weng, Kim Hwa's touring buddy and The Star's Chief Reporter Andrew Sia with us.
A total of eight cyclists - six foldies and two MTBs took part in the ride.

The route
The plan was to assemble at Bandar Country Homes and ride out to the backroads off Jalan Batu Arang and link-up to the Batang Berjuntai tin mines. 

Setting up at Bandar Country Homes

 A gloomy start
It rained on a Saturday morning as we waited for the rest to arrive. 
Since we set out rather early, the first person we met was Chris Wong. Andrew Sia came next followed by Siang and Angela. 
We were told that Yeoh and Tan were already at a designated parking area in a housing scheme where we left our vehicles overnight. 
For this ride, we brought our Dahon Jetstream EX and P8. Our stuff were carried on a backpack. Michelle used her trusty Mountainsmith daypack while I opted to carry an Ortlieb Flight 27 waterproof backpack. 
I lugged 20kgs of equipment and clothing including a spare bottle of water, comms set, recovery tool, team First Aid Kit and some personal medication.
From Bandar Country Homes, we set out towards Jalan Batu Arang.
There was a slip-road leading to a drain factory and the rest were dirt tracks.

Breakfast and preparing the packed lunch

On the trail

The gang

Michelle and her JSP8

 We made a stop at the shoplots in Bandar Country Homes to pack our lunch as well as a late breakfast before proceeding to the first checkpoint which is further down the road towards Batu Arang.
At this point, the cyclists were in good spirit.
Once we hit the trail, about five kilometres off Jalan Batu Arang, Andrew Sia was complaining of stomach upset.
He went to ease himself in the bush while Siang took a map reading via Google Earth on his Nokia N8 smartphone.
Then, Andrew made a surprise announcement.
"Hey, you guys go ahead la, I want to turn back, not feeling well..."
Chris Wong did the right thing by coercing Andrew to continue riding towards Batang Berjuntai.
At least there, he could board a taxi and head back to the starting point...