What draws me to mountain biking?
The excitement that it brings.
I love the adrenalin rush.
I love doing fast-paced stuff.
Today, we are at Chestnut Mountain Biking Park.
This particular place is a pump track.
The coolest thing about this pump track is that
it gives people access to start riding,
even beginners.
The whole purpose of a pump track is
gaining speed while not pedalling.
So we use our legs and bodies to compress in the whoops (series of bumps),
then lift our bodies at the right time and we gain speed.
Like this lady over here, she’s not pedalling,
but she’s gaining speed at the same time.
It helps to improve our basics,
our core muscles in our legs.
At the start,
I wouldn’t say that it’s more difficult,
but we women have a lot less strength than the men.
So we have to train doubly as hard to keep up with the men.
But I mean, if they can do it, so can we!
So, we started this morning at Chestnut Trail.
Always plan your rides, know where you’re going.
Whenever you see wildlife,
stay a safe distance away.
Do not approach wildlife.
Always ride on designated trails.
It’s better to go as a group or at least two persons.
It’s a buddy system and it’s safer,
just in case anything happens in the forest,
somebody can help you out.
Always take your trash out.
Leave no traces of your rubbish.
See! We picked this up from the trail.
Who left this Oreo?
So dirty!
Always give way to people who are faster than you.
Always give way to people who are hiking.
It’s trail etiquette.
There are beginner trails and advanced trails.
So for beginners, I will recommend maybe T15 Trail,
Chestnut Trail, Chestnut Southern trail.
For the more advanced, maybe you can go with
Bukit Timah Mountain Biking Trail or Kent Ridge Trail.
Kent Ridge Trail is one of my favourites
because it’s more fast paced and
we could practice our cornering there,
our drops there, our technical skills.
Some of the highlights at Bukit Timah Mountain Biking Trail
are The Seven Drops, which is a technical descent.
The highest high of mountain biking
is actually being able to conquer obstacles.
It’s so extreme gives you peace.
It keeps you in the zone.
Everything else doesn’t matter,
except the trail and what’s ahead of you.
It keeps me motivated.
It exposes me to the countryside of Singapore.
While Singapore is such a fast-paced, bustling city,
it’s always quiet and peaceful in the forest.
So we went to the quarry,
and had our break there.
Hey! Hello, Ming!
Long time no see! How’s things?
Fist bump time!
It’s super easy to make mountain biking friends,
because everybody says “Hi” to each other.
Hi, I’m Ming, from Floow MTB.
I’m part of a group of volunteers, who take care of the trail.
We work together with NParks,
to make sure that our trails are ridable,
even in wet weather.
So people like Ming,
he posts trail maintenance days on Facebook,
and people go there and sign up as volunteers.
So once he gathers the people around,
he’ll take them to the trail.
He’ll bring the shovel, the gravel or whatever is needed
to help repair all the damaged spots along the trail,
to help keep it maintained.
This sport kind of brought us together,
from different walks of life,
and I thought that was quite meaningful.
It becomes a routine. You know, every Saturday or Sunday
everybody will just show up.
Maybe the next week or two weeks later,
you’ll see the same old faces.
If, let’s say, you have no one to ride with,
you can just turn up at the trailhead,
then just ask someone: “Can I ride with you?”
They’ll probably just say: “Okay, come along. Let’s go!”
So it’s a very close-knit community.
When you’re mountain biking, it takes your mind off everything.
You don’t have time to think about work,
or your problems at home.
It’s my way of connecting with nature!
It’s important to wash our bikes,
to keep our bikes in tip-top condition.
And also to prevent our family members from
complaining about bringing dirty bikes into the house.
Now we are at Unsprung.
The things we should consider when getting a helmet...
First: Budget.
Second: The fit of the helmet.
Get a snug-fit helmet,
one that does not move around when you’re cycling.
Another really essential item of protective gear that is
highly-recommended are full-fingered gloves,
knee guards and elbow guards –
just for covering the knees and elbows.
Just some investments to think about
for more longevity in the sport.
Keep your bike clean always
and you will need less maintenance.
Well, I cherish mountain biking a lot,
because of the wonderful friends I meet all the time while cycling.
I do have a lot of fun out on my mountain bike.
So please come join us!
It’s a super friendly community,
so I would really encourage anyone to just try.
I cherish supportive friends like the ones I have here,
because they encourage me to do better.
Yeah, that's what keeps me going.