motobiking.com Frasier Hill Ride
page 1
29 Dec 2008
Gloomy start . It started to drizzle as I rolled the bike out of the porch. Dang. I hate to ride in the rain. More so, on the twisty Kuala Kubu Bharu to Bentong backroad if it is wet. It could be a little tricky with wet leaves on the road surface. Then again, it would be Bagsters' final 2008 ride and quite a few confirmed showing up. I guess I just have to ride slower.. By mid morning, the only thing I could remember was riding. The sky was still toying with us with a steady light drizzle. Two Bagsters failed to show up. Ben as usual went AWOL and Deng probably over-slept again.
We
broke into two groups along the North-South Expressway on route to Tanjung
Malim. The kick-ass group with Sam leading the way with his new FJR1300 was
nowhere in sight. The slo-mo group with myself in it was happy trotting
along. IM was riding with a broken heart after his bike took a tumble during
refueling earlier. His wind-shield took an affection to the nearby rubbish
bin thus cracking the former into two pieces.
We arrived at our first check-in point at Tanjung Malim toll with the cloud
continued to look threatening. We proceeded to Kuala Kubu Bharu with a quick
stop-over at Shell for Zamin to refuel his bike. It was Zamin's first ride
with us.
I
broke off with the pack to zip ahead to get ready for some photo-shoot at
the Selangor River Dam. The scenic road along the dam was simply awesome.
The old steel bridge at the Chiling Waterfalls' entrance signaled the start
of a ride filled with twisting bends over stunning Titiwangsa Mountain
vistas
I scaled back and set a slow
steady pace. The road was still damp and I am usually too chicken to ride on
wet road. Sam took to his new bike like a duck in the water and quickly
disappeared with Chin. IV was trailing behind me cautiously with his new
acquisition. He has yet to gel with his bike.
We arrived at Gap with about 10 min to spare for the gate to open for the up-hill traffic to Frasier Hill. The other road to the hill was still close for repairs after a massive landslip. Again, the old road serving as the only route up to the hill with scheduled alternate hour for accent/decent traffic. The Gap resthouse was still closed for 'renovation.' Anyway, it hasn't been the same after the old chinese care-taker of the resthouse packed up and quit.. hence the demise of the infamous Gap oriental chicken chop. The once extensive menu has sadly now reduced to a limited menu of orders of tasteless fried noodles, fried rice and boiled/fried eggs. Hopefully, the 'new' renovated resthouse would bring back some glory to its famous namesake.
It usually takes about 10 minutes to reach Frasier Hill from the foot hill's gate. Luck had it we had to tail an extremely cautious driver all the way up .. sloooowly
The local authority been upgrading Frasier Hill. The building housing the eateries is undergoing serious renovations. Mohan, our Frasier Hill pro, re-directed us to the make-shift food court temporary housing the eateries about 1 km away. We wasted no time chomping on traditional nasi lemak and roti chanai. The help-yourself-at-the-food-bar somehow given the eatery manager a free hand to write creative check out bill. Neverless, the cool air and relaxing pace gave everyone a good appetite. Kelvin and his gang joined in shortly after making the place suddenly very buzzy with bikers' talk.
We staggered to our bikes to make the decent to Gap. Luckily the alternate hours for one-way traffic practiced by the the sole road forced us to break our bums off the cozy eatery seats. We would probably sit and laze around for another hour, a typical bad Bagsters' habit. We had to ride down within the time frame or we would need to wait for another one and a half hours to do so again.
We
were soon darting towards Bentong with the sky still looming with dark
clouds. The slight on-off drizzle cooled us down considerably. The kiss-ass
group as usual zoomed ahead in a flash. I took my time to ride leisurely and
enjoyed the scenic greens over the hills.
We bumped into Oonta and Steve at the Gap-Raub-Bentong junction. They were riding to Frasier from Bentong in exactly opposite route. Meanwhile, Zain and Daniel were waiting somewhere in Bentong to join us back to KL. We planned to stop at Bentong for ice creams.
The route to Bentong consists of fast sweeping bends and long straights. With exception of passing through a few kampungs with restricted speed and light traffic, we were able to ride fast.
Zain and Dan joined us at the bus stop near Lee Rubber factory. Apparently, they were thinking of riding to Gap to surprise Oonta and Steve but somehow ended back with our pack.
We stopped at Kedai Kopi Pow Po for its famous ice-creams and ice-kacang. As usual, the shop was packed with eager patrons, old and young enjoying delicious ice-creams and desserts. We resumed our ride back to KL via the old Gombak road. The weather stayed clear with no hint of rain. It was a fantastic Bagsters ride to cap off the 2008 year.
2009 here we come
In the ride : Anne & Myself, Rashid and wife, Ivan, Chin, Ivan Mohan (IV), Mohan, Zamin, Zain, Dan and Sam
