Route 44

Time flies when your having fun, we took one fine sunny sunday to recce our old routes to fool around with our trail bike and see what has changed to up date our riders. Well...we really found out the easy way the old route where we use to have fun has been tarmec all the way up to the highest point in Kota Kinabalu “No more Dirt trail”. Thinking it would b a boring ride to my surprise it was not..as the trees has been trim down at the side of the road you get a batter veiw of Kota Kinabalu and the island around it. I lost count of how many times we stopped to enjoy the breath taking views. The really fun thing about it is the winding smooth tarmac all the way up that mad the ride fun mostly accompanied with the view. Our exit from this route was a small road that descended about 45 degrees...just enough for a small car to pas through. Dont try to pass through this route if your not a season rider as the road consist of sharp bends, gravel andsteep descends. We stop at the MARI-MARI cultural village for a breather which something you can add in to your biking itinerary with having lunch at the same time..just next door is the kionsom water fall. This is a good route for riders who want to enjoy views,culture and just to check out the part of Kota Kinabalu that your average tourist do not visit.

Distance - Total KM 51

Good for half day rides

Elevation about 700mrs

Over the Hills and Faraway.

There is a few really good places with really panoramic scenery in North Borneo however not excessive by road bikes. Last Sunday i took a short trip and did a recce along the crocker range took a trail that looked promising and found out it was really a breath taking view oft the west side of north borneo.Since there was only 4 of us it was a really enjoyable relaxed ride with a sunny and almost clear sky's.

Ride Borneo / Kudat - Mt Kinabalu

This time my group of riders was smaller and wanted to experience a shorter visit to Sabah and visit village area and to test the life style of the locals. it was a 3 day ride going up north and turning east ward along the foot of mt Kinabalu. we where very lucky for the 1st day and the 2nd half day as it was sunny and clear by noon the rain started. This didnt break the spirit of adventure of the guys because they had little or almost non experience in dirt road i had to give them a crash course theoretically. It was to them an experience of a lifetime traversing through gravel,muddy and wet conditions of the road up hill. The family that took us in was friendly and excited of our visit as this was the 1st time they have visitors on motorcycles. the long house was use to tourist visits but it was something new to them when they saw us on bikes.

The ride to Long Pasia (360)

Thomas after the crash.

(Minta Kesian, minta handle bar renthel baru)

The Fly(Adnand,Joe,Thomas).Top of the world

Good weather and smiling faces is a recipe for a good and enjoyable ride, the guys was very enthusiastic for the adventure ahead. Our ride started on time..well slightly after the ho.ho.ha.ha at the meeting point. Breifing was given and off we go. We stop at a small restaurant along the road headed for beaufort for breakfast it was good to see smiling faces and exchanging jokes as every one was getting familiarize with each other as some are 1st timers to Long pasia. We stop at Sipitang to refuel and pick up a few things before heading out. As we enter the gravel i can see all was fired up to try out the gravel road and bumps..so it was and it is. The scenery was breath taking at some parts but i didnt manage to take as much scenery photo;s as i wanted. Loose gravel and slight muddy pools mad the ride much more adventurous as the bike tend to slight and drift every one was comfortable with there handling skills. Being to worried of the others crashing the bike much to my dismay it finally happen to me after taking so much precaution and being a safe rider. On a tight corner thomas fell from his machine and skidded the others help him up and gave medical treatment....thank god there was only bruises as he was wearing protective gears. As i took a strutted corner embracing my self to drop to 4th and twisting the throttle for extra power to sway the rear to use it as a side way turn, a glimpse of jeff at the apex of the corner caught my eye giving the sigh to slow down. The bike was tilted to the side my legs was up from to give the front the support to take the corner, than i saw a red bike at the very edge of the corner of the apex,..i knew i was going the hit the bike and crash. as much as i could i dropped to 3rd and jem the breaks but it was to close as i was running at 70 to 80 on a strutted corner. The rear sway violently...my thoughts was "Hell....if im going to crash..at least i ll go in style". As the front skidded the rear was at a drift i was intending to jump in front of the handle bars but my knee got stuck at the handle bar and next thing i know im looking at the sky than the green bush. It was 360 summersault in front of the bike..Like i said at least id fall in style. few of the guys rushed to help me up..i was ok no cut or bruises the bike was fine to,..than i realize at that very corner,..there was at least 7 bikes parked...If i took that corner i would have crashed in to at-least 4 bikes at one time. The next day was leisurely ride out to tenom but it was fun as the road was much more slippery after the rain. Another fall due to slipery terrain..You guys know Who!.

Photo's of the Ride.

Photo Album

Scenic locations

Participants

The rides

Transborneo / Kota Kinabalu,Brunei,Sarawak,Indonesia

The rain was heavy 0n the 21st Sept 09 morning and we waited while hopping the rain will slow down so we can start our long ride. as we load up our luggage the on the support vehicle the rain started to slow down and drizzled we didnt waist any time, we sadled up and started riding towards south headed for brunei which was a 354km ride across the Sabah,Sarawak and Brunei Boarders. we had lunch at sipitang and continued the ride across the 1st boarder entering sarawak it was an easy transit not long we had to enter brunei which we had to cross to rivers by ferry. the total boarder check points was 8 my passport was full of chopped of red green and blue stamps. Checking in and checking out it took to much time and we only arrive at the brunei hotel at 2100hrs had dinner and did my briefing for the next day ride. since it was hari raya the kings palace was lighted up and look beautiful we enjoyed the fire works too while riding in brunei. the people was friendly and was suprised to see a group of japanese riding bikes.for the next 6

fays our ride went through villages and farms acrros the back bone of borneo island. stoping along the way to enjoy the view of padi fiealds and forest swamps, the most important thing to cross the boarder is to have compleat documants of your bike,passport, intention or a later from national seciruty of malaysia but if your traveling on a bus all you need is your passport to enter every boarder up to pontianak. But indonesia will be the most difficult to enter as many may know that the country is base on corruption so you need to have a lot of patiance and money to bribe officers even if your documant is compleat. we got stranded almost 3 hours just to pass through.They will make things difficult by giving all kinds of excuses just to delay your entry to the country...in other words you pay me something and we will give you the pass. Thats what i had to do,....by having compleat documants i thought it would be easy to just enter but i found out thats not the case.

We spent our knight at 3 star to budget accomodation and stratigicaly in town so we can

find easy food stores aroubd and not fare from the hotel. its best this way since we arrive in the evenings and dont have the energy to walk a couple of blocks just to have dinner. The ride per day basically cover 300 to 380 km but from bintulu to serian its its 507km and that was a very long ride. we stop every 40min riding so as to relax our body at the same time visiting the villages along the way.

Hell's gate

The Path to Hell's Gate
We lead where others follow.

Pushing, crawling under fallen tree's, traversing rivers and a hard push up steep hills (Hell's gate)...we did it all. The worse was when the rain started to fall and the surface got very slippery and one by one the guys started to fall of there bikes. It was like a romaniacs race there where all sort of obstacle along the way. But it was the fun of it that mad everyone smile! you dont get this kind of adventure anywhere els.

Never the less we had to decide to go on or not, turning back was an option going on was not. The trail was almost at its end but it does connect to a wider path headed for Ranau. As much fun as it was it was a disappointment to us to turn back after assessing all the safety and logistics. But we will be back to take this hells gate and be batter prepared for the unforseen obsticals ahead. The bikes did there part, taking us this fare was more than we expected it is just the time, water and food we didnt have.The villages was accomodating by even offering us to stay at there homes for the night.