If you’ve been scrolling thru your social media for the past 6 months you might have notice a lot of posting about people riding bikes. Schoolmates, workmates, cousins and neighbours that you never thought would buy a bike – bought a bike, rode it and surprisingly not one gave up! Their postings kept on feeding your social feed every week.
If you’ve been a mountain biker the past 2 months there has been a lot of posting on trails that you’ve never seen before popping up in your feed. Some looked like trails in New Zealand, some in Teletubbies land, others looked like the ridge line on the Alps, while another you might mistaken it to be in Madeira, Portugal! But No No, these trails are all local trails in Malaysia!
Who do you have to thank for this? Well the current Pandemic. You see some of these trails has always been around for a while now. However with Kiara and PCP just a drive away, most mountain bikers would rather get their weekly rush there. Plus most trail builders don’t openly, promote their trails as (they think) it might not be as good as those in Kiara or well design as those in PCP or just simply want to keep it to themselves. Now closures and restrictions entering Kiara, PCP and KDCF has just accelerated the discovery of these hidden gems and made them more accessible to regular mountain bikers.
It has also turn regular mountain bikers to trail builders as well. In a short span of 2 months new trails are also popping up like mushrooms after a rainy day, old trails are being reborn again and exiting trails are being cared for. I personally have started to weld the mighty cangkul again after a 10 year hiatus. In the process convinced XC riders around the neighbourhood to join my quest and build purposely built trails rather than riding existing wide Ladang Sawit trails that you normally find in Jamboree events. I am sure, I am not alone in my quest to convert as many jamboree riders to trail riders. For my fellow comrades “Syabas” for showing them the light.
During the first wave of the Pandemic, it showed the best of every Malaysian in trying to help frontliners and what anyone can do for their fellow countrymen. Well that same spirit continues in mountain biking. Trail builders are relishing the chance to have fellow mountain bikers riding their sweet features with crazy names, jumps that could send you to the moon and drops that will sink you nuts! Now is the best time to be a mountain biker!