Restoring an old Mountain Bike

13 years ago, my mom bought my bro a mountain bike which she claims costs around 1k. Ever since my bro has been done with it, it has been rotting at the front porch of the house up till now.

If I'm not wrong, the mountain bike is a 2001 GT Aggressor 1.0 Model. Here's a picture of it taken last week :

13 Year-old Mountain Bike (Unrestored)

It's really damn cui. Tires are all flat, hand grips are decayed, gears and chains are all rusted and filled with moss.

My family got a bicycle mounting rack for the car and we brought it down to an uncle shop to see if they could do anything about it.

I was quoted $395 for a full servicing and for the replacement of all the parts which needed to be changed. (Seat, gear shifter, stand, paddle, tires & brakes) I thought it was quite reasonable, to be honest I expected it to be more expensive seeing how every part of the bike looks spoilt. Luckily we made the choice of going to an uncle shop as compared to some commercialised bicycle shops which was probably gonna cost a bomb. The uncle shop seemed really reliable plus they've been around for a really long time and still going strong! So just trust them lah huh.

The place is called Alywin Cycle Bike Shop (Blk 137 Teck Whye Lane)
Here's a link to their website : http://alywincycle.blogspot.sg/

Just picked the bike up and here's how she looks now :

 

Look at dat beauty!

 

 Back View

Front View

To be honest, I was very impressed with the servicing. The bike literally looks as good as new! The uncle commented that the condition of it before was really dam cham and he had to wash it down like 3-4 times before he could get all the layers of dirt off.

The works included a paint job, servicing, tuning and replacement of all the spoiled parts.

He also explained to me on how I can maintain the bike and some riding tips as well! =D

Took it out for a spin once  and she's a beast, very responsive. Feels like even if I put her through rough terrain, she will still come out strong.

Can't wait to start riding this to nearby places to eat/ Bukit Timah hill and test it out on the trails there.

Wildstar - Finally reached lvl cap

After a grueling few weeks since release, I've hit lvl 50!

Huzzah!

Got the ding when I turned in the last quest left for me on the map (nice timing). 

Check out this message I got:

Reminding me how much of a life I don't have. Hahaha

Overall, the experience was pretty good. It can be tiring at times especially when I'm really fixated on lvling that I just skip all the story and lore stuff which made it feel very grindy. Looking back, I should've just read the quest texts to make the experience a lot more interesting.

Can tell that a lot of effort was put into the game in terms of lore and story-telling. 

Community has been pleasant and helpful most of the time, which is really one of the rewards of playing a P2P game, the kids are all being filtered. :D

Getting max level in these raid-oriented games have always been a stepping stone for most people. Still, it is really not as fast as I thought it'd be. A good amount of time in-game was spent traveling to quest locations which was quite a chore to me, but then again it's cause the world is so damn big.

Really excited to embark on my end-game contents such as vet adventure/dungeons/raids and even pvp!

Yowamushi Pedal

There's this anime about cycling called Yowamushi Pedal. I stumbled upon it randomly on an anime site, it looked lame but it turned out to be really nice!

Yowamushi Pedal

Basically the anime paints a picture of a regular nerdy otaku, Onoda that cycles everyday to school/other towns as a form of transport. He does this so he can use the money he saved from his bus fare to buy Gachapons. Unknowingly, he nurtured his ability to cycle through his countless years of 'training'.

When he got into high school(Sohoku), he encountered a hardcore cycling freak, Inaizumi and a competitive and yet friendly guy, Naruko who randomly helps him with his cycling techniques.

Sohoku Team Members

After a few series of events, they all ended up joining the school's bicycle racing club. They trained really hard and had to overcome many obstacles along the way.

Japanese producers are really damn good, the way they portray the whole training process was really interesting and entertaining. Basically it was a try-hard explanation about the complexities of cycling which is probably true in the professional levels. Don't get me wrong, this is by no means a bad thing. In fact, I found it really interesting and entertaining!

After a long and gruesome training camp, game was on at the Inter-High bicycle racing tournament.

At the Inter-high tournament, they showed many formidable opponents from several schools, with the main one being the past reigning champions, Hakone High School.

Characters that were introduced all had their histories and backgrounds, adding a lot more flavor to the story line.

Hakone's Izumida

Just looking at 1 of the guys, Izumida. Look at those fuckin' abs man. I know it's an anime, it's just drawings and it's fake but FUCK it's gorgeous. Apparently this guy names his Pecs (Adam & Frank) hahaha. This guy's not even the main character but he sure as hell caught my eye. (no homo)

Currently the anime is at the 2nd day of the Inter-High, this is definitely one that I'll be following.

Sudden craving for Fried Chicken

It's a super random craving that I'm getting as of recently and oh, it is strong. I've no idea why it is happening but for now I'm so obsessed with it now. OMG.

How can you not love that?

Some may say that it looks disgusting and unhealthy and I can see why, but still I want to sink my teeth into it so bad and devour it! :O

I'm like a freakin fatass wanting some of dat shit!!!

I may be going a little crazy...

Update :
Everything's back to normal now. Haha, I still wouldn't pass up the chance to have some though if I could.

Year 0 IPPT

So it's my time to take IPPT as an NSmen. Technically, I could opt to not take it if I want and wait till it's after my birthday. Then again, it's $$ for the taking so might as well ya. :O

IPPT Result Slip

Took the test at Maju Camp last week (17/5/14). There were loads of nsmen present at that time and you can see the effects of working life on their physical fitness... Some of them were clearly out of shape and hated being there. Others that didn't look so bad were really gunning for just a pass as they frantically asked the PTIs there about it. (There was also something about a sub-pass and all that)

As for me, the effects of training really helped me and the fruits of my labour were clearly shown during the static stations. Everything I did felt a lot easier as compared to when I was in army before. 

2.4km was a killer though, it was really damn painful + its 6 rounds around the carpark. Not to mention, so many people were walking which really does not help to motivate you. Really just got to suck it up, grit your teeth and chiong. More prior training would've helped me. (which I am guilty of not doing as much ;x)

Now I've got quite some time to train for my year 1 IPPT (window opens after Aug for me). Plan is to keep the silver, but then again... LETS GO FOR GOLD!!!!111!

Wildstar Beta Weekend

Just got an invitation to the Wildstar beta weekend event. This came as a surprise cause I kinda gave up hopes that I'll even get an invite, but I did!

Invitation came on Wednesday (23/4/14), now to see how the game is really like... 

The graphics were appealing for me and the way Carbine Studios presented the game was comical and humorous which was good. This made the game unique and unlike other MMOs who all try their hardest to make their games look epic from graphical arts and special effects.

Character Creation:

I made a Chua cause they are just so damn frickin' cute. I must say that the customisation options are really well done and there are styles that appeal to all kinds of tastes.

Starting Area

When I first got into the game, I was kinda taken aback by the default UI. The health and target bars are at the middle of the screen, which is useful of course, but not something that I'm really used to yet. Game play was smooth.

Wildstar felt very much like a WoW game thus far with a questing based leveling system, but I've heard that it's very different. I most probably have not played enough. ~_~

Combat

The combat system is very dynamic. Probably one of the things which differentiates the game from other MMOs. 

You can dodge, kite and even your attacks have cones which shows you exactly where it's gonna land. Actions MMOs that I know of usually don't have this feature, it's like they implemented skillshot mechanics from LoL and incorporated it into this game to add a higher element of skill to it. 

Not to mention, the whole leveling process will definitely feel less-grindy.

That's all I got so far, if I get the time to play more during the weekend, I'll see what new gameplay and content I can unravel. Cya! :)

Mt. Kinabalu Climb

Climbing a mountain is definitely one of the things I've gotta do in my life.

Where else to start but somewhere close-by which houses one of the highest mountain (5th) in the whole of South East Asia : Mount Kinabalu.

Mount Kinabalu is located in the East Malaysian state of Sabah and stands at a height of 4,095m (13,435ft) above sea level.

Getting to Kota Kinabalu and doing this climb wasn't exactly very cheap either (~$1k SGD), contrary to popular belief that everything is half-priced in Malaysia. Nevertheless, it was worth it!

Trip was arranged for me by http://www.adventure-quests.com

People from this company are very professional. They are meticulous in the preparations for all their customers. They always hold conditioning and training sessions for their clients every fortnight at Bukit Timah Hill. 

On top of that, they organise briefings prior to your trip, informing you of all the necessary precautions, conditioning and admin matters that you have to attend to before letting you embark on your trip.

As long as the physical condition of your body is well maintained, all you gotta do is bring a whole load of heart and will power and you'll definitely make it to the top!

The Climb

Timpohon Gate

The starting point of the climb. Armed with a fully packed bag, camera, 2x 1.5litre bottles and a packed lunch.

Personally I'm not really into the idea of hiring porters as it will really make the whole experience meaningless. If your gonna scale the mountain, you do it with your own bare hands, not get 'carried' (pun intended) by others. A guide is necessary though.

The trail resembled something you'd see from Bukit Timah Hill, just that there were so many freaking steps. It's like your literally doing thousands of weighted lunges, good for the legs but your quads will start aching after a while. That's for sure. 

On top of that, my shoe's were SAF PT Shoes (cause I've got no money for proper hiking shoes ): ), so every time I stepped on a rock at the wrong angle, I can feel it piercing into my feet. GOTTA SUCK IT UP!~

Me and my bro left our cousin behind at times, but at least the guide's with her.

As we got close to the base camp, there were steep ascents (and more rocky steps) which really made us quite shack. We were panting even at walking speeds.

At this point of time, we're within the clouds. Vision becomes blurry and hazy, however it still feels pretty bad ass though to plow through the fog like a boss.

Eventually we got to Pendant Hut, our base camp for the night.

Pendant Hut

The place was cold, but still cozy as we bunked in with several other climbers in a dorm-like sorta place.

 Rest-Area

Dinner was a nice-buffet spread at the adjacent Laban Rata building. It was really nice to finally get to replenish all those carbs that we've burnt.

Took in a few astonishing views as well!

Standing above clouds!

Retired into a cold night to get some sleep before making the climb to the peak.

Base Camp to Summit

Armed in 3-layer's worth of clothing and a torchlight, we left the base camp at around 1am the following day. This part of the climb was the toughest part yet.

It was pitch-black all around. If it were not for torch lights, you probably couldn't even see the person in front of you. The air is also getting thinner due to being in higher altitudes. 

That's not all, the way up was STEEP as FUCK. After a seemingly endless flight of stairs, you had to hold ropes and pull yourself up incline portions of the mountains or risk rolling down and dying. It pretty much became a dangerous trek.

Me and my bro took more frequent breaks as well. Every time we did so, I'd look up in the sky and see hundreds of stars and even the milky way! Our spirits were lifted instantly!

The final portion of the climb was the toughest of all imo. There were no longer safety ropes for you to grab onto, the rocks were also more 'raw' in the sense of it no longer being a 'path'. It's just stacks of rocks piled up together and you start climbing on all fours in darkness.

Thinking back, it's scary, cause if you slipped, your gonna roll down on a lot of mis-aligned rocks which is definitely not gonna be nice. (I even had a few close calls!)

NEVERTHELESS, PERSEVERANCE > ALL. WE MADE IT TO THE SUMMIT!

Low's Peak (Mt Kinabalu Summit)

Reached at 445am, and my did it feel good! It was FUCKING cold though. Even under all the stacks of clothing I had, my body was literally shivering non-stop. 

Had to sit around till 6am to catch the sunrise, which was regrettably blocked by clouds, but no matter, the effect's still nice. :)

 Sunrise

Can't really stay at the summit (where the sign is) for too long as there's a queue of people trying to flock into that small space to get photos/touch the sign.

Low's Peak

As per what I have indicated in the picture, that is the highest point of the mountain that trekkers can get to.

Hanged around the base of the summit area and spammed loads of photos.

Random peak adjacent to us

 

Bagus ah!

Apparently, I've searched online and many people have taken countless photos of this peak. Guess I now know why, it's stunning!

I like the effect of how the sunlight has shaded this rock in pure golden light-rays of goodness!

The tour guide told us that there was this rock with a face like King-Kong, how can we possibly miss it?

Mountain-water reflection w/ 'King Kong'

Shadows w/ 'King Kong'

Just Chillin' :D

Had to hurry back to the previous checkpoint to prepare for our 'via Ferreta' route down the mountain.

'via Ferreta' is also known as 'Iron Road' in Italian. Basically it is a series of rungs, rails and cables embracing the rock face which a climber has to use to move around the mountain.

There are more than 300 via Ferrata routes available around the world and Mount Kinabalu hosts the highest one. Basically we had to manoeuvre down 400m of steep inclined rocks from 3800m to 3400m and cross crevices with just ropes.

Credits to our lovely trainer for taking the photographs. =D

After the Ferreta, we headed to and checked out from Pendant Hut.

Had to hike all the way back down to Timpohon Gate. (Yes, the exact same way we came up from)

Going down actually takes less effort, but it can be quite dangerous at times. I slipped quite a lot (didn't have proper hiking shoes), but nothing serious happened. My toe-nails felt like they were broken from all the landings onto the rocks. It also felt like there were blisters at the ball of my feet and that the skin had torn off under my sock.

After a whole lot of trekking downwards, with the encouragement given to us from passer-bys which I thought was really damn nice, we finally made it back to Timpohon Gate where it all started.

WE HAVE COMPLETED THE CLIMB! YES!!!!!!!

FINISHED! Look at all our SHACK faces.

The feeling of accomplishment you get from such a feat can never be bought with money. There's so much satisfaction you get from it, it fills you up with happiness. :D

Back at our hotel, we feasted like kings at several of the nearby stalls, which had really good and cheap food!

Got our well-deserved rest after.

Cert - Achievement Unlocked! :P

My advise to all potential climbers is that if you can afford it, please try to get proper hiking equipment (which I did not lol). It will really make your life so much easier. A proper hiking backpack with the waist attachments, torchlights that can be strapped to your head, hiking shoes and even a walking stick.

If you're out of shape, please train up, especially your cardio and leg strength. You will thank yourself for doing so.

Last of all, enjoy every moment of it and never ever give up!