Alright people, I’ll try my best to keep everything short & sweet about this event which took place on the 6th Feb 2010 Saturday at East Coast Park (start point) as there was just plentiful details during this event, one of the incidents was quite funny or “disturbing” to those conservative ones… We were placed under the Leisure category since we can’t find the 4th rider to join us in the Competitive category. Our team’s name was: Team SLT (surname initials -- Seah, Lim & Toh , well… that was for convenience sake, next year we’ll use SgNiteCycle.com!)

I reached the place at about 7pm and the registrations were still on-going  so it was kinda bored sitting around… we waited till about 8.40pm and finally the NUS students started to gather all the participants around for the events briefing which we think its a bit late, if time management was better to gather all around, we could have started at 8pm, an hour earlier would be better but of course it can be more dangerous for those who are riding on the road as there will be more vehicles too!

It was almost 9pm when we start to get on the clues through the score sheet and I can tell you some of the clues really made us clueless!!! Some of them are quite lame too! Especially the Bedok one, with picture of a bed then another pic with an “OK” sign, well credits has to be given the students for brainstorming to this really lame clue… haha!

The initial part was the organizing and planning that truly matters, Perly and Jayme were reading the clues and I was spying for other’s clues, I actually came up with a few & gave the clues to others… Lol… it doesn’t matter since we are in the Leisure category, hopefully the other team can make full use of our clues to win with extra advantages (which they didn’t win cuz they went “holland” in Changi Village for one of the houses… i know… wtf right…)

Eventually, being not familiar with the game rules, we “sacrificed” the first few houses but headed to the first hotel at Bedok Reservoir Road 745, which is right in front of NTUC Fairprice. The game played was fun and Perly’s drawings were extremely funny, I think we’ve gotten 6 or 7 out of 10 correct… the only house we gotten was the one with the big football near Bedok ’s Swimming Complex, did I forgot to mention we were the first team to reach this first hotel point? Unbelievable!!!

One of the rules was we must include the team captain in the pictures needed to be taken, so all the images are Perly in all the images… LOL! Watch out for his ultra funny poses!!! :p The next location we set off to were Temasek Polytechnic then IKEA Tampines since we missed out the houses for the ones situated near Changi Village other wise we could have gathered more points!!!

Pretty obvious, this is IKEA! ^^

Immediately after IKEA, we headed to our 2nd hotel point which was in Pasir Ris Park’s “spiderman web” which we were the 1st team to reach as well… We played the game required then a quick toilet break near the area, then set off towards the next 4 houses which are Win Tai Industrial Building, Hougang Sports Hall -- Yellow Stationary Cab with 2 wheels, Woodbridge Hospital’s apple tree, Bowen Secondary School’s main entrance with their star logo and finally the hotel point located at the famous hawker center -- CHOMP CHOMP!!! Situated in Serangoon Garden Way.

Ok, here’s one of the funniest incident that took place when we reached Hougang Sports Hall. While searching for the Yellow stationary cab with 2 wheels, I scrambled through a dark passage way from the sports retail shop below the GYM towards the other entrance of the sports hall. At a very secluded dark corner, I saw a middle aged chinese man shaking his white butts banging his girlfriend right before my eyes! Omg!!! I wish you could see his ultra self owned facial expressions when I simply stormed past the couple having public sex!!!!

Hmmm… I wonder if the guy finished his “job” or not, as we finally found the yellow cab & took the picture before continuing our journey… LOL!

Entire route from Wing Tai, Hougang Sports Hall, Woodbridge and Bowen Sec towards Chomp Chomp were carefully and strategically planned by me, so we didn’t waste any precious time at all throughout my route, we maintained a good average cycling speed of 25km/hour. :D

Below are the four house pics needed before the Chomp Chomp hotel….

Wing Tai Industrial Building 01!

Wing Tai Industrial Building 02!

The Yellow Stationary Cab with 2 Wheels!

The Apple Tree at Woodbridge Hospital

Bowen Secondary School

The hotel we headed for was at CHOMP CHOMP, and again we were the first team to reach, which evidently shows that most of the teams had chosen to head for the hotels in the city area before the ones located in the east and north-east areas. We swiftly played the game required in CHOMP CHOMP, scored Full Points, used the Community Chest car then received 1.5x Multiplier for this hotel. Luckily we didn’t get jailed! All thanks to Jayme’s lady’s luck for drawing the 1.5x multiplier!!! Yay!

Bartley MRT station which was the first station we achieved, then off to the 2nd nearest MRT — Potong Pasir, went along Upper Paya Lebar then cut through Upper Aljunied, straight down towards city to the train station, this didn’t take us too much time except while searching for stations’ exit A.

Answer to the house question

I missed taking the picture of Potong Pasir MRT station, well it was not required by the game anyway… So, immediately after Potong Pasir, our planned direction was to head down to city and complete the rest of the houses, hotels and MRT stations, we decided to head towards Clarke Quay’s Merchant Court Hotel which is the next targeted house to claim, while heading towards The Sail at Marina, we claimed the Raffles Place MRT which denied entrance to the answers because the exit was closed, a picture was taken just in case… Next, we head down towards Chinatown for Lim Chee Guan, took a quick picture at their entrance follow by Outram MRT station before climbing up towards SGH to take another picture in front of the 3 flag poles of the Duke-NUS School.Right before the entrance, Perly was showing signs of mild cramps in his leg, he applied some tiger balm heat run I think, he complimented for its effectiveness! Good job tiger balm!!!

By this time, we finished all the 4 required MRT stations worth 160 points if I’m not wrong and the required 4 houses for the next hotel we are claiming for situated Maxwell Food Center. Again, we achieved FULL Points for the game played at Maxwell looking for shop unit numbers, so we made use of the Community Chest card again which gave us 2x of the points we collected. Hail to Jayme’s lady luck!!! Thanks to Jayme ! :D

Clarke Quay behind Merchant Court Hotel

The Sail @ Marina Bay, the orange bridge


The Sail @ Marina Bay

Chinatown’s Lim Chee Guan!!!

We couldn’t find any clues at Outram MRT, did someone sabotage by taking down the clues???

DUKE-NUS Medical with 3 flag poles….

Finally, the 5th hotel towards Kallang before we head back to East Coast, due to time constrain, we can only claim 2 houses which are the ones are Haji Lane and Golden Mile Food Center. By the time we were traveling on Nicoll Highway towards Kallang, I remembered clearly that it was already 4.51am. We reached Kallang’s hotel checkpoint exactly at 4.57am, played the words game and rest for about 5 minutes then we took a slow ride back to East Coast Park’s finishing point with an average speed of 15km/hour.

Haji Lane Shop Number 35

The stall 133 located on the 2nd storey of Golden Mile Food Center

The required answer for the Stall 133, green digits are 786

COMPLETING THE NUS BIKE QUEST: Cycledelic 2010

We completed the quest with a total accumulated points of 705, Perly mentioned that it should be more points as the NUS guy miscalculated our points for the 1st time was 655, I think our total score might even be 800+… Well, a question arose was why did a Leisure team tried so hard for the quest? Simple, it was because we were short of 1 cyclist to join the Competitive category otherwise we would have won the Cash Prizes and the true glory named Champions! The fact is we are still the unnamed Champions as we scored even more points than the Competitive winning team, and yes we are very proud of this great achievement because we are also first timers taking part in the NUS bike quest.

Below is the short video I’ve taken after the quest where most participants were resting while waiting for the prize giving presentation before taking the group photos, video didn’t include us as we were receiving a special commentary by Andre and accepting the extra shirts, courtesy of the NUS Bike Quest 2010 organizers. Thanks people and the end! :D

NUS Bike Quest 2011? Yes!!! We will join next year’s bike quest again! It was really an enjoyable experience to go through the games & challenges! :D

More event pictures can be found on Facebook, click on the following image to view more now!

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Route
1. Home -> Changi Village
2. Changi Village -> Changi Clubhouse
3. Changi Clubhouse -> East Coast Park -> Changi Ferry Terminal -> Changi Clubhouse
4. Changi Clubhouse -> Changi Village
5. Changi village -> home

This is the first time I am into cycling seriously; previous experiences were either to the mini mart or leisure rides round the neighborhood. Purchased a hybrid bike a week before the event and got accustomed it to by doing laps round Pasir Ris Park, riding position was also adjusted in the process.

08 November 2008 (19:30 to 23:59)

Rendezvoused with Perly along Loyang Avenue and proceeded to Changi Village for dinner. We settled for the coffee shop as hawker centre was packed and with a little luck, managed to find a table from which we were able to keep an eye on the bikes. We made ourselves comfortable and discussion about cycling soon followed, ordered 20 sticks of satay and a couple of ketupats while waiting for Eric.

Eric joined us soon after and we ordered dinner which consisted of Hong Kong and Ee mee. With a full stomach and water bottles, we began our cycle to SAF Yacht Club via Changi Coast Road. (Thanks for dinner guys)

Arrived 30 minutes later and a small crowd had gathered at the waiting area, proceeded with registration and received our shirts. Meanwhile a lady called “Redbull” (cheeky reply given to Eric when he asked for her name) recharged us with cans of carbonated Redbull; a time check revealed we had another 2 hours of free time before commencement of event while hoards of cyclists continue to check-in. Meanwhile, we took the opportunity to perform a final check on our bikes and also, ogle at the huge array of souped-up bikes.

09 November 2008 (0000 to 0330)

The anticipated hour came and the hoard assembled at the entrance waiting to be flagged off. On went the helmets, lights and blinkers; the compound was flashing like a discotheque with all the blinkers.

The siren sounded and gate opened, everyone gave out a war cry before mounting their bikes. It was a nice cool night and the roads were void of vehicles. The cool breeze was enjoyable and we were riding on the left side of the road at a comfortable 25km/h so as not to obstruct the faster road bikers.
We soon turned into a park connector (PCN) which led us to Changi Coast Walk that in turn led us to East Coast Park. Certain sections were poorly lit and we had to be extra cautious, especially on blind turns, the situation was further aggravated by riders who did not have any blinkers.

Human traffic increased as we approached the section lined with chalets and eating places. People who strayed onto the cycling path were oblivious to cyclists which resulted in us having our fair share of close shaves.

My calves started feeling warm and tight as we approached the midpoint, told myself to endure and pressed on at a slower pace of 20km/h. Murphy must have read my thoughts, my rear blinker fell off and I stopped at the side immediately, BAD MOVE.
I felt the dreaded pull when I stood up, both my calves had cramped!

Used my bicycle as a crutch and limped to the nearest lamp post. Thankfully Eric and Perly heard the noise when my blinker fell on the path; they picked it up and attended to me. Took a 10 minutes break and Perly advised me to perform SMFR, it helped. The pain alleviated and we mounted our bikes again, I continued at a slower pace for the muscle to recovery.

Many cyclists missed the mid-point and overshot due to poor marshalling and signage. An irate middle aged cyclist started cycling back to inform other cyclists and also to make his point known to the marshals.

Our next checkpoint was Changi Ferry Terminal, the ride there was relatively uneventful until we got to Changi Coast Road when I spotted a group of cyclist redirecting traffic and what looked like the silhouette of a fallen rider; a female rider had fallen badly. We offered our assistance but were told the ambulance was on its way, the other cyclists did the right thing by not moving her as there might be a broken bone or fracture.

We continued and soon arrived at the final water point, had a good drink and headed back towards the finishing point. We arrived backed at Changi Clubhouse at 0310 with a sense of satisfaction.

Finally a well deserved rest, we helped ourselves to the light refreshments.

09 November 2008 (0331 to 0830)

We were planning our route back home when it started pouring cats and dogs. The heavy rain lasted for more than 1.5hrs before subsiding. We finally left Changi Clubhouse at 0500 and headed towards Changi Village for breakfast.

Back on Changi Coast Road, the sky was amber and we felt droplets of water landing on our bodies. Then out of a sudden, the sky opened up with a vengeance and we pedaled as fast as we could to the next shelter, flashes of lightning lit the night sky every few seconds; it was that bad!

The thunderstorm delayed us for more than hour and we finally reached Changi Village at 0700. We got ourselves hot drinks and chow. It then started drizzling again but thankfully it only lasted a short while this time round, we headed towards Loyang Ave and went our own ways at the junction of Loyang Avenue.

I headed to Changi North, Perly to Pasir Ris and Eric to back to Hougang!

Hey! Where are the vids???
here it goes…

• NUS Bike Quest: Cycledelic 2010 (0)