Metal butt challenge is a motorcycle ride for 1609km or 1000miles in 24hrs on specific routes. It is an internationally recognize event and Malaysia represent south east asia. The route is KL Tower-Alor Star Tower-Baling-Grik-Jeli-K.Terengganu-Kuantan-Rompin-Segamat-Tangkak-KL Tower.
Tuan Haji Daha mooted the idea to join the endurance. Tommy firmly accepted the challenge. Tuan Haji Bulu was eager too. He was excited as the date allowed him to take his 3rd bikes. A brand new red dual purpose ducati multistrada. I was reluctant in the beginning. A ride must have purpose. The purpose of this endurance does not suite my character. But after few lectures, bakors and cucuks by them I filled up the form.
Chief Bulu with his new multistarada.Our ex-YB Tuan Haji Jang joined us. He said yes since day one but considering his unpredictable busy schedule, we just keep him at bay. He joined. Anjemang joined too. He was pissed off when we thought he would not bother to join. He said,"sapa kata aku takmboh joing? aku nok ah." Hamka decided no go when we ask him. He said,"aku dok rokwehh!!! aku muto sport. Mapuh aku." Well chief bulu heavily sedated Hamka with the racunest poison. He joined. Jai rejected the idea to join immediately when i asked him. He had Hatyai trip on the date. Turn out he overlooked few things. Hatyai no go. He was the last member to join.
Now we have eight riders. Me with my bmw r1200rt. I consider myself a tourer. I always claimed to be healthy an fit whenever on my RT. I like to know how far can i ride with the toughest condition set forth.
Daha with his bmw R1200st. He was project prime mover. Our local correspondent.
Bulu with his multistrada. He is our chief. He decides. We follow.
Anjemang with his bmw R1200rt. He is the most experience rider. He went to himalaya with his rt. Riding thru the highest rideable peak in the world. Crazy. Anjemang can swirl KL traffics with his full panniered rt beating mat rempit with kapcai. Anjemang is fast.
Jang with his bmw k1300. Jang is cool. He does not make any desicion. But when he did we obey. Jang was the most matured rider among us.
Hamka with his Yamaha R1. Highly spirited person. A funny guy. Always cheer the team up.
Jai with his Kawasaki zx-6. The youngest in the group. Born racer than tourer. He is fit like a horse.
Tommy with his Kawasaki GTR1400. Tommy can ride anywhere anytime as long as his stomach is fulled. Dont mess with tommy when he is hungry. Tommy get sleepy when going slow. He is always fast.
We had few meetings held at Mek Dah's, Sonstar's and Papadelle's. Meeting on the topic for 5 minutes and cakap cakap bodo for 1 hr. That is always the case as we have very little idea how the ride going to be regulate. But, we all agree the route was easy. Kl tower to Alor Star is highway. Nothing. A.Star to Baling is Bulu's route. He is an expect on that route. Baling-Grik-Jeli-KT? We done that many2 times. Makanan jer tu. KT-Kuantan? simply our hometown. Route belakang rumah jer tu. Kuantan-Rompin? Thats our makan udang route. Almost every month ride there with wife. Layan konar rompin bawak bini lagi. Ayam jer route tu. Segamat-tangkak? my route back to wife kampung. Banyak short konar, I likeeee. Bring it on bebeh. So, routing is easy and delicious and mekalicious and sinfully delicious and gorgeous. The main concern was only stamina, fatique and sleepiness.
We started the journey on thurday nite 25/11. Ride to KL as the challenge flaggoff at KL tower friday nite 10pm. I left home 9pm head to rendezvous at RnR kuantan. 1030pm Anjemang, Jai, Bulu, Hamka and Daha arrived. Tommy and Jang already in KL. We reached KL 2am. had supper at suzie's corner. I had moment with my RT after filling the tank. The bike wont start. It happen to me twice already this week. It come alive again when i play around the switch a bit. At home it already 3am. I could not sleep. I am worry about the switching hope it wont happen esok (kalau kena atas grik 3-4am mampus gua. Datang gajah or hantu raya mampus keras gua). Anticipating the challlenge make me kind of nervous unable to sleep too. After not so good sleep i wake up 8am. Callled BMW and complaint. I decided to ride to bmw. They replace to new switch. In the meantime me Jang Tommy and Ah Fock went shopping and lunch. I get back home 3pm. Try to sleep but fail again. then at 650pm decided to depart to KL tower berbekalkan 4hrs sleep. I know i am gonna screw up this challenge.
flagoff 10pm KL Tower. Jai was behind me. Did not I told you he is more of a racer than a tourer?
My odometer at Shell toll duta. It was wet and wild affair.Ride started at KL tower 10pm. We had our challenge before it begins. Jang rear wheel bocor. Thank you to bmw support they manage to bring new set of wheel and rim swap it at KL tower. However, Jang has to start 1 hour late. Anjemang and Tommy stay with Jang. They will catch up with the rest later. They are fast riders. It was quite berbolok during flagoff. Chief commanded regroup at shell after duta toll. After departing from KL tower rain start dripping. When we reached bulatan segambut it was pouring like crazy. So heavy its like the whole KL going flooding. Jai religously tailing me. Getting to toll duta was already hell of a challenge. It was a bit chaotic at shell. Almost all bikers make a stop there. After more than 30minutes we proceed to the next stop. RnR Tapah. It was still raining. Heavy. It started to cool down after Tg malim. After that it was a mixed between dry and wet track. At tapah we filled tank, form and all neccesarry details required.
odometer at Tapah.Next stop was RnR bukit merah. It was dry track. We went fast. Around 170-200km/hr. Hamka sticked behind like a leech. He was fast and always in high beam. I could'nt see that RnR. I went faster. Still no RnR bukit merah. We pitted at Juru. Many more bikers was there. It turn there is no RnR bukit merah. Damn. We laugh our heart out. We did enjoy that fast ride.
After not more than 10minutes Anjeming, Tommy and Jang arrived. They are just simply lightning fast. We thot were fast they are faster. Considering they were handicapped by 1hr yet catching us up at Juru. Dangerously fast.
Odometer at Juru. Pls notice the time on the display. Its already wee hour. Dont you start thinking its dangerous?Next stop Alor Star tower for provided refreshment. We juz digg on free food. Once again we left those 3 rossi as they are still catching their breath. Chief called Mr Jim for direction. Chief took Sg Petani utara exit. We were lost for a while. Lucky mat rempit near by direct us back to Alor Star. Considering it was near 2am, only mat rempit available and happily helped us out. The trio already in Alor Star Tower when we reached there. They must had take different route. You cannot beat otais.
@Alor Star Tower. We are late.It was berbolok again from Tower to Baling. Chief seems confused. Anjemang step in. Tommy was andamant that we should head back to highway and take sg petani exit to Baling. The rest juz enjoy the morning setting the mind to juz follow whatever decision reached. Once again mat rempit was our savior. We reached Baling @4am. It was tricky ride. We had light shower. We had amazing mist and fog. It was beautiful moment married with dangerous ride. Your high beam wont help. I was really2 extra careful.
@Baling. We were lucky it was not rainning that bad. My eyes try to catch any hotel or motel sign as we passed town. Juz could not help myself. Not that i want to quit but it juz nice to know you have option.We make quiet lenghty pit stop. Bulu had to wash his boot. He run over tahik lembu. The cow dunk splash all over his multistrada. What a way to greet weeks old bike. We received sms from Mr Jim stated that police escort will be available at Jeli to KT at 430am. thats mean Mr Jim expected the participants to reach Jeli at that time. We are almost 2hrs behind Jeli. Then we realize our group if far behind the rest of the participants. We were fast yet we were behind. Member mood a bit sour. Jang remind us its not a race. Juz enjoy our ride. Jang managed to keep moral up. Next stop hentian Titiwangsa. We hope to catch a little/tiny sleep up there. Everybody looking forward to that. Tommy said,"sedak ah tido sejuk2 atas bukit".
From Baling it was bending, cornering and leaning all the way. The group splitted 2. Me, Hamka and Tommy was behind. I notice Hamka was struggling during cornering. It was dark. We were tired. I struggled too. In fact I struggled a lot. The road sometimes wet, rough,pot hole and teruklah. Hamka was pushing hard his R1 whenever he found straight strech to keep up with the front group. I was unhappily/nervously noticed he sometimes push too much to closed the gap. Worry he might overshoot, i push my rt to overtake him on straight road. I push few times before succeeding as my torque is no match with R1. I did not dare to overtake on corner as i aslo struggled.
I manage to over take him and hand signaled him to slow down. It was dark. Dark like hell. It was scary too. We were in the middle of jungle. Is it not Banjaran Titiwangsa? Where the gajahs and tigers roam freely. Hantu? I think hantu sumer dah lari takut bunyi ejus yushi R1 hamka. Tommy was the last rider behind Hamka. He was automatically became sweeper. As we reached junction to Grik i notice Tommy was missing. I asked Hamka where Tommy is. He said," Dok tau gok. Tiba2 tadok." God damn it. You cannot simply left a friend in that situation juz like that. *I did mention in Alor Star. Since next route is tricky juz make sure you dont loose the guy behind you.* I was worry like hell. The road was higly dangerous. Small mistakes could be fatal. I turned back to look him up. He was fine. turn out he was sleepy. Pitted for a drink mineral water kejap. Should have not worry that much. Tommy is tough guy.
As we climb up we overtook 2 riders. Hehehhee.....we are no more last.....hehhe. The first group already terlentang tidor dalam surau when we reached the peak. We had our subuh. It was 6am. I could not sleep so as Daha. Tommy snored 5seconds after after he rest his head. Tommy snored like hell. Got 2 more other snores but all tak mengaku snored. It was 620am i still could not sleep. It was cold too. I pakat with Daha to ride down. As we reach concencus to make break away down the hill, Jang said,"Dok soh turun. Tunggu ceroh. Bahaya." in very slow yet commanding voice. And we thought Jang was sleeping. Me and daha lay our body back on the surau floor feeling like 9yrs old being scolded by dad.
It was 715am. Everybody must have slept as 630 to 715 went unnotice. Few people came for subuh prayers. I barely notice their presence.
@Hentian Titiwangsa. 7am. It must me a memorable nite for the hantu jemalang and serata animals to witness 8 bikers doing moronic acts. Bising bangor pagi pagi bunyi muto. Tidor lintang pukang dalam surau kecik. Panjat grik 4-5pagi. Animals pong ngeleng kepala. Hantu pong kata these guys hantuer. Wilder than the wild hog bro.Morning came. The air was so fresh. It bring up the mood. I could not wait to get on the bike. It was so beautiful morning. Splendid weather. Temperature was cool and cozy. The rest of the route going to be easy. All the routes are our mainan jer. We dont see any problem. Me Daha set to make runaway down the hill. After few minute down Daha was no longer behind me. Damn Daha. Going down alone was no fun. After awhile Anjemang overtook me. I tried to follow him. Anjemang was too fast. Down the hill Bulu, Daha, Anjemang and myself rode toward Machang. The rest were still behind. We stop for breakfast. Its easy to find good breakfast in Kelantan. Juz stop at any stall by the road. Stall not restaurant. It was good nasi lemak. The rest catch up with us. We had breakfast together.
@machang.Everybody was still in high spirit. Chief took out the map planned for next route. Anjemang help in. Jang give some pointers. We calculated with our speed whe can finish on time easily. The rest juz follow. Next stop was the first pump station. Then masjid for nature's call. We planned lunch udang galah at rompin.
Somewhere near Ajil we pitted at petronas. Tommy, Jang and Bulu splitted. Hamka requested a longer pit. He seems exhausted. With sportbike and bag to galas it was superb effort by him. I took the oppurtunity to shower. We saw the trio passed us not knowing we pitted. They must had speed up to catch us. hehhee.
All have tired face. Anjemang muttered,"orang dok wak keje gining. bahaya. letih dok tido bawak muto". I agree with him. Then feeling of regret come to mind. Should have not join this. Got to ride on. Next stop Petronas bukit besi. Anjemang make break away. Myself second. It was all lonely ride to bukit besi. Daha, Jai and Hamka was behind.
We met few participants there.
@bukit besi. Notice stone temple pilot plush playing on the background.After Bukit besi Anjemang break again. Hamka too went fast. I stick with Daha, jai for a while. Then decided to push my RT. It was our route. From Bkt besi to jabor i went somewhere 160-180km/hr. The LPT from Jabor to Gambang I did 220-225km/hr all the time. Thats all my RT could offer. I waited for the two near bt.9 kuantan. Tommy called. the trio in Pekan. Having cendol and rojak *i think we are the only group who really take our own sweets time with makan and minum and tido and really enjoying ourself lah*. They thought we were in rompin savouring Udang already. Bulu said," aku ingat mung orang depan. Aku pulas multisrada aku sapa hangit enjin.''
I regroup with the two. Anjemang was no where to be found. I asked Daha to ride fast to Pekan. I know Jai will follow. Kuantan Pekan took us few minutes only as i went 140-160km/hr. Now, pekan to rompin. Our favourite route. lovely route. We were looking forward for this route. Drewling thinking about it. We catch up with the trio right after bandar Pekan. And after that....oh yezzzz zerrr......we juz layan corner like crazy. My rt sempat reach 195km.hr on straight line. Bulu lead in front. Awesome. Daha, Jai and me got to refuel in nenasi. During refueling I told Daha,"Dok rok sport konar". Referring to Jai whose behind me during cornering session. I said it out loud to make sure Jai can hear that.
@nenasiFrom nenasi to rompin there many more corners to negotiate. Jai juz stick behind me for all that corner. He juz make sure my rear mirror filled with his face. He juz so close i think his front wheel tried to kiss my rear. He make statement that sounded like," Aku buleh potong mung. Cuma aku takmboh jer.'' damn Jai.
All safely in our kedai favourite udang galah @3pm. Anjemang arrived 10 minutes later. He make a stop at his construction project near jabor. He even sit for a business meeting there. Gila fast anjemang. We ordered 2kg udang galah. Makan sungguh2. Mr Jim advised and warned us many2 times to avoid makan rice. Oh Yeah Jim, we juz makan rice big time. Everybody filled up to the throat. We know we broke Mr Jim's rule and we dont really care. We lapar and we longing for that udang galah dari semalam dah. The udang tasted better when Jang, Daha and Tommy pool money to settle the bill. Thank you the trio. Murah rezeki korang.
Its @4pm. With heavy foot and full blown stomach we get on our bike. Chief bulu gives stern warning,"Lepas ning dok soh laju ah. Dalang 120 jer. max 160". Anjemang tried to argue but were shot down by all the rest. I volunteer to lead up to Tangkak as I am superbly familiar with the route. *Jalan balik kampung rumah bini kat jasin*
Half way from rompin to muadzan Anjemang smoothly overtake and disappear in front. Jai still behind me. It was terrible ride from muadzam to Segamat. I felt so sleepy and tired and weak. It must be the rice. Definitely the rice. The rice had kick in. Mr Jim had laid his cursed. Never in my life I terlelap bawak moto. It happened to me. It was very scary. I juz snap for a moment or less than a moment. Traffic was heavy. Banyak giler kete and lori. It was the most non enjoyable moment on the bike. It was dreadful, worst, horryfying, exhausted, weak and tortures ride. The next stop suppose to be Tangkak. I could not take it anymore I pull over Petronas near simpang Segamat. Park my bike. Dragged my feet to shaded area near the building wall. Lean my back against the wall and rest my butt on the concrete. I dont even bother to take off my jacket. Too weak to do that. After 10 minute I managed to buy 100plus and livita. Share them with Jai. Jai look terrible too. He mumbled," Bodo lah aku join. Dohlah letih rugi 350. baik aku ride mana2 lagi enjoy.'' At the moment only one face come into my mind. Mr Jim face. Bloody Jim. I detest Jim. **** Jim. I was very weak. I felt my bone try to break loose. I would hop in anybody car and go back to kuantan. We were two beaten soldiers hopeless merempat tepi banggunan. This is the lowest pint of the endurance. So regretful, very weak, very disorientated, losing focus. Senang cakap me and Jai dah mental lah. We rested for 30minutes. We thot others already pass us long long time ago. It turn out Anjeman was waiting for us juz after the simpang. Surpringly others tak sampai sampai lagi. We wait again for 20minutes. Rupanya Jang punya moto takleh start masa kat Rompin. Chief bulu tolong tolak pun tak hidup. We all dah gone dah masa tu. hehehe...macamana lah gaya chief tolak Jang. Not a nice picturelah. So lama juga depa stuck. Luckily after a while boleh start plak. BMW got issue with switching left and right. I pun kena gak. Sib baik cepat2 tukar semalam.
At simpang segamat its already 6pm. Chief Bulu was still energetic rushing others,''ong the bike ong the bike.'' Damn Bulu gagoh lah. I was still weak. I said,"Kita nok kejor kul 10 ke dok? ke nok relaks2 jer? dang ke dok kita?" At that instant i dont really care whether we can make it or not. I juz need a good rest and **** the rest. Jang replied," Berat mung meka. Kita perabih ah. Kita dang lagi kul 10. Kita banyak lagi masa. mung cakap apa gitu. kita perabih ah. kita wak ah." Wow! Jang spirit is still up. My confident level is back up again. Now rasa bersemangat balik.
From simpang Segamat to Tangkak I lead. My route remember? Felt so syiookk layan short corner. Banyak kete depan bagi lampu pasal gua cilok tak ingat-ingat. Bulu's ducati never fail to tumpang cilok behind me. Damn bulu is fast. We sampai Tangkak 650 gitu. We jamak semayang and by 745 ready to kickoff again. This time I feel ok. I think the rice effect start to melt down. Jai took shower. He was almost flat. Tangkak KL we know we can do it in less than 2 hr.
@Tangkak.As we hit the highway strange thing happened. Nobody want to go in front! Nobody want to lead! Crusing speed was 120-130. So slow and so berhemah. Like convoy belia 4B. Nobody care to speed up. We were bunch of tired, slow, old fools and fatique bikers. Car flash us from behind many2 times asking to get a away from fast lane. Hey! that never happened before. Even Anjemang never bother to lead. We were just simply drying out. Its all cruising to the finish line. Daha ride with both hand off the handle. So tired even to pulas the minyak.
We make a pit near putrajaya exit to check our mileage. Acccording to our calculation Bulu's will short by 10km while mine 20km. The rest is safe. I am still perplexed till today why it turned out that way. Bulu and me make departure sooner than the rest to MEX highway. Its already 830pm. We know we have to makan angin to cukupkan km. We make few run around KL till it clocks 1635km.
When we reached KL tower I was behind Bulu. The corners upward the tower entrance was the last challenge. When I saw all the member safely there I juz couldnt wait to bring my bike to halt. Once my feet touch the KL tower ground, my face terus jadi happy. Senyum sampai telinga. I was the last person to arrive for the event. Everybody was happy. I saw Mr Jim and I am happy. No more sakit hati.
Certificate presentation. I was tired and kind blurr. I am a thinker. I was thinking," Hell should i smile? should i be happy? All the risk for this certificate? is it worth it?". But we did had memorable time together.I told Bulu,"Lega rasa semua selamat sapa. Bimbang nyalah aku cuma dok royak jer takut psycho." I told Azman *two wheel garage owner and sponsor*,"In the beginning it was great fun. In the middle it was ridicilous. In the end i still think its kind of stupid. Since we all safe and sound definitely we will cherish this achievement for the rest of our life".
During dinner Jang stressed again," Alhamdullillah sek sek kita selamat sapa belaka. Itulah perkara yang paling penting." Anjemang concur with Jang while the rest keep silence reminizing how dangerous our challenge actually was.
I like to thanks;
1. Mr Jim for organizing the event. I hate you the most when i was flat out at segamat. But I love you so much when i safely back in KL tower.
2. Chief Bulu for his strength and wisdom.
3. YB Jang for his maturity.
4. Anjemang for his speed and alertness.
5. Hamka for his laughter.
6. Jai for obedience.
7 Tommy for being a tough guy.
8. Daha for being the same wavelength with me.
I got no words to describe this beautiful moment. To all the guys. We ride. We stop. We sleep. We drink. We eat. We shit. We laugh. We smoke. We break. We speed up. We leaned. We care. We listen. We obey. We motivate. We smile. We respect. We compromised. WE SUCCEED.
More pictures on Tommy's http://riding-with-the-king.blogspot.com/
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pok har bergaya with r1200st. bmw tu...nothing less for pok har mung. The only guy who i know without bank sikris record. meaning this bugger does not owe anything to the bank. no card, no housing loan, no kete loan. all paid in cash. The best part, he own many2 properties, live in a bungalow, own multiple cars and etc lah. My idola lah u bro.
