Extremetrailriders Adventures!

Introducing: My 2007 Machines!!!

The 100cc YAMAHA Crypton Engine Bike. Only 57 kilos!

Next is the 110cc AURA KAWASAKI Street Legal all for just 71 kilos and probably far less next time around!

A clone is the YAMAHA Crypton 100cc. This time, it's 61kg.

Find your way to Boso Boso and San Isero and you will see this arch.
Enjoy.

This the arch welcoming you to Barangay Calumay

This is the Basketball court of San Isero, take the backroad to the right.

Take the right fork to the littly nipa hut at the top of the hill.

See the little Nipa Hut at the middle left of the photo? That’s the beginning of the new trail.

From the farmer’s hut you can see a picnic hut at the top of the tallest hill. The trail is well marked.

This is the view of Sta Ines from the picnic hut.

This is what the entrance to the new trail from San Yser looks like to Sta Ines.

The new trail is newly cleared and easy to follow.

This is actually a steep portion and the ground is still loose.

We got down to Sta Ines and my finger is pointing at the hut where we came from less than an hour ago.

The trail is still technical for inexperienced riders, from the hut it’s about 95% downhill and engine off using your clutch as brake and your front brake on manual ABS is an important skill to have doing this trail.

Trail Riding is a great way to see the natural beauty of the Philippines. Whether it’s going up the crater lake of what used to be Mt. Pinatubo or rolling through forest trails in Negros Oriental, trail bikes are a neat way to get around. With all the negative publicity the Philippines has been getting lately, somehow just witnessing the raw, majestic beauty of our countryside can go a long way to getting the patriotic juices flowing once more.

Trail bikes, like ice cream, though, come in many flavors. Sadly, like ice cream, the better tasting ones generally cost more. Of course, there are still quite a lot of fun bikes available that are reasonably priced and can more or less do the job. More often than not, though, they come with mediocre suspension systems, a hefty weight penalty and 70s-technology engine. If one is really unlucky, the engine would be a two-stroke! The Holy Grail of trail riders – a reasonably priced, light, properly-suspended, hopefully-modern-four-stroked-engined, trail bike – seems to be out of the reach of the average Filipino. If truth be known, the average Filipino rider would also want the same bike to be used for everyday commuting. The Holy Grail is now hopelessly out of reach….. or is it?

Enter Mr. Ed Delgado: CEO, adventurer, mad scientist. He goes by the pseudonym ‘Mr. Sprocket’, mainly because he loves the nuances of matching gear ratios vs. horsepower rating vs. RPM output, etc. Ed’s trail bike of choice is the KTM 525 EXC tailor fitted to his size, riding style and intended use. It is a nearly perfect, handsome trail bike. It is also rather expensive, to put it mildly. “The KTM is a great machine but it’s not for everyone.” he says, “These are competition machines and demand a great deal of respect from the ones riding it”.

More than the challenge and the technical aspect of trail bikes and trail riding, Ed got into motorcycle riding for the fun of it. Fun means having a bunch of guys (or gals) go out to the trails on a weekend, stopping to gaze at the scenery and plunking down somewhere in the middle of nowhere to eat packed lunch and have a good laugh. It seemed downright unfair that only people who could afford KTMs or WRs or CRFs be included in the club. The challenge of creating the ‘Everyman’s Trailbike’ brought out the mad scientist in Mr. Sprocket and the concept of the TRAIL RAIDER came into being.

The unit on the right is a stock raider with a trail bike setup handle bar. The Raider on the left is a Trail Raider.

In the succeeding issues, we will go into concepts and technical development of the TRAIL RAIDER. We shall also include photos and measurements and riding analyses to give the reader a better understanding of the project and come face to face with a critical decision: do I or do I not build one myself? Stay tuned.

See the mods done on trail raider frame above.
Compare this with the stock frame below.

10 intrepid KTM guys did this ride up Puning Hot Springs and it was a
real workout with some very dangerous situations.

Riders: Wildman, Max Kienle, Franco Delgado, Toti Alberto, Miguel
Tambunting, Joey Almeda, Anton Huang, Ed Delgado, Peter and Edirey Reyes

Bikes were 1xDucati 1000 Multi-Strada the rest, KTM's, 1x990 Adventure,
3x950 Adventure, 8x525EXC's and 2x450EXC's. Why more bikes than riders?
Well 5 of the riders rode up with the bigger bikes on the NLEX and
placed their trail bike on trailers The others took our own puny ET2
525's and 450's instead.

The route up the river of Puning Hot Springs is truly spectacular!
Unfortunately, there where 2 bus loads of St Paul's College girls hiking
along the way and because we where so busy not trying to get the pretty
girls wet, many of us got stuck a few times in the loose river sand.

Joey burned out his clutch, Anton's electrical system shorted, and many
just collapsed with fatigue pulling bikes out of the sucking, clinging
plastic sand!

8 of us decided to cut the trip short for fear of the incipient rain and
further aggravation. The return was done at speed with no concern of
wetting anyone and what took over an hour to do took 10 minutes on the
return.

Max, Wildman, Miguel and Toti decided to try and make it to the Hot
Springs. Well, 10 minutes into their next segment, it started to rain
hard so they decided to turn back. Toti and Miguel got back without any
problem but Max decided to momentarily stop and put his camera in his
bag. In less than a minute a 2 ft. "tsunami" swept through him and he
drowned his bike. It took the combined help of Wildman and a lot of
adrenalin to drag the bike up to higher ground. It was really funny
hearing about how our very own, Zaire born and very Swiss, Max, (in
extreme agitation, fearing for his bike and his life!) was heard by
Wildman to be cursing in absolutely perfect and fluent Pilipino!

Toti and Miguel stopped at a safe place and in horror saw a wall of
water rush down the river bed with no site of Max or Wildman. At this
point the big hero of the day, Miguel called in the rest of the cavalry
and together with Peter and Edirey they waded back towards where they
last saw Max and Wildman. The water level went from ankle height to
waist level in just a few minutes from the time the rains started. It
really went up very fast.

The flood waters receded just as quickly, since after only an hour's
delay, the rest of the group where able to get to our lunch rendezvous,
C's Restaurant just outside the fence of Clark between the Friendship
Gate and the Main Entrance. We had a very sumptuous, gourmet Italian
lunch and the noise level and laughter in the restaurant was absolutely
deafening!

We then rode back to Manila. Overall even if we did not reach the
objective, it was a great ride and the views where just out of this
world!

Now that you have your Dual Purpose Bike, where can you go to truly try out the capabilities of your bike. (I’ll bet it’s gonna be more capable than you are!)

How does this grab you…… A weekend morning at 630AM culminating in a sumptuous Italian Lunch at “C”s restaurant along the perimeter fence of Clark Air Base between Friendship Gate and MacArthur Hwy.

And you’re only getting to the play ground.

Let’s assume you all know how to get to the North Luzon Expressway and make it to the Angeles Exit. Follow the signs to Clark and enter the main gate in Angeles City.

Pls don’t forget to fill up with gas at the gas station a kilometer or two from the gate.

Ask directions and proceed to the Sapang Bato Clark Gate. (Lat 15 o 10’ 22.6” Lon 120o 31’ 17.5”)

At the gate ask directions and follow the road to the Sapang Bato poblacion. Continue on the road and continue to Sitio Target (Lat N 15 o 09’ 58.8” Lon 120 o 29’ 23.1”)

Check-in at the Sitio Hall, register your names and contribute P100 per head. This will help them maintain the route. If you can follow directions and trace your way back then you don’t need a guide. If you have GPS, then it’s a cinch to get back.

Ask directions on how to get to the river and the way to “Puning Hot Springs” (Lat 15 o 09’ 36” Lon 120 o 26’ 33.1”)

Be sure every one in your group has at least 1.5Liters of water and some snacks. Proceed to the river and follow the 4x4 tracks. There’s a steep loose rock “road” that leads to the river bed.

Pls note carefully how it looks from the river, it’s easy to miss this junction on the return trip. If you have a compass you’ll be going more or less “due West” the whole way from Sapang Bato to Puning Hot Springs.

The beginning is very sandy

and you will find your rear end swishing around.

Be careful, go at the speed you can handle. When you are actually on the live river the sand gets hard pack

and you will be going through mini Grand Canyons that is just spectacular!

Just keep following the river until you get to the Puning Hot Springs. Here you can rest, eats snacks, bathe in hot, tepid or cold water.

The place is under development and there are two Aetas who are manning it, they are great guys and very knowledgeable about the area.

When you leave you may want to tip them P100 each to keep up the good work and welcome us riders.

The return to Sitio Target can now be done at the speeds you can handle, do your jumps, have fun etc.

Lunch could be in any of the Clark Restaurants or in my favorite Italian Restaurant in Angeles “C” . It’s on the road right beside the perimeter fence of Clark. Exit from the Friendship Gate and turn left towards MacArthur Hwy.

Pls email your comments to mrsprocket@extremetrailriders.com