Broke a Star Nut. Got a Head Lock. Back to square one?

Yesterday, while practicing, I broke the star nut in the Echo Pure headset. After that, the ball bearings at the fork became slightly loose and a tad wobbly. I panicked for a moment as I did not know what had happened... LOL. I removed the star nut and tightened the stem to the fork so that I could continue practicing.


The broken star nut. After that, I just tightened the stem to the fork so I could continue riding.

Kiasu Head Lock!

Today, I bought a head lock (meant for downhill bikes) to replace the star nut based on the recommendation of Yong of Sungai Way bike shop. Of course, being real kiasu I bought it... LOL. Turns out the head lock could not fit the bottom hole on my bike's fork.



Photo of the head lock meant for downhill bikes.

I guess I have to return the head lock to Yong tomorrow and get the RM5 star nut. In any case, I was practicing without the star nut holding the fork. I figured that the stem's screws should be able to hold it for a while, at least until I get install the new star nut tomorrow.

Rising to the Challenge

Ever since I started practicing on the wooden pallets, I have been challenging myself by making the sections more and more difficult. I tried arranging the wooden pallets in different configurations and setups. Each time, the setup is meant for me to repetitively learn certain techniques (or at least I think so... as there is no one to confer techniques with... LOL).



The different configurations and setups of the wooden pallets.

Shoot and Analyze

As there were no one to see and tell me what I was doing right or wrong, I resorted to taking some videos to see how I rode. I took the following two videos to analyze how I was getting on the platform.


Brake released, front wheel straight, body weight shifted to the front. Achieve perfect balance, then slight pedal kick to get up the platform.


In this video, there are a few false attempts to get up the platform, as I could not get the perfect balance prior to the pedal kick.

In the video, you could see that I used bricks to further increase the height. I need to get more of the wooden pallets. Anyone know where I can grab some?

So much more to learn!!!