My New Old Bike and A New Milestone

Yup... went down to Singapore over the weekend and got me a second hand 20" trial bike! This time around, I bought a Monty 221. The bike is way less than perfect, with welds on previous cracks, one next to the bottom bracket and the other on the rear brake bracket... LOL. Well, the important thing is that I can ride it!

I have been practising on an Echo 26" these past months and have been improving. But progress is slow... LOL. Even my track-stand is less than satisfactory. So I figured that if I get a smaller bike, I will have a much better chance of learning new moves quicker... LOL.


The Monty 221.


My son, Jordan, standing next to the bike for comparison... :-)


The bike relative to the wooden pallets set up for training.

So far, these past two days, I have been having a lot of fun with the bike. Track-stand is so much easier. Pivoting and hopping are less tiring. Also, I have finally managed to achieve another milestone by performing my first pedal kick, and up to two kicks in succession. Still need a lot of work, but my damn right arm is killing me!! Have to force myself to rest and heal up for the next couple of days. What a drag!

I guess, now is the time to catch up on the latest season of Battlestar Galactica. The Cylons await!

The Mind is Never Far From BikeTrial!

Last Saturday, while on the way back from the KLIA airport after dropping off David and his family, I spotted some discarded wooden pallets in front of a row of shops opposite the Nilai bus station.

I stopped and checked out the wooden pallets, which was covered in sacks of rotten onions. There were quite a number of them, but only two were suitable and still intact. I felt a bit foolish, while my daughter was in the car waiting for me, to be digging through the piles of rotten onions... LOL. Lets just say that it was quite fragrant.


Additional 2 wooden pallets added to increase height.

Unfortunately, after setting up the pallets at home, I could not even try them out... :-( Earlier on, I had strained my right forearm practicing trials. So much so that I could not even lift or grip anything... sigh! First the left arm... now the right arm!

Anyway, it was really worth it. Those wooden pallets were hard to come by. It would be a matter of time before I built a complete biketrial section in my house... LOL

Hurray!!! Fixed My Bike's Headset

I first had problems with my bike's star nut in end July and I had been trying to get it fix for a while without any success.

I had also gone to the BikePro bike shop in Taman Megah and they could not help me out either. After talking to fellow biketrial enthusiast about my problem, Sean suggested that I try this old bike shop in Sri Damansara.

The very next day, I headed to the Sri Damansara light industrial area. The name of the bicycle shop is ABC. Can't remember what the initials stand for.

There is this really old guy there that Sean referred to as "uncle". When I asked him if he had the small size star nut that fit my fork, he replied, "Anything can be fitted and customised." I had to wait for 45 minutes for my turn, as he was fitting someone elses bike.

After that, true to his words, he managed to custom fit the "oversize" size star nut into my fork in less than 10 minutes.


The custom fitted star nut. From the photo you can see that only the bottom star was inserted into the fork.

From the photo, you can see that he fitted the bottom "star" into the fork and left the top "star" exposed. He said that it was enough to hold the fork up. I tried explaining that the riding style for biketrial was heavy on the stem, headset and fork. The "uncle" was adamant that it would be able to stand whatever abuse I can dish out.

I decided not to argue and left it at that. Sigh. We will see... LOL.

Not Oversize? Standard size! Or not!

So much trouble just to replace a star nut... I am learning... I am learning... LOL.


The head lock for downhill bikes.

Yesterday, I took the above head lock back to Yong's bike shop and exchanged for a cheap chain tool and a proper star nut.


The star nut and the chain tool, which I immediately used to turn some extra chain links into a key chain decoration thingy... LOL...

Unfortunately, when I went back and try to fix the headset, the star nut did not fit either. Turns out the star nut was "oversize".


The RM5.00 star nut from Yong.

Today, I took the nut back to Yong. He asked me to get the normal size star nut, but he did not have any in stock. So I went to the Taman Megah/SS2 KSH bike shop and asked if they had any. The vendor managed to find a normal size star nut but without any screw or cap, still he charged RM5.00. Hmmm... I knew things were always more expensive at KSH but I was desperate, so I bought it.

When I reached home, I tried to fit the new "normal" size star nut to my bike. The bloody nut was still a tad bigger than the hole in the fork! I decided to try force it in anyway. So, I used a hammer and a screwdriver and tried forcing it in. Next thing I knew, the "star" broke into pieces. Goodbye RM5.00.


On the left is the broken "normal" size star nut that I bought from KSH today. The original star nut is on the right.

So I am back to square one! Guess I have to shop around again. Sigh!