BikeTrials History in Bukit Komanwel Park?

Today, 4 Malaysians (Syarul, Helmi, Wyatt and me) got together to share, learn and ride trials. This has got to be the largest gathering of Malaysian BikeTrials riders (with three trial bikes - Echo Pure, Neonbike and Adamant) in the history of Malaysia ever!!! LOL.

This is indeed a great start to BikeTrial in Malaysia. Lets hope the community will grow from 4 to the hundreds!!!!

Wyatt currently rides a brand new Da Bomb's Tora Bora. Now he wants to sell the XC bike to buy a second-hand trial bike... LOL. He is really stoked and is determined to focus all his energy on learning BikeTrials... :-)

Helmi is the proud owner of the Adamant, which he bought from Syarul a few months back. He is a quick learner. From what I heard from Syarul, Helmi could climb steps almost immediately... LOL.

Syarul explaining to Wyatt about the finer points of track-stand on his Neonbike.

Wyatt getting ready to take a ride on a trial bike for the first time ever.

Wyatt took the Neonbike for a spin. He tried the hydraulic brakes and was shocked at how sticky the brake was... LOL.

We are planning to ride again next Saturday, but yet to decide on the location. Will update later... :-)

Of Stems and Derailleur Hanger

When Sean and I first bought our Echo Pure trial bikes back in Mar 2008, the stems on the bikes were only temporary ones on loan to us, as ours had not arrived yet.

A couple of months later, the new stems arrived in Singapore but we could not picked them up. When Syarul was in Singapore last December for the 4th round of the Singapore National BikeTrial competition, he helped to pick them up for us; but he never had the chance to pass them over to us until that day when I was riding with him in Bukit Komanwel... LOL.

All this while, I had been training on the 20" and have not been riding the Echo. The last time I rode the 26", I broke the derailleur's hanger. I tried to hop onto a platform but slipped on the rear wheel and landed on the derailleur. Paid RM35 to get a new hanger... felt like I was ripped off... cause when I first bought the el cheapo Shimano derailleur (with the hanger), it only cost me about RM45. LOL...


The broken derailleur hanger.


The new hanger after installation.

Anyway, the stems were of different length. All this while I had been using the long 150mm stem, so I decided to try the 130mm stem (Sean's). It felt really uncomfortable and it required more strength to lift the front wheel. Pivoting backward required more effort but pivoting forward was much more easier.

The Bazooka 150mm stem on loan to me by Peng and the new 130mm for Sean.

The long awaited new 150mm Echo stem.

After changing back to the 150mm stem, it came across to me that maybe the handlebar will make a big difference in the overall feel and control of the bike. The Echo's handlebar had no "riser" and was pretty much "flat". I remembered riding a friend's 26" Monty 231 Kamel 08 model, the bike felt extremely easy to handle and control.... almost as easy as the current Monty 20" which I am riding now.

The Echo handlebar is really flat with the 150mm stem.

The older model of the Monty riser handlebar on my 20".

Hmmm... would a riser handlebar affect the handling of the bike that much? I simply have to find out! I guess I am still trying to find the perfect bike setup that's suitable for my size and weight on the Echo. When I have time, I will probably remove the Monty riser handlebar from my 20" and try it on the Echo... LOL

BikeTrial at Bukit Komanwel Park

Last Saturday, I was riding in Bukit Komanwel Park with Syarul. It was a fantastically hot day at about 2pm, but at 4pm it was raining cats and dogs!!! We had to take shelter at the food stalls.

We had never been there before. We found some fantastic steps and ledges to try out. The sun was beating hot and we could not ride long. We found a fantastic place that any biketrial rider could never ever resist!!!













Unfortunately, both our biketrial skills were not good enough to ride those boulders to kingdom come... LOL. At best, I could only get up onto two boulders... after that I chickened out... LOL. We could only admire them and one thing for sure was that, we were more motivated than ever to hone and better our skills!!!!! I will bet anything that our friends from Singapore will just go nuts over this!

Personally, I have set a target for myself, to be able to ride those boulders by year end. I have already identified some of the skills that I will need to learn and control before being able to enjoy riding those boulders... LOL. I will write about these required skills in another post... LOL.





Around 4pm, Syarul and I had to get shelter at the food stalls. The rain were so heavy that we could not even sit down at the table. The high wind and rain were pelting the canopy to high heaven.

The stalls' cooks, waiters and even some of the customers were pretty curious about our bikes. All was not lost hiding from the rain, we managed to educate a few people on the finer points of biketrial... LOL.

Just another day in biketrials Malaysia... :-)