Sold My Echo Pure

Recently, just after the Chinese New Year holiday, I sold my 26" Echo Pure. And now I do not have a trial bike... :-(

I had been trying to sell my ECHO Pure for a while now. I had advertised on several online classifieds and received many enquiries. More often than not, I replied too late as I did not check my email (that I used for classifieds) regularly.

Earlier, I had upgraded the rear wheel brakes to the Magura HS33 and a really nice rear Panaracer tire. The bike felt really good and nice to ride.


The Echo Pure ready to be shipped to its new owner via Kangaroo Courier.


The original Echo handle bar and rear brakes set were also shipped with the bike.

So why did I want to sell the 26"?

The main reason, I sold the 26" was that I wanted to get a 20". Maybe it was psychological, but somehow I felt that with the 20", I could learn faster and ride better. One thing for sure was that I wanted a smaller and lighter bike.

And so, now I am looking for a 20". I have not decided whether I would go for a Monty yet, but it seems the right choice, albeit the hefty price tag.

Bike Trial Restart on the 26" Echo

For more than two months after I sold my 20" Monty, I have not been riding. Last weekend, I managed to get back to trials again on my 26" Echo. It was extremely tiring and I felt really clumsy handling the 26". All this while, I have been training and riding the 20".

In fact, I was trying to sell my Echo 26" for a while now, thinking that I could then focused on riding the 20" Monty. After advertising on all the online classifieds, I received a couple of enquiries, but no takers. Part of the reason was that I did not budge on the price... LOL.

In the end, I decided to let fate choose for me... LOL. That is to let the next person who wanted to buy a second hand trial bike choose which one he wanted, the 20" or the 26". And I will just concentrate on riding whichever bike is left behind. Turns out that the next person that wanted a trial bike, wanted a 24"... LOL...

After a couple of emails, Daniel decided to go for the 20" Monty. I was sad to see the bike go, but it was necessary as it was the only way for me to focus.

And so, last Saturday I was back on trials, this time 100% on the 26" Echo. I decided to make a movie of my ride to motivate me... LOL. I spend two and a half hours shooting 30 minutes of video footage, which I later edited into a 2 minutes video... LOL. The whole process was a great workout :-)



After a while into riding I was starting to get a proper feel of the 26" bike. It was slightly heavier than the 20". The feel and size of the wheels made the ride surprising easy as I could easily roll over gaps... LOL.

Last night, I was back on the 26" again. Essentially, I had to almost relearn all the techniques again... re-adjusting and compensating for the differences. I should be able to get use to it in no time... Heheh.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. My whole body is still aching from the rides, especially my shoulders and arms.

Feels great to be back on trials!

Installing a Rear Brake Booster on my Echo Pure

One of the first things I learned when I started BikeTrials was that braking was ultra important, especially the rear brakes. When I first bought the 26" Echo Pure trial bike, I discovered that when I used the rear brakes, the braking does not feel solid and tend to slip.

Then I tried grinding the rims, but still on more than a few occasions I fell over backwards a couple of times when I tried the rear wheel stand or pedal hops.

The reason the braking was not good was that the "seat stays" of the frame, where the brakes mounting were located (see bike parts illustration), will flex and expand each time the rim brakes were used. When the "seat stays" flex, the brakes will loose grip.

Since then I had been on a look out for a brake booster for my rear rim brakes. I tried looking in KL and Singapore and could not find any. Actually, I found some BMX brake boosters, but the fitting and screw holes did not fit. Some of my friends in Singapore told me that I could make my own. For a while, together with Sean, we were going to see if we could get some workshop to help fashion a brake booster of our own design... LOL

Anyway, when I rode with Wong Xu for the first time a couple of months back, I told him about my braking problem. Wong Xu told me that he had an old Echo Brake Booster he did not use any more and that I could have it. I offered to pay him for it but he insisted that I kept it... LOL.


The Echo brake booster.

Happily, I went home and tried installing the brake booster immediately... BUT... I found that I could not install the booster due to the rim brake bracket mounting getting in the way. Disappointed, I told Wong Xu the problem the next time we rode together.

Then he taught me a neat trick. He told me to get some old chain and dismantled them, then keep the chain rollers. The idea was to use the "rollers" as spacers so that the brake booster can be mounted above the bracket. Cool!


This photo shows the chain rollers that I needed.

The next challenge was to find the screws long enough and will fit exactly to hold everything together. The following photos shows the brake boosters installed on my bike.


Placing two rollers on each side, I managed to install the brake booster above the rim brakes mounting bracket. All in all, I used 4 chain rollers to do the job :-)


The brake booster after installation.


View of the brake booster from the top. This was the best I could do to align it properly.

After installing the brake booster, my Echo Pure felt and rode differently! I could feel the extra rigidness in the braking. Immediately, I felt more confident in the braking and have not look back since... LOL.

Echo 2009 Trial Bikes

You have just got to check out Echo Bikes' newly updated bikes! For one thing, they have consolidated all their trial bikes into the Echo Bikes' website.

Adamant, Zoo, Gu and Echo trial bikes are all under one site! Another big surprise (at least for me), was the release of the 24" Urban Street trial bikes!


Echo Urban Street 24" trial bike.


Adamant Urban Street 24" trial bike (grey).


Adamant Urban Street 24" trial bike (black).

Dun they just look beautiful? Begging to be ridden? Personally, I have not tried a 24" before. I am so damn curious how it would ride like.

For the Adamant and Echo Urban Street trial bikes, except for the frames, all other parts are combination of Echo SL and TR series parts and components. Anyway, the SL Series are supposedly to be made of higher grade materials and lighter, which translate to more expensive... LOL.

So far, I could not find any videos on the 24" bikes. I guess they are still new to the market. Let me know if you come across any. Appreciate it.

For more information:

• Echo Bikes