Its Been Too Long

I don't know what is happening in the Malaysian BikeTrial scene any more. It's been too long since I even got on a trial bike. My regular riding buddies are MIA and I can't even contact them.

But recently in June 2013, a couple of friends from Singapore decided to make a trip to Kuala Lumpur and asked me to see if I could take them to some riding spots. I took them to the Shah Alam lake garden and I think they had a great time!

I managed to take some really nice photos and videos! Or at least I think so... LOL. Anyway, you can check out the ride photos and vids here. But beware, some of the photos are kind or family oriented... :-)



Leave a comment if you like. If you wanna ride in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, let me know. I will do what I can to make sure you RIDE! LOL.

Cheers!

My Wife is Learning BikeTrials

Yesterday, my wife came out of the blue and said that she wanted to go cycling. I was like, "Er... is something wrong with you today?" Exercises of any sort has never been on her mind... no way! Even getting her to go for a walk around the neighborhood was almost impossible... LOL.

And today she wanted to go cycling! In the end I convinced her to try out BikeTrials, or at least just learn the track-stand... LOL. She told me that she wanted to change her lifestyle and start exercising, and lucky for me, she was convinced that cycling was the way to go... :-)

I told her that learning track-stand will be just as tiring as cycling a few laps around the neighborhood. And so, I took out my old cross-country bike. I was convinced that the center of gravity for the cross-country bike was low and thus, it would be easy for her to learn track-stand on that bike.



She tried to track-stand on the cross-country bike with much difficulty (incidently, it was the same bike I used, when I first started learning BikeTrials). The above video showed how she struggled to even balance for 5 seconds. Btw, if you are wondering why she was using slippers instead of a pair of shoes, lets just say that she was just plain stubborn... LOL.




After sweating and trying to track-stand on the cross-country bike for a while, I decided to let her try the 20" Monty 221PR. I figured, maybe, just maybe she will do better on the 20". If you watch the above video, you will see that she managed to track-stand for about 30 seconds! And this was just one of the many videos which I took that showed her balancing up to 30 seconds... :P

Damn... this was just too damn easy for her... and unfair!!! It took me quite a long time to learn to track-stand properly! And it took her just about an hour to pick up the skill? How come? Time to up the ante!!! Heheh!!

Hmm... lets see how she would do on my Echo Pure; very high center of gravity... will be tough... I thought. So, out came the 26" Echo Pure, and I got her to try it out. Honestly, I was quite blown away. The following video shows her track-stand on the 26" for more than 1 minute 30 seconds!!!!



How come? How come? What is the meaning of this??? I still have not figure it out yet... hmmm... maybe tomorrow, I will get her to try again. Beginner's luck lah... cheh!

A Family and A Fistful of Coupons

When I first started out blogging, I never knew that I would be writing so much topics on BikeTrials. Since I started the sports in early 2008, I have been spending a lot of time learning and acquiring BikeTrial skills.

So I guess it is high time I focus this blog on BikeTrials and move all non-BikeTrials related topics to another new blog... :-)

The new blog is called "A Family and A Fistful of Coupons". It will cover general topics relating to life, family and my personal experiences.

I hope it will do as well as this blog. Cheers.

7 Bikes in The House Now

Yup... there are seven bikes in my house now... LOL.

Back in 2005, we had one bike in the family and the bike belonged to my son, Joel. Then in 2007, I decided to go MTB cross-country cycling and bought myself an el cheapo Exitway. Then I got interested in BikeTrials and bought myself two trial bikes, a 26" Echo Pure and a second-hand 20" Monty 221PR, all for a couple of thousand dollars.



And then Joe had a "kiddy" bike that had outgrown his sons' use and he asked me if I wanted it. I said sure and with that bike I taught Joel, Jordan and Jodene how to ride bikes... LOL.

About a month back, I rented out my apartment to a very enterprising young man studying law. He had two bikes that were given to him by his other landlord. The bikes were VERY old and he heard me talking about cycling, thus he offered to give them to me.



The bikes were not in riding condition when I took them home. I managed to clean and get one of them working. I told Joel that he could have it, the Montana bike... LOL.

You should have seen how happy the nine year old were. He felt he was now riding an "adult" bike... LOL. Quickly, he called his younger brother, Jordan and told him that he could have the old bike... and likewise, Jordan told his younger sister, Jodene, that she can now have the "Uncle Joe" bike... LOL.

See how something that's old and considered junk by others, can have such a profound effect on other? (This gave me an idea for something I am currently planning to do but will only reveal later.)

The Lerun was in quite a sad shape. The rear tire had cracks and when I remove the tire, I noticed that the inner tube had melted and glued to the rim. I replaced the whole rear wheel with my old Exitway's spare wheel.

Then I tried to remove the front wheel from the Lerun. The quick release would not budge. I use some WD40 and still it would not budge. And so I decided to use the hammer on it and the following was the result.







I broke the quick release lever. Lucky for me, I still had the old Exitway's spare front wheel, but it was fitted with a disc brake. I tried installing the wheel on the Lerun anyway. But as you can see in the following photos... the disc was jammed up with the front absorbers!







I had some major problem removing the disc from the wheel. First the screw on the disc required a special screw-driver. Secondly, two screw's head were damaged and there were no way the screw driver's head could fit in. In the end, I took my old reliable hammer and whacked a flat head screw driver into the screw making a dent deep enough for me to unscrew the damn thing.



In the end, I managed to install the front wheel nicely onto the bike. Then I took it for a ride, that was when noticed that there was something wrong with the chain. Crap!



The chain was all badly rusted and could break anytime.



Since I did not have any spare chain at home, I decided to pack up the bike in my truck and took it to a bike shop in Bangi. Thirty minutes later, I was home with a pretty ride-able bike.





Finally, I got a bike for my wife to use. The hard part was to convince her to ride. After much much cajoling, yesterday evening, my wife and the whole family went cycling in our neighborhood.

Lets see if I can get everyone to go again tonight.

All-In-One Cycling Gear and Tool Basket

Ever since Chinese New Year in January this year, I have had my cycling gears and tool all packed up into a nice portable basket. During the New Year holidays, we had to go to Ipoh. 

I was not going to spend the holidays in Ipoh without my trial bike... and so I packed everything I needed, bike and all... LOL.

Coming back from Ipoh.

From spare tubes to alan keys, I packed everything I needed into a nice portable basket.

Except for the helmet, all the gears and tools packed up in a tidy and neat basket.

The basket was actually the container for the mandarin oranges bought from Giant supermarket.

Ever since that day, going cycling or riding trials had never been easier... :-)

Much Ado About Everything but BikeTrials

Since the start of the year, I had been extremely busy with getting the kids ready for their new school.

Joel and Jordan were now in Standard 3 and Standard 1 respectively. So, since 5th January, I had been sending them to school before 1:00pm and then picking them up after 7:00pm. By the time I got them home, it would be about 8:30pm. Everything had been so hectic and all of us needed to adapt to these new timing and schedules.


First day of school!


Jordan in his Standard 1 class.


Joel in his Standard 3 class.

Eel Fishing in Sekinchan

Two weeks ago, a friend suggested that we go eel fishing in Sekinchan near Kuala Selangor. None of us caught any eel but we managed to eat some nice shark porridge to console ourselves... LOL.

After lunch, I took Joel and Jordan for a walk on the jetty along the waterfront. I am not sure when, but Joel and Jordan seemed to be making a lot of these funny poses when being photographed... LOL.








Mantis prawns waiting to be processed.


Believe it or not, this truck is still working, transporting container loads of fresh seafood from the jetty.

The New Putrajaya Bike Park

Anyway, last Saturday, I managed to pay a visit to the Putrajaya Bike Park somewhere in Precinct 20. This was after dropping my kids off at a tuition center at around 10:00am. I managed to capture some photos of the place.


A section of the downhill trails.


The trails are being designed and worked on my a professional downhill trail designer.


The skate park is still under construction, but there were some kids already skating there.


Another view of the skate park.

Knowing that it would be a rush, I did not bring my bike. I did not stay long at the park as I was rushing for time to get back to pick up my kids from the tuition center, and then sending them to their school for some Chinese New Year holiday replacement classes. It was a very hectic Saturday... anyway, I told myself that I must go back and ride! LOL.

I managed to pick Joel and Jordan up by noon from the tuition center and then took them for lunch before sending them to their school. After that I had some major free time from 1:00pm till 6:30pm.

And so I contacted Syarul and asked him if he was interested to ride trials in the Tasik Shah Alam park around 1:30pm. He was on! But we met up at around 2:30pm... my bad, as traffic was terrible that day. To my surprise, Syarul had sold off his 20" Adamant. He is now planning on getting a 20" Monty Kamel... an expensive Kamel... LOL.

A New Pair of Venzo Gloves

After riding, just before picking up my kids from school, I decided to go to the bike shop in Sungay Way to get a new pair of gloves. I decided to try out some new gloves from Taiwan. The price tag of RM55 were pretty reasonable, unfortunately the quality were not... LOL.


The new Venzo gloves from Taiwan.

The very next day, I was so keen to try out the new pair of Venzo gloves. It was the first Sunday in 2009, that I could afford the time to practice trial at home in the evening. After about one and a half hours of practice, I could not continue any longer. Turned out that the new gloves gave me blisters, about 9 of them to be exact! Hurts like hell!

Gonna try them again soon... hopefully, I will fair better the next time around. If not, then I guess it is back to the old and torn pair of 661!


The trial sections that I setup at home to practice trials. You can see my kids are having a swell time drawing chalk graffitti on them.

I hope this coming Saturday morning, I will be able to ride in the Putrajaya Bike Park and then if all goes well (that is... no injuries... LOL), then in the evening, I can practice trials at home, just before the Chinese New Year holidays.