Putrajaya BikeTrials and Taxi Drivers

Yesterday, I had a great time riding in Putrajaya Bike Park with Wong Xu. It was a nice and cool afternoon with sporadic rain showers. We started at about 3:30pm and ended at about 6:00pm. Here are some photos and video of that afternoon.



Wong Xu showing me how to pedal hop to drop-off.


Wong Xu showing me how to dip and land on the front wheel from a rear wheel hop.


Wong Xu showing me a side hop.

We left at 6:30 pm to meet a friend of Wong Xu, also from China, who was interested in taking a look at my Monty 221PR and was thinking about buying a 20" trial bike. We waited at in Cyberia Apartments taxi stand in Cyberjaya for his friend to arrive.

Wong Xu told me that by end of February in 2010, there will be around 10 BikeTrial riders from China, whom will be studying here in Kuala Lumpur. Fun times ahead... LOL.

When Wong's friend arrived, I unloaded our bikes for him to try. He had been riding for more than 5 years in China. Since coming to Malaysia, he had been out of touch and I could see that he
knows the skills but lack the "sharpness" of daily riding.


Wong Xu's friend from China (I just could not pronounce or recall his name... LOL.)

While Wong Xu and his friends were trying out the trial bikes, the taxi drivers from the nearby Taxi stand were quite shocked and impressed. A couple of them could not resist and decided to try out the trial bikes for themselves.


The taxi drivers hanging out at their stand waiting for their fares.


One of the Taxi driver decided to try out the trial bike.


The taxi driver was laughing and surprised that he could not track-stand.


Another Taxi driver decided to give it a go on the trial bike.

The Taxi drivers had fun. We had fun. So all in all, it was a good day for trials... :-)

BikeTrials at Putrajaya Bike Park

Last Saturday, I went riding trials in the Putrajaya Bike Park with Wong Xu of China. He had only been in Malaysia for about a month. He found my phone number from the BikeTrial Malaysia website and called 2 weekends before. I could only arrange for us to ride last Saturday.

We met up at the Cyberia Condos next to MMU and headed to the Putrajaya Bike Park. He told me that he was expecting to find a lot of BikeTrial riders in Malaysia. He was quite surprised when I told him that I know of less than 10 riders. Anyway, Wong Xu had been riding for more than 5 years in China. So, I took this opportunity to ask him to coach me on some of the skills.

Rulong Trial Bike. Made in China. Wong Xu has modified his hydraulic brakes to use water instead of hydraulic fluid. Cool!

The Pedal Up

I have been trying to get this right for the longest time, stacking up the wooden pallets, viewing all the related videos, and still not getting anywhere. And so I decided to put off learning and try later. But now I have Wong Xu to explain and show me, I am stoked again... Hahahah.

Wong Xu doing the pedal up as slow as he can to show me the technique.


Here in this video, Wong Xu explained to me how and where my foot should be placed.

The Pedal Hop

I had never really taken this technique seriously as I never had any problem learning it. That is, until riding on undulating or rocky sections... LOL. All this while, I had been learning and practicing on flat and level ground. Now I have a new respect for it!


Wong Xu showing me how I should practice the pedal hop. He said that this would be a very useful technique, especially when used in combination with other techniques. Useful for riding many different types of terrain, especially rocky sections.

Gapping on Rear Wheel

I have been practicing minor "gapping" on stacks of wooden pallets. But my goal was never to see how far I could gap. I was still trying to get comfortable with balancing on the rear wheel and pedal kicking across pallets. Until Wong Xu told me, I had not realised that for long distance gap, you do not actually use the pedal drive train to gain the distance, but rather just simply compressing the rear tire just as you make the jump. I gotta keep that in mind when I decide to try it... LOL.


Wong Xu demonstrating the long distance gapping technique.

All said and done, since that day, I simply did not have the time to ride. This whole week had been super rushed and busy. Anyway, Wong Xu called me up today and asked if we would be going riding this Saturday. I have decided to take him to Bukit Komanwel to ride some rocks... :-)



If anyone of you are interested, please let me know.

Btw, the Putrajaya Bike Park is still under construction. They are still working on the dirt jumps and ramps overlooking the skate park area. We were riding at the skate park area. Quite a nice place to practice.

Man... I Sucked In Dirt Jumping!

More than two weekends ago, I went riding in the Putrajaya Bike park trying to learn dirt jumping on my hardtail. I could never make it over the several "pee wee" table-tops to the transitions smoothly, always getting my rear wheel short.

Needless to say, after a couple of runs, I crashed on the landing. "Carpet burned" my right elbow and bruised the right hip and thigh. Thanks to the knee and shin guard, no hurt there. Got right up and went at it again... and still sucked. LOL.

After a few more runs, we (I was there with Sean, Ian and Paul) met the seventeen years old Aaron. He is a whizz kid that would have made a fantastic BikeTrial rider, but instead he is into gravity and rides a mean Transition! I asked him to teach me how to dirt jump.... LOL.

Basically, he told us that the section we were on, were not meant for dirt jumps... LOL. We were supposed to "compress" (the rear wheel) on the exit transition to gain speed. Hahaha... all this while, we got it wrong.

Anyway, we tried "compressing" and it was great! I really gained speed on the exit transition. I could not resist trying to jump over the small table-top after gaining all that speed... LOL. Exhilarating! I could almost make it across the table-top smoothly... LOL. Ian was magnificent on a couple of runs!


Video showing Sean and Ian on one of their runs.


Video of Ian and Sean after their run... LOL.

After a couple more runs, I was completely wasted and decided to make one more "last" run. You know what, something always happens on the "last" run! The run was good until the last corner and jump. I could not exit smoothly from the cornering just missing the oil palm tree and took off badly, and that obviously screwed up my landing. And so... I landed on my right side again and this time, "carpet bombed" my elbow and further bruised my hip and thigh. OUCH!!! Lets put it this way, I had to limp off... phew! But I consider that... lucky! Could have been worse... LOL.

After I got back home, man... the hurting started... LOL. The whole body was aching all over. I told myself... at 45 years old, I don't think I can keep doing this... LOL. And my biggest worry at that time was, "Shit, I will not be able to practice trials with all this injuries for at least 2 weeks!!! Damn!"

That was when I decided that I will stop all these other distractions and concentrate solely on just BikeTrial!!! Maybe a cross-country hash once in a while... LOL!

Anyway, it has been two weeks now and I am back on biketrials. I have been riding every single night since Friday. BikeTrial is just so much fun!

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.