My New Echo Pure Trial Bike

Last night, Hor Fun, Peng and Spencer, all trial riders from Singapore, paid a visit to me before heading into KL. They would be leaving for Singapore after paying a visit to KLCC. They stopped by my place in Bandar Bukit Mahkota and we had supper. Mostly we talked about the trial biking communities, techniques and bike tuning.

They shared their experiences, tips and tricks on how I can better maintain my bikes, and how to improve my basic skills.

They helped me diagnosed a problem I had with the crank. Turns out that the pedals were not tightened properly.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my new bike.








This afternoon, I managed to tightened the pedal with a brand new pair of size 15 spanner. Right after that, I decided to test out the pedals to ensure that there were no more irritating knocking sound coming from it.

With my slippers on, I tried to hop on the rear wheel and slipped. The following are the graphic results of my poor judgment and lack of common sense! Now I will not be able to wear my shoes and thus have wait for the injury to heal before I can start full training again. What a drag!





I just hope that my Wolverine-type quick healing factor will get me over this in a couple of days... LOL.

Hurray!

I managed to hop 4 times on the rear wheel! And that is a huge milestone for me. Now different parts of my body are aching. So that's good. It means I am getting somewhere... :-)

I shall soon break that record and progress to at least 10 hops... HAHAHA!

New Milestones in Bike Trials

Today is the day I actually got to try out a real trial bike! A beautiful Adamant 20" with Magura brakes and Monty parts. That thing weighs like... nothing!


Checking out the bike up close and personal... :-)


The bike makes me look good... :-)

Today is also the day I actually got to meet up with Syarul Nizam, a Malaysian trial biker and the owner of the above bike, whom have competed in the Asian Pacific Bike Trials held in Singapore in 2006. He has a lot to share with us trial noobs... :)

Syarul is a good friend of Walton of BikeTrial Asia Union/BikeTrial Singapore Union and basically Walton passed my contact to Syarul and here we are... LOL.


Syarul showing me how to do a rear wheel hop... :-)


Me trying out a trial bike for the first time. I cannot describe the feeling... heheh. And let me tell you, it does make a huge difference on a trial bike! LOL.

Syarul shared some valuable advise. He says that if anyone is serious about learning trial and getting into trial competitively, it is important to focus on getting each basic skill (trackstand, pivoting and hopping) totally dialed. And that one should spend at least an hour on training everyday. The idea is to focus on one skill at a time until each is mastered.

While Syarul and I were chatting, three guys rode by on their MTB. Aaron, Mohinder and Eddie are friends of Syarul. According to Syarul, Aaron is able to bunny hop over a motorbike on his mtb... cool!


Aaron trying out a trial bile for the first time too. He was freeriding on this Kona and has been training trial with Jovinder and Addie as well. Future trial riders for sure!

Thus, today is also the day I can see the future of bike trials in Malaysia. It would be great to have mountain bike trial bikers from all over Malaysia congregate in one place just so everyone can share and celebrate this sport which should be more well known in Malaysia.

Who knows, seatless bikes could be the norm in the months to come... LOL!