DIY V-brake Roller Chain Tensioner Completed! - Update

Here is an update on my November 2009 post on "DIY V-brake Roller Chain Tensioner Completed!". Basically, I have added a "cage" to the roller to ensure that the chain stays on. What I discovered while riding was that there is an enormous amount of pressure exerted on the roller chain and the tensioner's roller.

Whenever the wheel comes in contact with the wooden pallets or other surfaces, the chain gets shaken intensively. This causes the chain to come off the roller and slacked, which is a VERY dangerous situation.

And so, as added security, I attached a soft tin metal plate to wrap around the chain to ensure that the chain will not derail when under heavy pressure. See the following photos of the DIY roller cage.









Up to now, I have had zero incident, where the chain would come off the roller. Lets keep it that way eh? LOL. While I was taking photos of the roller cage to update this blog, I noticed that the nut (or spacer nut?) holding the gear cog in place was completely loose! Unbelievable!





I unscrewed the nut (or is it a spacer) to take a closer look at the gear cog. Believe me, I was thankful that I noticed this now instead of later. A disaster waiting to happen. I am definitely adding this to my safety checklist before riding any bike!


I removed the chain roller so that I could get at the gear cog.


With the chain out of the way, I could tighten the nut holding the gear cog in place.


I took out my "Bike Hand" bicycle tool set to look for a tool to tighten the nut.


Heck... none of the tool could be used... LOL.


In the end, this 20 years old spanner did the job!

Is it Pedal Up or Bunny Hop?

I was back at learning the pedal up again last Sunday. This time, I added an additional pallet, bringing the stack to 4 wooden pallets. The previous Sunday, I was training on 3 wooden pallets.

This time I was pretty single-minded. I did nothing but the pedal up. At first, it was difficult to get on top of 4 pallets, but once I could get up the first time, it was easier after that.

Learning to "pedal up" onto 4 wooden pallets.

After a while, I realised that I could not pedal up and land on just the rear wheel. It felt more like a bunny hop... except that I "pedal up" into the bunny hop, instead of "rolling" into a bunny hop. Did I say that correctly? Hmm...

How the heck do those guys do it? Here is a video of Wong Xu to show exactly what I want to be able to do... LOL.



And here is a video from Trashzen:



While writing this post and watching the videos, I realised that I was going about it all wrong! I should not be learning to pedal up higher, but rather lower, to get the technique correct first. Yes... nail that rear wheel down first!

I think that's what I am going to do this coming weekend :)

Paper Pallets For BikeTrial Training?

Never thought I would be interested in pallets, let alone those that are made of paper, which I thought was pretty damn cool! I saw an advert on this blog that promoted this company called DeFrazer that made compress paper pallets. They have offices in Malaysia and Singapore.

DeFrazer manufactures the Green Pallets, which they described as:

"It is with economically light and high strength quality using recycle paper, glue, and staples (when it is necessary).In addition, the outer layer of GREEN PALLET is made of craft paper and test liner which prevents moisture penetration What is more, we can also include an element that made out GREEN PALLET water proofing. The weight of GREEN PALLET is at approximately 8 to 12 kg which means lighter than wooden (range from 20 to 40 kg), plastic (range from 12 to 45 kg), and metal (more than 50 kg) pallet."

On their web site, they even have a DIY section, where they showed how a Green Pallet can be assembled.

Now if only I can get my hands on a few of these and test them out with my bike. First thoughts are that the Green Pallet will not last. The fact that the bike will pedal scratch and abuse the pallet with constant hammering and knocking, will probably turn the pallet into paper pulps in a couple of weeks... LOL.

As of now, more than half of the wooden pallets I have, had been repaired numerous times. Some of them have been infected with fungus, slowly eating the wood inside out. With the constant rain, the deterioration just gets worse... :-(

I guess it's time to call up my friends in Kepong to reserve some really nice wooden pallets for me... LOL.