Climb On! Mountain Bike Speed Trial

Helped the DirT folks at the Climb On event last weekend. DirTraction organised a mountain bike speed trials competition which saw a group of about 20 riders going back to their biketrial roots to complete the mini-makeshift Northshore-style obstacle course without putting both legs on the ground!

On Sat, the winners of the Mens Open and Junior categories were determined. Afraid of embarrassing myself with a face plant in front of all the riders, I decided to leave it to Sunday to test out the obstacles when no one was around.

Sun was a free-for-all trial day, and I trusted BlueBones 'nuff to take a risk on those skinnies! After several attempts, managed to clear the course! Woo hoo! Somewhere within the course of the day, I twisted my ankle and got meself some bandages to straighten the unsightly bulge! The first aid medic asks me to continue twirling my ankle round and round coz that was his grandma's secret ingredient to a faster healing of a sprained ankle (couldn't believe that he gave that advice, and worse still, couldn't believe I took it)!

Thank goodness it was only a bad sprain...dunno what I'd do if it were a hairline crack!Yikes! Either way, am out of action for sometime! Sigh....

The highlight of Sunday was indisputably this little boy! Let me retrace the conversation Luke and I had with him....(disclaimer : me memory's pretty bad so not everything you read is 100% accurate) :-

Luke : "Eh fatty, come here, I want to talk to you..."

John obediently runs towards Luke.

Luke : "Do you play basketball?"
John : "Eh, how you know ah?"
Luke : "Because you are wearing a basketball jersey!"

John chuckles.

Luke : "So, what's your name?"
John : "John".
Luke : "Now, that's a real basketball player's name! What's your surname?"
John : "Toh".
Luke : "John Toh! Your friend is riding the course, you want to try it? "
John : "I have no bike."
Luke : "Ok, you can use Huimin's bike, but first, you must walk the course, ok?"

John nods, and starts to walk the course in 1 direction, and then back in the opposite direction.

Luke : "Ok, now you can practise on your bike".

John wears his borrowed helmet, steps over Huimin's bike, and attempts the first ramp, and almost falls over.

Luke : "Ride on the grass first!"

John obediently rides "around", but not "on" the obstacles. Tirelessly, he rides, rides, rides....in circles, circles, circles.......

John takes a short breather and runs for some water.

John : Eh, can I ride my own bike here?"
Ling : "Of course you can. Where is your bike now?"
John : "It's at home. Can I borrow your phone? I want to call my mother and ask her to bring my bike down."

After a short conversation with his mom, he rushes off. I later learnt that he took a bus home (ok, it's somewhere in Tampines, but still....), picks up his bike, and cycles back again.

When he appears with his heavyass purple BMX bike, John was the talk of the town! He slowly but surely gains confidence on the course and starts to conquer the obstacles one at a time.

John, in his so adrenalin-pumped state, even sidetracked and took on the flying fox challenge. "I believe I can fly" must have been playing in his mind!

But alas, he suddenly froze up and was stuck 10 metres off the ground for quite a while! It took lots of coaxing to get him back to ground level! After the rescue, his confidence was at an all-time low. His usual chatty banter was reduced to silence as he pushed his bike to a corner.

Just when we thought he'd given up, he starts cycling around the course again like a maniac as if he had a Redbull fix, and even manages to master most of the groundlevel obstacles, the ramps AND the sea-saw on his BMX!

One of Huimin's bike spokes eventually twang-ed and no bike was available for the public to test. John, without a second thought, loans his bike out to complete strangers so that they can experience same thrill that he'd experienced that afternoon!

He just made me chuckle whole day long! I think Luke has created a bike monster in him! Hahahahaha!

For more photos, click here.