History

- The genes
Dad is a normal cyclist. As a little kid, he would place me in the small front seat on his old normal bike and took me for a round of nite cycling from Ceylon Rd to Dunman Hawker Center for supper and then to the Paya Lebar park for my routine round of monkey-bar session. Sometimes he would stop at the hawker center at Paya Lebar to buy supper for the family and left me dangling at the seat while he was off to the stalls. That usually left me screaming and crying cos' it was scary to be left on the bike with only a fragile stand to support the bike. Other then the fear of falling off the bike, I enjoyed the biking trip a lot. :p

Dad once did a cross-country ride when he was 12years old with his pals. Their goal was to cycle all the way from Katong to Penang. Mind you at their time there is no such thing as Shimano gears or SPD. Boys on solid 'Ah pek's bikes', and on gravel roads all the way. They cycled all the way to Kuala Lumpur but the trip had to stop cos' they ran out of money and one of them was ill. Grandma's remittance of cash didn't reach in time to them and all of them headed back with a staving stomach, suffered from leech bites on flooding waters when the rain came. Thank God they came back alive. (Or else, there wouldn't have me in this world. Heehee.)

- Starting out
First started to learn how to ride a bike (BMX) when I was around 5-6years old. I was always on 4 wheels (heehee, don't laugh) until the point Dad took off the 2 small wheels to force me to ride on 2 big wheels. Unable to learn the balance trick, bike became obsolete for 4years until I finally learn the trick of balancing at the age of 9years. Best part is without falling from my bike before.

- First fall
There is this jogging track behind my block here in Tampines (still here but better now) and on weekend evenings Dad will bring us out to the park. The basketball court is where I learnt my balancing trick when Dad gave a kick in my ass and there I peddled up. I remembered I was 9 back then. As I was speeding down this little slope, I saw one 10cent coin on the ground. That time 10cents meant a lot to me and I tried (to do stunts) lower my body towards the right to bent down on picking up the coin while still on my bike. Well, that stunt failed and left me falling down on the side from some bruises. :p

- Road biking
I left my BMX to rust before my younger brother took over. He shared his (brand new) mountain bike (which he got it thru' some illegal process) with me and I took over it eversince.

It was year 1999 and I was going to Temasek Poly. My house is in the mid of the distance to school. Taking bus would meant a big roundabout and walking would take 15mins. My friend suggested going on bike. And as the story goes: "The rest is history!"

- Major falls
As to date, I only suffered 3 major falls (thank God, hope no more. Touchwood!).

The first was when I was cycling to school on normal day. Except this day my friend saw me and she was excited to see me on bike. She called me from behind before she filtered in front of me. Got a big shock and lost my balance. Was pulled along at the back of my bike in the mid of the main road. Lucky there was no vehicles. Suffered torn skin from my chest down to my torso and tears on my left kneecap. Continued to go for classes in pain. Healed after 2weeks. Lesson learnt: Don't daydream when you are riding!

The second was when we were heading down to Pasir Ris chalet during our June holidays. Going up the Pasir Ris flyover and before going down, I hit onto something and the impact forced me to fly off and landed in front with a terrible bruised/swollen left eye. Impact left my front tyre puntured and rim wobbled. Left eye managed to regain original shape after 1 full month. But the phobia of passing through that same route is still here. I never use that road to Pasir Ris again! Lesson learnt: Look where you are going!

The third was on my way home from Tampines Mall after work in year 2000. It was drizzling. Towards the corner of the stadium, My bike hit on the slight kerb and skidded. Knowing I would fall, I used my right knee to break my fall. Major mistake! It left me crippled for 1 full month and unable to do any biking at all. Seems like if I over-exerted much of my leg power now, my right knee would give me problems. Lesson learnt: Never use your knees or elbows to break falls, they are the most fragile parts of the body!