Happy Birthday Nex!!!

Gawd, I gave my bike a name!!! Its already one year since I’ve started mountain biking. And its exactly one year this coming Thursday since I bought my Nexus Pro Freelance bike and I have been riding with it ever since. My current bike is an XC Full Suspension type; XC being Cross Country, the lightest among four type of mountain bike. Yes ladies and gentlemen, there are four types. I only knew this last year, when I started mountain biking.

 

A year ago, it looked something like this.

 

 

And last Saturday, it looked like this.

 

 
You have to know, XC bike was not meant for very rough terrain and I’ve been using it on a very rough terrain. I’ve ride it on several occasion at Bukit Padang, not at Tun Fuad jogging track, there’s no cycling sign over there, but at the back of St. Francis primary school, and recently been riding there almost every week. To give you a glimpse of what we’re doing at Bukit Padang, take a look at these videos.

 

 

 

Last Saturday, I brought it to Spring Trading, the place where almost every cyclist in KK gets their stuff, and where I bought my bike. I notice that the crank was rocking a bit and it has been A YEAR now so I think I need to service my bike. They opened it up (after a few sprays of WD-40 and 15 minutes of waiting), and found that the bearing on my Bottom Bracket (BB for short) was busted. And, umm, was also mud in it, boys will be boys; we like to play with dirt. How did it get there in the first place I have no idea.

 

 
That’s not a rust, its hardened mud. I’m serious.
  

 

So I guess I need to replace it then.
 

 

I got it fixed that day, and went “downhilling” the next day.

 

I made a few upgrade on my bike because I don’t like the factory installed equipment. I’ve changed the grip shifter to a thumb shifter; I hate it when you going up hill and you accidently changed the gears. Then I changed both derailleurs (it’s what most people called gears, so called derailleur because it derails the chain) to SRAM .X5 and the paddle. Installed an odometer so I would know how far and how fast I was on each cycling session, bought blinker and torchlight for night riding. You can say I spend a lot on my bike.

 

Now, I’m thinking to get a Free Ride type bike. OK, let me briefly explain the four types of bike. There are Cross Country (XC), All Mountain, Free Ride (FR) and Downhill (DH). XC being the lightest with a shorter suspension and DH being the heaviest with fork and tyre resembling a Motocross bike. Getting complicated eh? I’ll explain it in detail later on. Oh if and when I’m getting my new bike, I would still keep my old one. You can’t expect me to ride a heavy bike on the road when I’m going night cycling. That’s pure nuts!!!