Hard work pays off.

Hello friends and readers.

Recently I have been following the X factor USA and came across a contestant that said these words:

"I am no stranger to hard work...
...hard work makes no excuses.
Hard work shows up everyday.
Hard work might fall down
but Hard work gets up."

I was really fired up by what she said as it struck a chord in me. I sincerely believe that with (smart) hard work and perseverance, all things are possible.

After almost 6 weeks of rest, rehab and "less riding", my back is slowly getting into better shape again. For those of you who are unaware, I have another slipped disk, this time down in the Lumbar spine L5 region. This is the 4th disk now and I really need to start looking after my back. I was really upset when I learnt after doing my MRI that the disk was slipped, which explained the pain, discomfort and weird sensations I have been feeling. While I was shifting to my new studio, it finally gave in.

With this disk slipped, I was also asked to downgrade my PES status in the military. The worse part was to not be able to ride my bike like I use to. I can't really ride hard now. Nonetheless, I am optimistic about recovering and getting healthy again. Right now, I am just focus on rehabilitative treatment and exercises.

Till then, I hope to be back on the bike, riding hard again, burning more rubber.=)

Learning, and being the best I can be - Bohemian Bicycles

The past couple of months has been great. LOUE bicycles is up and running now, and the fit lab is taking off slowly but surely. Next month, we will be setting up our new office and our website will also be up soon. Exciting times ahead!

Other than keeping myself busy with business and cycling, I constantly seek to improve myself. Knowledge is always good. You can never learn too much. I certainly hope to learn as much as I can in my field to be the best that I can be, and to give the best I can give.

Earlier this month, I was in Muenster Germany for a bike fit-related workshop. I will write about that in another blog post (so stay tune).

Right now, I am in Tucson, Arizona, near the South western border of the USA. As some of you might have known, I got a frame building scholarship from Bohemian Bicycles upon submission of a video that my brother made for me. (http://vimeo.com/65924071) This is a 2 week class and a great opportunity for me to learn more about framebuilding and build my own custom frames in future.

Tucson is a nice city. I have been here for a week now and have gone out riding quite a bit. It gets really hot here in the afternoon, but the motorists, roads and terrain are generally good. I have lots more riding and exploration to do for sure! 

Some huge cactus along the road side.

David Bohm of Bohemian Bicycles has been a professional frame builder for almost 20 years. After spending a week here learning from him, I can really feel his passion for bicycle frame building (and also tubes, machines and files!). He is truly knowledgeable and a master of his trade. It is no wonder that his work space is so well equipped and organized. Besides Dave, Doug is here from Brooklyn, New York too. This class is catered for two people and I am happy to have some company for this 2 weeks.

Dave.

Doug.

The first week is mainly theoretical stuff with some practice and we will start building some frames in the second week. I am excited!

Brazing some lugs.

From my first week here, I have learnt heaps. Bicycle framebuilding is indeed a mix of art and engineering. It is no wonder that these rare breed of people are called craftsman, and I hope more people around the world respect and appreciate their work and profession.

Sometimes, cyclists just cannot find a frame that fits, and even if they do fit, it often requires a short stem or something that compromises handling and other stuff. Building a custom frame is not simply about cutting some tubes to fit a bike of ideal geometry to fit someone and after which put on some fancy paint and artwork. This is just part of it. It requires planning and a good thought process goes a long way in finding out exactly what your client wants, in terms of ride quality, and executing it with a plan. This plan requires a good understanding of materials and tools that the frame builder works with, including their properties etc.

With mechanical engineering knowledge, a good understanding of bike fit, and a cyclist myself, I look forward to making some of my own fine custom frames in the near future.

I will put more pics up as the week goes along. Till then, ride safe and be well.

American craftsman.

Twiggy-the-cat keeps me company sometimes.

Climbing Mount Lemmon tomorrow.

New beginning and exciting times ahead!

The past 1.5 months have been really hectic as I head into another aspect of my new business venture and launch LOUE BICYCLES FIT LAB. Yes, for those of you who are still unaware, I have parted ways with FITSKUUL since early May, and have moved on with providing my own bike fit services, and flying solo with my new business venture.

Just a short introduction on the LAB - LOUE BICYCLES FIT LAB is setup to provide clients with the best bike fit services, through passion and knowledge. Besides providing bike fitting services, we do research and carry out experiments on bike fitting and its products. We seek to develop new bike fitting products and manufacture custom tools to improve on the efficiency and protocols of current bike fitting process, and make cycling more enjoyable. Currently, the FIT LAB utilizes the latest RETÜL 3D Motion Analysis system, Dartfish Technologies, the Computrainer, BikeCAD Pro and their own proprietary tools and equipment.

Besides bike fitting, LOUE BICYCLES FIT LAB also conducts workshops and seminars to spread the knowledge of bike fitting in the region, and to encourage interaction among bike fiitters to share ideas, products and knowledge and improve on the standard of bike fitting in the region.

I am fortunate to have many people support me over the past weeks to get my business going. I sincerely thank you all, and I will promise to do my best. There will be more exciting announcements to come, so stay tune and follow our Lab updates on our facebook page (LOUE BICYCLES)!

On another note, many people have asked if I have stopped cycling/racing - and my answer is no! I love training, cycling and racing, but I have to prioritise what has to be done on hand at the moment. The initial plan was to race this full season, but things change and I have to reorganise my plans. I have my own business to run now and am looking to make plans to settle down with my beautiful fiancee soon and so I have to prepare for future family life and look after my finances. Everyone knows that wedding and housing in Singapore is expensive. Having said that, I am positive about the second half of the season, and if everything goes well, I hope to be back in the peleton.=)

Hope the haze goes away soon ... till then ... ciao!

Almost half the year gone!

Hi all! It's almost the end of May now, and almost half the year has gone by really quickly. I thought I will drop in a post and some updates on what I have been up to so far. I have also made some changes to the blog, so please look around!

The past few weeks have been really crazy. I am in the process of setting up my new business venture LOUE BICYCLES, and still have some loose ends to tie up before I am good to go. New exciting announcements coming, so stay tune!

I also went to the Bangkok Bike Expo 2 weeks ago and made some really good friends there. It is really heartening to see so many passionate cycling enthusiasts around in Thailand. The following week after the bike show, I went off to Chiangmai for a holiday cum training trip and rode with some of Khun Wisut boys from the SOITAN team. These bunch of boys really have great potential! 

In 2 weeks time, I will head off to Indonesia for the Tour of Singkarak. Looking forward to climbing those mountains there again. National Service call up last week didn't help with training at all, but as they always say "it's all uphill from here!".

Ride safe!

London visit, 21st Jan to 27th Jan 2013 - International Cyclefit Symposium 2013

This year, the International Cyclefit Symposium (ICS) 2013 was held in Brunel University, London from the 24th to 26th of January 2013. The ICS is a 3 day forum focusing on bikefitting and the relationship between the human body and a bicycle. It is a unique event and the only occasion where all the disparate branches of cycling science and the fitting community come together for a collective learning experience. It was attended by bikefitting practitioners from all over the world, professionals from the Medical community, Academic community as well as Bicycle frame and component manufacturers. An international line-up of speakers who are leaders in their particular field each presented for 45 minutes, and after each presentation, there was a chaired Q & A session from the symposium to try and learn from each other and also establish 'best practice' for fitting and related disciplines. At the end of each day, there was a demonstration/participation fitting by an experienced technician.

The ICS 2013 had really been an eye opener and it was definitely a privilege to be able to mingle with the best in the world of bikefitting. It was great to have medical professionals, physio therapist, the big bike brands (TREK and SPECIALIZED) and the different schools of bikefitting (Serotta, RETUL and Bikefit) all gathered together. I also had the chance to see and test new equipment at the symposium. There were new bikefitting tools and aids that allow for a more visual and comprehensive analysis of the bikefit process, providing the bikefitter with crucial and accurate information for assessment, at the same time, making it easier to convince and explain to the client what is going on throughout the fit process.

The speakers certainly made me think a lot and plant several ideas and questions in my head. It almost seems like bikefit encompass so many things, and getting more. What made the symposium so interesting was there was so much discussion and the Q & A after each speaker spoke got quite intense at times.

Apart from the Symposium, it was my first time in London and I really like the place. I brought my bike along (as usual) as I still had to train. The weather was not too ‘friendly’ as it was really cold. On good days, it would be 2-4 degrees Celsius. It was really dreadful riding in the cold, especially when I just had training camp the week before in Perth which was could get as hot as 46 degrees!

I went to London city on the second and last day of my visit (6 days in total of which the symposium covered 3 days). I took the “tube” which is their version of our Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) which is a good 1 hour ride from Brunel University. I managed to catch up with Sam Jo! I also visited cafes, walked around to look for/visit the places of interest which I usually only get to see on TV or magazines. I’ll let the pictures do the talking;).

I certainly hope to return again next year for the symposium to learn and also see what has changed and how we have progress as bikefitters. I hope to be able to improve myself and bring bikefitting in Singapore/SEA to the next level. This will definitely be possible with constant research, practice and exposure to the bikefitters/fitting in North America and Europe, where the overall standard of bikefit is already at a good level.

Yes, snowing all over the place when I arrived.

Was nice to catch up with Sam!

Most popular bike cafe in London.

Inside "Look Mum, No Hands".

Only on TV.

  

London Bridge is falling down...

Ximo! Fellow bikefitter from Spain who we spoke via email and finally met in London. He was my tour guide in the city. What a nice guy and was absolutely pleased to have met him there.

Cloudsurfing.

Ben Serotta.

Representing FITSKUUL.

Typical breakfast.

Todd Carver - founder of RETUL. It was nice to have met him, representing FITSKUUL, which is RETUL University partner.

Some demo by physio therapist-bikefitter Curtis Cramblett one of the awesomest guys in the audience - he posed questions like a machine!

Room where symposium was held.

Demo.

SEROTTA - Naked.

Specialized's Sean Madsen was there too.

My morning friend - turbo trainer. Thanks to Tom from Cyclefit UK.

Godfather of bikefit - his name on the bike.

King's Cross - St. Pancreas.

Friends at the symposium - fellow fitters Winston (Taiwan) and Makito (Japan).

Cyclefit UK, Phil - one of the organiser of the symposium. Thank YOU.