Introducing...ELVIS
Go in blur...Elvis jamming at BTT. (Photo: Beef)
It would be appropriate to start off the web page
with a little story of how Team Absolut got into cycling. Here's Elvis' version...
Raised in a family that don't do much serious sport, I
was destined to become a couch potato sized like a sumo wrestler but got none of the
agility and strength...well, maybe their appetite. When I was a kid, I was shy and all my
hobbies were sedentary: drawing, building plastic models and watching TV. My dad was a
little worried about my health and social wellness. Then the BMX craze came along back in
the 1984 or so. I showed a little interest watching the MT Sports BMX ad. on TV and my dad
jumped on the opportunity and took me out to buy one so that I could at least got out of
the house and exercise.
I fell in love with cycling and would ride almost
everyday after school. I was doing stunts with the neighborhood kids. My dream bike was
actually a big (back then), purple Chopper because it could go really fast. One of the
older kids would kill us on that thing because it has 3 speeds. But then, I was not about
to give up the exhilaration of executing a flawless trick. So I kept my BMX. My dad was
really supportive and I moved from the old MT Sports Action to a Chrome Redline 600A. That
era ended with scares on my arms and legs and I sold my Redline to a rich Indonesian
classmate (incidentally, my girlfriend's mom now rides an identical Redline with a front
basket to go grocery shopping...).
I picked up tennis and made the Junior College team in a
year. But I sucked big time competitively and gave it up as it became a chore to arrange
for someone to play with and all the tennis court rentals, balls and strings are burning a
hole in my pocket.
It was 1991 in Canada that I picked up a copy Mountain
Bike Action and read it from cover to cover. John Tomac was still riding a Yeti with drop
bars and Greg Herbold was downhilling on a hardtail! I saved up some money and dumped it
on a 30lb GT Timberline. It was heavy but hey, it was a real mountain bike. I rode in
jeans and tennis shoes all over the parks and trails. It felt amazing when I slowly
learned to conquer one steep slope after another. I remember the most significant upgrades
on the Timberline were a pair of Onza bar ends and a Ghostbusters honker from McDonald's.
I rode my bike everywhere.
In 1992, I came back to Singapore for holiday and saw a
beautiful ball burnished GT Zaskar and couldn't help but drooled all over it. I put the
hammer down and rolled out from Treknology, East Coast with the full XT Zaskar, Shimano
first generation SPD pedals and shoes, cycling shorts and a cool blue Oakley M frame to
match (what a poser!!!). Of course I fell in front of capacity crowd forgetting to click
out of my SPD the first few times I rode the bike.
It was no turning back. I took the Zaskar to Canada and
joined the local group rides. I got stronger and faster. The trails were awesome and
endless. Cycling in a country with 4 seasons is so much fun. We would have mud in Spring,
hard pack in the Summer, mud and slippery leaves in Autumn and snow in Winter. Then
something wonderful happened in 1993...Rock Shox!!! Those Mag 20s were great...if they
didn't leak that much. I was into training and stuff and my diet was pasta and coke with
$1.99 Whopper every Wednesday as treats. I bought a road bike (a bonded Ti Miyata which
came apart) because the coaches swore that there's no other better way to train. Also, I
saw a clip of Lance Armstrong zipping down a mountain road on his Eddy Merckx and wanted
to feel the speed of skinny tire. I did epic town to town road rides combined with
mountain bike rides and those were the years when I was at my peak.
I graduated in 1995 and went to work in Malaysia. I biked
several times there but felt that it wasn't worth the risk. There were just too many
stupid motorcyclists going against the traffic. Although I knew there are wonderful trails
to ride there, working life was tough and I got lazy. I put my cycling aside for about one
and a half years and later found out in horror that my jersey didn't fit anymore.
AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!
I threw in the towel and came back to Singapore (ironic
that Malaysia has better support for the sport of cycling while Singapore is nothing but
soccer, soccer, and more soccer!). I started cycling again and on one Sunday afternoon, I
went to ride at Bukit Timah with Coco Pop. I brought Coco Pop into mountain biking and he
introduced me to in-line skating way back in Canada. But that's another story. Anyway, I
was at my lowest point in cycling fitness when I met up with a fun bunch who called
themselves the Team Absolut. Back then were Beef, Old Man, Geek, Lardo, Porky. The Team
brought my cycling back. On the down side, it also stimulated the purchase of bike stuffs
so it hurts my bank account a bit. But I am glad to be cycling consistently again and hope
to regain my peak form and beyond.
Elv.
