Offroad Cycling Workshop for Folding Bikes

Time to give back...

My goal with the Malaysian Foldies Forums is to organize as many as two to three public workshops a year.
And its all free!
We don't profit from people who want to learn and are willing to share our knowledge to those who are keen.

Putting a plan together

Since I've created a Facebook page for the Malaysian Foldies, its been easier to get the word around. We have about 430 people who are active on the page and the numbers are growing. That said, it was not hard to get participation.
Our last workshop was held at an outfitter's store, where response was decent.
So, this time round, we had a good crowd with Master Bikepacker TT Siang as our guest speaker.
And our theme: "Basic Offroad Cycling for beginners". 
This is an "experiential" learning process where its split in two modules.
We have a sharing session at the Botanical Gardens and two sets of courses.
I took the first session by introducing the crowd to basic offroad riding.
Siang took on the second session and we cycled out to a simple course before heading to the Rover Trail.

Master Siang sharing his thoughts with the crowd

We assembled at the Kepong Botanical Gardens carpark in FRIM, and when I got there, the crowd was already waiting.
It was great to meet some old friends at the carpark and as soon as everyone was gathered, we got the ball rolling.

Samo, explaining on the finer points of the telescopic handlebar safety...

The crowd was pretty enthusiastic and our timing was perfect.
We cycled out towards the first course, which is a real short route with a decent terrain.
The participants were brought into the trail and shown some basic skills on how to handle and maneuver their bikes on uneven ground.

Setting out to the trail

The happy campers..

We concluded the first part and proceeded to the Rover Trail.
This is a bit tough for beginners, but everyone had made it.
One of the cyclist had broken his bike chain and re-joined us later.
When we exited the trail, I've decided to add a supplementary session where Siang shared about his penny stove and camping gear. 
This is a prelude to our next workshop: "Basic Bikecamping for beginners" which will be announced..

The master sharing his knowledge on camping stoves to the participants

And the best part: Makan!!!!

We concluded the workshop and headed off to Kepong for an early lunch.
As for the ride, we covered about 8km. 
Very short for those who expect a longer distance, but its enough to get the message across about offroad cycling.
So, that said, we are looking forward to more learning and sharing sessions with the foldies old or new...

Basic Folding Bicycle Touring Workshop

Leading the newcomers
After concluding the basic bicycle recovery workshop a couple of months ago, I floated the idea of conducting a basic folding bicycle touring workshop for beginners to Ed Foo of atmosphere outfitters.
He jumped at the opportunity and I got to work right away.
The first thing I did, was to inform Ruey Chan of Le Run Industries. 
Chan represents Dahon Bikes for Malaysia and had agreed to support the workshop by bringing some Dahon schwag and two sample bikes.
Ed, on the other hand, supplied drinks and light snacks.
He also convinced the building maintenance people from Subang Avenue to provide tables and chairs for the event.

Networking with the foldies
We had the Malaysian Foldie Forums which serves as an important domain for inputting a knowledge base on folding bikes.
Sadly, none of the dealers and distributors were interested in using it.
Its free anyway.
I can see the same people who are active on the forums as well as Malaysian Foldies' Facebook page participating in the programme.
The aim is to educate newcomers on the aspect of bicycle touring.
I had to make it very simple so that even those without any background on bicycle knowledge would understand the brief presentation.
 

Setting up the venue for the workshop

My regular cycling kaki Toh and television host Chris Ng

 Keeping things simple
I don't really know the level of expectation among the attendees for the workshop, so, with the assumption that most of them are new to long distance rides and being a cycling tourist, I have designed the presentation with a series of simple to understand point-form slides on the Microsoft Powerpoint software.
It took me about an hour to complete the presentation which is kept to its bare minimal. No jargons, fancy-schmancy technicalities. Just plain English and I have about 30-minutes to execute the job.

Giving introduction to the crowd at the beginning of the workshop

Making my presentation

Crowd reaction
Right from the beginning, I told Ed that I had expected no more than 30 people at the event.
And true to my anticipation, there were more than 20 people who came to listen to my talk.
I paced myself to 1 minute per slide and maintained eye-contact with the crowd.
Most of them were paying close attention to what I had to say and I managed to maintain their attention span throughout.
There was brief question and answer session at the end of the talk and I am glad that the attendees were quite cooperative.
Ed Foo took the floor after my presentation and Ruey Chan had his shot by introducing the crowd to Dahon's products.

Ed Foo explaining his products to the crowd

Posing for BaikBike.com

Summary
Both Ed and I were pleased with the crowd turnout at the workshop.
This was Malaysian Foldies' second outing and we hope to conduct more of such events in the future.
I think what's in store is a practical touring workshop for advanced cyclist and I just know where to plan the route and conduct the event.
After wrapping-up, I rode back to USJ26 with my Dahon Speed P8 and took a lunch break in USJ7 with my fellow folding bike cyclists.

Late lunch with the gang...