This is so cool! After initiating contact through the Internet for about 5 months, I get to meet a luger from another country! The guy we're talking about is none other than Andrew Lim Yikai, Singaporean street luge rider / pioneer.

Here's what happened. Bob Swartz made a transit in Singapore on February 2, 2001 before going off to some other destination for work. While he was in Singapore, he sold off his used Cherry Bombs to Andrew, as well as gave him lots of riding and racing tips and strategies. He left for the United States on the 7th. With Bob not being able to make it to Malaysia upon my request, it was then that Andrew decided to come up to Malaysia and ride with me, bringing his luge along all the way from the Lion City! Andrew was to be in Malaysia on February 15-18, 2001.

So all I got to do was to fetch him at the train station in Kuala Lumpur.

Fine, he called up my handphone, saying all he sees around him. Said he sees A&W and KFC. Great, I parked my car at Central Market (yeah I know, I should've come from Bangsar). The search for a Chinese guy with a street luge began. Alright, I'm looking for a luger wearing a black Fubu shirt and straight-cut jeans. Wasn't too hard to find, coz he noticed me first. Look at what pictures of you on the Internet can do for you!

Since this is the first day of his 4-day street luge tour in Malaysia, it was time to look for a full-face helmet. Helmets are damn expensive in Singapore, most of them costing around S$300. I bought my black helmet at Tropicana Life at The Mines Shopping Fair at the Mines City, and the salesgirl told me that they get their helmets from Kota Raya.

So off we went to Kota Raya from the train station in search for Andrew's helmet. However, when we got there, the salesgirl there said that the last helmet was sold over 2 years ago! So we were left almost hopeless and clueless about where to get helmets. I decided to put the subject on hold and assured him that we'd be able to get one.

Since it was already in the evening, we just assembled Andrew's luge. Then we lubricated our bearings, exchanging cleaning tips in the process. He also got 2 bottles of Powell Speed Cream for me, as there were no such skate lubricants being sold in Malaysian skateshops.

Night came. We were excited to try some night luging between the 2 of us. We headed to Sea Park School for this test run. At the top, Andrew and I pushed off 3 times, laid back, and rode side-by-side, trying to outdraft each other. Since he was running Cherry Bombs, I had few problems keeping up with him with my Turbos. We practically felt the adrenaline high one gets when luging with blood brothers of the sport. Both of us were hitting 50 km/h less than 2 feet of each other (side-by-side) at the narrow bottleneck of the track, and the experience was exhilarating. After his first experience of luging in Malaysia, he gave raging comments about the ride we just had.

"Man, that was awesome! I arrive in Malaysia in the evening, set up my luge, check for tightness, and by night, I'm already doing an easy 50 km/h! Even my first ride in Singapore was a meager 44 km/h! This is REALLY something." Andrew exclaimed.

The next day (Friday, 16/02/2001), we set off to ride at Sea Park School again, this time in the morning. We started quite late, the time was past 11am. As the weather was hot, Andrew decided to get us some drinks at the Esso gas station nearby before bombing the hill. We did 2 runs, then as time passed by, getting closer to 12.30pm, school kids gradually poured out of the rear gates. I was thinking, "How could school finish so early? Usually school finishes around 1.10pm." Then it occurred to me that we had picked a VERY bad time to luge on that hill: TODAY IS A FRIDAY. School finishes early on Fridays because Muslim students have to perform their Friday prayers. And I should be heading back home soon to pray too! But, we decided to hang out at the top, doing nothing except checking out school girls and being mocked at by some moronic gangster-type guys (school students of course). Traffic was estimated about 1 vehicle per 10 seconds during this peak time. Parents were fetching their kids at school in their cars, vans, motorcycles, etc. Not to forget school buses by the way, literally dozens of them. Damn!

Then, as it was almost 12.50pm, we checked out the road conditions, confirming traffic clearance, and once the coast was clear, we set off! I was riding Andrew's luge, and with his narrow trucks, I did feel the instability compared to what I feel using wider trucks on my luge. This was a most dangerous time to be luging on Sea Park School track. I was approaching the bottleneck, and a car moving in the opposing lane in the bottleneck started to slow down. Come on man, move it! The car was giving me very little space to move as I had to skillfully squeeze between the car and an electrical post as well as an open drain on my left at 45 km/h. If that wasn't enough, a student nearby extended his left arm, trying to interfere with my luging session, but I merely went underneath his nuisance of an appendage. Put your limbs where they belong boy! Andrew, however, just luged towards the guy, wanting to bang him, and the guy just freaked out and skipped to the side just as Andrew SWERVED towards the inside of the turn as well as staying behind my lead at the bottleneck.

Both of us got out of the bottleneck, luged past a few students walking down the hill, and I pulled off a showstopper right after the speed bump at the end. I pulled the frame of my luge until my legs started to get cramped as I plopped backwards on my luge, slowing down with twisted muscles. Ow, that hurt!

The session was over. I went to the mosque to perform my Friday prayers whilst Andrew stayed at home and inspected our luges. In the evening, I remembered a motorcycle shop at a roundabout near the International Islamic University in Petaling Jaya. They had a fairly large selection of good full-face helmets, so we went there. Andrew browsed through each helmet, testing its size, fit, comfort, and visibility. But all the helmets were too big. We decided to put the helmet on hold as it was getting pretty late and we should be heading to Kuala Lumpur to buy some stuff for the remaining days of our mini luge tour of the Klang Valley.

Andrew needed to get wide trucks, so he wanted to get the same ones I use on my Exerciser, the 180mm Independent. I called up the skateshop (Tribe, used to be Zone 5) at Sungei Wang shopping complex, and enquired whether they still had those trucks. Thank god they still have a few pairs lying around, just waiting for some longboarder kids to come and purchase the good stuff. I told the guy to keep those trucks for us whilst we come before the shop closes at 9pm. Good, we got our trucks in order.

We walked to the Taman Bahagia LRT station and took the train to Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). I needed to get video cassettes for our riding session, specially for Andrew's street luge visit in Malaysia. I managed to buy 2 tapes, then we left KLCC and took a taxi to Sungei Wang. We walked up to Tribe and got the trucks. Yes! Andrew finally got himself new, wide trucks that will offer the stability needed to safely bomb straight roads over 80 km/h, make efficiently quicker turns, and minimize understeering at 90-degree corners. As our mission was pretty much accomplished after acquiring these items, we headed back home.

The time was about 11pm. I called up a skateboarder friend of mine, Wee, to come and join us for some serious night riding. We waited until 11.30pm, then Wee showed up in his car. I told him to park his car at my house as we will be taking my car. Opening the trunk and the back seat, we shoved the Pioneer (equipped with 60mm Deranged wheels that Andrew found in the trash in Singapore) and Andrew's Speed Metal into the car. We drove to Sea Park School as this was the only track Wee dared to luge on. He's not much of a luger, so we didn't really care. Wee rode the Pioneer while Andrew took his own. I told Andrew to give 15 seconds headstart to Wee, since Wee has a tendency to frequently slow down. Besides, this is night time, and you can't really see the road in the dark. Andrew blasted off 15 seconds later, with me driving behind him. Upon reaching the bottom, Wee said that Andrew was REALLY fast on his luge since he overtook him somewhere at the bottleneck. Of course, coz Andrew's running Cherry Bombs! Next run, I rode Andrew's luge, gave Andrew 10 seconds headstart, and stayed within the draft. However, even though Andrew was riding the Pioneer (60mm wheels), I still couldn't catch up to him! We realized this and made a conclusion that body form put into an aerodynamic profile can increase and maintain speed on this track.

This gave the implication that Wee didn't tuck in his arms, point his toes inwards, wear tight clothing (he's a baggy jeans-type skater, what do you expect?), or keep his head low enough. Later I tried riding my Pioneer, and I was surprised that it handled pretty well after all those years of constantly repairing it. The 60mm Deranged wheels performed nicely on this particular road, and I didn't feel any drastic wobbles with the Pioneer.

Soon after, we drove back home, left the Pioneer behind, and took the Blue Diamond instead, along with the current Speed Metal in the car of course. Then, it was time to take Andrew to Bangsar, where my favorite luge spots are located: Butterfingers HQ and Beachcomber.

Upon arrival at Butterfingers HQ, we started out at the top. The time was already about 1am (Saturday, 17/02/2001). We did 3 runs on this hill. Let's describe exactly what happened. We pushed off simultaneously, went thru the little S-curve, turned a hard left, went underneath the tollgate, and it was speed all the way. Passing the Sri Penaga condo, we sped towards the first speed bump. Since this was Andrew's first time luging here, he didn't brake. I did sit up for the bump however. Both of us passed the speed bump, then I laid back on my luge, but my actions proved detrimental to catching up to Andrew. His luge is lighter than mine by 50% and could climb uphill after the speed bump faster than me, and since I had offered more wind resistance by sitting up, it slowed me down tremendously. He beat me twice on this practice run of Butterfingers HQ.

The 3rd run was the run which we decided to make it an all-out race. We pushed off as hard as we could, went underneath the tollgate, and I took the lead. I could feel Andrew drafting behind me as we approached the first speed bump. After that, I just concentrated on riding fast safely. Upon reaching the finishing line, I looked behind me. "Yikes, where's Andrew? And where's Wee (who was driving my car)?" I said to myself. I picked up my luge and started walking back in the direction of where they would be when they approach me. Then, my car showed up a few moments later. Andrew was inside, with his luge.

"What happened?" I asked Andrew. "I was worried that you'd crash or something."

"I DID CRASH! I crashed at the speed bump, damn it, and I think I got slightly injured. But it was cool though!" Andrew said.

"Yeah, when you fell off your luge and rolled over so many times into the dirt at the side, it reminded me of a Wild West movie, looking at the way you crashed. It was scary man!" Wee said, in his casually indifferent tone.

Speaking of crashing at the first speed bump, that's EXACTLY where I experienced my first crash ever. Seems like the street luge pioneers will inevitably crash here, thereby officiating the track even more! But anyway, a lesson to be learnt nonetheless.

As you can see above, Andrew developed a not-so nasty wound on the side of his abdomen that will, without a doubt, leave a permanent scar to remind him of the terrible road conditions in Malaysia when he goes back to Singapore. I seriously salute you man!

Just as we were about to load our equipment into the car, we discovered that both the Blue Diamond and the Speed Metal suffered damages of their own. The front chassis of the Blue Diamond had bent downwards to a crucial extent that the front end could touch the ground if it were to bend any further. This was due to the tremendous impact the luge received upon landing after flying over the speed bump. The wooden handles of the Speed Metal received frictional scratches that tore away the coat of black paint and exposed the brown wood underneath, as shown in the picture below.

At the end of the track, we were hurrying to vacate the area as we did not wanna make ourselves a nuisance to public traffic and give people the idea that we were criminals in black leather jackets and full-face helmets, armed with long metal weapons with spear-shaped ends, about to rob people in the dead of the night, or rather, morning.

After our run at Butterfingers HQ, Beachcomber was next. When we reached there, I asked Andrew if he wanted to ride this hill together.

"No, I don't think so. I'm still trying to recover from the injury, remember? Besides, my luge is already dented. I don't want it to dent any further until it breaks up on me! Then I can't luge any more in Malaysia. Better find replacement tubings tomorrow morning," Andrew replied.

Alright then, guess I'll be riding alone. Wee and Andrew followed me from behind in the car, and when I reached the optional 90-degree left, I pulled extremely hard to negotiate the turn. But I kept on understeering!

Oh god, I don't think I can make it! I bailed! Another accident to add to my crash list.

"Man, looks like both of us experienced crashes tonight at Bangsar! You're lucky you're not stunned or things might have been worse," Andrew commented.

If you observe the picture below left, you would say that, logically, my right leg SHOULD have been wounded. But ironically, my left leg was affected, as shown in the picture below right. Weird huh? How it happened, don't ask me. The scar is there to remind me of this goofy-looking crash, but hey, don't use narrow trucks either!

Another thing we found out about narrow trucks besides instability is their disadvantageous understeering factor. Understeering means that your luge is leaning at its maximum leverage, yet putting you further and further away from your intended line of travel.

After our share of injuries this AM, we went back home. It was already 5am when we hit the hay. Man, gotta get prepared for the morning!

At 9am (Saturday, 17/02/2001), we woke up and got ready to go to the motorcycle shop. When we got there, Andrew decided that he'd take my black helmet since it fits him well, and he'd buy me a new helmet from the shop. We both agreed on this decision, so I came back home with a new helmet!

It was already about 10.30am. We had limited time to get a new tubing for Andrew. So off we went to a shop that makes window frames out of aluminum tubing, and Andrew purchased 30 inches of 3 X 1, exactly identical to what he's currently using. We went to a metal workshop immediately to get the holes drilled for the bolts.

After we had finished getting the tubing drilled, went back home and assembled the new tubing to adjust for fit. Took it back out and put back the previous dented tubing. This was to avoid using the new one and further damaging it more, so just hope to ride safely on the existing one.

It was really getting late. The time was already about 1pm. Damn, and the sun is scorching hot! But we were still contacting Aiman back and forth to ride on this day today, since we will be hitting the roads in Shah Alam and Bangsar.

After we finally got Aiman, we left immediately to his house. We went to the Mafia Road and started to set up for our luge tour of the Klang Valley. Aiman had to become the videographer for this one, whereas his friend, Aliyah, had to be our chase car driver for the day. After posing for some photos, it was finally time to drop this hill!

Andrew and I went down the Mafia Road first. Because there was a 90-degree turn we had to be careful of, we parked the car at the junction of the turn and had Aiman position himself in front of the driver's door and act like a traffic policeman, pointing his arm to the right to signal 'Proceed' and raising his palm forwards to signal 'Stop' if there was any vehicle that happened to be around the blind turn. We probably spent about half an hour on the Mafia Road.

As you can see from the picture, we are negotiating the turn really wide. We learnt to maximize leverage yet at the same time minimize drag for the most effective turn and taking the best line. This just goes to show how tremendous the gap is before I learnt this and after Andrew passed me this racing strategy that he picked up from Bob Swartz when he came down to Singapore.

After we had some fun on this road, it was time to depart and go to Concorde Drop. There are a lot more pictures taken here on Mafia Road, but you can view them later in a separate gallery.

Upon reaching the Concorde Drop, we took out the luges and prepared for the run down the hill. After having observed the busy traffic conditions here on Concorde Drop, Andrew didn't have the confidence to attempt this hill. So he became the videographer.

"Aiman, why don't you take my luge and go with Furlong instead," Andrew suggested.

"Sure, but I'm gonna die!!!!" Aiman bellowed, throwing his arms out.

"I'm thirsty...." I complained, whilst putting on my gloves.

"Yeah we're all thirsty, but once we get down to the bottom of the hill, we're gonna get a drink," Andrew said.

So Aiman and I dropped this hill, just the two of us. Once we reached the bottom, we had a slight problem of body contact, being very close to each other and almost hitting the curb at the side. Just as we finished braking, we looked behind us, expecting our chase car driver, Aliyah, to stop, but we heard a funny sound when she braked. She had put the gear in parking mode when the car still hasn't finished coming to a complete stop!

"Aaaahhh!" Aiman shouted, as the front left tire of the car slowly crunched a bit of Andrew's tubing.

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed, as Aiman flew himself towards me and I had to throw myself to the side, what with the narrow space between the car and the luges beside the curb.

"I'm so sorry!" Aliyah said in dismay, showing her shock, but I myself wasn't too happy with how she handled my car. I can only think that she hasn't gotten her driver's licence yet.

"Ah, my tubing!" Andrew shouted. "Oh well, luckily not too much damage, heheh."

What a funny incident! You guys should've seen everyone's facial expressions when this clumsy act happened! But nevertheless, something worthwhile mentioning.

After the Concorde Drop bliss, we had our lunch at a mamak restaurant. We talked about the funny incident whilst planning where to hit next. I decided it was time to try the Landing Base. So off we went!

At the Landing Base, Andrew noticed the potential 'freak factor' of the hill, and again bailed out to do this one. But apparently maybe all he wanted to do was to conserve energy for our next destination.

So Aiman and I took this hill ourselves. I rode Andrew's Speed Metal, whilst Aiman took my Exerciser. We started from the helicopter landing site, proceeded past the Royal Palace (Istana Tengku Kayangan), went thru a wide right sweeper, across a slow flat, and braced ourselves for the extreme drop!

Riding Andrew's Speed Metal through this curve proved to be very stable, and I could feel Aiman somewhere behind me, as I just cautioned myself as there was a car to our left. Upon reaching the bottom, Aiman stopped beside me, whilst we waited for Aliyah and Andrew to pick us up. I took over the driver's seat, as Andrew asked me, "So where are we heading next?"

"Butterfingers HQ in Bangsar," I calmly replied, in a cool, casual tone.

"Alright, Butterfingers! Hope nothing bad happens there again!" Andrew said, looking forward to the most happening track on our street luge location list. But before we got there, we decided to do the 80-85 km/h Beachcomber road in Bangsar first, since it was on the way to Butterfingers HQ.

This hill proved to be the fastest Andrew has ever done in his whole life. There are more action shots taken here from the video camera, which you will have to access the gallery to take a look.

Andrew and I took videos of the Beachcomber drop from an onboard camshot, and Aiman took a video of us coming down, with Aliyah as the chase car driver, again. The only thing we didn't find pleasing about this drop is that there were a bunch of guys (we presumed they were grass-cutters) hanging out beside their cheap motorcycle and cheap car, drinking iced tea, staring at us.

"Apa kamu semua buat ni? Nak mati ke? Ini bukan tempat nak main benda tu," this one fat Indian guy said to us, but we just ignored him.

After being quite pissed off with what those guys said, we decided to leave this place and go to our long-awaited Butterfingers HQ destination! This will prove to be one hell of an experience, as you will later see.

As you can see here, Aiman and I have attempted to do this hill, regardless of the consequences. Andrew rode this hill only once, and took videos of me and Aiman. We didn't know that there was gonna be a lot of traffic! Look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean.

After both of us have gone over the speed bump, there was a Proton Wira (national car of Malaysia) that we have to overtake. This was very risky, so we had to be cautious here. The car was slowing down due to the speed bump, but since we luge riders are light, we used the downward momentum that we acquired to overtake the car and continue to climb the uphill section of the road.

The motorcyle guy selling putu mayam (some Malaysian Indian delicacy) was going up really slow. Aiman and I just moseyed up beside him and said, "Hi! How are you doing?"

He was only too bewildered to reply, and we just waved our hands to him as we continued to overtake him and proceeded to maintain speed along the flat, and finally gaining speed to traverse the remainder of the fast downhill section of the road. Nice huh?!

Not only that, but after we overtook the motorcyle guy, I noticed raindrops pattering on my face shield. I had to wipe them off with my gloves so I could see! Then, it started to drizzle, and we noticed that the road was going to be slippery and slick. Man, that showed how extreme our street luge session was! Andrew could only hold his breath as he watched our ride.

"Man, you guys were crazy back there! That was one really fun session, not to mention the wet road and busy traffic conditions of the road! This is so cool man!"

"Yeahhhhhh!!!!! We've done it!!!!" Aiman and I exclaimed, as we posed for a dual photo beside the car at the end of the road. But we had to act quick, as Aliyah had stopped the car in the middle of the road, taking up the left lane.

After we goofed around in front of the camera, and the rain started to pour heavily, we loaded the Speed Metal and the Exerciser into the car and I took control of the wheel, driving back home.

"Wow! That was one hell of a ride guys! I really enjoyed it!" Aiman said, removing the gloves and winding down the car window to catch some rain drops.

Andrew took the video camera and made an 'after-the-session' interview of us in the car, acknowledging the blast of the experience.

"What happened to you, Aiman?" Andrew asked.

"Oh, you know what happened after we overtook the motorcycle? I sorta lost balance and scraped my elbow on the road, tore thru my jacket. But I think it's not that serious, just a slight abrasion," Aiman explained, still wiping off the blood with tissue paper wet with rain drops.

"Man, that was freakin'!" Andrew said. "Well, we're going back home, I had a fun time riding with Furlong and part of his Team Hardcore Pavement, and I'm proud to be a team rider, coming all the way from Singapore! Credits go to Furlong the Malaysian pioneer, Aiman the Nutcracker, and what's your name?" he asked, pointing the camera to Aliyah.

"Aliyah," Aliyah said.

"Alright, thanks go to Aliyah for being our chase car driver, and we'll recap our experience in more detail when we get home," Andrew said as he finished the interview and shut off the camera.