Suspension system - of bumpy or bouncy ride

If any of your friends are complaining about the ride comfort problem they experienced with Toyota Avanza, please refer them to this article.

It is a known issue that the suspension system of Toyota Avanza does not give a promising ride, although improvement has been made for the 1.5 version from the earlier 1.3 version to minimize the effect.

Some people says it is "bumpy", while some other says it is "bouncy". For my experience, it is not bumpy but bouncy.

A vehicle is bumpy if its suspension is stiff. Stiffer suspension makes the car feel more responsive and more direct to the road condition. When the suspension encounters a bump, you will feel the car is "jumping", and in severe case, you will feel your buttock lifts up from the seat a bit whenever a bump is encountered. Normally, cars designed for performance ride (eg. sports cars), those designed for off-road driving (eg. 4WD), and those designed to carry heavy loads (eg. trucks), have stiffer suspension and might bring you a bumpy ride experience. This is not true for Toyota Avanza.

A vehicle is bouncy if its suspension is soft. When the suspension encounters a bump or running on uneven road, you will feel the car is bouncing up and down. The ideal condition for a car to cross a bump is to rebounce once, but a bouncy car will rebounce more than one time before the suspension stabilized again. This is exactly what happen to the Toyota Avanza.

To overcome the bounciness problem of Toyota Avanza, one can modify the original suspension system with the right combination of coil springs and shock absorbers. Several options can be found in AOCM, which vary in different pricing and level of comfortableness.

In addition, you can also enhance the ride comfort, increase stability and reduce the bounciness of Toyota Avanza by installing Ultra Racing bars, which is highly recommended by AOCM members. These bars can really make a big difference to the ride comfort and drive handling of Toyota Avanza. I'll share about my experience on installing and using the Ultra Racing bars in the next article.

WCIT 2008 will be held in Kuala Lumpur soon

The World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT), a global IT event held every 2 years, hosted by Malaysia this year, this event will be held in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on this 18-22 May 2008. It is jointly organized by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) and the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (PIKOM), with the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia.

Themed “The Global Impact of Information and Communications Technology: Enable Businesses, Empower Societies, Enrich Economies”, this five-day event is expected to draw more than 2,500 delegates from over 80 countries. Keynote speakers are expected to include some of the most respected and admired names in Government and industry.

If you are in the IT industry, you shouldn't miss out this event.

HOMEDEC 2008 is around the corner

HOMEDEC (Home Decoration Exhibition) 2008 will be held in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre just beside the Petronas Twin Towers on this 1-4 May 2008, 10am-8pm.

More than 200 exhibitors will showcase their products and services on interior designs, furnitures, lightings, landscaping, home appliances, home accessories, home security, etc.

Speakers for seminar in this event including Eric Leong, Henry Fong, Toh Chee Lip, etc.

If you plan to perform renovation or upgrade your home, you could probably get some idea from this event.