The Woodford to Glenbrook Classic

Richie and Brad and his sexy little Mazda 2.


Sunday, no traffic? Must be dreaming.


Registering was a breeze.


MWG the machine.


Jing's Reign got me home.

Today I participated in the Woodford to Glenbrook Classic. I did it in 1:20:40 and our team the pixel pushies came in 3rd! 25km of true pain. Well I made it to the finish line at least (lol). Whilst I had a rad day I'm super disappointed in my lack of endurance strength.

I didn't have any of my bikes ready, so Jing very kindly lent me his Giant Reign for the day. I set her up last night and was a bit excited, but did manage to get a fair few hours sleep in. I got up at 5.30AM, had a bite and headed off to pick up Richie (my sisters husband). We got to Brad's place at 7AM, chucked the bikes on his cool Thule roofrack on the back of his sexy orange Mazda 2 and we were off.

Sunday, no traffic. Amazing! We got to the mountains damn quick (1 hour flat) and registered. Perfect weather, we were excited. The catch up with Brad was awesome. I hadn't seen the guy in forever, we met up with Matt (MWG) at the start line, Jing sent me an SMS to say he just got up, that really pissed me off, but the gun went off and away we went. Richie and I dropped back whilst everyone fought for position. I passed Matt as he was on the side of the road fixing a flat (lol). I caned a few rough downhill sections overtaking quite a few people only to have most of them overtake me back on the uphills. Richie passed me at some stage too and by the time I finally got to the crazy 10km downhill at the end I was exhausted (dead pretty much) which was a real shame as I imagined making up many positions down there.

In the end of the day the only people I overtook were the ones with flats on the side of the road. A guy with his baby son attached to the back of his bike overtaking me hurt a lot... then I was overtaken by a 13yr old girl who was making a lot of noise and complaining to me about a stitch whilst she overtook me. My ego/legs were gone at that stage and I just was happy to get to the finish line.

The massive grass hill and corner into the finish gate was awesome, the crowd cheering, the vibe. All smiles. Matt did a n utter time, Brad kicked it. Turns out Richie stopped for a piss break at some stage and I did beat him to the finish, Felix rocked up and we chilled for a bit before doing the most hardcore nasty road climb back out of the valley up to the station to get to our car back at Woodford. PAIN, Maccas on the way home (shhh), Sydney traffic, wash broken bike (shifter broke in trasnport, bum poo fuck), glass of wine, blog.

Poor Sam Hill

Ti project almost done

A few complications/problems. It won't get there for the race this weekend... but it'll get there eventually.

Back to square one

Fucking shit I bought a Jazz AGAIN. The S2000 is sold. If that doesn't prove my dedication to bicycles... (lol) I don't know what will!

Ti update

Ti rotor bolts, KCNC skewers.


Go the old school!


Thin and sexy


Ti bolts.


44g!

The Ti project is almost done!

Loftus Enduro

Did 25km's of Loftus this last weekend on the single speed. A couple of kids from Farkin showed us all the great bits, the trains we're working on the day so these guys rode to meet Jing and I in the carpark, for me, that ride alone would have killed me.

From the first few minutes into the ride it was already evident that these 18yr old kids had boundless energy. Keeping up was pretty hard but all in all I had a great day and really appreciate the guys showing Jing and I all the different trails at Loftus, not to mention pushing us to ride for a shitload longer and further than we usually would.

The single speed was shit. I was clipped in all day, which wasn't so confidence inspiring, and on the rocky downhill stuff the front end was so bumpy that I'd just understeer off the line (no suspension will do that to you I suppose?). I walked up a fair few hills on the 2nd part of the ride, lol. Pretty embarassing.

All in all it was a great day and the single speed was different but I've decided the single speed's best for the road/around the block bashy.

Pics here.

08 Cycle King Carbon Saddle (94g)

Work of art! It's modelled off a Selle SLR too which I find comfy, so hopefully this isn't going to be too uncomfy!

New goodies for the Ti project

Hope Mono Mini's.


Floating rotors.


Syntace carbon bar.


Syntace stem

Go'n get!

Fuck IE. IE is shit. Firefox 3 is out. Download it, use it and abuse it NOW.

Din Tai Fung

Found: Sydney's best dumplings. Hands down. Din Tai Fung

Say goodbye to army green

Electrician came today and I was without electricity for a few hours. I twiddled my thumbs for a second... no internet, no TV... what the fuck am I gonna do now? I stared at the Reign for a few minutes, the rear wheel came off, then the front, then everything else did too. I'll be packing it tomorrow and off to Grip it goes for a re-spray.

Shitload of parts

Got a shitload of parts today for the Ti Project. Best to check Flickr for the pics.

The Jury

Today I am missing the band. Here's a video taken recently. A 15 year re-union. My guitar sounds shit... I can't sing... but man it was fun. Miss these guys heaps, miss the music, the energy... maybe one day we'll finish our recordings (older 1993 songs recorded at Troy Horse Studios here).

Loftus Oval

Went for a ride today at Loftus Oval with Christina, we met Felix at the carpark and had a great 2hour climb to the top. Both Christina and Felix did so well, myself included as I made it through some technical parts that I've never been able to clear as well as the first massive climb on the fire trail (I finally feel at home climbing on the Reign!).


Love how the Vet sign mimics to Mobil sign.


Felix was grinning ear to ear.


Suga did so well.


The view at the top.




Happy with the ride, starving... what better a way to fend off the cold weather with a hot bowl of Ichi-ban Boshi Ramen?!

Join the army

My sisters' husband Richie's new Trance which we picked up a few minutes ago from Maroubra Cycles. I'm so glad he didn't get a $1k hardtail, but instead forked out that bit more to get this bike which will out last a hardtail in my opinion.


Ti goodness! I also finally (It's been sitting there in a massive box in the entrance of my house for months!) got my Mugen exhaust fitted today by Beau and Brad at Westside Mufflers. Car feels more responsive and the exhaust itself is so much lighter than the stock item and only just loud enough to let me know there's an exhaust back there.

Childhood dreams

I used to dream about owning this gear when I was a kid. When I saw this brand new, never used vintage Shimano Deore XT M735 front derailleur on eBay I couldn't resist. Sold for $10.60! She's light too at 129g (lighter than all that new school shit, even lighter than XTR!). I'm planning to whack her on the Ti frame :)

Appetite for Destruction

Blackspire 32t

Got my Blackspire 32T single speed chainring in the mail today, lovely! Weight is now at 9.24kg.

Hong Kong Fixed Gear

Whoo hoo, my photoshopped Jessica Alba image just got plugged on hkfixed, my fave bicycle blog out there.

Long story short, but Jing was sending me images of ugly girls on ugly bikes, so I mocked this up and sent him an image of a hot girl on his hot bike, easy (lol).

Russian Blue

Freaky cat culture.


Cat judging.


Puddies!

Christina and I are looking for a Russian Blue. We've done a fair bit of Google/Youtube (well, she's done a lot more Youtube than I have) and we're pretty sure it's the right cat for us.

Today we went to a cat show out at Hornsby RSL (another fucking world, all a bit freaky really!). Of-course we couldn't resist playing the pokies + roulette as well (lol).

Cutting steerer tubes

I'm a perfectionist, so I cut down the steerer tubes on both my bikes this weekend as I wanted to eliminate the need for ugly spacers. A bit of a scary thing to do, especially considering I don't have the special tools to do it with.


Dodgey tool + patience = no worries.


Before, see the ugly massive spacer above the stem?


After, not a single ugly spacer on there. Looks tight. I love it.

Ldy

Suga's new saddle. We both hate the "Ldy" font. Fucking designers, lol.


All done! (yeah right!).


My new Oakley Gascans. I paid $90 for these... that usually gets me 5 pairs of sunnies. I hope not to lose them, or destroy them too quickly.

Schwalbe Nobby Nic

Suga's tyres came in today. There's something wrong with me, for sure, as I think they're totally porno... who in their right minds could think that of a tyre? Fucking hell. Definitely something wrong with me.


I put them on with love.


Oh my. Is that jealousy I am feeling? Fuck yes that's it! I am so jealous of these tyres... I want them for the Ti project!


Going down! Old tyres were 700g each, these ones are 492/507g. I put Maxxis fly weight tubes in there too.


I also got her a set, front and rear, of Knog frogs (go Aussie!!!). They're great!

The Woodford to Glenbrook Classic

I've just paid my entrance fee to for the NRMA CareFlight Woodford to Glenbrook Classic. Sooo looking forward to it. MWG's heading up the team (our team name's "The pixel pushers" who the fuck came up with that shit name Matt?). It's a 25km ride. Endurance is so not my thing. I am semi-tempted to ride the single speed, but I'm leaning towards riding the Reign, sure it'll be slow, but it'll be fun too. My game plan will be to go off the main line and overtake as many people as I can on the downhills and only to let a few of those people overtake me back on the uphills. Should be fun! Got a bike? Why not enter yourself. It's for a great cause.

1991 Bell Mountain Bike Nationals

I was just going through my sticker collection to look for something odd to stick on my BMX frame and I found these massive stickers.

I'm pretty sure I still have my number somewhere, and my childhood friend Eugene Kee might have pictures and perhaps even a results sheet. I'm trying to contact him through Facebook at the moment. Should be fun!

I'm wondering if there are still trails to be ridden there. I remembered it as being a pretty damn hardcore downhill (DH) course. I loved it. Even though I loved DH back then I went pretty shit and did a lot better in the uphill race. I came 13th (I overtook 3 people walking my Cannondale on my shoulder up a technical section lol).

I also remember a guy stopping me when I was scouting the downhill track and ask if I was the pro Japanese rider. LOL. I blame that on the Cannondale I had at the time which I built frame up using money I made from working the night shift at Woolies.

Ah the memories. I'm off to eBay to go hunt down some vintage 91 Deore XT thumbies now :)

5th PLACE!

My God. Go MWG!

JDMST May End of month meet (EOMM)

My S2000.

Last night's JDMST meet was awesome, as always. We met up at Fox Studios this time around, had dinner and drinks at the Fox and Lion downstairs. With about 20-30 cars on the night, the old skool small meet vibe is back and I love it (300 cars at Reading Cinemas was scary).

Centennial Park

Suga coming down.

We went to Centennial Park for a few laps today to get some km's on Suga's new Talon. We got bored of the path, so went off it for a bit ;)

More pics