Go Hill!!!

Watch video.

Ti project is finished!

She's finally finished, more photos here.

Days with my Father

Lovely and inspiring: http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/

Dress Shoe

It's been subtly suggested over the years that I should go buy myself some "nice" shoes so I caved in and finally bought myself some of these. They're as close to a "dress shoe" I'm going to get lol.


I also couldn't resist adding a new deck to the wall. Old Skool Santa Cruz Salba re-issue in greyscale. Niiiice.

In other news, my SexinArt.net site has been hacke and Google has taken it off their listings (wow the power). It's a combination of Wordpress and Servage (hosting provider) it seems as a billion other people hosting Wordpress sites on Servage have also been hacked. There's nothing I can do about it but move to a more secure server which is going to be a hassle and cost me more $$$.

The weekend wrap-up

The weekend felt long (maybe because I watched the tour de france and got all emotional about it?). For the first time in many weekeds Suga and I didn't go for a ride, the ride was instead substituted with alcohol abuse and junk food (nice).

Son Saturday we went to Sexpo for a laugh (we were careful not to laugh too loud when we weren't meant to lol).


The girls getting some shopping in.


This guy paints with his penis (great).


Swedish designer toys.


Elephant? Suga wanted to buy me this.

And today we had our JDMST end of month meet (EOMM) at JDMyard. Great turnout with a stand out Celica.



Funny how into bikes I am right now. I've hardly got any heart left for cars. When asked about how my GTR is going, all I could say was I am taking a break from it all, from cars and that I'm into mountain biking + health + saving cash... it's cool, people are cool. I'm happy. Life's great :)

OK enough spandex

World Cup 2008 - The world's best downhill mountain bikers will be fighting it out next month in Canberra, this is going to be greater than the olympics! I'll be there. You will be too I hope.

Go Cadel!!!

2009 Giants

GIANT: World Domination in 2009!







More pics here.

Uggies

Nyaw my baby bought me some Uggies. I promise not to wear them out!

Manly Dam on a work day (again).

OK I hope my clients aren't reading this... but I snuck out today to do a lap of the Dam with Charlie and Lockie. Had a crash on the last jump before the bottom of the downhill, the elbow pads work! Swoit!


Me.


Charlie loves the jumps.


Charlie's mate Lockie with new SPD's on today.

All in all, super happy with the Reign now with light Hope wheelset (still true after today, that's a good sign) + a fast rolling Larsen TT on the rear which is helping me lean into corners some more and not get any understeer.

Loftus

Whilst the pilgrims were busy at mass. Jing. Felix, Timmy, Clifton and I did Loftus again today. Young Timmy and Clifton pushed us last time and I was determined to try a few things this time that I hadn't tried before. It's awesome how everything that looks hard, isn't once you give it a good go. I had a bit of a stack (lol) going over some rocks, the camera's broken (kinda cool as I've always wanted to upgrade to a Canon IXUS) and my pride's a bit dented but Jing pushed me to give it another go, and I did, and got it, so all's great :)

PS: The TLD jersey I was wearing (looks like a soccer Jersey to me) kept me warm in the cold, but cool when I got hot too, highly recommend them. The 661 knee and shin pads were awesome, very happy.


Me.


Timmy never dissapoints with his XC gear lol.


Jing on his bling thing.


Clifton.


Felix.


Timmy demonstrating to me what happened before I flew over the handlebars.


Had to try it again, got it the 2nd time!

Oh Noes...

I said I would NOT mod this car.

Right?

WRONG.

Eddie was throwing out a set of Tein Super Street coilovers for FREE. The catch was that one of the dampers up front was not adjustable anymore as the knob was broken, not to mention the whole top thread being threaded. I got Deddy from Top One Automotive to re-thread the shock as well as adjust the one broken shock to 5 clicks from full stiff (set and forget aye?).

Fronts are as low as they will go, car feels good and isn't scraping on anything (hehe).

Position

Rode 25kms today and spent the whole time adjusting my saddle. It turns out that my saddle's been too far back (not height, not angle, but seat rails) and this has slowed me down so much. Moving the seat forward an inch has placed me over my cranks (and not behind them), and after a slight increase in seat height there's so much more power and response as a result.

The Reign's feeling fast again.

I've also decided to give up old skool 2 finger braking so I've moved my levers and shifters inwards on my bars and I'll be forcing myself to 1 finger brake from now on.

Also. I've been thinking the suspension, even though it's set for my weight, is too soft too so playing with that, and damper settings will be next (and I'm surel it'll take a while to perfect).

Monster X

Super nice day today, and since World Youth Day has taken over Centennial Park, Suga and I decided to check out Bicentennial Park. We found it pretty frustrating having walkers, joggers and kids all sharing the same path, and in both directions, not to mention the path didn't seem to loop so well (we ended up at Rhodes Ikea then on the road outside some industrial estate only to have to turn around and go back?). Anyways on the way around we saw some archers and then Suga spotted some dirt jumpers (whoo hoo!).


I spent the day fine tuning the gears on the Reign.


The course looks so cool.


I had about 5-6 goes, a dude there told me to practise on the 1st jump. I didn't manage to get air time long enough to land on the 2nd down transition but after a pedal slip on the 4th go (and having the pedal pins once again dig into my shins) I lost a bit of confidence and called it a day, great fun though.


Suga having a go!

BACK IN BLACK

What a beast! No need for words!!!

Back from Grip!

My Reign frame is back from Gripsports! She's satin black now... shit, did I just call him a she? Awesome.

T's

Just printed off 100 JDMST T's and a few Bike T's for biker pals (you know who you are, email me!) :)

Manly Dam - 3rd time lucky

OK I finally got to do the Dam today (thanks again Jing for lending me your Reign!) to test out my new Met Parachute helmet + 661 chicken elbows + knee pads. I should have worn my 661 knee/shin pads as those fucking nasty pedals got my shins again today. I was super dissapointed with the pads I did wear though, not that they move much but they really dig into my skin and feel uncomfortable. I hope they get more comfy with more use.

The Met Parachute on the other hand was awesome. It's light, airy, easy to get my Camelbak drink straw in there and I feel more confident with it on. Massive thumbs up from me.


The Reign's frame shape straps on to the Thule rack really well, sooo sturdy. Thanks Shimano for the free stickers, more than happy to RPRSNT!


Charlie and his STP + matchig shoes. Kids these days... (lol).


Nailed this nasty little uphill today on my 2nd attempt, got it now... I'm chuffed.




Charlie loves the jumps on the DH section but the Reign's just so awesome here, overtaking him on a different line felt too easy (felt like cheating). I'm dedicating myself and leaning into corners a lot more now, pretty happy with that and generally happy with how I went today as I cleared a few sections I hadn't done before (even the nasty climb out of the bottom which was massively satisfying).

This is rock 'n' roll

Got a call from Jon at Gripsport today to say my Reign frame is painted, and will be sent back to me tomorrow. It's time to rock 'n' roll!!!

Bingle

I just insured my Honda Jazz online with these guys (an online insurance company). Suoer cheap, great web site/user interface (simple, just how I love it). Awesome :)

Funn

Getting whiter (take that Michael Jackson). Funn bars for Suga's Talon.

Weekend of food

The ride on Saturday was great, but all that effort, fitness wise, was wasted as Suga and I just proceeded to non-stop eat all weekend.


We caught up with Zi and Gloria, Charles and Anna at PRIME at Sydney's GPO. I've eaten there a couple of times, and always went for the $155 wagyu (which is amazing), this time I went for the lesser grade $85 cut and fuck it was shit. Full of chunky fat bits, made me feel sick. It feels crap to pay out of your ass for shit service and a bad meal. Zi was super pissed. I'm sure he didn't sleep well that night lol. I'll not eat wagyu again this year.


Some bottles were $2000+.


Love the fancy ducanter. This $70 bottle was super nice.

On Sunday we had a relos lunch at Suga's place. That was always going to be decadednt. Wagyu was served too (lol), the smell of it alone made me feel sick.


Salmon + soy + nose bleeding wasabi FTW.


Love them or hate them. I love them.


Mornay! I'm not meant to eat cheese (I'm a soy boy), but I couldn't resist.


We caught Kungfu Panda, it's always refreshing to see animation on the big screen. Fun movie but the ending was a little too rushed.


More food at Nino's, Bondi Westfields. Fun night, the pasta was insane. I'm a huge pasta fan, and haven't had pasta as fresh as this in years (go the angel hair with balmain bugs). Dinner with my family's always hilarious. When my mother gets together with her two younger sisters it always ends up in dirty jokes and much belly laughter. Nicholas, my cousin who finished high school last year, was on a high from going to his first ever trance club (in Melbourne). Seeing him attempt the Melbourne Shuffle outside the restaurant in the mall was hillarious. Of-course I told him to not go there, 'cause the Melbourne shuffle is gay.

Lady Carrington Drive

Suga and I spent the day riding Lady Carrington Drive today out at the Royal National Park. Lovely little trail, very smooth and picturesque. Pics here.

Saint

09 Saint - I have my eyes on the groupset for the Reign.

Speaking of the Reign, the frame is still away being painted. Can't wait to get it back and go for a ride. Out of all the bikes I've ever owned, it's the only one that encourages me to push myself every single time I ride it.

Tow bar action

Today I got myself a tow bar and bike rack. Larke Hoskins Honda in Roseberry tried to charge me $660 for a tow bar fitted (WTF!). I called around and in the end a mate of a mate suggested Matador in Castel Hill who did the job for $275. They went as far as installing a plug too for lights on trailers, nice touch even though I won't be getting a trailer.

I was so impressed with Brad's Thule rack from last weekend that I dropped into Auto1 in Kensington on the way home and picked up a Thule bike rack for $189. So that's $464 all up, tow bar + Thule rack, shove that up your ass Honda.