Little fiddle

Whilst waiting for the F1 to start last night I started fiddling with the Kink. I whacked on a carbon spacer to replace the alloy ones it came with and also replaced the brake cable end crimp with one of my signature black ones.

Weekend schmeekend

We had 7 riders on Saturday at Manly Dam (Sydney's spiritual home of mountain biking... I love how that rolls off the tongue!). The trail was super busy too but no-one really got in our way, if anything we got in other peoples way! It was an awesome ride, the heat was on and all of us suffered under the sun but no one complained. Charlie and I are really getting a bit silly with how fast we're doing some of the sections, we pushed pretty hard on the last section back to the Dam hucking off everything in sight and I was left buzzing like no other ride I've had before. Now for some pics:


I always pack all my gear up the night before and put it downstairs so I don't wake Christina up too much (and so I don't forget anything!).


Andy's rides.


Matt's rides.


Charlie's Altezza.


Charlie's a funny guy.


Charlie.


Richie, Matt and Andy.


Charlie had a mad slam just before the creek at the end of the DH section.


We chilled at the creek for a while whilst Charlie recovered from the fall.


Felix's friend Peter's old school 90's cool.


Charlie doing it hard up heartbreak hill. Spot the walkers!!!

SUNDAY: Suga's Dad's B'day today, check the feast!!!


A whole crackling pig!!! Always a massive feast at the Suga's!


Peppa and I.


Nyaw peppa.


The Lock's!

In other news: I de-stickered my new BMX (couldn't help myself):


De-stickered Kink Apex.

And shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck my internet is fucking capped again (until Wednesday). It's OK though I stocked up on some BMX/MTB magazines earlier today! Bahaha.

Kink Apex

Well I finally caved in and bought myself a BMX bike. Jing's been pushing me to do so for the past week and I've been doing hours of research since (going out of my mind).

Initially I thought I'd be able to walk into a shop with $500 and buy a decent "complete" BMX ("complete's" are ready to ride bikes) but on checking a few completes out I felt that all of them looked a bit try hard. It's almost like they were trying to look custom.

As a skater back in the day (lol) there wasn't any such thing as a "complete" skateboard (unless you bought one from Kmart). You bought a deck you liked, then the trucks you liked, wheels and basically personalised your own board. Skate culture rocks and BMX culture is pretty similar so I really wanted to do it right an go custom.

I had a play with adding things to a basket on an online BMX store. Frame $400, cranks $350... that's already $750!!! By the time I had finished my build it came to $1700+. That quickly put an end to the idea of going custom. I had a little look at some 2nd hand bikes, rattled off a few private messages to sellers on forums and on eBay (to waste their time of-course) but decided I couldn't trust buying a BMX bike off some 12yr old kid who's thrashed it harder than I ever would.

So today I went for a drive out to Belrose cycles to check out their 2009 range of We The People (WTP) bikes. When I finally got to the store I saw a few lower end WTP bikes and again, all that paint, colours, skulls... they were just trying way too hard.

I eyed off a simple black BMX in the corner, turns out it the top of the line 2009 model Kink Apex. Kink Bike Co. are a brand that hails from NYC and I got thinking that the black was a good base to start with if I wanted to add some colour to it in future. The bike's RRP was a whopping $1300 but I walked away with it for $899.00 (thanks Adrian!) so despite being a lot of cash for such a little and simple bike. I'm happy. Now for some pics (the bike will be de-stickered tonight of-course lol!).

Dumplings and wheelsets

Last night Suga and I and a few Saatchi crew went to the Burlington Centre in Chinatown for hand made noodles and dumplings. It's been a haunt of mine for over 10 years now. There's always a queue to get in there... in fact in all these years I've never ever been able to just walk in and grab a table. There's a glass window where you'll usually see a sweaty guy whacking some noodles (not whacking his noodle), there are strange carpets on the wall and plastic grapes hanging off the ceiling (something to do with the French overtaking part of China? I'm shit with history). The food is dirty but sooo yummy. I'd recommend the pan fried pork and chives dumplings, or a dumpling boodle soup, the combination noodles and the eggplant dish.


Pre-dinner drinks. Shaun and little Justin, Christine's cousin who's 'turning 16' (ie: he's not 15!) and on work experience at the stock exchange. What a little shark!


Best dumpling noodle soup in Sydney.


The crazy grapes (now that's a cool band name!).


Pan friend pork and chive dumplings.


I call this the Asian Spaghetti Bolognaise.

On another note, my Chain Reaction Cycles order came in lightning fast once again (1 week from the UK!). I love the idea of supporting local but when these guys can slash prices by 50% and ship for free it makes it hard.

Whilst I dreamt of getting a porn Industry 9 wheelset I ended up getting a set of Mavic 819's which are UST/tubeless ready with double butted DT spokes and Hope hubs. They weigh in at a hefty 1944g a set. No more weight weenie for me!!! I'll be running them non UST as I like my current Stick-E and DTC rear set-up and the UST Nevegals have had some bad reviews.


A lot beefier than the 717's but a lot heavier too at 1944g the set.


Tubeless ready.


13.26kg - going up!


Also treated myself to this massive fuck off pump. It's awesome!


And I finally got myself a light wind/rain jacket that scrunches up into a tennis ball which I'll always have in my Camelbak when riding from now on.

Mad Poseurs

A while back Jing posted images of himself wearing his new full face in his bathroom.


Jing 1 - this is the shot that started it all.


Just when I thought Jing couldn't out do the shot above.


I couldn't resist. And now my own contribution to join Jing in the poseur hall of fame LOL.

Jazz gets a wheel alignment

I dropped in to Heasmans today to visit Doug Heasman, Peter and his son Chris for a wheel alignment on the Jazz. I installed the coilovers ages ago now and I never bothered with a wheel alignment, mainly because I was just too lazy. LAZY IS BAD! The tyres have been screetching badly on right hand corners not to mention understeering like a motherfucker all the time. I haven't been complaining though it's made the car even more interesting to drive lol. Kind-of like a challenge but I knew this was going to lead to some pretty bad tyre wear so I booked it in.


Doug was busy backing in an R8 when I got there.


Nice and easy does it, she's in the bay.

I had an hour to burn so I took a long walk down to Newtown to check out Hell on Wheels BMX shop which was so ridiculously chock with cool shit I could have dropped $10k in there but I'm glad I didn't. Newtown's still got it though, despite being attacked by yuppie cancer it's still cooler than other suburbs around town.


Bombed van.


OMFG they were shut!!!

The drive home was super fun, the Jazz feels completely different. Cornering is a lot heavier now, heavier steering doesn't always equate to better steering feel but in the case of the Jazz anything is better than nothing! Doug's always setting my cars up as aggressive as possible. I don't even have to ask him anymore, love the guy and love his work.

I came home and found a parcel at my doorstep:


Specialized Deviant with Oakley O-Frame goggles (hmmm not sure about the gold, wish they had the flouro green!).


It's light, fits really snug and make me look hard even in the bathroom mirror.... bahahahah!

Steve Peat

Peaty's my age and he's still competing in downhill mountain biking and finishing top 5 every time. Inspirationment! This clip is one of my favorite clips from the Seasons DVD. It's just shot so well, the soundtrack for this clip "My Love" by The Sessions also fucking rocks.

OMFG

Chris King is now making BB's. Things are getting bling. Buy me buy me buy me! It's almost as if they've directly targeted their new new products at me.

Memories

I just came across a Cannondale brochure from 1990 and I've finally tracked down the bike I used to have. It was a 1990 Cannondale SM1000. One down from top of the line. I bought the frame in Hong Kong, packed it in a suit case and built it from scratch. I remembered taking in kitchen scales into Europa cycles in the city and weighing parts (I was a weight weenie even back then) only to have the guys in the shop laugh at me. I used BMX brake levers for less weight, flouro green brake cables for style. I had some custom wheels made up with double butted spokes and I worked at Europa cycles for many weekends and was given a Deore XT rear derailleur for payment. The bike came in at 11kg's if I remember right. I loved it a lot, and sold it for an amazing lot of money in the trading post (a few thousand if I remember right!) in order to buy my first motorcycle.

Gary Fisher does the Dam

MWG pointed me to Bikeradar which has a little interview with Gary Fisher who is practically THE MAN that INVENTED the mountain bike. Gary was in Sydney and where did the Australian mountain bike fraternity take him for a ride? M A N L Y D A M ! My fave trail! I've always felt like it was an absolute privilege to ride the Dam. If it's good enough for Gary, it's good enough for me! :)

Full article here.

In other news, a few hours ago Jing just went out and bought the Fit BMX bike I was drooling over a couple of blog posts below. LOL. He's too fast (too furious?). He's just uploaded images of it to his Flickr.

Headhoods.com

A couple of weeks ago I came across these awesome hoodies at Headhoods.com and had to buy myself the Lego one on the spot. Christina also got one for herself and her sister. I love hoodies and I love Lego too. Perfect!

Balls, decks and BMX

Had a chat with the boys last night over msn about their ride at Lucas Heights/Menai earlier that Sunday. Andy, who only just bought his new bike a few weeks ago, did his first ever trail ride at Manly Dam last Saturday with Felix. That's doing it tough as the Dam is fairly technical, and definitely not a great place for a beginner, but how's this... Andy tagged along with the boys (Jing, Clifton and Timmy) to Lucas Heights/Menai yesterday! Brand new bike, never been on a trail, the Dam on Sat, Menai on Sun. That takes the cake!

Menai's definitely harder than the Dam. I called Clifton pre-ride to make sure he looked after Andy (funny how I asked an 18yr old to take care of Andy, and not Jing, who's 25 but has the state of mind of a 16yr old lol). I had Andy on my msn last night and he was absolutely buzzing from the weekend, especially going over the handlebars on a rocky section!

Speaking of rocky sections. I thought the boys would be all over this section I did last week, especially since little Timmy had the nerve to comment on my video (he told me to 'get of the brakes you pussy') but apparently no one even tried it! LOL! Bahahaha! I heard all sort of excuses (talk). Timmy was sick (awwwww poor timtims), Clifton was casting some negative scary voodoo and apparently is was a hot day and they were tired yadda yadda). I'm a bit dissapointed in them for not even trying it, but at the same time I'm happy that I'm still one up!

In other news: Zi just pointed me out to this eBay auction for a Giant Reign. The eBayer has stolen 2 of my images for his auction listing.

Also: Jing's got me thinking BMX again (the guy is insane, one week it's obsessing about dirt jump bikes, the next it's freeride/slopestyle bikes, the next it's downhill bikes, this week it's going to be BMX!). He pointed me out to a store in Newtown called Hell on Wheels which I already had bookmarked a while back for their awesome skate gear. I trawled through the site last night, what a mad shop! I'm sure I could blow thousands in there on T's and more decks for the wall. Must. Steer. Clear.

Churrasco!

Suga had planned for the Saatchi crew to come over to Maroubra for some beach, beer and bbq this Saturday as it was predicted to be a scorcher (and what a scorcher it was!). It was so hot I thought I was going to run out air at one point, but then again that could've just been my state of intoxication.

Renato manned the BBQ and served up some rumpalicious churrasco (Brazilian style BBQ). A ridiculous amount of alcohol was consumed by all, music Nazi's were all over the iPod dock and some furious pong action was had (it was way cooler in the house than out). I was having too much fun to take pics, it was only at 7pm that I realised I'd lost the camera somewhere!

SUNDAY: I had planned to meet up with the boys to ride Menai this morning but I woke up way too late for the ride so Suga and I worked the hangover off with a ride at Lady Carrington Drive instead, which was lovely (despite the traffic to and from). We also dropped in to Kim's to pick up a few new pieces for the tank (some pics below).


Pong On!


Churrasco!


Saatchi crew.


My mate (he's my mate now) Kooka.


Cracked iPhone.


Blacke + Christine.


Asahi - My precious.


New cati.


Some new rare purple zoas.

Good Samaritans

It's always great to stock up on good Karma. Zi dropped in (with his new Jazz yo!) for lunch today and we stopped to help a lady change her flat tyre. Zi got his hands a bit dirty in the process so I got to drive his new Jazz to lunch.

It looks and feels a lot bigger and more solid than the old Jazz, from the look and feel of the dash/interior right down to flicking the indicator stalks. The smooth CVT transmission of the old Jazz is now gone too, and instead you get your typical auto slush box, but strangely a typical auto gearbox feels and sounds a lot gruntier than the CVT. The car brakes 100 times better than the old one and the steering is a lot sharper too.

Owned!

Suga owned!

I organise my life one sticky note at a time (lol) which is why I'm always forgetting things, and missing dates, but Christina (my saviour) got me on to Google Calendar and damn it's frikkin awesome! I love it, and will embrace it. I'm pretty sure this is a life changing moment for me.

In other not as exciting news: I've just uploaded some of my artwork to Flickr. I've also started a Sex in Art Flickr Group.

2nd year anniversary

Well it's been 2 years since Suga and I started dating, and what an awesome 2 years it's been. I've just been so ridiculously happy the entire time. When people ask me "Hey Justin how've you been?" I don't reply with "yeah alright", or "yeah good" I reply with "FUCKING GREAT!". w00t!

Last night we planned to drop in to pony at The Rocks for dinner and we were instantly greeted by Ioannis, the Restaurant Manager. I'd only been to pony once before and on that night this guy with a shocked expression on his face called out to me: "Justin?!?!!", turns out he was one of the little kids who used to live on my street in Kensington when I was growing up! Seriously, the last time I'd seen this guy he was 4ft tall, 8yrs old and had a curly afro! For him to somehow recognise me was insane!


Ioannis: He's the man.

Anyways, Ioannis (pronounced 'Yani') was totally booked out for the night. He still insisted on trying to sort a table out for us, and sat us down at the bar, got Christina a lovely glass of red and myself a beer, as well as some finger food. What a guy. Christina and I agreed that he's just one of those people that you like instantly. I felt pretty uncomfortable with the free drinks and food, as well as him trying so hard to fit us in for the night that I just grabbed his card and said we'd be back for dinner another night (and we'll be sure to book it in next time!).


Doricious.

So for dinner, Suga and I ended up strolling over to Doyles to feast on some Dori (mmm Dori).

Another hard day at the office

Well Charlie and I snuck out of work again today and we hit up Lucas Heights/Menai this time as Charlie's not done anything other than Manly Dam. I'm really not sure I like Menai. It definitely doesn't flow. There's a LOT of walking to do and overall it just gets repetitive. There are some really nice tech rock bits though that you can hang out at, and that we did.


This massive rock structure has been on my mind ever since I first saw it. We (the boys) had never attempted it the first 2 times we've been there but today I was determined to give it a go.


I think I can.


I think I can.


I think I can.


Going back up SATISFIED!


Charlie the man, he did it too and took a way cleaner line than I did. He's awesome at picking lines and to think he's doing it all, up and down, on an STP dirt jump bike, that's just awesome.

Here's a video:

disassociated

I just came across this post on John Lampard's blog: disassociated. Made me smile. I used to live by "go with the flow" but John once said to me "only dead fish go with the flow", and that kinda changed my lazy way of thinking back then (I love a kick in the butt, well, not literally).

John was there in 1999 at the very first Australian INfront meeting with myself and Andrew Johnstone, founder of Design is Kinky. We were first generation bloggers back then (having a personal homepage wasn't even called "blogging" as there was no blogger!). Whilst I definitely stopped blogging many years ago I think John has never stopped!

Keep it real John! Much respect.

Post in the post

My Thomson masterpiece (read: blang!) seatpost came in today for the Scott Scale. It's 191g and brings the weight of the bike down to 9.72kg.

I can now give Jing his Scott seatpost back and the bike is officially complete. I like it a LOT more than the Ti, but I love my Reign a shitload more. Great that they're both such different bikes to each other though, that's a good thing.

Weekend kebabs

For Christina, Friday night usually ends with drinks at the pub across from her work but this Friday night her boss was away and so his flatmate Shaun, who lives with the boss, invited us all over to their place for a party (lol). I was already pretty pissed when I got there, a few more mixed drinks later and I passed out, had a chuck, got up and went home (lol yeah one of those nights!).


The girls.


Renato man beast.


Shaun man beast.


Of-course we broke into the Bosses room and jumped on his bed. Here's his underwear draw.


We played with his pussy too.

SATURDAY - Saturday day Suga, Mum and I checked out some home show out at the Hordern Pavillion, it sucked ass. I'm renovating the house at the end of this year and it's almost getting time to start buying stuff for the build. Saturday night we went to Azuma Japanese Restaurant for Christina's sister Jess' B'day. We stuffed ourselves on the degustation menu, which started out great but just got worse and worse. After dinner Suga and I went into the cross for one of her friends B'day parties at World Bar. I usually hate the cross, but the vibe wasn't so seedy this night, perhaps because we were early (and they were late). World bar was loud (we couldn't talk it was that loud). Maybe I'm just old but I'd rather be at a mate's place, or a pub/bar where you can actually have great conversations rather than sit there trying to look cool.


Jess and Rosemary.


Azuma dish.


I love salmon.


World Bar.


World Bar - Suga loves her iPhone.


Huh?


Suga getting out of her ouchy heels.

SUNDAY - My sisters husband Richie was free today (whoo hoo he got off the leash!) and he was up for a ride with the boys (myself, Jing, Felix and Clifton). I woke up at 5am to hard rain, at 8am it was still pissing down. After a few SMS'es we decided we were still up for it. Jing almost bailed out, and only needed a bit of encouragement to get out of bed. Felix bailed out which was a shame as I think he would have had a ball. We got there to find a few riders packing up, and all of them had massive grins on their faces (oh yes a great sign... surfs up!). As soon as we got going on the single trail we were giggling like naughty boys, the rain made it hard to see. Mud went flying into my eyes and mouth... it was such awesome dirty fun! Definitely the most fun I've had at Loftus, hands down. Oh, also... I scored a flat! Yes my 1st flat EVER. That's just ridiculous hey?! I was going over a pretty sharp big rock structure at the time and I was also running a thinner rear tyre (2.1) and 30psi. The 2.1 wide Nevegals are so much faster than the 2.35 wide tyres I had on there before. I felt a massive difference on longer gradual uphills and cornering is just as great so it looks like I have a winning tyre combo at last.


2.1 Nevegal Stick-e sticky compoud on the front for more cornering grip.


And a 2.1 Nevegal DTC on the rear for faster rolling.


Pissing down at the car park.


I almost got it the 1st time (dabbed a foot on the rock) but made it the 2nd time (and scored a pinch flat doing so). Photo by Jing.


Skid marks (lol). Photo by Jing.


Muddy goodness.


Richie did well to fight his hangover.


Clifton and Jing.


More muddy goodness.


After a quick hose down and a hot shower Suga and I grabbed a hot Laksa at the jungo (that's Maroubra Junction to everyone else).

GillespieFox

It's been a long time coming (we haven't updated our folio in 4 years!) but Caryn Gillespie and I have finally launched our new site!

You can check it out here:
http://www.gillespiefox.com/

The Carbon One Helmet

Today I'm dreaming of this helmet which is on sale at TBSM for $359 this week only.

MWG bike night

Matthew brought his Carbon Scott Scale over tonight (well, he rode it over from work in the city). It's massive! (check out the size difference between his Scale and mine in the pic above). He'd been dying to weigh it, so it literally went straight on the scales and weighed in at 10.98kg's. Nice weight considering it's a large and has a lot of heavy parts on it (all of which will be replaced with lighter parts over time I'm sure).

Much bike talk was had, Seasons on DVD, a "healthy" Crust pizza, apple juice and of-course I got to play with the Carbo a little :) We set up his front fork sag as well as lowered his stem for a more aggressive XC stance and position.

Another hard day in the office

Working for myself, and from home is paying off big time this year. I'm starting to not feel so guilty for ducking out for a part of the day to go riding (I'm even starting to rub it in a bit to the full timers hehe).

Today Charlie and I hit up the Dam. I decided to take the Scott Scale of-course.

The Scale was fast from the outset. Manly Dam has a nasty little heart starter of a road climb before the trail even starts (carpark to the school) and it was evident right there that the Scale was fast. It feels very much like a road bike! Soon after the school there's a sneaky pinch of a hill which I've never gotten up, usually because I'm not warmed up yet, or I usually couldn't be bothered so early on the trail, but today I got out of the saddle and mashed it, the Scale exploded up the hill no problems. Ridiculous really.

The single trail section of the dam was so fast on the Scale, there's a bit of rock work here and there which really bucks the bike around but I found that dropping a bit of speed for the rocks wasn't a problem because a few revolutions of the crank and the Scale just accelerates back up to speed so effortlessly.

The downhill section though was definitely where the rigid frame (or is it the geometry or both?) showed it's weaknesses. I was nowhere near any sort of comfort zone and instead of mashing it down I was instead coasting, having to pick smoother lines and when I found myself off a smooth line I was just holding on and riding light.

All in all the bike is amazing in tight flat single trail, amazing up hills (heartbreak hill was way too easy and I have to mention that Charlie did it without a granny gear on his STP, what a man!) but on rough stuff it's just super harsh and far from confidence inspiring. The bike doesn't like jumping, even hucking it off the steps wasn't easy (after a while I just didn't bother and rolled down steps instead). I also feel the tires are way too thin as I had troubles tracking on rockier surfaces.

At the end of the lap we had a little race back up to the school just to burn off the bit of energy we had left and the Scale, once again, just rocketed up the road. It's almost better on road than it is off road!!! All in all I'm happy, little whippet did great. I feel much more relaxed and less tired than I usually would feel if I rode the Reign. Is that a good thing?


Charlieeeeeeee.


Charlie taking a fall at the end of the downhill section.


The Scale just doesn't like to jump, or huck for that matter.


I was happy to just relax and cruise home behind this bus.


Little whippet did good today.

Whipper snipper

I've finished setting up the bike, she's fast! That's for sure.

There's an annoying mouse like squeek coming from the rear cassette. I'll have to take it off to inspect what it is exactly. I forgot to buy derailleur cabling and since I'm an impatient fucker I used the lightweight crap I had lying around (it doesn't fit too well in the Scott's cable clamps). The bars I have at 580mm are way too narrow for my liking and I absolutely hate the foam grips. I'll look at getting some wider bars, most likely still a flat bar too.




10.02kg.

My new XC whippet

It's official. I rammed the final nail in my Ti project last night.

Jing came around to drop off my Scott Scale frame and fork which he sold to me last week. We took off his parts and whacked on what we could off the Ti bike.

The Scale frame uses full jacket housing all the way (nice) and I've decided not to use the funky lightweight alligator/nokon style cabling from the Ti, but instead settle for normal housings. I'm also going to need a seatpost + clamp as the Scale uses a strange size. Jing's letting me borrow his one in the meantime. Apart from that I have to get the LBS to help me remove and replace crown races but after that I'll be ready to roll.

The Fizik Alliante XM saddle I bought for the Reign will go on this bike for more comfort. And for once I didn't weigh anything. I didn't weigh the frame, the Truvative BB... nothing! I'm going to try my best to curb the weenie and stay functional on this build.


What no clip in pedals?! Tough titties!


Nice touch: These little dudes support full cable housing on top tube.

Andy's new bike

I dropped in to Maroubra Cycles today to help Andy buy a bike. Andy had been riding a BMX up until now. He did consider a Talon hardtail (like Christina's bike) but I convinced him to go dual (well, maybe he convinced himself). Giant make an entry level dually called the Yukon SX (2009 model is called the Halo) which got pretty damn good reviews, both locally and internationally, in magazines I've read (here's one article). I'm looking forward to more riders to ride with! :)


New bike smile.


Grant's (store owner) amazing Yamaha. Cafe Racer stylezzzzz.


New 09 Alias running SLX + small block 8's.


Masi fixed gear in the window with Sugino crankset (JDM yo!).


My Reign's back together again. The wheels are now true and dished correctly too. Wider bars feel strange. Looking forward to testing them out on the trails this week/end.

I'm in a Japanese band I'm not telling you about?

My mate Andrew Chan just send me this pic he took in Japan. He says the guy on the left looks like me (but more buff lol), it's always got to be some Japanese guy doesn't it?!

Eurobike 2008

Teisuke Morimoto has just uploaded a billion pictures from Eurobike 2008 - A lot of the 2009 gear looks nuts. JEALOUS. I wish there were shows like this in Sydney. I'd geek out so hard.

PS:

The tennis balls are opening up!


My clowns are still very much as cute as ever :)

Weekend Wrap-Up

Big weekend this weekend. No riding at all, too much food and I'm absolutely wasted right now after going through a bottle of good stuff solo (too drunk to sleep lol).

Suga and I ate at Kelly's Grill at Bondi Junction on Friday night. I only wanted to eat ribs as I'd been craving Hurricanes lately but to our surprise Kelly's ribs were jucier and tastier that any ribs I'd ever eaten. w00t! For the first few minutes I felt a bit guilty for eating the meat with my hands as the ladies on the table to the left of me were daintily cutting their steaks with their knives and forks, and the romantic couple on the table right of me were trying to look good whilst chewing their food, but after a while I just bogged in hard. Felt great, man, meat, monster, animal. Good. We watched Tropic Thunder at the cinema after the meal, and whilst I was balling for the first 5 minutes, the rest of the movie just failed to surpass the ribs.

Saturday night was nuts. We were invited over to Nanami and Shaun's place for dinner and we also had a burlesque party to go to afterwards (Janice, one of Christina's work friends B'day party). It had been raing hard all day, it was fucking freezing as we waited for over 15 minutes for a bus into the city (would be easier if they just let us drink and drive?).


Thanks God then that Nanami's place was warm, funnily enough it's the same apartment that I used to live in a fair few years ago. In the picture L2R: Shaun, Richie, Christina, Kellie, Christian (my brother from another mother) and Nanami.


Nanami's studio.


Nanami skate deck (I so want).

As great as the conversation and Arthurs Pizza was, not to mention a tempting invite to stay and watch The Karate Kid again on DVD (Sweep the Leg Johnny!) Suga and I bailed out to go to Janice's party.


Janice's party at Tatlers.


Suga and Janice.


Flavio, Tom + Suga.


Sugaaaaaaah.

Sunday: Fathers day is now split (same goes for Xmas, or any other family occassion) between Suga's family + my family. I spent lunch with Suga's family today. Suga's mum founded the Chinese Parents Association (CPA). The CPA's a non-profit, charitable incorporated organisation which aims to help children and adults with disabilities especially those of Chinese origin to realise their full potential as well as to promote the needs, rights and well-being of people with disabilities and their families.

I had no idea Christina's mum was the brainchild of such a massive project. The CPA had it's 20th anniverary in Bankstown (at a wedding reception building in Bankstown, lol so hardcore) and she was literally greeted with tears and lots of love upon entry. She was praised in speeches and even invited to make a speech. I'm so proud of her!


Christina's family.


CPA.


The directors + the kids who performed dances (to Brittney Spears no less) and played music (funny but super cool).


Christina's younger sister Jess with a bit of JDM yo in the background.

Then it was off to visit my Dad and have dinner at mums.


Dad.


Richie (my sister's husband), Suga and Jamie (my sister).


Wasted lol.

Friday write off

I'd only just got back in from eating that massive beast of a brekfast to have Zi contact me to go out for brekky again as two of his old school friends are here from Malaysia and he wanted them to be treated to the best eggs benny on the east.


Cute couple, they just got engaged on the Gold Coast.


The little potato rosti hidden in between the 2 slices of bread makes for a special surprise. Coogee Bite's eggs benny are the best eggs benny in the east (they make a great soy flat white too).


This gold Kronos top cap was in the mailbox upon my return home. GOLD FEVER!


2 new pieces (I call them Tennis Balls) I aquired today from my Uncle John's shop. They're already opening up bigger than they were in his tank! I'll take a picture in a few days when they open up even more (hopefully).


My Coral Bandit loves the new blue lights and he's coming out by day again now. He's as big as they get, full adult size.

A Fish Called Coogee

I thought I'd give a local shop a plug today. I've been going to A Fish Called Coogee, a little fish and chip store in Coogee Beach for a while now. They spend all morning preparing their herbs and sauces (shallots, aoili in a blender with mustard... too good), then marinating their fresh fish delivery in various different marinades. I picked up some John Dory fillets in sweet chilli sauce and we cooked them up for dinner. Makes cooking easy, fresh and super healthy.

This morning I dropped in to visit my Uncle John at Bondi Beach, he wasn't open yet so I ducked into one of the many great cafe's around the Beach and got served this thing:


Eggs, tomatoes, spinach, crispy bacon, garlic aoli on fresh sourdough YUM! (I have to put weight back on right?!).


And this is my Uncle John's shop on Glenayre Avenue. My Dad passed this store on to him over 20 years ago and my Uncle John hasn't done one single thing to it, as you can see. It's got to be THE most ghetto Aquarium store in the whole of Sydney.

About right

That's just about right in terms of where I've placed my values between cars and bikes :)

Ti project comes to a halt

When I first took the Ti project out for a spin (initially around Centennial Park) I did feel a slight click in the crank, it was so small I thought nothing of it. I didn't feel it so much out on the trails around Loftus, mainly because I was having problems with my 2nd hand Pace fork (I did the whole ride with the fork bottomed out!). Upon close inspection of the bottom bracket the last time I rode (again at Centennial Park) I noticed the non-drive side bottom bracket (BB) cup to be slightly angled/not straight.

Here's a picture:


The guys at Maroubra Cycles don't see it as a major problem as the drive side screws in fine, and the non-drive side only exists to support the drive side which is flush and perfect. The cups screw in easily by hand but on revolution of the BB spindle it touches the sides of the BB cup on the non-drive side. That could be the slight 'click' that I'm feeling.

In the picture above I've installed 2 extra spacers on the non-drive side and this stops the spindle from touching the BB cup but it's pretty dodgey. Fact is that there's something wrong with the thread on the non-drive side of the titanium frame. Maybe it's why I picked trhe frame up for $500 (you get what you pay for).

I've contacted Cheeky Transport in Newtown as they have a machine that can re-face my frame. Depending on the cost I'll do it, otherwise I think this frame had more praise when it was up on my wall and when I passed it around whenever guests come over to the house (hey check out how light this thing is!!!).

80's child

I just found this old pic of me riding my GT through a very flooded Centennial Park in the 80's!

PS: Check out my very strange handlbars.

New Jazz

I liked them when I saw them at Tokyo Auto Salon in January and then I went off them when I view images of them online but today I saw some at the show room and had a sit inside too. I like the new steering wheel + controls all over it. I also like the dash + centre console. All in all it very much feels like the old Jazz inside. I like it! It's cute and I'm contemplating upgrading to one.


Cute like a Koala!


Interior.

I also dropped in to the LBS to pick up my wheels, but they were'nt ready. Grant's got a few new 2009 Giant roadies in store though.


New TCR.


New Defy.


CF top tube.

Got to get me a roadie... soon?

Suckers

My marine tank has been running smooth for almost 2 years now. I've very much adopted my Uncle John's (he runs 'Beach Aquariums', my Dad's old aquarium at Bondi Beach) way of keeping fish, which is to basically don't worry about anything at all! When I was first getting into the hobby I was hanging out at fish forums day and night and I was so into keeping the salt water paramters as close as I possibly could to the ocean. Control your nitrates, or was that nitrites! Keep the calcium up, dose with a billion chemical additives... keep it perfect! In doing so I think I only stressed the fish, corals and myself out even more. Ultimately I have employed a fantastic system, it's relatively low tech but highly automated (a sensor activates a pump which tops up evaporated water and I have a deep sand bed, protein skimmer and a sump and under the tank .

Aquaria is no longer a crazy hobby for me (bikes are at the moment as you might have guessed lol) and it's very much just become a part of my every day life (gotta love that).

Today I treated the fishies to some new lighting (as my tubes are almost 2 years old!). I dropped in to see George and Michella from Slippery Little Suckers in Kingsford (they're such nice people) and picked up some nice 100% actinic + 50/50 actinic tubes which are slightly more blue than what I had before.

On the bike front: I dropped in to Maroubra Cycles and left my wheels with Ash who is going to true them for me. They'll be back to me by tomorrow (I love those guys for squeezing me in).

My aluminium bars (which are replacing my barely used carbon bars) have finally come in the mail. These Easton EA70 25.4mm Low Rise 685mm bars are advertised as 250g, WRONG! Ripped off once again. They are 276g on my scale (oooh lol).


Difference between the CF bars + the new Eastons.


Pretty bad this side.


Other side.


New bars are on.

Looking forward to the wider bars as I've found myself holding onto the very edge of the bars a lot since getting the shorter CF bars (they were not as wide as the original Raceface Evolve XC bars on the bike).

Rolling resistance

One thing that's been lurking around in my forebrain is rolling resistance. I've always thought that the Reign "feels" slow and I've done a lot of research into tyres (perhaps one of, if not the most important aspect to bicycle performance?). My 2.35 Nevegals seem to be a slow rolling tyre, many people world wide, including magazine tests, conclude that the 2.35 wide tyre is a slow tyre, but apparently the 2.1 is fairly fast whilst still offering a lot of grip. I've been hesitant to put thinner tyres on the Reign to this date but after seeing a Yeti 575 at the Yeti stall over last weekend's World Cup, and talking to the sponsored rider who gave the 2.1's a thumbs up for trail riding I thought I'd at least give it a go.

I've put the 2.1 Nobby Nic's off my Titanium project over to the Reign and I'll see how they go out on the trails. The bike now weighs in at 12.6kg's, should roll a lot faster, looking forward to testing them out.

2008 UCI Mt. Stromlo World Cup Canberra

We got back from the Canberra world cup last night (about 10.30PM). T'was a great weekend despite the rain (which was pretty shit, but what can you do about it?!).

SATURDAY: In attendance was: Jing and Shirley, Felix and Diane, Timmy, Christina and I. We all met up at the Mobil on the M5 on Saturday morning, the drive was super easy and we were in Canberra before we knew it. We checked into The Parklands, got set up and then went for a bite to eat next door at Dickon Shops (Laksa FTW!). We decided to check out the War Memorial (hey it is voted as Canberra's no.1 attraction, with nothing else coming in 2nd spot lol). I always see something different each time I go there.

We had an awesome dinner at Pangaea in Manuka (a suburb with such a classy look and feel about the place I thought I was in Double Bay). Diane chose the restaurant which served up a storm of amazing finger foods which blew us all away. After dinner we headed to Mount Stromlo to watch the 4X finals.



Mt. Stromlo was cold, wet, dark and muddy. The course looked great, the crowd was huge and the vibe was awesome. The rain was the only let down. We watched the womens and watched Jared Graves take out the mens. We then headed back to the apartments, watched Aliens on the TV + played Nintendo DS and crashed out.

SUNDAY: The girls had been complaining about the amount of "bike talk" the day before, how ridiculous is that?! We were there to watch the world cup and there they were complaining about us talking bikes?! We tactically decided to ditch them the next day so they spent the day at the Museum and Questacon whilst we headed to Stromlo.

When we got to Stromlo it was raining hard. Too bad for Jing and Timmy who both didn't bring any wet weather gear (lol). We walked through the pits, which were totally empty as everyone was up on the mountain watching the downhill qualifying. The first thing we came across was the bike wash bay and I spotted Sam Hill's bike mechanic cleaning his bike. I got a good gawk in.


Can I have the bike once Mr. Hill is done with it... please?


Number 1.

We then checked out all the pitt stalls and the superstars of the circuit were out and about (since the crowd was up on the mountain). Sam Hill was chowing on a salad sandwich (surely that's too healthy for a pre-race feed?!), Peaty was riding around with a resistance trainer attached to the back of his bike. We spotted Rennie, Dan Atherton and a few other riders. One of the team Yeti riders talked us through a 575 (my dream bike), which sold me even more on one, we ran into a few of the Farkin forum guys (who were all pretty tanked), had some food then proceeded to climb up the mountain to watch the final womens DH as well as the mens.


Stralia!


Graves' winning bike from the night before.


Steve Peat from the UK riding around with a resistance trainers attached to his back wheel.


Go girl! These girls have got balls!


Last jump of the "triple treat".


Halo.

We had awesome views and could get pretty damn close to the riders. Air horns, cow bells and screaming fans, the vibe was electric for every rider (whether Australian or an international) coming down the mountain. We pretty much walked down the mountain and stopped off on points of interest, the riders came down 3 minutes apart from one another which kept the whole event flowing. By the time we got down to the bottom we were in time to watch the final 5 riders on the big screen (perfect!).

The last part of the DH course was more like an XC course, there was even an uphill part! (how strange considering it a DH course). The long flat all the way to the finish line meant that pedallers could shave a lot of time off. Sam Hill was slow on the day, Rennie, who went 2nd last had the hot seat until the last rider, Greg Minmaar from South Africa smashed his time by 5 seconds.

Satisfied, wet and cold we headed back into Dickson to meet up with the girls for a hot Japanese meal before hitting the M5 on the way home.

YUMEYA!

Shimano is set to unveil a new line of products at Eurobike branded YUMEYA, Japanese for ‘Dream Workshop’. The new lightweight range will start with after-market upgrades for Shimano XTR bits, giving racers, weightweenies and those with lots of money the chance to exclusify your bike even more. Weight weenies rejoice!