Funny MSN

I have a little sticky note on my desktop where I paste in funny MSN conversations which literally make me laugh out loud. Here's a few recent ones:

matthew willis says:
we would love a girl to balance things out but not going to take the chance of having another boy. shit man - 3 boys... that would be nuts!
justin says:
many little nuts
matthew willis says:
haljdljaljfkla

Christina says:
what was on oprah
justin says:
Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts new film
justin says:
They were both on the couch sucking Oprahs cock

Jing says:
59kg for me depending if i crapped
justin says:
1kg crap?
justin says:
You must be full of shit
Jing says:
HAHAHHA

www.matthewmead.net says:
just went for a bike ride
justin says:
And theeeeeeeeennnnn?
www.matthewmead.net says:
lol
www.matthewmead.net says:
haha

Day after Zi's 1st ever mountain bike ride:
z10@JDMyard says:
legs are ok ass is fucked..

Setup - Day 2

Time's running out to get the setup right for the Gong ride this weekend but I think I'm pretty much there.

I was feeling a bit of numbness and pain in my hands from holding onto the brake hooks, and this was only after 10km's! So here are some changes made on today's ride:

Green - Saddle is now 1cm lower and also level to stop me from sliding forward and putting more weight onto the bars.

Blue - Bars are tilted up some more which in turn brings the brake hooks closer to me (I am less stretched out). MWG suggested to point the end towards the rear axle as a general rule of thumb.

Red - As a result from the changes, the brake levers are too far away for me when I use the drop bar position. Not sure if there's any reach adjustment at all on these Suntour Superbe Pro levers.

ʎɹɐɯ ǝuo uo

ʎɹɐɯ ǝuo uo


on one mary

Ghost Bike

Whilst I've been busy on my 'white out' Paino project it hadn't occured to me that I was building a bike that resembles a "Ghost Bike".

Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel.

Click here for some images.

R32 GT-R wallpaper

Mark Pakula has uploaded a huge wallpaper sized image (1600×1067) of my R32 GT-R's rear badge. Such an awesome shot (and photographer!). Check it out here.

The GT-R's sadly been just sitting there for a good part of the year. Losing interest in it was a combination of things. One major wake up call was the money. I was blowing so much cash on cars I just had to slow it down (looks like I've come to a full halt). Another thing was the 'end' of the project, finishing the GT-R kinda killed it in some ways and the Auto Salon Feature was like icing on the cake.

The last time I drove it was at Eastern Creek on Australia Day. I'm not even sure if the car will start up. It's sad, but it's alright. The most important thing is that the beast is still mine, it'll make it over to Indy's (IS Motor Racing) for a full service and perhaps even a small tune up and be back on the street and tracks sooner or later.

Christina's new R32 Golf

Haha look at her face!


The interior is a nice place to be.


Who's the lucky girl?!


The car sounds lovely.

Sydney to the Gong update

She's ready (but I'm not!). I've been feeling a little nervous about completing the 90km's. I'm sure I'll make it, nervous energy is just something I go through before big events.

My ride plan (lol) is to:
- Pace myself for all flat sections and just get into a nice spinny light cadence
- To coast all downhills in order to conserve energy
- To attack uphills as I always find uphills more tiring if I slow down

With the help of family and friends I've raised $185 so far for the MS Society. Check the funny comments from my sponsors here.

Lake Crackenback

Suga surprised me a few months back with a trip for 2 to Lake Crackenback for our 2 year anniversary. We just got back from our lovely little trip to the snowy mountains, here are some pics:


Before we set off on our 6-hour drive we dropped into Barloword to check out Suga's new R32 Golf which will be ready on Monday. She's pretty exited about it!


So fat from the rear.


We're here at last...


Bug out!


The drive was long, but being a Friday, there wasn't much traffic at all. The postcard scenery from our balcony (which was right on the lake) was amazing. You can still see snow on the mountains too.


Lambies.


Hello hello bike hire! We came just in time for great weather, but just a bit too early for the new 2009 Giant Halos, which were still in boxes waiting to be built up, but we hired some Trek hardtails which were crap, but still did the job and made us appreciate our bikes back home that little bit more.


Giant Halo's (+ beer) waiting to be built up.


Lake Crackenback has a little skills park to play in. It's so cool. A few beams, berms and some technical rock structures to play on.


Berms and jumps.


Fun!


Me having a go at the technical rock climbing.


And log riding.


The guys at Lake Crackenback have just built a scenic single trail around the whole resort which takes about an hour to complete.


You can see the trail is still pretty green.


The trail leads you down to a beautiful lake at the base of the mountains. If only we brought our swimmers!


We spotted this guy fly fishing for trout.


The postcard scenery was amazing.


Snow on the mountains - Thredbo was literally 10 minutes down the road but a comeplete ghost town at this time of year.


We stumbled onto a Triumph car show at Thredbo. This car was happy to see us :)


Great cars, we were checking out colour schemes in particular as Suga's about to build up a custom road bike (that's another story!).


The resort also had a 9 hole golf course which was heaps of fun. Suga's 1st game and she was super frustrated (and super cute). PS: Nice golf boots!


We came across some roos, and these brumbies were in the way of hole 4.


Early dinner at Jindabyne, which was also a ghost town this time of year. I loved that everything was dead, and that we were there off-season, made the whole trip more fun.


We missed our chance to do an organised night walk to check out the wombats (we saw so many wombat caves everywhere during our ride) but the kiddies bikes weren't locked up so we stole them for a little night ride instead lol.


Our apartment had a nice little open fireplace.


The package included a buffet breakfast in the morning. Buffet breakfast, no matter how shit it is, has to be on my top 5 favorite things in life list for sure.


Suga fondling The Big Merino's nuts on our way home.

Sydney to Wollongong memories

I was over at Mum's tonight for dinner, and after a few glasses of red I decided to raid the old family photo albums to find photos of my old bikes. (LOL). It's a shame I couldn't find images of my old Cannondale mountain bike which I built up by hand and raced at the Nationals, but I did find these!!!


1990 Sydney to Wollongong - LOL too funny. LOOK pedals (I still have them!), LOOK spandex and profile aero bars. They didn't have escorts down the national park then and you could go down those twisty roads as fast as you wanted. I remember not being able to make a few of the corners, hitting those little plastic reflectors in the middle of the road and crossing the line to the other side of the road into on-coming traffic, definitely dangerous. I did the gong flat out, no stopping. The frame is Italian, rebranded as a Europa, gold parts and friction gears I loved the thing!


1991 Sydney to Wollongong - I borrowed my good mate Eugene's Shogun Praire Breaker and whacked some slicks on it, an awesome chromo mountain bike at the time.


My old GT shitbox which I used to ride to school. Check the oval chainrings and strange Scott bar.


1990 - Me on the left, my mate Eugene on the right. He was an awesome rider who later got into some serious downhill (Oxford Falls/north shore). He's now a father, living in Taiwan and running a Giant bicycles dealership. :)

White out

Cateye computer (stolen from Suga's bike), translucent knogs, white brake cable outters and handlebar tape is on (installing the tape was fun!).


Cateye Computer, if it's good enough for Cadel it's good enough for me.


White cable outters look nice.


Old school Cinelli cork grip.


Found these lovely little stars on the inside of the forks.


Campagnolo cable guides brazed onto frame.


Little knoggy.

MWG pointed me to Velobase.com which helped me identify all the parts on the bike and put the spec list together. The spec list goes as follows:

Bottom Bracket: Campagnolo Nuovo Record (290g)
Brakes: Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport
Brake levers: SunTour Superbe Pro
Cable brakes: Jagwire
Cable gear: Shimano
Cable housing: White teflon lined
Cassette: Shimano 6 speed
Chain: Shimano HG
Crankset: Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport
Frame/Fork: Frank Paino 48cm
Front derailleur: Campagnolo Nuovo Record (81g)
Handlebar: 3TTT Competizione Merckx Bend (275g)
Handlebar tape: Cinelli cork white
Headset: Campagnolo Nuovo Record (194g)
Hubs: Campagnolo Nuovo Tipo low flange
Pedals: VP 196 (280g)
Rear derailleur: Campagnolo 980 (200g)
Rims: Campagnolo Montreal 76
Rim tape: Zefal
Saddle: Selle Italia XO (295g)
Seatpost: Campagnolo Super Record Fluted
Shifters: Campagnolo Super Record friction
Skewers: Campagnolo
Stem: 3TTT Pantographed Paino (273g)
Toe clips: AFA
Toe straps: Europa/Campagnolo leather
Tubes: Maxxis Flyweight (53g)
Tyres: Diatech Gran Compe White 700x23 (200g)

Mike Giant

Awesome work by American tattoo artist Mike Giant (his official site here).

Sydney to the Gong

The Paino is almost ready. Another new white tyre is on it's way for the rear. White brake cable outers and white handlebar tape and I'm set!

I finally got around to registering for the 90km Sydney to the Gong MS bike ride today. I've done it twice before but I was 16/17 then! Even though I haven't had any sort of distance training regime over the past few months I'm pretty sure I've got the mental ability to make it. I'm pretty sure my ass is going to hurt by the end of it though!

If you would like to make a small donation to support my ride and help people suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, please do so here.

Hutchinson

The soundtrack is amazing, especially when the drums kick in, but then it turns to crap when the shitty wap wap keyboards take over. Nice clip though, looks like the Fixie trend is well and truly about to crap itself and die (not?).

Bye bye Scott Scale

Some say you should never sell bikes as they're always good for parts, or for when mates come over or for memories sake but my Scott Scale sold on eBay for $3k and she's packed and ready to be sent off to Melbourne. I'm not that sad to see it go, she's truly an amazing bike, but a super rigid XC hardtail doing the kind of stuff I like to do and riding on the kind of stuff I like to ride just doesn't go hand in hand. I'm sure the new owner will be ecstatic.

Supreme Golf

Had a hit of Golf with Mum today at The Lakes golf course, she's been competing for over 5 years now. My sister Jamie and hubby Richie played too and we were playing so shit that Mum got a little frustrated and played well below par herself.


JDM yo! Their golf buggies are actually fast! lol.


Richie and Jamie.


One of a few which I later lost in the lake.


Haha.


Richie teeing it up.


Mum smacking it.


Bird?


Fish!


I'd wear that. Love the logotype.


The Lakes is as elitist as it gets. This was in the carpark. I suppose he can fit a set of clubs in there somehow.


New X6 is MASSIVE.

On another note. I spent last night polishing bits on the Paino whilst watching the F1 (yawn). A massive lot of rust has come off which is a good thing.


Brake pads: left - before, right - after.


I got these Gran Comp tyres in white, really not sure about them though, they were originally for the purple rims I was going to get (which I'm no longer getting).

55DSL Logo Remix

I've been invited to judge another Cut&Paste event, this time it's the 55DSL Logo Remix. The Logo Remix challenges graphic designers, illustrators, and typographers, as well as all-around creative types, to take the iconic 55DSL Shield logo and spin it into a remix that reflects 55DSL’s culture and spirit, its origins and its future. The Grand Prize winner of the 55DSL Logo Remix will receive 1,055€ in addition to seeing his/her logo design produced by 55DSL. More details here.

Loftus Oval

Had a great ride today at Loftus with Richie and Andy and 3 new guys: Grant, who wears clip-ins and has a lovely old Cannondale hardtail and is more into road bikes, Shaun who commutes on road 5 minutes to and from work on his Giant Yukon hardtail and has never ridden on a trail before (yeah we're pushing everyone to ride with us!) and Johnno who had an old Specialized hardtail.


Bright and early at Richie's place.


Left to right: Johnno, Richie, Shaun and Grant.


Left to right: Richie, Grant and Andy.


Group shot.

My fitness levels are definitely getting better and I'm also learning how to lean into corners much harder and modulate the rear brake whilst leaning in, as opposed to locking up the rear for a slide which does nothing much but slow me down and rip up the trail.



In other news the heat is on so Suga and I went to fetch some fresh salt water at the boat ramp for the fish tank. I put a little love into the tank, cleaned up the glass and did a 20litre water change. I'll hopefully keep it up, weekly, over the summer.

Europa

So I had planned to drop a load of dosh on the great 80's Paino road bike I picked up off eBay last weekend. I spent the week concepting and building up a wishlist of great parts. The first part on order was a set of Velocity Deep V wheels in purple (gold spoke nipples of-course lol). I really wanted to offset the old skool frame with some super crazy in your face bling wheels, thing is, Velocity are out of purple rims and that disrupted the whole plan as it gave me time to think some more.

Grant at Mc Cyclery thought it would have been a shame to remove the vintage Campagnolo gear from the bike (I had removed the quick releases and was contemplating a new Sugino crankset). Same goes for the Campagnolo hubs, which he says are worth a pretty penny. After talking to Matt, who says I'm a lucky fucker to score such a lovely bike with great Australian history I re-thought all of the modifications that I was going to do and I've decided to just leave her be.

I put the drop bars back on as the risers, apart from being very "trendy" and fixie inspired, brought the bars too close to me in any case. I dropped in to Mc Cyclery again today today and bought some brand new cabling for both brakes and shifters. It's so nice to not have to tune up the gears, friction shifting rocks out! Grant was out of toe clips so I ducked into Europa Cycles in Kingsford hoping to find some vintage gear.


Europa: I always dreamed of owning a Colnago.

Europa and John have been around forever. I bought my road bike from them when I was a kid, it was a Europa steel frame with friction shifting, lovely bike which I later destroyed (I ran over a cat!). They used to have a huge store on Anzac Parade, close to the big roundabout, they also had a store in Clovelly and on Clarence St. in the city across from Clarence Street Cyclery. I haunted the staff a lot, and even did hours at the Clovelly store in exchange for parts for a mountain bike build.

It's just so awesome he's still there, the now tiny "new" shop is a time warp, nothing has changed and John is in the store running it with his wife and his son. He's an old man now, his hands are a bit shakey but he got a little excited when I said I had an old Paino bike I wanted some parts for. Specifically some white handlebar tape that refects the era, some chrome toe clips and white leather straps. John ducked into the store room out the back, and after what felt like an eternity, he came back out with some goodies for me.


Check out the goodies I bought: French AFA toe clips, Europa/Campagnolo white leather toe straps and vintage handlebar tape. Even the recipt John wrote for me is old skool cool!

- Edit: Love the toe clips and straps, they feel great. The bars I still have to get used to. On a bad note, the handlebar tape was nowhere near long enough for the whole drop bar (it could only do the ends to the brakes) That's a massive shame. Looks like I'll have to settle for something else.

Ban the radio!

A few months ago I decided to take off the ariel on the Honda Jazz in an effort to ban radio. Nova 96.9 in particular. The shit was killing me, the repetitive top 10 pop, the crap humour and the advertisements.

What an awesome move!

I've got a stack of CD's in the car that I find myself screaming along to (good times). Fave CD's over the past few months have been:

- Faith No More - the real thing
My first ever CD. Their cover of Sabbath's War Pigs still gets me every time.

- Jeff Buckley - Grace
So real.

- Stone Temple Pilots - 12 Gracious Melodies
It's one of those albums that you happily play start to end.

Shiat Manly again!

Well it was bound to happen. 2 guys who run their own businesses = mid week bike rides. Zi and I hit Manly Dam AGAIN today!!!

This time I had to try a few things. One was the harder line up the 3 techy steps and 2 was the gnarly drop that I've seen someone do but have always gone around the easier way myself.


Zi going up Step 2.


So getting up step 2 is now as easy as piss for me, but step 3 is a little trickier as I lose all momentum before it. Last ride I saw an old dude go straight up the hardest part of step 3 and this time I had to give it a go, took me quite a few goes but I finally got there. I'm determinded to take this harder line every time from now on.


Here's a small vert drop to steep roll (picture taken from the top) that I saw someone else do once. Zi's bike in the picture is where the cliff drops off (he's placed his bike there for a reason!). I've always gone around this part but this time I was all padded up and I had to try it.


Picture from the bottom looking up.


Funny thing is I did it once, Zi missed the shot. He was giggling and told me to do it again. He missed the shot the 2nd time too, and I missed the last rock and almost went over the bars. After missing the shot for the 2nd time Zi was now laughing out loud. He told me to do it again and we finally got the shot.


Saaaap! Building on the way back to work. Speaking of back to work, fuck I've got a lot of work to do, WTF am I blogging for?!

Manly Dam weekly

Snuck out after lunch yesterday to go for a ride with Zi. Zi's already ridden Loftus on his brand new Giant Trance X so I thought I'd bring him to Manly Dam.

Weather was cool, we went a little late though (3pm) and we were caught in peak hour traffic on the way out. The ride was great though, Zi's definitely got some natural skills on the bike, great considering he's never owned a mountain bike before. His legs 'turn to jelly' as he puts it, pretty quickly. A few more rides will sort that out I'm sure.


Zi's renting out a garage in his apartment and this was in there. Check the shifter! It's awesome.


What a horse. Zi's Trance X - it's so massive.


Zi.


Fox 15 QR.


Sexy red spoke nipples.


Bath time.


I also rode the Paino last night, damn it's a fast bike! I definitely feel a bit cramped up on it, mainly because the riser bars bring the cockpit a whole lot closer to me than the drop bars do. I'll try putting the saddle a bit further back on the rails. Zi stole my Fizik Aliante gel saddle and gave me his Fizik Nisene one instead. It's not as comfy as the Aliant XM was but it looks more like a race saddle so I'm happy with it for now (I'd like a white saddle!). I also put on a few weenie parts I had in my spares box, she's now at 8.5kg's!

Paino tuning

She's a fast bike. She's ultra quiet and there's zero rolling resistance. She pretty much makes the little hill I live on non-existant!

I spent a fair amount of time late yesterday afternoon and night tuning the Paino. The first thing I did was take off the drop bars and whack on some flat bars I had lying around. The flat bars cramped up the position quite a lot in comparisson to riding on drop bars (and holding on to the brake hooks). The flat bars are about 130mm closer to the saddle and my knees come pretty close to the bars when taking off from a standstill. Still... the bike is instantly more familiar and playful with the flat bars. They're 580mm wide though and they looked stupid (my research tells me most people who use flat/rider bars on roadies cut them down to 500mm). I moved the grips in to where 500mm is and found it fine.

I then tried some riser bars (the damaged carbon ones off my Reign). I cut these down to 500mm and I'm liking them a lot more both in feel (and looks!). I also took the massive front chainring off as it was so damn huge it looked like a 3rd wheel. Having done that I also took off the front derailleur and shifter too. I also put the massive heavy retro plastic Selle saddle back on as it's a lot comfier than the Selle SLR.

The bike's in the 8kg's now. Once the exchange rate goes up I'll hopefully track down a few goodies. My wishlist goes something like this:

- Nitto annodised (green?) risers.
- Velocity Deep-V wheelset (something bright and in your face!).
- Saddle (thinking BMX saddle for something bright, not sure).
- Some whack track pedals with sexy toe clips and leather strappage.
- Paul love levers + sexy cables (I'm making do with only a front brake off my old Specialized Hardrock at the moment).

Paino Road Bike

My new 80's Frank Paino road bike.

I'd been eyeing off this road bike on eBay for a week now, the asking price was $600 (starting bid). A few hours before the auction ended I mailed the seller and offered $400, and explained that I was just after a junker to do the Sydney to Wollongong ride with. He suggested that I take a look at the bike in person which I did on Sunday.

Daryll was a nice guy, his house had a huge sold sign on it outside, he was basically having to move out because the new buyers are moving in to the house he's been renting (with his wife and kids). He was moving, and a bit tight on cash, that was the only reason why he was selling the bike. He was more concerned about selling the bike to someone who was going to treasure it than the money and he liked the idea of me riding it to Wollongon (ie: actually using the bike). He also had another sprint bike (Daryll's a sprint racer) and he was saying how the Paino was much better at cornering than his sprint bike (which was a bit of blang: carbon + aero wheelset etc).

I mentioned that there was a Jim Bundy bike going on eBay for $350 (like Frank Paino, also a very respected Australian frame builder from the 80's) and Daryll mentioned that Jim Bundy actually wanted to buy his bike, inspected it in real life and said to eBay it for $900, which Daryll did a while ago but got no bites, thus he re-listed it at $600. I ended up walking out of there with the bike at $475 which is an absolute steal.

Now for a bit of history on the Paino:
- In the 80's Frank Paino had a shop in Sydney (Miranda Cycles) and he built cutom road bike frames. Gary Sutton (who is currently the NSW Institute of Sport's head cycling coach) won a world championship on a Paino in the early 80's and that gave Frank Paino the right to use the world cup colours on his frames.


World Cup colours.


3TTT Tecno Tubo Torino stem.


3TTT Tecno Tubo Torino Olympic Competition bars.


The frame's got some lovely details on it. The geometry is pretty aggressive for a bike from the 80's.


The bike features a complete Campagnolo groupset. Headset, bottom bracket, everything.


Fantastic old skool friction shifters on the downtube. Funny how my old Europa road bike when I was 16 had the same gear (shifters don't "click" into gear, you feel your way instead).


Campy baby.


Crankset.


Columbus tubing. When only the best will do.


She's crafty!


The only non-original parts are the saddle (my own Selle, replacing a brick of a Selle Italia that came with the bike) and the wheelset. Daryll replaced the original wheelset as 27inch tyres were getting hard to find. He kept it in period though and got Cheeky Transport in Newtown to build up a classy Campagnolo 700c wheelset with Campagnolo hubs, Campagnolo Montreal rims and stainless steel spokes.


Seatpost has a fantastic tilt design.


She's super light for a steely.

More pics here. I forgot to mention, when I checked my email this morning there was a mail from MWG who suggested I take a look at this bike. LOL! I took her for a ride today. Love the gear shifts, hate the narrow bars. I'm just more used to wide mountain bike bars but I'll try my best to get used to riding road bikes again. Next update: Autosol and serious elbow grease!!!

Weekend + Wagaya + Wedding

Friday night Nanami organised a dinner at Wagaya. You have to book by SMS and you order through a touch screen at your booth. I've heard from a few mates that the food wasn't crap, or great, but just good. What they didn't mention though was how fun the whole experience was. The place is LOUD and the food came out so damn fast and the screen makes you buy more food than you can eat and more booze than you should drink. It's like going to Sushi Train for the very 1st time. I love it and will be back for more.


This shop sign in Chinatown always cracks me up.


Wagaya's touch screen order system rocks out. Deadly for buying the booze.


Shaun, Nanami, Jamie and Richie.


Kellie and Christian.


Salmon skin + Lotus chips.

SATURDAY - Suga and I attended her cousin's wedding. Weddings are strange events. I've been to more than a few now and each and every one of them has been a different experience. This one was perhaps one of the strangest ones I've ever been to (more traditional Chinese). The wedding started at 10am and went through to midnight (albeit with a break in between).


Why do all celebrants look the same?


Smack!


Nyaw.


Extra. Suga was thirsty.


Cool haircut around glasses arms.


Suga and I.


Hello Kitty?!

Another one bites the bug

So my long time car buddy Zi finally decided to buy a bike. Yes buying a $2k bicycle initially seems like a ridiculous amount of cash, but it's an investment! I hope he lives longer for it. It feels good to inspire people to get into riding, that means more riding buddies for me too which is a great thing. My recruitment skills are getting stronger!

Grant at MC Cycles looked after us and Zi walked out with a 2009 Trance X3. It's got 5 inches of travel and some very sexy bits on it: Fox Float fork with the new 15mm axles and a Fox rear shock too, a Formula front hub, red spoke nipples, shadow SLX rear derailleur, Italian Fizik saddle and the exact same tyre set-up as my Reign (2.1 Nevegal Stick-e and DTC on the rear).

I missed the opportunity to get the new bike owner with bike photo but will take pics of Zi's new beasty ASAP. In the meantime you can check the specs out here.

Mary

I've been doing a bit of research on road bikes (I've been here before, many times...) and I still can't bring myself to buying a new racer. I'm not keen on the swoopy crazy hydroformed tubing that all the new race bikes feature. Sure I have NO doubt that these bikes would be super fast, light and rigid, but I'm still a massive fan of old school frames that are made of steel tubing. They're just so much more elegant to me.

I started looking at flat bar road bikes today, and the Cannondale Bad Boy Ultra came up, it's basically a mountain bike with roadbike wheels. The thought entertained me for a few hours but after checking out a whole lot of fixed gear bikes I'm 100% for a road bike, perhaps with a riser bar and gears. I'm definitely NOT going to go fixed gear and would prefer gears over a single speed, but I might dabble with some fixed gear/BMX culture and see what I come up with (hopefully something colourful as all my bikes are looking rather black!).

In case I fail to get a road bike for the Sydney to Wollongong ride I've decided to prepare the old single speed. I'm bidding on some slicks on eBay and I've whacked the Mary bars and Fizik saddle on for a bit of comfort. She's looking lovely!


Mary's back.


Vintage metal presta caps inspired by old man Willis.


Gold Alligator brake cable.

Manly Dam weekly

Jing wanted to do a lap of the Dam before work this morning so we met up at 8am for a quick burl. Clifton and Timmy (the lads?) came along too, it was Timmy's 1st time at the Dam and he just mashed the last part (the most fun part and the kid led the way too!). Awesome considering he's never ridden the Dam before.

I got up the techy rocky bit again, getting better at it every time. I had a go at Jing's Cannondale which has no granny ring and a road cassette on the back and made it up too first go, in fact I thought it was easier to ride his Cannondale up it than my bike, not because of the gearing but more because the bike's so damn light and rigid. I also finally got up a section just after the techy climb where a wooden path leads to some nasty rocks. I was pretty much smiling after that until the carpark.


Sealant was in the air as Clifton's tubeless set-up gave way when he landed a bunny hop a little sideways.


Traffic on Military Road on the way back home.


How's that for fuel efficiency?!


E10 FTMFW!


$60 for 600km's.

MC Cyclery

I got a package from the USA today. Dan's comp is an online BMX store which, even after shipping, slaughters local business prices. I couldn't resist and I bought some parts which replace the few non-branded parts on the Kink.


Box of lovin.


This new Odyssey Elementary stem is kinda like a jigsaw puzzle. I uses only one bolt (in place of 6) to hold everything, including the bars, together.


Dropped a kilo.

I also dropped into some shops to check out road bikes (I've always wanted a roadie and hey the Gong is coming up!) but I didn't find anything, so on the way home I dropped in to visit the boys at Maroubra Cycles.


Wow surprise surprise Grant has his new signage up! New shop name and orange is the new shop colour.


Great retro logo + 1975, that's when I was born :)


Grant then surprised me with his latest creation. A Santa Cruz Heckler with 09 Saint throughout in shop colours of-course. What a BEAST!

On another note: All Giant Bicycles world wide are going up by 20% in price! If you want to buy a Giant bicycle you better get to it this week as next week all bikes go up in price.

Weekend burrito

Well here's the long weekend wrap.

Things I loved this weekend:
- Hanging out at Newtown
- Badass truckie's breakfast
- My new skate deck
- Daylight savings kicked in
- Fishing session out at the Hawkesbury River

Things I hated:
- Shitty weather
- Didn't go for a ride
- Missed the MotoGP on TV
- My bike threads on Farkin Forum have gone to shit

Christina my Mum and I spent a day looking at Kitchen Appliances and bathroom fittings on Saturday. Damn my mum's a trooper. Christina and I would have been out of there in 10 minutes flat if she wasn't there, she just forced us to soldier on and at the end of the day we got a pretty good idea of what we need/want/might be getting for the new house rennovations (which start soon... I hope). The amount of money that's going to be needed in order to get everything we want is scaring me a fair bit but I'm trying my best to be positive.

Saturday night we went to a house party in Newtown and mid way we ended up going for a stroll down to King St. Newtown was buzzing, shops were open and I was just loving the vibe. I'm just so glad Newtown's still cool.


Clockwise from left to right: Christina, Blake, Christine, Shaun and myself.


Haha. The thing's you do when you're drunk.


Guzman Y Gomez at Newtown - I'd been meaning to try out this joint since I did a talk at Raffles College where one of the other speakers that night had designed this shop's ID. After reading a good review on Mark's blog I was determinded to get some in at the very next opportunity. What better a way to absorb some of that piss with a burrito?! It was damn awesome especially with some of their special sauce.


Kuletos are known for their cocktails and was an old happy hour haunt of mine years ago. Suga had a legless cocktail, we recommend!

Sunday was a bit of a nothing day, sleep in, brekkie, shopping and a movie (The Dutchess - slow, but surprisingly AOK.).


Seedy morning truckie's breakfast.


My new deck which I'll be building up and skating on (IE: this one's not for the wall), the kids at SDS Bondi looked after me.


Awesome!


Domo-kun.


Random bike geek shot.

And today we spent the day out at the Hawkesbury River, fishing was attempted, but nothing was caught. I didn't expect anything in any case as the weather was pretty strange (sunny one minute pissing down the next). We had a feast and a nice walk along the coast. The place reminds me of Sandon, in that it's so remote and so fishing oriented. I loved the run down little shack of a house. I'm definitely the kind of person who can settle down in a place like this.


The house. A short boat ride to get there.


Cool wall hanging #1.


Cool wall hanging #2.


Christina fishing.


Storm coming.


hehe




Dior the local labrador accompanied us on our coastal walk.


Sign in Eastwood.


Bimbimbab!

Enlist. MTB. Now.

I've been trying to get my mate Zi out for a trail ride for ages now (yes spreading the good word of the mountain bike of-course!). He finally had a day off in his busy schedule and he happened to choose one of the hottest days of the year so far to do it. HEAT WAVE!

I met Zi at the workshop as he was getting work done to his MX-5 (see below), we had some lunch, then we headed to Loftus Oval.

I brought Suga's Talon and the Scale and got to ride both of them during the 20km ride. It's black and white, clear as day how different both these hardtails are. The Talon's a fun bike to ride both up, down and in technical sections. The Scale however is so unrelentless. It's too light, the fork is too stiff and you just get bounced around everywhere. Technical downhill stuff feels sketchy, fast downhill stuff is just as bad but climbing is fantastic. It basically feels like riding a road bike off road. The bars are not wide enough and they were also way too low. I raised the stem up on the steerer mid ride and it was a little better, but it could even do with a low riser bar. The Selle SLR saddle is a world of pain. It looks hot but it's got to go.

Agreed the Scale is a race bike, it's not made to be comfortable on a trail, but I've ridden it at Manly Dam, Lady Carrington and now Loftus and I didn't have fun on it at either trail. Letting it go is on the cards.


Zi's NA MX-5.


Weekend racer!


Zi on the Scale - he was in so much pain. Jelly legs and his ass was fucked hard by the Selle saddle lol.

MCA, Pony + Lucas Heights

I caught up with Tanja Kimme (an old friend and once flatmate) at the MCA yesterday. As much as I love the MCA sometimes I just walk out of there frustrated by how shit some of the work on display is, but right now they're exhibiting the work of Yinka Shonibare and it's absolutely amazing (and funny!). I suggest everyone go now, check it out, it's free too.


Yinka Shonibare.

We had lunch at Sailors Thai, $25 dishes aren't cheap for That food but it's Sydney's best Thai so after the meal no one was complaining!


Also, last night we had a big dinner with my family, and Christina's at Pony. Definitely one of my fave restaurants at the moment. I got pretty wasted but Mum drove me home. On the way home some fucker was flashing her in the tunnel. I took out the camera, stuck my arm out the car and started taking pics of them (with flash of-course lol). I love doing that to slow down hoons on the road. I assume they get paranoid I might send in the photo to the authorities or something.

Today, being one of the hottest days around, and with a splitting headache and hangover from last night, I decided to go for a Lucas Heights ride with Clifton. I just wasn't into it. Too hot, too tiring and a severe lack of confidence (I fell over pretty early on in the ride) and energy. We did manage to do one of the drops though, and I attempted the log ride but failed to clear it.


Reign pre-ride.


Clifton did this drop first, which then gee'd me on to do it.


My huck.


Log ride attempt, it's a shitload steeper than the picture suggests.

JDMST EOMM

I saw a few strange things yesterday. Earlier on in the day I pulled over the side of the road to watch a male pigeon doing his mating ritual around a dead flattened pigeon in the middle of the road. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I wish I had my video camera with me. Later that night I saw an old lady fall flat on her face. There was a crowd of people around her helping her, looks like she might have broken her hip. Horrible stuff.

We had the JDMST end of month meet at Fox Studios last night, quiet as it usually is at Fox, or anywhere in the east (when we have meets out west all hell breaks loose) with only about 30 or so cars rocking up on the night. I much prefer the smaller meets, it's easier to get around and meet new people and the authorities are always a little more friendly and relaxed.

Speaking of the authorities:


Our resident Policeman opened his boot at one point to grab a pen for me and Suga couldn't help herself when she saw his gear in the trunk.


SO cute!


Hehehe.






Then everyone started having a go and getting silly - here's Alan.


Suga putting on Police pants...


And top...


Haha.


I love taking pics of photographers taking photos. Love the dynamic poses they get into lol.


VIP YO!


RC madness.