Monthly Archives: March 2008

Cool packaging!

I just stumbled upon this Flickr site which features cycling related ink. Talk about dedication! Being a tattood person myself, I love each and every one of them.

On another note: I’m selling a lot of unused gear on eBay, trial and error modification style kills my wallet in the ass. The money made back on this stuff will go back into the bike (of-course lol).

OK, happy to say that I had a blast out there this morning.

Jing came around early and had a new Stealth 3 bike rack installed on his car (he bought it from Rebel Sports). The rack’s more designed for road bikes, or bikes that at least have longer top tubes but we still managed to get both bikes on AOK. Driving around with bikes “wobbling” in your rear view mirror is a little disconcerting… but something we’ll probably get used to over time.

Centennial Park was packed, as suspected but there were only a few people on the walking trail off the path and we were sure to go by them slowly as well as off their path (although one old lady did remind us we weren’t meant to be on there).

We headed for the little off road trail I always used to love blasting through as a kid and have to say it’s only a small stretch, but it’s still as awesome with a little bit of slippery sand, technical tree roots and harder packed downhill fun. I was a little scared of clipping into the pedals, especially at slow speeds and over soft sand but after a while I got really into it, jumping with them on is a breeze and a lot of fun. The Wellgo pedals themselves are shit though and I’m looking forward to getting my Crank Bros Mallet pedals and cleats.

The front suspension makes going over tree roots so easy you don’t even have to lift the front up, instead you just plow through everything. Also, single speed is great! It’s heaps of fun so long as I keep up the momentum. I also have no rear brake anymore now, initially it was wierd not having a lever on the left of the handlebars, but after a while it was fine and stopping power is fine too. And, had to mention it, Jing’s Specialized P3 is damn heavy. At 17kg’s I felt it wasn’t just heavy at the front, it was heavy everywhere. Weight makes a huge difference, for sure and I’m looking forward to lightening the Hardrock a little more.

All in all it was a fun little session. I need more training, then we’ll hit up Manly Dam.

PS: On other notes. I wonder if MWG was successful in selling the pink girl. Also, check out Ben’s new mods (pron warning).

Building my bike up without any particular focus was great fun. I’ve ended up with something that resembles a dirt jump bike. Sure it looks tough but dirt jumping isn’t really what I’m going to be doing on it (far from it actually!).

When I builts a Cannondale mountain bike up (1992 or so) I built it frame up and weighed every single part on kitchen scales. The bike came to 11kg’s which was a feat back then. I’ve been a little upset that a lot of components I’ve put on the Specialized build are heavier than the old OEM items. Whilst is makes sense that the kids these days do some hardcore shit, and need stronger components (thus heavier) it’s fair to say I won’t be doing 20ft jumps any time soon.

I am glad though that the weight weenie movement is still alive and well. I’ve been studying these 2 sites:

Weight Weenies – Be sure to check out their “listings” page for weights on everything.

Light Bikes – Be sure to check out their awesoem “gallery”.

Amazing that you can get a dual suspension bike down to 6kg’s. My specialized monster thing is 13kg’s as it is now, and that’s 1kg heavier than it was stock with 21 gears! The front forks weight in at 2.6kg’s (made to withhold dirt jumping), the fat 2.5 front tyre alone is 1.2kg’s!

Perhaps I’ve found a new direction for the bicycle? I’m already thinking of going back to a rigid front fork (maybe carbon to help soak up some bumps) and also thinner/lighter tyres. In any case, going for a ride today at Centennial Park (the off road walking trails, let’s see if I can get the rangers to chase after me like they used to when I was a kid lol), really looking forward to it!

I finally found out who the 1st guy from the Mash SF DVD is (I actually got a reply from Mash SF themselves via email). It’s Andy Peterson. Out of all the footage in the DVD (which I saw screened at the Verona in Paddington a little while back) I thought his was the best. Heaps of style, love his bikes. Check his clip here.

OK so I’ve finally finished the Specialized build. I had some problems with the single speed conversion, when out of the seat and going up hills the chain was skipping on the front cog, making the chain shorter fixed the trick!

The bike feels slow on the road, mainly due to the fat tyres I think (especially the 2.5 wide front tyre). Off the seat pumping feels strange as the front suspension seems to zap a lot of energy, or it could be that I’m mighty unfit! Also, the clip in shoes and pedals once clicked in feel great but getting into them isn’t easy! Maybe I need to adjust them a little somehow.

The bike feels much more at home in my messy garden where I have a few steps and a bit of dirt to play with. Steps are strange with the new suspension, it feels soft but less predictable that with rigid forks, might just take some time to get used to.

All in all I’m just really looking forward to hitting some trails with it, hopefully this weekend!

I’ve been itching to get started on a new bike (even though this one’s not even finished yet!). I’m thinking something “boutique” starting with a frame. Ellsworth is on the brain, or maybe even design and make my own frame (well, get the guys at Westside, who do exhausts and roll cages for race cars, to make it for me) we’ll see.

Last night I picked up a $100 eBay bargain on a set of brand new, never used Sun ditch witch rims with tubes, Deore hubs and Tioga tyres. I only wanted the rear as my stock rear rim is super old skool, very thin, corroded and the spokes are very rusty.

I also bought myself a helmet (never used to have to wear a helmet back in the day!). I wanted a skate helmet, but have been reading up on how they’re not meant for use on the road, but more for skate parks, so I figure I’d be better off getting something that will potentially save my life if I was in an accident on the street, even though it does look like an alien is sitting on my head.

The single speed chain is in, so too the tensioner. I’ll get it all on the bike tonight and post more pics tomorrow! Looking forward to riding the “thing” whether it goes or not!

Gunning it on rigid forks, thin wheels and tyres. This video brings back a lot of great memories! (killer soundtrack reminds me of Out of Control by the Chemical Brothers too).

Christina, her sister Jess and I went to Slaughter at the Opera yesterday. A skate comp at the Opera House. I was hoping it was going to be magical like the massive vert ramp event in the 80’s, but instead it was just a rails set-up, which whilst still cool, wasn’t as awesome as I’d hoped it would be. Still, I found the scene interesting, grommets everywhere, young girls en-mass cheering for Ryan Sheckler who seemed like the poster boy of the skate world. Ran into Garry there too, he’s everywhere, all the time, love bumping into that guy!

In the afternoon we sold Chirstina’s Buddy club wheels, we’re looking forward now to getting something sexier for her MX-5.

Also yesterday was my Dads B’day, he would have been 61! So Christina, myself, Mum, my sister Jamie and her husband Richie dropped in to see him at the cemetary then had a nice cozy dinner at mums house.

Great day, got massively burnt at the skate show and massively drunk at Mums. When I put my head on the pillow last night I had a billion things flying around in my head.

PS: We had almost 100 cars at the JDM Style Tuning end of month meet the night before. For pictures, click here (you need to login to view them).