Monthly Archives: July 2024

The weight weenie in me had to have these. Probably the lightest brake levers in the world at 46g a pair. Definitely the sexiest!

Izumi Mash chain and Ultegra calipers.

Picked up these goodies from CCACHE this morning. The Extralite Ultralever 3’s are so sexy and so god damn light in the hand, you wouldn’t believe it if you picked them up. As much as I love weight weenie culture, the Dosnoventa isn’t going to be light, and I hate giving up strength and functionality (especially with brakes!) for weight savings, but they look so hot and they were in stock so I caved.

I had my mind set on some Dura Ace calipers, but they weren’t in stock so I picked up this Ultra set instead. Forgot to also buy some pads for carbon wheels, will have to pick them up next week.

Ooooft.

My ENVE 65 wheels are in!

Trying on a 100m -12 degree stem (PS: Sam is the man!).

No turning back now. Chop chop!

Spent the morning at CCACHE. Got to meet Sam the mechanic (he’s such a rad dude!) and holy shit small world stuff, my mate Sean who I met through my ex-fiance Christina when she worked at Saatchi works at CCACHE! Good vibes. Jing has done so well with the shop.

Grips from Blue Lug Japan.

All familiar quality MTB stuff from back in the day, the mountain biker in me wouldn’t have it any other way.

Bits and pieces for the Dosnoventa LA are starting to come in the mail. I won’t be building this bike myself, but the best man will be! More news on that when we get there. Excitement!

It’s the little things.

Columbus seat clamp.

Have spent weeks contemplating parts, finally bit the bullet on the first part for the build, a Columbus seat clamp.

Adidas Tiro Suit-Up pants + AVRYN shoes.

3 rainy days in a row. Fuck it, have to ride!

Another cold and rainy day today but been itching to ride the Allez so bad. Met up with Nick at Centennial Park this morning for a shakedown.

We did the big lap, and my legs blew out on the climb up to Paddington (still so unfit!), and got to say, whilst we descended fast I sure as hell didn’t feel confident. Brakes are awesome, but the bike is nowhere near as fun and playful as the Canyon Grizl. It actually doesn’t feel as fast either (despite every single review of the Allez Sprint suggesting it’s about as fast as it gets when you stand up and mash). The ride is also damn harsh (in comparison to the Grizl which is running tubeless on much fatter tyres) but I expected and welcome that. I’m a bit miffed to be honest as I was expecting the bike to feel really fast.

Good news is the 105 hype is real (flawless!), and most importantly the bike’s not too small for me. Specialized suggested a size up from the 49 for my height and I thought I might have to buy a longer stem or even a setback seatpost but it’s fine as is. And as much as I’d love to remove the spacers, slam the stem and cut the steerer for a more aggressive look I’m not sure it’s a smart idea as I already feel like my hands are close enough to the ground as is!

Maybe road bikes are just not my thing? Road bikes are slowly but surely becoming mountain bikes after all; wider tyres, tubeless, 650b wheels, disc brakes, compact frame geometry with sloping top tubes, threadless headsets, clutch-style rear mechs, wider axles, thru-axles, 1by drivetrains, suspension and dropper posts, all mountain bike tech which has inspired road bikes so far.

PS: If anything the Allez has highlighted just how awesome the Grizl is.

It never ceases to amaze me how things always seem to fall in my lap. I’ve been obsessed with bikes again, and recently an old friend reached out to me with a business proposal.

It turns out he has a bicycle shop, and wanted to know if I would be interested in being a partner to own and run it with him. On hearing the news I got pretty excited, but then reality kicked in pretty hard.

I spent a year co-developing the business plan for the Giant bicycle shop in the city (I was going to be an investor/part owner) and I know how little the mark up is on a new bicycle, and how many bikes a shop has to sell per day in order to profit. It’s pretty fucking tough. I also know through ZEN Garage just how much work is needed to build a community around your brand, and just how little you make at the end of the day when running a physical bricks and mortar shop in Sydney.

100% AOK if it’s a passion project. It’s all I’ve ever lived for to be fair, and I know I have what it takes to build a community both online and offline (via shop events and group rides etc.) but I’m just not sure.

I’m super thankful for the opportunity in any case, and no doubt about it the thought of owning and running a bike shop got my heart pumping for a few days, but right now I’m just super happy to be riding bikes again as I’ve not had any form of physical exercise for way too many years!