Category Archives: Bike

This all came in the mail today for my Honda Zoomer. New ultra low forks, front disc brake upgrade and new front alloy wheel too. Happy B’day to me :)

Last night on my way out the door to go to Mothers Day dinner I saw a huge stream of email messages in my inbox from the BMU members. I was cc’ed in a little late and couldn’t quite make out what they were talking about except I read the words: Jing, accident, hospital.

I had to duck out so I didn’t have time to make sense of any of it. I grabbed my phone and saw a message from Clifton which explained that Jing was riding his road bike out at the royal national park and had a bad accident. Both his arms were broken, internal bleeding and he was in hospital. I called Shirley, Jing’s fiancee, and she filled me in on everything whilst I was in the back seat of Mum’s car on the way out to the restaurant (I was meant to be driving!).

Today I thought I’d visit Jing at St George hospital. Hospitals are scary haunted places. Getting past the entrance is hard enough for me, getting into a lift even worse. I tracked down Jing’s room, saw a bed with his name on it, but he wasn’t there (freaky!). I then found out he had been moved. After going into another room full of strangers (I went into the wrong room) I was directed into the right room by a nurse but again, Jing wasn’t in there! The nurse said he could be getting an assessment, but it turns out he was in the bathroom.

It was amazing to see Jing up on his feet. Both his arms were in casts and his face was pale and sweaty from the drugs (he’s been loaded up on morphine and other pain killers). He told me how the accident took place, that he wasn’t even doing anything but rolling down a straight bit of road, he was riding one handed, hit a bump and flew into a metal guard rail stomach first. When he got up he realised his arm made an “S” shape, then a pain like he’d never felt before came over him and he soon found himself screaming.

His surgery went for over 6 hours. He has broken both arms, one in 3 places. He has broken some of his pelvis, fractured his hip. He’s got internal bleeding and initially the doctors were afraid he had a hole in his bowel, but whilst I was visiting a young doctor surrounded by his junior minions explained to Jing that the impact was so hard that his lungs ‘popped’ and that created the pocket of air in his back (which they previously thought was an intestinal gas pocket of air). So surreal.

The poor guy has had a lot of time to think everything through, the incident, his future of riding and his doubts about the later. If you know Jing, you’ll know he thinks a LOT (his blog is even called Thoughts…), and with this accident being so fresh its only natural for him to go through mental wars right now.

On my way out I ran into Timmy, who was on his way up to see Jing. He’s got a lot of support and I’m sure with a bit of time and healing he’ll be feeling more alive than ever.

Just a few more shots of the Zoomer from the EOMM the other night. These shots are by Steven Phan

Brooks goodies always come very well packaged.

This tool bag is originally designed to be hooked up onto the rear of your bicycle saddle.

I’ll get to grinding down those ugly indicator tabs once I buy myself a grinder!

Zoomer in the city.

I counted 5 L platers.

Steve’s ugly looking Supermoto.

Zi’s SR is looking great.

Nelsons 125cc race bike.

Zi invited me out for a ride with the boys last night. “The boys” has gone from a handful of us to a facebook group 48 members strong. The idea was to meet up in Chinatown then make our way to Palm Beach (that’s a long way away for the little Zoomer!).

I checked out the facebook group and quickly realised that most, if not all of these guys own race bikes. That and the distance put me off the idea of the cruise to Palm Beach, but it was a nice night out so I at least went for a blat through the city to meet them at Chinatown before they headed off.

The Zoomer got a LOT of positive attention last night. People on the side of the road were giving me the thumbs up and once I parked it everyone seemed to flock towards it and some even helped themselves to hopping on it (probably not something you want strangers to do when parking your bike?!).

Lots of Q&A, laughs and ultimately despite not being powerful enough to go for longer rides I’m just happy to be owning and riding something a little different. :)

So… this little hole on the plate that holds my speedo has been bugging me for some time now. In the US they use this hole to hold an indicator light which my Japanese Zoomer doesn’t have.

I gathered some parts together from my parts bin. A Niner Bikes YAWYD (You Are What You Drink) beer bottle top cap, a funky spacer from Battle Scooter, a bolt + nut.

Perfect fit!

Of-course I’ve just run to the fridge to carefully crack open a cold Asahi, yeah… hole no more! RPRSNT!

Bought some black DEI exhaust wrap to wrap my header.

All that experience from wrapping up road bike handlebar tape paid off nicely :)

Bags of quality allen head bolts to replace all the ugly OEM hex bolts all over the Zoomer.

Lots of bolts on the engine replaced.

Took the gold forks off (might be selling them to another guy in Australia with a Zoomer) and put my stock black forks back on for now (they bottom out when you sit on the bike ahaha). My new front end is still on back-order (lower fork, disc brake set-up + new alloy wheel).

PS: Excuse the crappy pics! Better pics when there’s more light!

Photo by Matthew Mead.

Couldn’t resist re-posting this photo taken by Matt Mead. He brought a little instamatic camera along the other night (using film). Instantly reminded me of my hero Terry Richardson. You want a raw show? Throw that DSLR in the bin and buy yourself a cheap instamatic. Done! More of Matt’s pics from the BMU/MCC bike night here.

Bought a Bell Custom 500 helmet and I love love love it. It’s light, not as huge on my head as my last helmet and it looks super pimp.

Also got myself a Death Spray Custom T-Shirt. The guys were nice enough to send me a bunch of sticker which I’ll gladly rep once I figure out where to stick them!

Also got some gold detail bolts from the crew at Standard Functions, excited and proud to be repping them too on my chest, yew!

Up in lights.

Cool art = culture.

Ash and Matt.

Ash’s toys.

Ash was working on Rockstar Racing’s/World 24hr Solo Champion Gordo’s bike.

A lot of the boys made a b-line directly to the helmet display to try on some funky new Lazer helmets.

What’s a BMU bike night without beers?! Thanks Grant for the cold bevvies :)

Perhaps the only tool that’s allowed to leave Ash’s workshop.

Grant and Tom from Hell on Wheels.

‘Master of Ceremonies Cycling’ Grant busy MCing.

Jing’s BMC at Menya.

Being my first time at Menya I went for the Menya ramen with miso base and damn it was awesome. Best Ramen I’ve had in Sydney to date.

Trieu ordered the dragon, which was so hot it blew his face off. :loling:

Grant’s dream of opening the ultimate bike shop is now a reality. Last night he invited BMU for our own private bike night at his new shop on Clarence Street in the city. Having spent a good part of 6 months working on the plans for this business (the plan was to be a major shareholder but things fell through at crunch time) I’ve got to say it was sweet sweet. Not bitter sweet, just super sweet. I’m so happy for Grant and I’m wishing him the very best.

Despite not actually working on bikes, or building Frankenstein bikes or going for a drunken ride afterwards, last night’s MC Cyclery/BMU bike night was heaps of fun and I’m hoping Grant will be up for more BMU Bike Nights at MCC in future.

PS: I rode the Zoomer in peak hour traffic to get there last night. Have to admit I was a little scared initially, but once I got rolling I had a blast!