Category Archives: Bike

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!

Gush….. what a write-up! This guy so knows more about bikes than I do! I’m honored to have my Paino featured up on Cycle EXIF. Visit: http://www.cycleexif.com/paino-strada

After weeks of doing my head in I’ve decided I can’t stand the gold (hey I tried to add a little colour, but I always tend to go back to subtle/less is more). I’ve found myself googling around desperately for an all black ATR shock, but there are none left anywhere. I’ve even considered dropping $200 or so on a new black shock, which would be silly as the ATR shock works so well.

After a little bit of test sanding I realised the anodizing on the shock wasn’t that hard to remove. I headed to the local bunnings and bought some Easy-Off brand heavy duty oven cleaner, as well as some rubber gloves + steel wool. I sprayed heaps of the stuff on and within seconds there was a chemical reaction. I left the stuff on for 45 minutes and after a rinse with water this is what everything looked like.

It cleaned up really nicely on the flat surfaces, but damn the harder to get to edges were a pain in the ass! Never again! Ultimately I’m very happy with the end result though :)

Got my new billet grips in the mail today so I’ve fitted them up with the 2inch CRG Blindsight bar end mirror I bought earlier. Old grips vs. new grip + CRG mirror + bar end kit.

I could have bought a bicycle mirror but I went for top shelf stuff instead. I figure if it’s good enough for Ducati’s it’s good enough for my Zoomer! HAHA.

Throttle side grip.