Category Archives: Bike

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!

My first visit to CCACHE. Jing has done SO well with the shop (2 in Sydney and one in Melbourne and a GREAT online store). Put an order in for a new wheelset for the Allez!

Specialized Allez Sprint Comp came today! Delivery guy wanted to check my ID as he thought a bike this light must be carbon and expensive! I told him that it wasn’t a carbon bike haha! Allez is here, can’t wait to take it out for a ride tomorrow!

Kinda surprised it actually got to me tbh.

It’s a LOT brighter than I thought it would be!

Blank Canvas.

SPECS:

COLOR: INFRARED MATT
FRAME: COLUMBUS AIRPLANE TUBING . 7005-T6 TRIPLE BUTTED ALLOY
FORK: FULL CARBON FORK . TAPERED 1-1/8” . RAKE 45MM . 700X28C MAX
HEADSET: COLUMBUS COMPASS . 1-1/8″ CARBON
BB: BSA 68MM
SEAT TUBE: 27.2 Ø
TIRE CLEARANCE: 700X28C MAX

I’m obsessed. Every day I’m watching bike videos on YouTube, trawling Reddit, Facebook Marketplace and online bicycle shops and at night I’m watching Tour de France!

I’ve never owned a modern road bike. Always wanted one, but the thought of shaving my legs and wearing lycra and click clack shoes always stopped me.

I had a steel Europa road bike as a kid, loved it, rode it in the Sydney to Gong, but it was way too big for me. Years later I bought and restored an 80’s Paino road bike, still have it and love it, but a recent ride on it just made me realise just how old school it is. The brakes just don’t work (it makes sense that modern road bikes now also use hydraulic disc brakes like mountain bikes have for years), the non-sis gear shifting on the downtube is just whack too (I just left it in a one gear for most of the ride!).

The Canyon Grizl gravel bike is WAY faster than the Paino in regards to getting the power down. It rolls fast, Nick says not as fast as my Paino as he was having to hit the brakes a few times as we were doing laps, but to me it felt WAY faster, especially when getting up and mashing the pedals.

Feel. I think that’s just it. I still feel anxious about taking the Grizl on trails. It’s got a carbon crank and frame, carbon just makes no sense at all to me out on the trails. I had carbon handlebars once on my Giant Reign and one stack over the bars put some pretty serious gouging in the bars, so in the bin they went. I just feel that one big stack on the Grizl on a rocky trail could end up in serious tears.

As a road bike though, carbon has put my mind at easy in regards to comfort and flex. I thought carbon would feel too soft, but fuck me dead the Grizl feels stiff when mashing, it accelerates so well.

I’ve done a tonne of research on endurance road bikes, but who am I kidding? I love the Paino for it’s aggressive race geometry and I absolutely hate slack angles on bike frames both visually and functionally (my SE Lager fixie was super slack and felt so unresponsive).

I’ve researched the fuck out of carbon road bikes. Aero bikes looked crazy hot to me 3 weeks ago, but thank fuck I didn’t pull the trigger on one as I think it’s way too much bike for laps around the park. Something still doesn’t click for me though. I still don’t want to wear lycra. I can appreciate roadie culture, but I just don’t fit in.

Steel is real and I’ve spent weeks planning a fast modern steel road bike build, but maybe it’s time for me to drop the stubbornness, well, not all of it, but what about an aggressive aluminium road bike? It would be stiff, fast, heavier than carbon but lighter than steel. Yeah I felt like I was onto something. A bit different, a little naughty. A little rebellious.

Enter the Specialized Allez.

The Specialized Allez Sprint is an aluminium race bike made for crit racing and it has a world wide cult following. It’s basically a carbon Tarmac SL7 made with alloy and holy shit the welds on it are gnarly, so gnarly that it’s the main criticism by most (not to mention many also consider it way overpriced).

Specialized say: The Allez Sprint is the fastest alloy road bike in history, thanks to the time its sibling, the Tarmac SL7, spent in the wind. It’s details like the most complex alloy head tube we’ve ever made and integrated cables that make it 41 seconds faster over 40km than the previous Allez Sprint. That’s a hell of a facelift. With 41 seconds, you’d have a podium picture in your Insta feed, just saying.

That’s pretty cringe, but I’ve done enough research on the bike to know that the geometry is about as aggressive as you can get for a road bike and those who own one, love it for it’s brutal speed and power transfer, and those who don’t absolutely hate it.

I started looking for one to buy and welp, seems like no-one in Australia wants one as Specialized Aus don’t have stock (nor do they promote the bike).

I think it’s the perfect bike to build frame up, but I’ve had no luck over the past 2 weeks, but I’ve been checking almost daily, and welp, yesterday I ended up finding a size 49 (I’d be sizing down according to their size chart which suggests a 52) 2022 Specialized Allez Sprint Comp in Tarmac Black/Brushed Foil (this frameset has been available world wide in so many rad colourways over the years, but black is all I could find in stock in Aus, such a shame) on sale at Epic Cycles in Queensland for $3,200 down from $4,200. That’s huge money for an alloy frame with Shimano 105 but I’m not looking for the best value for money here. I’m specifically looking for the most aggressive aluminium race bike out there and I think I’ve found it.

I’ve confirmed with the shop that they have it, it’s fully built and on display so they’ll have to prep it in a box for me. Of-course they’ll have to ship it too so we’re still working out a quote, but I’m pretty sure it’s mine!

PS: I’m OK with 105 (the groupset of the people!), but I’m really not into the thin and heavy wheels. Some super lightweight 50mm deep carbon wheels and 30mm tubeless tyres would be awesome, maybe a one-piece integrated stem and bar combo too, but fuck I’ve not even got the bike yet, nor ridden it.

PPS: Click clacky shoes? Maybe. Lycra? Nah. Definitely not going to shave my legs though.

SPECS:

2022 Specialized Allez Sprint Comp in Tarmac Black/Brushed Foil.

GROUPSET: Shimano 105 11-speed 52/36T 11-28t.

WHEELS & TIRES: Front: DT Swiss R470 rim 12mmx100mm, 20mm internal width, tubeless ready, 24h, Specialized full sealed bearing thru axle hub, centerlock disc, DT Swiss Champion 14G stainless steel spokes, DT Swiss brass nipples. Rear: DT Swiss R470 rim 12mmx142mm, 20mm internal width, tubeless ready, 24h, Specialized full sealed bearing thru axle hub, centerlock disc, HG alloy freehub body, DT Swiss Champion 14G stainless steel spokes, DT Swiss brass nipples.

TYRES: Turbo Pro, 60 TPI, folding bead, BlackBelt protection, 700x26mm. Presta, 40mm valve.

COCKPIT:
Specialized Shallow Drop handlebars (6061, 70x125mm, 31.8mm clamp), Body Geometry Power Sport saddle (steel rails), Specialized stem (7-degree rise), Supacaz Super Sticky Kush bartape, S-Works Tarmac Carbon seat post (20mm offset).

FORK:
FACT Carbon, 12x100mm thru-axle, flat-mount disc.

The Canyon is amazing and I had legs for days today. I’m getting fit!

How I got the bike off Ash from MC Cyclery.

Velocity rims.

How it ended up (FSA cranks, Salsa seat clamp, Campy front brake and Thompson seatpost + stem).

Just dug up these photos of my SE Lager from 2009.

2009 was a HUGE year for Fixed Gear Culture. I watched a screening of a MASHSF short film and like many others, hopped on the fixie bandwagon (I bought a custom SE Lager fixie off Ash Moon who was the head bike mechanic at MC Cyclery at the time.

I enjoyed the simplicity of riding fixed but I never loved the SE. It was too big for me and I hated the red and black theme. I could do mean track stands on it but didn’t get too good at doing skids (I had to run a front brake).

Anyways, now that I’m obsessed with bikes again it’s not taken me too long to check in on Fixie Culture and sadly it looks very much like Fixie Culture is dead. So many brands that sold fixie bikes and gear have long gone, existing fixie stores have little to no stock left and there’s not a single fixie specific bike shop in Sydney (they used to be everywhere!).

Whilst the fad may be over, there’s still fixed gear riders and culture out there. There are tonnes of cheap fixies on AliExpress and Fuji is still making and selling the Fuji Feather. I’ve spent weeks looking at cheap fixies on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, online and AliExpress. I’ve added stuff to the cart countless times only to shut the window once I realise I have more than enough bikes as it is.

I can’t stop looking though. From a design perspective there’s just so much to love about how fixies look. Less is more and they’re so minimalist. I’ve been wanting to ride down to the local supermarket instead of walking. They have a bicycle lockup outside but I just can’t bring myself to lock up any of my bikes so I’ve been looking for a cheap fixie to be my beater/pub bike, but even then I can’t help but be super fussy about how it’s going to look.

Alloy frame fixies on AliExpress will cost around $700 landed, the frames are OK but every single component is trash and covered with terrible Chinglish and branding. I know I’d end up replacing parts over time, then in the end I’ll have a shitty frame with bling bits (I always do this!). I could get a steel fixie from Decathlon for $400, it would never break and I wouldn’t give a shit if it was stolen, but again, once I start tinkering with it I’d be losing out.

Last night I had a TSUNAMI fixie in the cart. I was ready to pull the trigger, but after 5 minutes of staring at the checkout screen I shut the window, loaded up dosnoventabikes.com and pulled the trigger on this infra red DOSNOVENTA Los Angeles frameset.

Buy once cry once? It’s so porno. Fuzzy logic for sure as there’s no way in hell I’d leave this thing locked up outside the shops but I’m already hyperventilating over what parts to get for it. The wheels, crankset, bars… everything!

SPECS:
COLOR: INFRARED MATT
FRAME: COLUMBUS AIRPLANE TUBING . 7005-T6 TRIPLE BUTTED ALLOY
FORK: FULL CARBON FORK . TAPERED 1-1/8” . RAKE 45MM . 700X28C MAX
HEADSET: COLUMBUS COMPASS . 1-1/8″ CARBON
BB: BSA 68MM
SEAT TUBE: 27.2 Ø
GROUND CLEARANCE: 290MM
TIRE CLEARANCE: 700X28C MAX
FORK WEIGHT: 410 GR

No.

I’ve got nothing against people who are new to a hobby buying the best top shelf goods before “getting good”, or… do I?!

I like nice things, but I’ve always felt like I needed to earn nice things by going through trial and error with not so nice things. When I was really into riding I always owned Giant bikes because they’re such great value for money, but not so secretly I always wanted a porn bike. A Yeti, Specialized, Santa Cruz, basically the same bike but 3 times the cost that wouldn’t make me any better a rider.

10+ years ago I heard about Canyon bikes. I instantly liked their brand logo and look of their web site and mountain bikes too. Clean, slick, modern, less is more, love it. Their videos were so well shot too (not to mention riders in their vids were doing things I could never do). Fast forward to now (I’m 49) and I was quite surprised at the reality of Canyon (like Giant) are very much known for great value for money as they sell their bikes direct to consumers via their web site (IE: you won’t find Canyon bikes in your local bike store).

This threw me for a spin as I remembered Canyon as a bike of desire.

Since buying my Canyon (first bike I’ve bought since 2008 and the most expensive bike I’ve ever bought) I’ve been visiting the Canyon subreddit daily and initially I was taken aback by how many people are buying these bikes without much previous bike experience.

The bikes come in a box and you have to put your own bike together. It’s an easy task (I think I love building bikes more than riding them!), but this is not IKEA and I wouldn’t trust someone who’s never put a bike together to do the job. There are so many technical posts made by people who have little to no idea about bicycles on the sub, and the sub has got to have the most non-drive-side photo posts of any sub I’ve ever visited (it’s as bad as eBay and Facebook Marketplace listings for shit bikes!).

It’s not nice to judge, and in this case I’m judging anyone who ever posts a non-drive-side photo to show off their bike as someone who’s quite clueless about bikes. IMHO you best learn from making mistakes, but making a mistake (say, overtightening bolts) on a carbon bike with carbon parts would be pretty damn costly, but hey, it’s not my money so why should I care?!

There are all types of people out there. Some people are born with a silver spoon, some people are OK with paying to win and ultimately I have to be OK with that whether I like it or not. I’m just processing how I feel about Canyon as a brand and inexperienced people buying expensive bikes and putting them together on their own vs getting a local bike shop to do it. It’s all innocent enough though and if there’s any kid of fault here it’s got to be blamed on Canyon and not the people buying their bikes.

/rant.

PS: Please post drive-side shots!