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So my long time car buddy Zi finally decided to buy a bike. Yes buying a $2k bicycle initially seems like a ridiculous amount of cash, but it’s an investment! I hope he lives longer for it. It feels good to inspire people to get into riding, that means more riding buddies for me too which is a great thing. My recruitment skills are getting stronger!

Grant at MC Cycles looked after us and Zi walked out with a 2009 Trance X3. It’s got 5 inches of travel and some very sexy bits on it: Fox Float fork with the new 15mm axles and a Fox rear shock too, a Formula front hub, red spoke nipples, shadow SLX rear derailleur, Italian Fizik saddle and the exact same tyre set-up as my Reign (2.1 Nevegal Stick-e and DTC on the rear).

I missed the opportunity to get the new bike owner with bike photo but will take pics of Zi’s new beasty ASAP. In the meantime you can check the specs out here.

I’ve been doing a bit of research on road bikes (I’ve been here before, many times…) and I still can’t bring myself to buying a new racer. I’m not keen on the swoopy crazy hydroformed tubing that all the new race bikes feature. Sure I have NO doubt that these bikes would be super fast, light and rigid, but I’m still a massive fan of old school frames that are made of steel tubing. They’re just so much more elegant to me.

I started looking at flat bar road bikes today, and the Cannondale Bad Boy Ultra came up, it’s basically a mountain bike with roadbike wheels. The thought entertained me for a few hours but after checking out a whole lot of fixed gear bikes I’m 100% for a road bike, perhaps with a riser bar and gears. I’m definitely NOT going to go fixed gear and would prefer gears over a single speed, but I might dabble with some fixed gear/BMX culture and see what I come up with (hopefully something colourful as all my bikes are looking rather black!).

In case I fail to get a road bike for the Sydney to Wollongong ride I’ve decided to prepare the old single speed. I’m bidding on some slicks on eBay and I’ve whacked the Mary bars and Fizik saddle on for a bit of comfort. She’s looking lovely!

Mary’s back.

Vintage metal presta caps inspired by old man Willis.

Gold Alligator brake cable.

Jing wanted to do a lap of the Dam before work this morning so we met up at 8am for a quick burl. Clifton and Timmy (the lads?) came along too, it was Timmy’s 1st time at the Dam and he just mashed the last part (the most fun part and the kid led the way too!). Awesome considering he’s never ridden the Dam before.

I got up the techy rocky bit again, getting better at it every time. I had a go at Jing’s Cannondale which has no granny ring and a road cassette on the back and made it up too first go, in fact I thought it was easier to ride his Cannondale up it than my bike, not because of the gearing but more because the bike’s so damn light and rigid. I also finally got up a section just after the techy climb where a wooden path leads to some nasty rocks. I was pretty much smiling after that until the carpark.

Sealant was in the air as Clifton’s tubeless set-up gave way when he landed a bunny hop a little sideways.

Traffic on Military Road on the way back home.

How’s that for fuel efficiency?!

E10 FTMFW!

$60 for 600km’s.

I got a package from the USA today. Dan’s comp is an online BMX store which, even after shipping, slaughters local business prices. I couldn’t resist and I bought some parts which replace the few non-branded parts on the Kink.

Box of lovin.

This new Odyssey Elementary stem is kinda like a jigsaw puzzle. I uses only one bolt (in place of 6) to hold everything, including the bars, together.

Dropped a kilo.

I also dropped into some shops to check out road bikes (I’ve always wanted a roadie and hey the Gong is coming up!) but I didn’t find anything, so on the way home I dropped in to visit the boys at Maroubra Cycles.

Wow surprise surprise Grant has his new signage up! New shop name and orange is the new shop colour.

Great retro logo + 1975, that’s when I was born :)

Grant then surprised me with his latest creation. A Santa Cruz Heckler with 09 Saint throughout in shop colours of-course. What a BEAST!

On another note: All Giant Bicycles world wide are going up by 20% in price! If you want to buy a Giant bicycle you better get to it this week as next week all bikes go up in price.

Well here’s the long weekend wrap.

Things I loved this weekend:
– Hanging out at Newtown
– Badass truckie’s breakfast
– My new skate deck
– Daylight savings kicked in
– Fishing session out at the Hawkesbury River

Things I hated:
– Shitty weather
– Didn’t go for a ride
– Missed the MotoGP on TV
– My bike threads on Farkin Forum have gone to shit

Christina my Mum and I spent a day looking at Kitchen Appliances and bathroom fittings on Saturday. Damn my mum’s a trooper. Christina and I would have been out of there in 10 minutes flat if she wasn’t there, she just forced us to soldier on and at the end of the day we got a pretty good idea of what we need/want/might be getting for the new house rennovations (which start soon… I hope). The amount of money that’s going to be needed in order to get everything we want is scaring me a fair bit but I’m trying my best to be positive.

Saturday night we went to a house party in Newtown and mid way we ended up going for a stroll down to King St. Newtown was buzzing, shops were open and I was just loving the vibe. I’m just so glad Newtown’s still cool.

Clockwise from left to right: Christina, Blake, Christine, Shaun and myself.

Haha. The thing’s you do when you’re drunk.

Guzman Y Gomez at Newtown – I’d been meaning to try out this joint since I did a talk at Raffles College where one of the other speakers that night had designed this shop’s ID. After reading a good review on Mark’s blog I was determinded to get some in at the very next opportunity. What better a way to absorb some of that piss with a burrito?! It was damn awesome especially with some of their special sauce.

Kuletos are known for their cocktails and was an old happy hour haunt of mine years ago. Suga had a legless cocktail, we recommend!

Sunday was a bit of a nothing day, sleep in, brekkie, shopping and a movie (The Dutchess – slow, but surprisingly AOK.).

Seedy morning truckie’s breakfast.

My new deck which I’ll be building up and skating on (IE: this one’s not for the wall), the kids at SDS Bondi looked after me.

Awesome!

Domo-kun.

Random bike geek shot.

And today we spent the day out at the Hawkesbury River, fishing was attempted, but nothing was caught. I didn’t expect anything in any case as the weather was pretty strange (sunny one minute pissing down the next). We had a feast and a nice walk along the coast. The place reminds me of Sandon, in that it’s so remote and so fishing oriented. I loved the run down little shack of a house. I’m definitely the kind of person who can settle down in a place like this.

The house. A short boat ride to get there.

Cool wall hanging #1.

Cool wall hanging #2.

Christina fishing.

Storm coming.

hehe

Dior the local labrador accompanied us on our coastal walk.

Sign in Eastwood.

Bimbimbab!

I’ve been trying to get my mate Zi out for a trail ride for ages now (yes spreading the good word of the mountain bike of-course!). He finally had a day off in his busy schedule and he happened to choose one of the hottest days of the year so far to do it. HEAT WAVE!

I met Zi at the workshop as he was getting work done to his MX-5 (see below), we had some lunch, then we headed to Loftus Oval.

I brought Suga’s Talon and the Scale and got to ride both of them during the 20km ride. It’s black and white, clear as day how different both these hardtails are. The Talon’s a fun bike to ride both up, down and in technical sections. The Scale however is so unrelentless. It’s too light, the fork is too stiff and you just get bounced around everywhere. Technical downhill stuff feels sketchy, fast downhill stuff is just as bad but climbing is fantastic. It basically feels like riding a road bike off road. The bars are not wide enough and they were also way too low. I raised the stem up on the steerer mid ride and it was a little better, but it could even do with a low riser bar. The Selle SLR saddle is a world of pain. It looks hot but it’s got to go.

Agreed the Scale is a race bike, it’s not made to be comfortable on a trail, but I’ve ridden it at Manly Dam, Lady Carrington and now Loftus and I didn’t have fun on it at either trail. Letting it go is on the cards.

Zi’s NA MX-5.

Weekend racer!

Zi on the Scale – he was in so much pain. Jelly legs and his ass was fucked hard by the Selle saddle lol.

I caught up with Tanja Kimme (an old friend and once flatmate) at the MCA yesterday. As much as I love the MCA sometimes I just walk out of there frustrated by how shit some of the work on display is, but right now they’re exhibiting the work of Yinka Shonibare and it’s absolutely amazing (and funny!). I suggest everyone go now, check it out, it’s free too.

Yinka Shonibare.

We had lunch at Sailors Thai, $25 dishes aren’t cheap for That food but it’s Sydney’s best Thai so after the meal no one was complaining!

Also, last night we had a big dinner with my family, and Christina’s at Pony. Definitely one of my fave restaurants at the moment. I got pretty wasted but Mum drove me home. On the way home some fucker was flashing her in the tunnel. I took out the camera, stuck my arm out the car and started taking pics of them (with flash of-course lol). I love doing that to slow down hoons on the road. I assume they get paranoid I might send in the photo to the authorities or something.

Today, being one of the hottest days around, and with a splitting headache and hangover from last night, I decided to go for a Lucas Heights ride with Clifton. I just wasn’t into it. Too hot, too tiring and a severe lack of confidence (I fell over pretty early on in the ride) and energy. We did manage to do one of the drops though, and I attempted the log ride but failed to clear it.

Reign pre-ride.

Clifton did this drop first, which then gee’d me on to do it.

My huck.

Log ride attempt, it’s a shitload steeper than the picture suggests.

I saw a few strange things yesterday. Earlier on in the day I pulled over the side of the road to watch a male pigeon doing his mating ritual around a dead flattened pigeon in the middle of the road. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I wish I had my video camera with me. Later that night I saw an old lady fall flat on her face. There was a crowd of people around her helping her, looks like she might have broken her hip. Horrible stuff.

We had the JDMST end of month meet at Fox Studios last night, quiet as it usually is at Fox, or anywhere in the east (when we have meets out west all hell breaks loose) with only about 30 or so cars rocking up on the night. I much prefer the smaller meets, it’s easier to get around and meet new people and the authorities are always a little more friendly and relaxed.

Speaking of the authorities:

Our resident Policeman opened his boot at one point to grab a pen for me and Suga couldn’t help herself when she saw his gear in the trunk.

SO cute!

Hehehe.

Then everyone started having a go and getting silly – here’s Alan.

Suga putting on Police pants…

And top…

Haha.

I love taking pics of photographers taking photos. Love the dynamic poses they get into lol.

VIP YO!

RC madness.

Whilst waiting for the F1 to start last night I started fiddling with the Kink. I whacked on a carbon spacer to replace the alloy ones it came with and also replaced the brake cable end crimp with one of my signature black ones.

We had 7 riders on Saturday at Manly Dam (Sydney’s spiritual home of mountain biking… I love how that rolls off the tongue!). The trail was super busy too but no-one really got in our way, if anything we got in other peoples way! It was an awesome ride, the heat was on and all of us suffered under the sun but no one complained. Charlie and I are really getting a bit silly with how fast we’re doing some of the sections, we pushed pretty hard on the last section back to the Dam hucking off everything in sight and I was left buzzing like no other ride I’ve had before. Now for some pics:

I always pack all my gear up the night before and put it downstairs so I don’t wake Christina up too much (and so I don’t forget anything!).

Andy’s rides.

Matt’s rides.

Charlie’s Altezza.

Charlie’s a funny guy.

Charlie.

Richie, Matt and Andy.

Charlie had a mad slam just before the creek at the end of the DH section.

We chilled at the creek for a while whilst Charlie recovered from the fall.

Felix’s friend Peter’s old school 90’s cool.

Charlie doing it hard up heartbreak hill. Spot the walkers!!!

SUNDAY: Suga’s Dad’s B’day today, check the feast!!!

A whole crackling pig!!! Always a massive feast at the Suga’s!

Peppa and I.

Nyaw peppa.

The Lock’s!

In other news: I de-stickered my new BMX (couldn’t help myself):

De-stickered Kink Apex.

And shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck shit fuck my internet is fucking capped again (until Wednesday). It’s OK though I stocked up on some BMX/MTB magazines earlier today! Bahaha.