Freedom Festival at the Hordern Pavillion last weekend went off. I didn’t think I was going to have a great time, and for the first hour or so I wasn’t, but then it all just kicked in and I fucking loved it. Best thing was that it wasn’t packed out and there was plenty of dancefloor space and having Christina’s great group of girls all in the one place all on the same vibe just made the night.
Oh I forgot to mention that I had dinner with Suga and her family last night in Thornleigh. We went to a Malaysian Restaurant which Christina and the family used to go to many years ago. Apparently the place hadn’t changed at all. All the waiters were wearing wild Balinese style outfits, there were hardly any other Asians eating there and my bowl left a film of sticky sludge on my hands after I touched it (gotta love dirty ghetto places huh?!). I knew I was in for some great food, and sure enough, the food was awesome.
At the end of the meal Jess (Christina’s little sister) brought up fortune cookies, and how they used to get them there when they were kids. It was decided that we’d ask for some. I then joked that they probably wouldn’t give us fortune cookies because we weren’t white. Funny then that when we asked for some, the waitress had a look of confusion on her face, and said (in Chinese) “we usually only give fortune cookies to white people!”. CLASSIC!
Christina’s fortune cookie read:
He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes.
Can somebody please translate?!
So I’m meant to be resting as I’m going to a dance party at the Hordern at midnight tonight, but when Felix tempted me to go for a ride at Lucas Heights/Menai I couldn’t resist!
My MET Helmet.
No chance to warm up, straight into it!
Found Object.
More fun coming down.
Thing.
Love this shit.
Fungus.
Sumptuous single trail.
Reign Supreme.
Scary having motorcross bikes + 4WD’s sharing the trail (they’re NOT meant to be there).
Me.
Felix.
Satisfied.
I’m a massive fan of the TV show American Chopper. Mainly because I like seeing them conceptualise a bike and document the process of building it (not to mention building works of art in a week!).
I’m also a fan of the show Biker Build-off. Some of the custom shit they do is soooo inspiring. Blows my brain and makes me feel weak for buying off the shelf bolt on parts for my cars and bicycles.
Here are a couple of links to guys who put their heart into bikes they build:
http://www.rookecustoms.com
http://www.chicacustomcycles.com
Their work is to die for.
Jared Graves!
The Aussies bailed out hard but damn that had to be the most exciting shit on the Olympics by far. The commentators did a great job in amping it up too. Awesome shit! Results here.
PS: Great pictures of Jared’s bike here.
Had a day away from the PC yesterday to help Zi (founder of JDMyard) get some SportMax rims over to MX-5 Mania.
I have this dangling in the cabin of the Jazz now, it makes me laugh.
In an attempt to delete commercial radio from my life I performed my signature Motorolla Mobile Phone Antenna mod. LOL.
I love it how there’s always some Aussie muscle next door to IS Motor Racing. I always imagine how great it would be to have the whole complex be home to all types of tuners/mechanics and all types of cars.
JAZZ FTW!!! Funny how Indy front IS Motor Racing, Zi from JDMyard, Charles from Auto Salon Magazine, and myself all drive a Jazz (it’s because the Jazz is the best car in the world of-course).
The Auto Salon Magazine drift car. Fatness + bling = win.
Din’s R32 is taking up the same spot that my RB26 took up for over a year. I love a clean chassis (especially the R32 which I know well). I could stare at it for hours. It’s real love (I’m joking, but not really).
The parachute release beam up the top gives it all away.
Then you see the rear of it and it confirms that this thing is going to be built up for the strip.
R34 GT-R. Mark my words I’ll own one, one day.
So after meeting up with Zi, we headed off to MX-5 Mania to deliver some wheels. They’re out near Hornsby, pretty much in the middle of no-where so I got to catch up with Zi, which is always cool.
We were greeted by this, a very rare MX-5 Coupe.
The potential! I’d so blow a load of cash on this thing.
The Future.
Mania’s wrecking room lol. Awesome shit.
I also had a little package waiting for me when I got home (well, 2 little packages as Suga was home sick :). My DMR V12 pedals were about to be pimped up with titanium spindles + gold pins.
Pimp my pedals.
Before.
After.
Seems like Bike Nights are becoming a regular thing (lol). We stripped down Felix’s $500 Diamond Back last night and splattered all of the spare parts I had lying around from Suga’s Talon onto it. In the end all the parts shaved 1kg off his bike (now sitting at 12.9kg’s) and more importantly he now has hydraulic brakes.
My 1am shin dig.
Well my TV went down for 2 days due to a heavy storm which zapped my Foxtel box and at the same time my internet went down too (it’s been 5 days sans internet).
I went crazy the first day, went for a ride to Loftus on my own on Tuesday (not sure if I like being out there alone, it’s quiet and there’s no one there to push you… just not my thing I suppose?) and once Foxtel was back up I watched a SHITLOAD of the Olympic Games, on the couch munching junk food, reading MTB mags and dismantling + cleaning my bikes.
I was trying my best to work with clients on the phone, not so good so I had to borrow my Mum’s internet for a day to do some work.
Could I live without the net? Let’s not even go there. I definitely couldn’t work without it and in all honesty I just felt my mind come to a halt. TV definitely turns people into vegetables. The internet might do the same for your body, but it definitely does a lot for the mind (well, mine anyways!).
Apart from the visually spectacular (due to sheer mass + co-ordination) drumming intro. Was I the only one that thought the Olympic Ceremony was totally crap?! BORING!
Jing, Clifton and Timmy invited me out to Lucas Heights today, damn I’m still high from the experience. What an awesome techy trail. I loved every single little bit of it (except for the motorbike riders).
The Reign’s just so well set up.
It’s an absolute goat for climbing techy shit. It has buckets of grip and going down tech stuff is just so plush and confidence inspiring. The front is so easy to lift so it makes hucking small drops easy.
The new forks are great, no worse than the old forks, and no better really but I’m happy. I had pro-pedal off all day (1st time) and I found that there was way too much sag at my recommended weight, so much so that there was pretty much no pedal clearance at all and I wash mashing the pedals on everything. Didn’t really stop me though. Speaking of the pedals, the V12’s + 551 shoes are so damn grippy I felt like I was clipping in and out, and clipping out multiple times as I’d often put my foot wrong on the pedal but there was so much damn grip I couldn’t adjust my foot placement on the pedal unless I lifted my foot right off lol. Perfection. I love the set-up (did I mention I love my set-up?!).
The Met helmet was awesome, so cool. Nice to see a couple of other riders out there with them on too. The TLD XC gloves, whilst suuper comfy for the first hour, are a bit thin. Might look into thicker gloves. The Joplin seatpost is a miracle which I called on a billion times today on the fly. It gives you power when you need it for the climbs and gives you bucket loads of confidence for the tech downhill stuff.
Great place, love the bike. Super happy.