Category Archives: Uncategorised

Got this rack off eBay. My lounge room is so a bike workshop!

The Chinese love the number “888” (which sounds like rich rich rich in Chinese, or something like that, good fortune, wealth).

Since it was the 8/8/08 (hey 888 lucky day not to mention the Beijing Olympics tonight!!!) I thought I’d treat the Jazz (I just couldn’t help myself).

I dropped in to JDMyard and saw this: A mountain of wheels!

My local Goodyear always look after me (Maroubra). Word of warning: these wheels need thinner wheelnuts ($60 locking and they look nice).

Wheels are Sportmax 501 15×7 4×100/114.3 +38 Gunmetal not a single bit of rubbing and the front wheel clears the caliper.

Funny, but true :)

Every now and then I copy/paste parts of funny MSN conversations I have with mates on Messenger. Here’s a few recent ones:

Christina says:
what was on oprah
justin@australianinfront.com.au says:
Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts new film
justin@australianinfront.com.au says:
They were both on the couch sucking Oprahs cock

Jing says:
59kg for me depending if i crapped
justin@australianinfront.com.au says:
1kg crap?
justin@australianinfront.com.au says:
You must be full of shit
Jing says:
HAHAHHA

www.matthewmead.net says:
just went for a bike ride
justin@australianinfront.com.au says:
And theeeeeeeeennnnn?
www.matthewmead.net says:
lol
www.matthewmead.net says:
haha

The other day I had the urge to listen to some Queens of the Stone Age, so much so that I downloaded Limewire just to hunt down a few tracks.

3 days later and my internet’s come to a crawl and I was only getting 64kb speeds. I thought to myself: OK, it’s just Telstra having an issue, so I spent a day off the PC (always a good thing to do) but the day after the problem was still at large. I had to do work but the internet was so damn slow. It was just killing me!

I logged onto Telstra and checked out my account usage and it turns out that Limewire was set to share on install and that a billion people had downloaded stuff off my PC and that in turn had blown my 12gig internet limit for the month and I was to be capped at 64kg until next month!!!

On MSN: Mark, a mate of mine said that he had the same problem and he called Telstra up, said he was a web developer with a massive job on this month that blew the limit and he also threatened to leave Telstra. They gave him an extra 2gig to tide him through to the end of the month. He gave me the number and suggested I try the same thing.

Being an honest person I couldn’t lie (completely) so I called, let them know that I had mates over watching a DVD (Seasons! Great soundtrack BTW), I loved one of the songs on it and a mate downloaded uTorrent to get the song for me and in doing so had sharing on which allowed the internet to download the song off my harddrive thus blowing my limit. I also let them know that in all the 10 years I’ve been with them I’ve never blown my limit AND that I was a web developer that needs the internet and that there was no way I was going to be able to hack this slow speed for the rest of the month. I also mentioned that I would move if moving was easy but I couldn’t be fucked moving servers and would rather stay.

So the guy goes, what are you asking for then?! I just said I was after a bit of leeway, that I made a mistake, but I can’t live with these slow speeds for the rest of the month. Even if they gave me half a gig till the end of the month. I’d really appreciate it. He put me on hold whilst he went to ask his superior and when he came back on he told me that they thought I put a pretty honest case through and that they are going to give me an extra 3gig to see me through untill the end of the month. I’m also now upgraded to some crazy ADSL2 speed plan at the same price.

I’m happy :)

So happy to have the beasty back. I replaced the grotty Raceface BB with a brand spanking new Shimano XTR BB + also put on a meaty 185mm rotor + rotor adapptor on the front.

Oh Yeah. My Reign is back.

Funny thing is, on the way to Maroubra Junction Cycles (my LBS) it was sooo sunny, (hell there was even a guy lying down soaking up the rays on the lawn outside) but as soon as I got the Reign home it started raining hard! It’s a sign! Fuck this bike gets me excited.

Maroubra Junction Cycles is under new ownership now and Grant (the new owner) is getting some very cool bikes in. He let me bust this thing around the block today:

I thought it was going to be slow, but damn it’s fast! The gearing is light (that could be it). I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face riding it. I felt like everyone was staring at me (but I’m sure they weren’t but it just felt like I was doing something naughty and rebellious). Going off a gutter the tyres make this funny “FOMP” noise. Giggles all round.

Fixie project on display.

Grant and the boys have been following my progress since the single speed project. Not sure what they think of me exactly, but he offered to put my Ti bike up on display in the store. That’s fucking cool. I might just do it for kicks. :)

Reign final weigh in (slightly heavier with the new Fox forks).

PS: This is the aftermath from last night’s midnight railing session in my backyard (lol).

I couldn’t resist. Since I was having troubles with the Pace forks I’ve decided to put them on the single speed, and put the single speed’s rigid carbon forks on the Ti (helps that they both share King headsets). Weight is down to 8.3kg! Weight Weenie for life yo! :)

Inspiration 1

Inspiration 2

After seeing this thread the boys and I are getting pretty excited about building a mini pump track/obstacle course in my backyard. Last night Felix, Clifton and Jing came around, we watched F1RST, then Seasons (amazing footage, it’s art), then we went outside and started trying to rail some corners, the grass flew and we’ve almost got a course already! Scary huh?!

Well my sweety surprised me this morning by booking us into Lake Crackenback ski resort in October for a weekend away (!). Christina’s been there before, as a kid, and she loved it. She also sent me this link (nyaaaw what a girl aye?!). Looks like we’ll get to do some biking! Not to mention fishing, good food, wine, trail walks, horse riding (?!) and a great resort apartment too! It’s love I tell you! I can’t wait!

Great weekend (as always!).

My cousin Nicholas turned 19 on Friday night, he’s such a goody two shoes that kid. He’s clean cut, polite… unbelivable really (my wicked teens didn’t influence him at all!). Then again… he’s getting into clubbing A LOT . All he talks about is clubbing, trance and the Melbourne shuffle. We had dinner at Pink Salt, a restaurant at Double Bay (runners up a few years back in the ‘My Restaurant Rules’ show. I even recognised the guy off TV). My steak was great, blue almost but that’s a shitload better than being overcooked. We tried our best to get Nicholas slashed, didn’t help that his dad halted the drinking after a cocktail and a round of shots (lame!).

Sweet 19. Nicholas and my Mum.

Suga loves the shots.

Blue inside.

Suga’s Salmon.

Suga, Richie and I did 25km’s around Centennial Park on the Saturday. I was just testing the Titanium bike out both on road and on the jogging trail. She’s amazing on the road and the big hill going up to Oxford Street has become all too easy. On the tree roots she’d damn bumpy, it’s almost as if the forks are on lock-out (but they’re not).

Finally got dirt.

On Sunday Clifton Jing and I went to Loftus (Jing took some video here). Jing noticed my pace forks weren’t moving at all, we let some pressure out and the forks literally dropped 20mm. No shock pump meant that we just adjusted the rebound to fast and well… I rode for 3 hours with the fork bottomed out… so it wasn’t a great test. I did adjust the saddle angle though to a position I was happy with. I love the SPD’s as far as power and functionality goes, they clip in so damn fast/well. I love that the most about them, but my confidence was slaughtered by having them on (doesn’t help when you forget to clip out and fall going over the train tracks fresh out of the carpark lol… too funny).

The bike on gradual inclines is fast (in comparisson to my Reign) but going up really steep hills in granny gear it’s not got as much grip in the rear but it tracks a lot better than the Reign does. It’s really fast in single trail but on fireroad downhills it’s bumpy as all hell and I have to choose the smoother line all the time (I love how the Reign can go off the line, any time, no worries).

Gear wise, the XTR set just performed well. The shifters/shifting was fast/smooth/spot on. The clicks on the shifter aren’t as strong as SRAM (which I do like) but it works really well. Brakes seemed weak initially but they lock up OK, all in all they feel like they’re lacking punch but they do work alright.

All in all I’m not so excited about it. It’s a great bike but just not as playful, fun, confidence inspiring and comfortable as the Reign.

I’ll have to sort out the fork issue at least. If it means selling it for a new fork, so be it. Lesson learnt as they’re 2nd hand and the only 2nd hand item on the bike.

18 car freaks registering for battle.

Suga and I – Daft Punk?

Mark Pakula’s MX5 (Photographer for Autosalon Magazine) is sooo fast the paint is coming off.

The Sunday night Suga and I went to Steve’s B’day mini grand prix at Eastern Creek. My legs were deaded from the ride and after 5 races my arms were deaded too. When you go karting with a group of great drivers you get hardcore competition and aggression, the best thing was that Suga caned a lot of the guys whilst their girlfriends watched on from the stands (that’s my girl!!!). Out of the 18 drivers I placed 5th on the grid at the final grand prix. Steve was behind me and I warned him not to play dirty but he shunted me off the track 3 laps in and I lost a lot of positions, it’s OK, he’s the B’day boy afterall. I forgive him. I had another off when Dave from Buddy club spun out in front of me but still managed to hold 10th. So sore, hungry and tired I only just stayed awake to stuff some hot pot down my esophagus, drive home in a daze (yes driving the Jazz is sureal after karting), dunk a glass of red and fall asleep to F1 on the TV.