Search Results for: jing

Felix’s new King Headset.

Andy’s Mash with Phil Hubs.

La Perouse.

Felix had a new bling King headset to install on his fixie so we had a small bike night last night, haven’t had one in aaaaages.

Andy, Jing and Timmy rode all the way over to my place from out Rockdale way, we got to work on Felix’s bike, cracked a few beers and then hit the road to La Perouse. La Pa was all fenced off so the hoons couldn’t hang out there, some of them still did though and they found us quite amusing: “Long way to France” they were yelling out. Har har har.

By the time I got back I was feeling pretty sick and getting up the stairs was hard work as my legs were jelly. I used parts of my lungs I hadn’t used in a long time. That felt pretty good. I’m unfit but I was still able to keep up with the boys (they’re machines!) so I’m pretty sure I’ll bounce back to form pretty quickly (IF I keep this up!).

I noticed my internal hard drive not showing up on my list of drives a few times last week. Bells started to ring. “Backup your content man!”. I’ve heard it from so many people, especially PC users but I’ve never actually bothered until this time. I backed everything up last Friday and the drive completely died last weekend. Saved by the bell?!

I dropped in to see Jing today at PC Express (his PC Shop). He’s nursing a broken elbow from a fall at Loftus, perhaps one of the easiest mountain bikes trails around. Jing knows this place like the back of his hand (he could even do it blind folded!) but It just goes to show that anything can happen.

He took the faulty drive out and replaced it with a new one and he’s going to see if he can get the old drive working again for me but since I’ve backed everything up, it’s all good!

Photo by Jing Li.

This would have to be one of the most epic & intriguing cars I’ve ever driven. Read the spec sheet & it sounds like a monster, but drive it & you could be convinced this is a factory effort by Honda to create one of the most thrilling small cars of all time.

I just came across a test drive review of my own K20A Honda Jazz (which I’ve lent to David for a week, he’s the new owner now). I was confused as I thought it might have been an old review when Eddie owned it, then I saw the date on the posts! This is a recent review of the yellow monster, read and enjoy:

http://www.carandimage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19180

I snuck out of the JDMST EOMM on Saturday night early so that I could go home and hit the sack. 5am on Sunday I was up, packed the car and headed of to Richie’s. From there we rode to Newtown for the start. My hands were killing me from the ride in so I made a little adjustment to the bars (I tilted them back) and that made a HUGE difference.

We met up with Jing and after sitting in the line for 10 minutes we decided to jump the start (we would have been sitting there for at least half an hour otherwise). Like last year there was a major blockage for the first 10km but we were rolling soon enough and that Gong vibe kicked in.

Seeing so many different types of people, of all ages, so many different kinds of bikes and the volunteers yelling out “Thank you so much! Thanks for the support!” brought a massive smile to my face. I’ve always treated the Gong ride more like a race (which it isn’t) and gone solo every time. Richie, Jing and I stuck together as a group all the way until the finish line, which was great fun.

The event raised over 2.6 million dollars for MS and I managed to raise $410 so a huge thanks to everyone who sponsored me.

More pictures and discussion can be found here.

Ever since the Ti build was finished the Hardrock has been hanging there without parts (the fork went onto the Ti). Inspired by Jarods new wheels + Jings new VOODOO I thought I’d put a bit of love into the old Hardrock to get it back on the road.

More images here.

Pics from last nights great Loftus night ride. Great weather yesterday made for a dry trail. At 7.30PM (our usual meet up time) there was still light.

The MCC boys (David, Sam and Ash).

Sam.

Jings new Voodoo SS.

David.

Felix.

David, freak face off picture!

It’s warming up and Monday night Loftus rides are on again.

I sold my niterider lights before winter kicked in as they weren’t bright enough for the pace we were starting to go at, not to mention that as it got colder and darker earlier we all failed to keep up night riding so it was a good time to sell them. Another reason for selling them was that I heard that the new Ayups were going to be on sale soon (they’re Australian made lights which everyone else is using, not cheap but they’re damn bright).

Tonight I borrowed one of Jing’s lights but the good news is that the new Ayups are now on sale, bit more expensive than last time but they’re more refined (brighter and more waterproof kit). I was still way off the pace but at least I didn’t feel sick like I did last ride. The weather was perfect too, not too cold, just right, no mozzies, perfect.

I had planned to come back home to a roast chook but the boys wanted to hit up McDonalds so I did the social thing and tagged along. After reading Charles’s review of the new Angus Burger I gave it a go and too right it was juicy and wasn’t as bad as some of the crap burgers I’ve had at pricey cafe’s. Can’t say I’d recommend them though, that would be bad Kharma right?

Jing had a Go-pro camera yesterday, more pics on his Flickr.

Just got back home from a crazy day out at Stromlo Forest Park in Canberra.

In attendance was Jing (Trance), Zi (Blur LT), Crazy Dave (Anthem), Simon (Cell carbon hardtail) and myself (Reign).

I had little sleep last night, and was more than happy to bail but with a bit of pressure from Zi and Jing I considered my arm twisted and up I got.

We hit the M5 and stopped over at Pheasants Nest/Mobil for a bite of brekky ($25 for 2 sandwiches and a pie? What a rip!). I handed the keys over to Jing at this point and went to sleep for a couple of hours (thanks Jing!).

The carpark was full when we got there, the park featured all new signage and identity design since I was last here (Word cup). There was a big group of newbies playing around on logs in what looked like an introduction to mountain biking course of some sort (nice). And it wasn’t long before we were sitting at the base of the mountain checking out the trail options.

We ended up going for trail Loop 2

Rating – Intermediate
Time – 45 to 90 minutes

Loop 2 is one of the shorter loops climbing, traversing and taking you to access points to most of Stromlo Forest Park. The trail uses the main trunk trail network to climb gently to the top of Mt Stromlo, before a long, flowing descent back to the car park area. Riders are rewarded with expansive 360 degree views of the ACT from the summit and a descent that will leave you smiling for days. This trail requires a degree of fitness and skill level as there are a number of challenging climbs and obstacles.

As soon as we got going there was a funny log ride structure the boys were standing around. I had Grant’s saying “those who hesitate, masturbate” in my head and despite not being warmed up I did it and that pretty much set my confidence levels up for a good part of the ride. Helps I was riding flats too.

The trail had a lot of tight switchbacks making the climb up the mountain (all the way to the damn top) interesting (ie: less painful). Once we got to the top the view from the observatory was amazing. And from there the descent back down to the carpark was an enlightening experience (yes the climb was well worth it!). Fanging it through the massive green container into a massive series of berms put a smile on everyone’s face.

We had a bit to eat and set out to do Loop 6:

Rating – Intermediate/Advanced
Time – 60 to 90 minutes

Loop 6 is a demanding ride that takes you over the Northern trails, climbing steeply to Echidna Gap before plunging down to the Western side of Stromlo Forest Park. The superb Double Dissolution trail drops you out near the Western Car park before you make your way back along the northern trails to the start point. The trail takes in a wide variety of the terrain and is able to be linked with a variety of other trails. Make sure you have your climbing legs on and enough in the tank to enjoy the fun and moderately technical descent

The climb was a little less fun than the last loop we did, steeper, more relentless but never boring. Again we climbed up to the top of the mountain but the descent down was more along side the mountain than straight down offering more variation in terrain. There was a silly see-saw thing that I had a go on too (only because the boys egged me on!) I almost fucked it, but managed to somehow pull it off :)

I was spent at the end of this, Zi had a few bad cramps, Dave and Simon were done too but Jing and Clifton wanted more, Zi decided the same but he didn’t want to climb up again so the three were shuttled up to the top and did the downhill part of Loop 2 again, at this time the rain came too so I was glad I was all warm and cozy in the car lol.

All in all despite the farking cold weather I had heaps of fun. The signage was insanely clear and you were never ever lost. I did think that the trails we did felt very man made, in the end I couldn’t help but feel that you really just had to climb up to the top of Mt. Stromlo in order to have fun going down.

6.30AM, stinging eyes but ready to roll.

7am at Zi’s. Dave’s Stagea is soooo hot. I love it. Lots.

M5.

A cyclocross event was happening.

Far from the best cyclocross bike there but unforunately the only one I got a snap of.

Decisions decisions!

Main map.

More trails!

Jing and Clifton just checking out some of the double diamond stuff.

At the very top of Mt. Stromlo these were these remains of an old observatory building.

I thought I’d go inside it and take a snap of the Reign.

We thought we’d check out the observatory building whilst we were here.

These things looked like space pods! So sci-fi cool.

Black Diamond warnings.

Loop 6.

Great signage througout.

Great names too.