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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.

First a house rennovation update:

Clear roofing over the deck is on. Bird shit free for now. Also check the great timber which had been hidden behind paint all this time.

The main bathroom and wardrobe has been demolished. We’ve demolished the wall between the wardrobe and bathroom (so stupid putting a wardrobe next to the bathroom in any case as I had a bad mould issue). The bathroom is twice as big now.

New powdercoated aluminium windows to replace all windows on the house.

On Saturday Jamie and Richie got Suga and I tickets to the Sydney Good Food and Wine show.

Suga’s R32 in the carpark. It’s not so clear in this picture, but the R32’s excessive brake dust covers the wheels and is making them look dark brown instead of glossy black. We might have to look into some better brake pads soon.

Hey! Decent food at the Darling Harbour exhibition halls for a change!

Armed with a wine glass each, the wine testing was on and we were all spinning in no time.

Entry included an allocated seat for the Master Chef show, which to be quite honest, was heaps of fun. For these chefs (who are usually behind the scenes) to be so great in front of the camera and on a stage in front of 2000 people, that impressed me, they were hillarious.

Death Star on the harbour.

Despite there being a lot of great food and wine at the show the one thing that impressed Richie and I the most was the beer served up at the James Squire stall (try their Sundown Lager! It’s fruity goodness). So we headed to the James Squire bar/micro-brewery at King Street Wharf for more.

On Saturday night Jing called me up and said a ride was on Sunday morning. Pressure’s good. That’s what mates are for and I needed to work off the alcohol in any case so I set my alarm and got up early on Sunday morning for a ride at Appin.

Clifton at the start.

“Bei”Jing showing us all how to do the China squat right. As usual on rests the gay jokes started flowing.

What Jing would look like on the dancefloor at a rave?

Thanks to Timmy, Cliffy and Jing for waiting up for me at every opportunity. I just didn’t have any energy at all and was feeling the pain 10 miuntes into the ride. The boys pushed me to do a 2nd lap and whilst I went even slower than the first lap I’m glad I did it.

I rode clipped in for the first time ever on the Reign, the Shimano DX pedals are awesome, so easy to clip into and you can actually use them as a platform pedal not clipped in too.

I failed to clip out a few times though on techy stuff and went down 3 times. 2 times were slow falls uphill but one was a little nasty on the way down and I’ve got a bruised up knee but it’s nothing major so… all good! I’m pretty determined to stick with the DX pedals, at least for a while.

The Ti frame, due to a defect, had been up on the wall as art for over a year. A few attempts to get it going again failed, but last night there must have been something in the air as Jing and I managed to revive the thing, and she’s riding beautifully today! So awesome. I don’t know what to think.

She’s back!

1×9 and a road bb solves everything.

Beer of choice.

More info and pics here.

I finally got around to getting some rechargable AAA batteries for the GoPro wide camera yesterday. Took me a while as I had to specifically find some Sanyo eneloop ones which are apparently superior to other brands (cheers Jing!).

Low light this morning but I had to rattle off a few test shots:

Amazing how wide the lens is, it’s more like a fish eye.

It’s so wide that it even got my finger in the shot, my finger was nowhere near the lens!!!

I took these Kitchen shots for memories as I’m about to demolish the whole thing!

My weekends are now spent looking at house stuff. Driving around from place to place looking at toilet paper roll holders, sinks, door handles, appliances, toilets, the works.

I’ve somehow managed to get everything I need for the new kitchen, but the kitchen itself. And I’ve also got everything I need for the new guest bathroom. A bath tub for my own bathroom too, basin, taps and a few more things. It’s damn hard to decide on something as simple as a tap. Does it work well? Does it stick out far enough? It’s been hard and trial and error is something I’d rather not be doing.

I’ll post pics as soon as the goods roll in. But for now here’s some pics from the weekend:

The deck is almost done.

Swans at Centennial Park.

Lamb was amazing. Jamie and Richie’s for dinner.

Kellie and Matt (I went to uni with Kellie). Always great to see these guys.

Matt’s crazy drum set-up for the X-Box.

Got the single speed out for a ride at Loftus. I made it up the big hill, so proud of myself even if I did feel like throwing up once I got to the top.

Jing and Timmy.

Jarod’s single speed 29’er.

Matt’s single speed.

Muddy goodness.

On another note, MCC are slashing prices off the Surly Steamroller and the Salsa Casserole as part of a group buy on Bikes Move Us. Take it from me, this is not a bullshit offer. It’s more of a PR Excercise (Grant’s been known to give away bikes before to get the MCC brand out there). More info here.

Oh, and another note: The Softride frame I found at MC Cyclery sold on eBay for $163.50. I figure it would have cost me at least $700 to get it to a state I would be happy with so I’m glad I’ve sold it (I’ve got enough bikes as it is right?!).

Mounted to my “spare” Fox Flux helmet (it’s Christina’s helmet LOL but shhh don’t tell her).

I finally spent up on some lights. I was hesitant last year, but after a bit more pressure form Jing and Zi, as well as seeing how awesome Tai’s Ayups were last night I dished out on a set of niteriders (yes doesn’t that remind you of the Hoff + Kit?!) today.

I got:
– MiNewt Mini-USB Plus
– MiNewt Mini-USB

The Plus kit includes the helmet attachment kit and an extension lead so you can put the battery for that light in your pack but I’ve chosen to mount the battery on my helmet. The other light is just the normal handlebar mount.

Both kits plug into the wall OR you can choose to simply plug it into your PC via USB. You can leave them plugged in at all times so they are always charged and ready to go. That’s a massive bonus and sold me on these babies as I will just leave thrm both plugged into the PC at all times and they will be ready to go, at all times.

The kit is super well made, simple and very bright! I’m more than happy.

I got it all from MC Cyclery. RRP prices are: $249 (with helmet kit) and $210 (normal kit).

Looking forward to those night rides now. Bring it on!

Woke up, coffee, PC… BOOM. Black screen. Restart, browse net, boom, black screen. Call Jing and he says it’s the video card. Took it out, put it back in, and then it started animating and blinking and doing all sorts of wild shit (made working today quite fun!).

Yummy Triumph goodness spotted at JDMyard today. Is life cyclic?! Is it reall y all just a little bit of history repeating? I’m getting more and more into motor bikes again. Doesn’t help that I still have my riding license too.

Redback! Found this little beauty at Buddy Club today. It’s only the third one I’ve ever seen in real life. Not as huge as the one I saw a long time ago, but still adult sized.

We rode Loftus late this afternoon because Jing and Clifton got pulled over by the cops (literally a minute away from the trail too). The bikes on the rack were obstructing his license plate and Jing copped a chunky fine (didn’t help that he didn’t have his license on him either?!). Let that be a lesson to anyone who does the same, spend the $30 to get a bike rack plate made up at the RTA, it’s only $30 and could save you from a $300 fine.

SPOKE! Thanks to Paul these great looking NZ MTB mags were in my mailbox! They’ll make a B-line straight for my bedside table for pre-sleep reading (and gawking lol). Can’t wait to put a care package together for Paul too, will be doing so ASAP.

After last nights bike night where Jing donated an XT rear mech and Clifton donated the brakes, the Yeti’s done!

Full bike shot.

More pictures here.

Zi’s bruises coming up in an instant!

Zi, David, Jing, Clifton and I rode Loftus last night. The new high rise bars on my Reign are fantastic. More control, more comfortable and climbs just as good as before. I’m happy. Zi took a fall on the downhill into Temptation Creek. Had to happen sooner or later as it’s just so rocky (think fist sized rocks all the way down) and deadlier the faster you go. The climb out of Temptation Creek killed me. I still can’t do it in one go but I did manage to get up a part of it I had not gotten up before so I know I can do it (next time!). David’s got a fair way to go before he can keep up with us but he gave it a good go. We all dropped in to Sizzler on the way home too. Might start being abit of a ritual post ride!

PS: Jing’s got 2 vids. The 1st is following Clifton, the 2md following Zi and I. Nothing special as he was just testing out his new camera.

We had another crazy bike night last night. Zi brought ribs over from Hurricanes and David brought the Asahi (JDM yo!). Present was: David, Zi, Andy (official photographer for the night), Jing, Timmy and Clifton.

Dave’s new bike is a base model Giant Yukon worth $999. It’s the cheapest dual suspension bike you can buy from Giant and it’s great as it is. He’s only ridden it once on a trail, the rest of the time he’s been riding it on bike paths. Funny then that he’s just bought some Juicy Carbon brakes worth more than half his bike, Easton carbon bars and a Fox rear shock. Despite us telling him that he should have just bought a new Trance for the price of the upgrades, he’s determined to upgrade his Yukon to the top of the line spec and likens it to a Hyundai Excel with Rays TE37’s. We tried to fit my Fox forks on it but I’d cut the steerer too short so he’s now on the hunt for some Fox Talas forks ($1800RRP!). He’s also bought a Mavic crossride wheelset and Schwalbe Nobby Nic tyres which he’ll be picking up tomorrow. He’s now officially “Crazy Dave”.

Ribs and beer were awesome (I can’t have a bike night without beer!). Many laughs were had, both Dave’s Yukon and that Farkin thread on the lappy.

When women are not around we are men and eat like animals.

Crispy goodness FTW!

Dave’s new brakes and carbon skewers.

Funny how all of us oldies were wearing shorts and T’s but the kiddies Cliffy and Timmy were wearing shirts and pants.

LOL at Jing (even funnier that they’re fake crocs!).

We installed a Fox rear shock. LOL.

Aspirations.