My Thomson masterpiece (read: blang!) seatpost came in today for the Scott Scale. It’s 191g and brings the weight of the bike down to 9.72kg.
I can now give Jing his Scott seatpost back and the bike is officially complete. I like it a LOT more than the Ti, but I love my Reign a shitload more. Great that they’re both such different bikes to each other though, that’s a good thing.
For Christina, Friday night usually ends with drinks at the pub across from her work but this Friday night her boss was away and so his flatmate Shaun, who lives with the boss, invited us all over to their place for a party (lol). I was already pretty pissed when I got there, a few more mixed drinks later and I passed out, had a chuck, got up and went home (lol yeah one of those nights!).
The girls.
Renato man beast.
Shaun man beast.
Of-course we broke into the Bosses room and jumped on his bed. Here’s his underwear draw.
We played with his pussy too.
SATURDAY – Saturday day Suga, Mum and I checked out some home show out at the Hordern Pavillion, it sucked ass. I’m renovating the house at the end of this year and it’s almost getting time to start buying stuff for the build. Saturday night we went to Azuma Japanese Restaurant for Christina’s sister Jess’ B’day. We stuffed ourselves on the degustation menu, which started out great but just got worse and worse. After dinner Suga and I went into the cross for one of her friends B’day parties at World Bar. I usually hate the cross, but the vibe wasn’t so seedy this night, perhaps because we were early (and they were late). World bar was loud (we couldn’t talk it was that loud). Maybe I’m just old but I’d rather be at a mate’s place, or a pub/bar where you can actually have great conversations rather than sit there trying to look cool.
Jess and Rosemary.
Azuma dish.
I love salmon.
World Bar.
World Bar – Suga loves her iPhone.
Huh?
Suga getting out of her ouchy heels.
SUNDAY – My sisters husband Richie was free today (whoo hoo he got off the leash!) and he was up for a ride with the boys (myself, Jing, Felix and Clifton). I woke up at 5am to hard rain, at 8am it was still pissing down. After a few SMS’es we decided we were still up for it. Jing almost bailed out, and only needed a bit of encouragement to get out of bed. Felix bailed out which was a shame as I think he would have had a ball. We got there to find a few riders packing up, and all of them had massive grins on their faces (oh yes a great sign… surfs up!). As soon as we got going on the single trail we were giggling like naughty boys, the rain made it hard to see. Mud went flying into my eyes and mouth… it was such awesome dirty fun! Definitely the most fun I’ve had at Loftus, hands down. Oh, also… I scored a flat! Yes my 1st flat EVER. That’s just ridiculous hey?! I was going over a pretty sharp big rock structure at the time and I was also running a thinner rear tyre (2.1) and 30psi. The 2.1 wide Nevegals are so much faster than the 2.35 wide tyres I had on there before. I felt a massive difference on longer gradual uphills and cornering is just as great so it looks like I have a winning tyre combo at last.
2.1 Nevegal Stick-e sticky compoud on the front for more cornering grip.
And a 2.1 Nevegal DTC on the rear for faster rolling.
Pissing down at the car park.
I almost got it the 1st time (dabbed a foot on the rock) but made it the 2nd time (and scored a pinch flat doing so). Photo by Jing.
Skid marks (lol). Photo by Jing.
Muddy goodness.
Richie did well to fight his hangover.
Clifton and Jing.
More muddy goodness.
After a quick hose down and a hot shower Suga and I grabbed a hot Laksa at the jungo (that’s Maroubra Junction to everyone else).
It’s official. I rammed the final nail in my Ti project last night.
Jing came around to drop off my Scott Scale frame and fork which he sold to me last week. We took off his parts and whacked on what we could off the Ti bike.
The Scale frame uses full jacket housing all the way (nice) and I’ve decided not to use the funky lightweight alligator/nokon style cabling from the Ti, but instead settle for normal housings. I’m also going to need a seatpost + clamp as the Scale uses a strange size. Jing’s letting me borrow his one in the meantime. Apart from that I have to get the LBS to help me remove and replace crown races but after that I’ll be ready to roll.
The Fizik Alliante XM saddle I bought for the Reign will go on this bike for more comfort. And for once I didn’t weigh anything. I didn’t weigh the frame, the Truvative BB… nothing! I’m going to try my best to curb the weenie and stay functional on this build.
What no clip in pedals?! Tough titties!
Nice touch: These little dudes support full cable housing on top tube.
We got back from the Canberra world cup last night (about 10.30PM). T’was a great weekend despite the rain (which was pretty shit, but what can you do about it?!).
SATURDAY: In attendance was: Jing and Shirley, Felix and Diane, Timmy, Christina and I. We all met up at the Mobil on the M5 on Saturday morning, the drive was super easy and we were in Canberra before we knew it. We checked into The Parklands, got set up and then went for a bite to eat next door at Dickon Shops (Laksa FTW!). We decided to check out the War Memorial (hey it is voted as Canberra’s no.1 attraction, with nothing else coming in 2nd spot lol). I always see something different each time I go there.
We had an awesome dinner at Pangaea in Manuka (a suburb with such a classy look and feel about the place I thought I was in Double Bay). Diane chose the restaurant which served up a storm of amazing finger foods which blew us all away. After dinner we headed to Mount Stromlo to watch the 4X finals.
Mt. Stromlo was cold, wet, dark and muddy. The course looked great, the crowd was huge and the vibe was awesome. The rain was the only let down. We watched the womens and watched Jared Graves take out the mens. We then headed back to the apartments, watched Aliens on the TV + played Nintendo DS and crashed out.
SUNDAY: The girls had been complaining about the amount of “bike talk” the day before, how ridiculous is that?! We were there to watch the world cup and there they were complaining about us talking bikes?! We tactically decided to ditch them the next day so they spent the day at the Museum and Questacon whilst we headed to Stromlo.
When we got to Stromlo it was raining hard. Too bad for Jing and Timmy who both didn’t bring any wet weather gear (lol). We walked through the pits, which were totally empty as everyone was up on the mountain watching the downhill qualifying. The first thing we came across was the bike wash bay and I spotted Sam Hill’s bike mechanic cleaning his bike. I got a good gawk in.
Can I have the bike once Mr. Hill is done with it… please?
Number 1.
We then checked out all the pitt stalls and the superstars of the circuit were out and about (since the crowd was up on the mountain). Sam Hill was chowing on a salad sandwich (surely that’s too healthy for a pre-race feed?!), Peaty was riding around with a resistance trainer attached to the back of his bike. We spotted Rennie, Dan Atherton and a few other riders. One of the team Yeti riders talked us through a 575 (my dream bike), which sold me even more on one, we ran into a few of the Farkin forum guys (who were all pretty tanked), had some food then proceeded to climb up the mountain to watch the final womens DH as well as the mens.
Stralia!
Graves’ winning bike from the night before.
Steve Peat from the UK riding around with a resistance trainers attached to his back wheel.
Go girl! These girls have got balls!
Last jump of the “triple treat”.
Halo.
We had awesome views and could get pretty damn close to the riders. Air horns, cow bells and screaming fans, the vibe was electric for every rider (whether Australian or an international) coming down the mountain. We pretty much walked down the mountain and stopped off on points of interest, the riders came down 3 minutes apart from one another which kept the whole event flowing. By the time we got down to the bottom we were in time to watch the final 5 riders on the big screen (perfect!).
The last part of the DH course was more like an XC course, there was even an uphill part! (how strange considering it a DH course). The long flat all the way to the finish line meant that pedallers could shave a lot of time off. Sam Hill was slow on the day, Rennie, who went 2nd last had the hot seat until the last rider, Greg Minmaar from South Africa smashed his time by 5 seconds.
Satisfied, wet and cold we headed back into Dickson to meet up with the girls for a hot Japanese meal before hitting the M5 on the way home.
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.
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.
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
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?!
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.