Monthly Archives: April 2011

Zoomer update


Bought some black DEI exhaust wrap to wrap my header.


All that experience from wrapping up road bike handlebar tape paid off nicely :)


Bags of quality allen head bolts to replace all the ugly OEM hex bolts all over the Zoomer.


Lots of bolts on the engine replaced.


Took the gold forks off (might be selling them to another guy in Australia with a Zoomer) and put my stock black forks back on for now (they bottom out when you sit on the bike ahaha). My new front end is still on back-order (lower fork, disc brake set-up + new alloy wheel).

PS: Excuse the crappy pics! Better pics when there’s more light!

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Spotted: My Zoomer outside of MCC Sydney CBD


Photo by Matthew Mead.

Couldn’t resist re-posting this photo taken by Matt Mead. He brought a little instamatic camera along the other night (using film). Instantly reminded me of my hero Terry Richardson. You want a raw show? Throw that DSLR in the bin and buy yourself a cheap instamatic. Done! More of Matt’s pics from the BMU/MCC bike night here.

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JDMST + IB Collab T-Shirt

It’s been a month or more in the making, but the JDM Style Tuning + Import Bible collaboration T-Shirt is now ready to roll out. What’s more is that we’ve decided to donate all profits to the Japanese Relief Fund!

CLICK HERE for pre-order details.

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Coming home to goodies in the mail


Bought a Bell Custom 500 helmet and I love love love it. It’s light, not as huge on my head as my last helmet and it looks super pimp.


Also got myself a Death Spray Custom T-Shirt. The guys were nice enough to send me a bunch of sticker which I’ll gladly rep once I figure out where to stick them!


Also got some gold detail bolts from the crew at Standard Functions, excited and proud to be repping them too on my chest, yew!

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BMU Bike Night at MC Cyclery


Up in lights.


Cool art = culture.


Ash and Matt.


Ash’s toys.


Ash was working on Rockstar Racing’s/World 24hr Solo Champion Gordo’s bike.


A lot of the boys made a b-line directly to the helmet display to try on some funky new Lazer helmets.


What’s a BMU bike night without beers?! Thanks Grant for the cold bevvies :)


Perhaps the only tool that’s allowed to leave Ash’s workshop.


Grant and Tom from Hell on Wheels.


‘Master of Ceremonies Cycling’ Grant busy MCing.


Jing’s BMC at Menya.


Being my first time at Menya I went for the Menya ramen with miso base and damn it was awesome. Best Ramen I’ve had in Sydney to date.


Trieu ordered the dragon, which was so hot it blew his face off. :loling:

Grant’s dream of opening the ultimate bike shop is now a reality. Last night he invited BMU for our own private bike night at his new shop on Clarence Street in the city. Having spent a good part of 6 months working on the plans for this business (the plan was to be a major shareholder but things fell through at crunch time) I’ve got to say it was sweet sweet. Not bitter sweet, just super sweet. I’m so happy for Grant and I’m wishing him the very best.

Despite not actually working on bikes, or building Frankenstein bikes or going for a drunken ride afterwards, last night’s MC Cyclery/BMU bike night was heaps of fun and I’m hoping Grant will be up for more BMU Bike Nights at MCC in future.

PS: I rode the Zoomer in peak hour traffic to get there last night. Have to admit I was a little scared initially, but once I got rolling I had a blast!

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Cycle EXIF features my Paino

Gush….. what a write-up! This guy so knows more about bikes than I do! I’m honored to have my Paino featured up on Cycle EXIF. Visit: http://www.cycleexif.com/paino-strada

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Tassie Trip – Day 8


The rain came down hard, and it was freezing cold on our last day in Tasmania.


We headed to the Cadbury factory and spotted this in the carpark. Hilarious! I always think of a sirloin steak when I see a Sirion!


I had visions of Willie Wonka’s Chocolate factory, but as Nath suggested earlier, the Cadbury Factory is basically a shop and a DVD. Still fun though and we bought a LOT of chocolate to bring home as pressies.


Our beds on the Spirit of Tasmania. We didn’t take Travel Calm tablets this time and we both felt and slept a lot better.


Cam on the other hand took 2 and damn he was wasted!


Spotted on the highway home, the very Zoomer that a guy on email I’ve been conversing with is shipping over by truck, how strange is that?!

I have to admit I was a little worried about a 10 day holiday initially, but damn it was an epic trip. So much fun! I’m feeling a little tired today but I’ve got so many goodies in the mail to play with. I weighed myself last night thinking I’ve gained at least 2-3kg’s but in truth I’ve only gained half a kilo. I was missing little Mia a lot, she’s sitting with me now, semi on my keyboard as usual, she’s acting extra sookey though which is nice. :) I’m just about to launch my email application for the first time in 10 days, it’s going to take me all day to catch up I’m sure!

PS: You can view all these pictures in high res if you like.

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Tassie Trip – Day 7


When in Tassie you ride a Tassie bike!


I had been trying my best to only consume local Tasmanian goods but when we decided to have Sushi for lunch I couldn’t resist an Asahi.


Sushi overload!


I’ve got a LOT of photos of Cam pulling offensive faces, they’re too rude to post but this one’s OK (haha).


Was the first yucky weather day so we headed for the museum. That’s Chris’ wife Zee who flew in to meet us in Hobart.


Random funny sign.


Not sure why but all the yellow cab co. cabs are orange.


Targa finished up at the Hobart Casino so we headed over to check out the action. Looked and felt just like a JDMST meet!


The Sale of the Century host Glenn Ridge’s FD. Either he has good taste in rims, or the guy building his car has good taste!


Brock lives on.


Crazy shapes, immaculate vette.


Check out the bonnet pins, a juxtaposition of old vs. new.


What a beast this thing was, massive wheels too.


My Dad had a mate who was trying to sell him one of these for me to drive. To think that my first car could have been an e-type!


Kinky!


Wide pug looked the goods.


This was once my garage. Still miss my TME EVO every time I see one.


We had breakfast on the table next to two-time World Rally Champion Walter Rohrl every day.


Food at the Casino wasn’t looking too good so we hopped in a cab and decided to try some Indian.


Suga and I (before I got absolutely wasted ahahah).

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Tassie Trip – Day 6


Day 6 we got up early, checked out of Launceston and headed for Hobart.


Famous Tassie Scallop Pie was consumed on route.


Hobart was obviously a lot different to Launceston. This huge bridge into Hobart really set the vibe.


Nath and his son Chris, how cute is he! – We parked at the wharf and walked over to Salamanca Place where Nath’s family was there to greet him.


The historics were on display in the park.


We then checked out the famous Salamanca Place markets which happen every Saturday. So nice to see different things to Sydney markets. Hobart was a lot more multicultural than Launceston, in some ways I instantly missed the cozy small town feel.


Succulents! I’m still itching to start my succulent garden.


Interesting kettle weights.

Later that afternoon Christina and I got a message from Nath to say, that for whatever reason, he had decided to leave our VWGolf.net.au Forum. That instantly got us on a bit of a downer, we were initially pretty confused about it, and the timing of it was pretty rotten as we were having such a great time and we were all still on a holiday together.

Later that night we (minus Nath who was hanging out with his family) had a killer steak at the Astor Grill – the boys thought it was better than the Black Cow in Launceston. I think maybe the cut of meat was better but the taste of the grill was better at the Black Cow for sure. I left my camera at the hotel unfortunately, so no pics!

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Tassie Trip – Day 5


More wine tasting on Day 5, this time to Goaty Hill, a winery which was suggested to us the previous day.


Lovely vineyard but I didn’t personally like the taste of their wines.


We dropped in to the Tamar Ridge winery next door, a much larger winery with a much more humble wine tasting room but this guy knew his wines and damn the wines were good. We bought boxes full at this place.


One of many painted cows at the Ashgrove Cheese factory.


Cheese!


We bought a whole lot of tasting packs, most of us agreed their wasabi cheese was the winner.


Despite being full on cheese we still made it to etc. cafe for a pie. We spotted this in the car park.


Suga and I at a raspberry farm, which was our next stop.


And our last stop was the House of Anvers chocolate factory. At this stage we were jst too full to enjoy the chocolate on offer haha.


Later that night i was suggested that we try Tasmania’s best Chinese Restaurant, which had won awards for the land’s best wine list.


Flaming bombe alaska.

Being Chinese. Christina and I had reservations about how good the food was going to be. What made it even trickier was that we settled for the banquet, and as we expected, they served up food aimed primarily at an Australian audience. Using fresh Tasmanian ingredients but cooking them with some traditional Chinese flavours. I could see what they were trying to do but in my books they failed miserably (overcooking the scallops and salmon was a real shame). In any case we had a blast and lots of laughs (as well as great wine!).

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