His and Hers.
Finally got around to chopping the chimney.
Back in black. Off with the Corsa PRO Speeds, on with Pirelli P Zero Race RS clinchers in 26C.
160mm cranks from my Allez Sprint (still waiting for my Gemini chainring to arrive).
Going down!
Still to fit: Custom order JUIN ETF-A. Weight Weenie brakes at 71g per caliper.
We went for a bike ride in the morning, then made breakfast and then headed in to Pier One for some wine and good times! Was her B’Day, but it felt like mine! Very blessed to have this little one in my life.
What a meet! Admittedly I’ve been pretty slack with putting the energy in to specifically invite special people and special cars to previous ZEN EOMM’s. Why? Well because I’ve never had to, and IMHO never needed to. The very concept of EOMM was to get like minded enthusiasts offline to meet in real life and put the avatars to the names. It was never meant to be a car show and I loved it that a kid with a beater could freely park up right next to a 1000HP GT-R.
Last month’s meet was massive. At some stage I had a few people urge me to go outside to see JDM cars blocking up the streets for 3 blocks! This instantly reminded me of the days when cops would turn up to shut our meets down. Good times! I met so many new faces on the night, so many people who let me know that they were 12, or 15 when they first heard of JDMST, ZEN or EOMM’s. What’s even more heart warming was people telling me that they were a little nervous to come along, but they had been meeting and chatting to strangers all night.
Elation.
I was soaking up the vibe all night. I was on such a huge high I feel like I’ve been coming down the past few days.
Much thanks to all who came to hang out. Thanks for thanking us for getting the community together, but it’s you guys and gals who are the community. Thanks to Reggie for feeding us and to Philter for the beers. Be sure to look out for our next ZEN EOMM, it’s going to be the biggest one yet as it’s our last meet at our Marrickville space (more news on that, soon!).
Full Feature on ZEN Blog: https://www.zengarage.com.au
My good friend Charlie is now importing cars! I figure we’d feature a car on ZEN once a month, starting with this WRX!
Find the full feature on ZEN Blog (and give him a follow on Insta, link in the feature!): https://www.zengarage.com.au/autoroe-imports/
Crazy light (OEM axles weighed 52g a pair).
I’m always on the lookout for lighter parts for the SL8. Overfast carbon thru axles have always been tempting but I’ve never been confident about using carbon for such a crucial part.
I’ve had my eye on the EXS titanium thru axles on the Panda Podium online shop ever since building up my Allez Sprint, and more recently I went to check them out again and found that Joe is now selling RideNow Titanium Thru Axles for the SL8 which not only come in lighter, but slightly cheaper too so I ordered a set.
They came in a nice wooden box and weighed in at 25g. I got to installing them but found that they sunk in way past the fork and frame (the OEM thru axles sit very flush). I sent a message off to Joe at Panda Podium and after sending some photos he got back to me to let me know that RideNow had forgotten to include spacers in my package.
He very quickly sent me 2 spacers, they’re conical, but very thin, and whilst they have stopped the axles threading out on the other side, the head of the axles still sits further into the frame. Not the best looking IMHO, bit of a shame.
It’s advised that you do not grease these axles like you do the OEM ones, instead you use Anti-Seize Compound (lucky I had some from my Better Bolts Ti bolt kit). And the torque recommendation is 10nm instead of 15nm (as suggested by Specialized).
No issues so far. Bike weighs in at 6.46kg’s now.
