Category Archives: Bike

I’m helping the EZY Slider guys out with a photoshoot soon and today I built up one of their trikes that had been sitting in my man cave for a couple of weeks.

It’s a simple thing. Gravity trike so no pedals, heavy steel frame, a mechanical disc brake set-up on the front wheel and EZY Slider wheels. I love it that it’s a blank canvas.

Part of me wants to go nuts on it and have some fun with it. Even if it was with the parts I have lying around from my billion bike builds of old. I’ve got a few ideas for the shoot in mind, and I’m one step closer to finalising a concept now that I’ve built the trike and have it in my lounge room to perv at when I’m lounging about.

First up, fitting!

Since Nanami’s confidence on the bike is down, she’ll just start with the seat height a little lower than usual.

Helmet fitting. As always, anything Nanami buys has to be either black, or white.

A few more dollars buys you a much better product. This POC helmet had a similar style to, but was way lighter than the skate helmets.

Jordi’s pet parrot!

Happy customer.

Fits in the boot folded, no worries!

Nanami’s owned a mountain bike for as long as I’ve known her. It’s never had a home in her city apartment. Wherever it moves to, it’s always in the way. She’s never once taken it out for a ride as far as I can remember, mainly because it’s too big and heavy to drag up the stairs (she lives on the top floor of her apartment building) and she’s just got not much confidence riding it either.

Quite a few months back she mentioned a folding bike and soon after that Nanami dragged me to a Japanese budget store to check one out. It had wheels the size of a plate, made out of steel and just nasty all round. We dropped in to Giant Sydney and we were both impressed with the folding bike on offer. The whole idea of getting a folding bike died off for a while until today where we went in to close the deal.

Good thing Giant Sydney had the new 2015 Giant Expressway 2 in stock. In comparison to the other rubish bike Nana was looking at a while back this bike has much bigger wheels, wider bars and it’s much easier to ride than the wobbly Strida folding bike I used to own.

Nanami’s happy. I’m happy. Whether she rides it or not she’s winning as getting rid of her old mountain bike will free up apartment space, and if she’s not using this bike it’ll fold up and hide in her wardrobe quite nicely!

Jing and Matt.

New XT brakes from MC Cyclery (thanks Ash!).

So strange to see new shit on such an old bike!

Post ride selfie (trying to put on a brave smile).

Last time I rode was 2 years ago. Unbelievable how time has flown (then again all I’ve been doing for the past 2 years is Zen!).

I met up with Matt Mead and Jing Li at Loftus, 3pm. I was prepared to die… and die I did.

After the first single trail section my thighs were burning. Such a bad sign! 1/3rd the way in I started to feel my lungs, but in a bad way! I made it up the first climb in my granny ring but stopping at the top was a bad idea. I got dizzy and almost threw up. From there on I walked all the big hills, something I’ve never had to do before.

Whilst riding I couldn’t stop thinking about having a cold fizzy coke… water just wasn’t doing it for me. By the end of the ride I had a bad stomach cramp. HAHAHA! SO WEAK!

I’ve got to keep it up, and ride again next Monday, otherwise today’s efforts would have been wasted. Got to thank Jing and Matt so much for going easy on me today. Legends!

Dropped my Reign off to MC Cyclery in Maroubra for a brake bleed this morning (the shop is looking AMAZING!). Time to get back on the bike!

I got to work late today (oops) and boom, this is what I’m greeted by (PORN!!!).

Love Ryan’s bike, but Mikes CB was new to my eyes, so gorgeous!

Ryan had already removed the carb and was right into cleaning it when I got there.

Jet kit at the ready. I didn’t have a d-shaped pilot screw tool, and the screw was screwed in pretty tight. The boys persisted and in the end they took apart a fancy pen I found on my desk, made it D-Shaped and got it out. They then dremelled out a slit in the screw so we can use a flathead screwdriver to adjust it in future.

Carby back in, spark plug cleaned, old fuel drained and new fuel in. She started up pretty nice first go.

Mike and Ryan fine tuning the idle.

When I bought the Honda Zoomer off Paul many years ago, it never started nice (took a lot of work to get it going). After I was done modifying it to where it’s at today it started up even worse. I’ve always been meaning to take it down to the guys at Deus down the road to tune to carb but Ryan Lewis, the beautiful man that he is, suggested that he’d love to have a go, and that he did today!

The Zoomer now starts and runs beautifully. Riding it around the block was hilarious fun (as expected!). Ryan and Mike both had a go too, the grins on their faces on return said it all. Can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get around to this! Next up, a full detail job, then maybe a photoshoot :)

The boys at Ellaspede just sent a couple of T’s to Zen Garage (I love free shit!).

Ellaspede is made up of a dedicated team of industrial designers. Owned and operated by Steve Barry and Leo Yip, Ellaspede is a hub for motorcycle culture and creativity.

Visit Ellaspede: http://www.ellaspede.com