Category Archives: Bike

Daym!

I love building and tinkering with bikes as much as I love riding them, but the SL8 is so good as is that I’ve been struggling to improve it in any way and now I’m having withdrawals.

Yesterday I stupidly test fitted the 45 deep carbon front wheel off my SL6 onto my old 80’s steel Paino road bike and BAM! Hot daym it looks fucking amazing! I ended up spending hours trawling eBay and FB Marketplace for parts to do a Neo Retro build on the Paino and man, there’s a LOT out there for cheaps so no doubt at all it would be a fun project.

There would be a lot of problem solving to do too and a lot of different directions I could take the build, and possibly a fair bit of trial and error as well. The Paino is 6 speed Campy and if I wanted a 45 deep rear wheel I’d have to give that up and look into a cassette for an 11-speed Shimano hub (or run an 8/9/10 speed cassette with spacers). I could keep the friction shifters to work with whatever cassette, or I could upgrade to modern brake lever shifters or even an electronic groupset.

100% I’d have a lot of fun on a Neo Retro project, but I’ve worked so hard at restoring the bike to how it was when new that I feel it would be disrespectful to modernise it. I have no doubt that the bike would ride better with modern parts on it, but there’s no doubt it’ll still feel like heavy, flexy and unresponsive in comparison to my SL8.

First world problems!

Caden floating 2-piece rotors for the SL8. The 160mm came in at a super light 96g, and the rear 140mm came in at 80g. Literally as light as the one-piece Galfer rotors they’re replacing.

Ben holding up an array of jet engines which bolts on to his Porsche rear diffuser. He’s literally a mad inventor!

For shits n’ gigs he’s making a jet engined bike too. Cray!

Weight weenie friendly tyres.

Love is in the aero.

Dropped in to Ben Caden’s workshop to pick up some of his new super light floating disc rotors. The guy is a legit OG. Thought I’d rattle off a few shots whilst I was there!

BTS shot.

Love it raw: unfinished UniDirectional fibre, raw out of its mould, no paint or varnish to hide any imperfections.

Photo by Nick Turner shot at UNO Studios.

Pinnacle bib shorts.

Base layer for colder months.

Print quality is really good, super detailed.

Tech materials.

After much research, testing and email trails we’re really happy to announce that we’ve found the right company to make the new zen.cc jersey (and further down the line the full zen.cc kit including bib shorts, socks and cap too). Caffeine and Cranks are a small Sydney based company so Nick and I caught up with Co-Founder Cameron for a coffee to check out the entire range of products they sell, as well as talk about future collabs and more.

I’ve personally been testing their jersey and bibs and IMHO they’re on another level in regards to tech materials, modern design and race fit over the Specialized, Van Rysel and YKYWBIKE gear I’ve been wearing. I actually like their kit more than Pedal Mafia (not a fan of the grippers they use to keep their jersey from riding up your arms and waist) and the kit comes in at half the price of MAAP (the best gear I’ve tried to date).

Super happy to be supporting local and looking forward to working more closely with Caffeine and Cranks in future. Our first order of ZEN jerseys is in! Expect them to land in around 6 weeks from now.

Eugene’s own carbon bike which he sold out of his shop in Taiwan.

Today was meant to be my rest day but Eugene, my BFAM, is in town and he had just serviced his bike so wanted to catch up for a ride. Eugene is literally my brother from another mother, we grew up together since we were babies (we lived in the same apartment in Randwick as kids) and he got me into cycling when we were teenagers.

Since then he’s moved to Taiwan, got married, had 2 kids and owned and ran a Giant and TREK bicycle shop. He’s always had the best of the best mountain bikes, and he even created and sold his own brand of carbon road bike (pictured above).

He’s a beast on the bike, definitely an endurance rider who’s done a fair share of bike packing and competitive rides too so keeping up with him was hard work. We talked a lot about bikes during our laps, and whilst Eugene used to have the best of the best bikes he’s of the mindset now that it’s all about the rider, not the bike. His bike is a rim brake running a mechanical groupset, and although it’s a carbon frame, it weighs 8kg’s and is a stark contrast to my S-Works SL8.

You can talk all you like, but I really wanted him to have a go at what a top of the line 2025 road bike worth $21K feels like so we swapped shoes (his shoes were heavy AF and felt more comfortable than my sports sneakers, the soles had fallen off many years ago but been repaired with glue).

Riding his bike I instantly felt like I was on top of the bike, and it felt more like riding a mountain bike than a road bike. When I got up to sprint it felt a LOT like my steel road bike. IE: No power transfer as there was so much flex. The bike felt really solid though!

On the other hand I got a real buzz at how Eugene reacted to my SL8. He instantly was wowed by how fast the bike rolls, gets to speed and holds speed. What we consider a bit of a hill he just found that the hill didn’t exist at all on the SL8. I encouraged him to do a few sprints and man he flew. He even sprinted uphill and commented that he never hits 40+km/hr up that hill (surprising as when he’s in Sydney he lives next door to Centennial Park). He recognised that with my bike he felt like he was sitting in the bike as opposed to on top of it. That he felt at one with the bike. He also recognised how stiff the bike was, yet how comfortable it was (it’s kinda what the SL8 is all about), and again he just couldn’t believe how fast the bike rolls.

Converted? Definitely. He’s now dreaming of an SL8, and when he gets back home to Taiwan he’ll start the hunt for one.

The plugs actually weigh 1.69g. Time for me to get more accurate scales!

Current weight with the Lucendi plugs + Berk Lupina short (stolen from the SL6).

Lucendi saw my posts where I stated that his crazy light SUB1 bar end plugs didn’t fit on my SL8 due to the Burgh bar tape being too thick, and his plugs being too soft (they deformed when trying to get them on), so he reached out to me to ask if I’d be interested in custom smaller diameter plugs. What a champion! They came out at 0.82g making them possibly the lightest bar end plugs in the world. He also sent me his heavier but much more sturdy UL bar end plugs which come in at 1.69 grams for a pair. Both the SUB1 and UL fit on my SL8 without issues, and I actually like the more finished look of the UL bar end plugs so I’ve decided to keep those installed. Happy days!

To order a set, send him a DM on his Instagram: @lucendi.ww