Heyyyyy buddy!

I couldn’t live with the orange (seriously), so I took the 140 Fox 36 off and put the 120 SID’s back on. I also put the the 700mm bars back on and also stole the Jackson Goldstone OneUp grips off my Amflow. I love these grips, they remind me of my fave grip from back in the day, the ODI Ruffians, but there’s a big bulge in the centre for your palm and they’re made of a crazy soft tactile rubber.

I also got a 120 OneUp dropper post and dropper lever on there now. Had to take the BB out to route the cable, but it was nice to see how Spesh routes the cable up and out of the way of the BB. I can only torque the seatpost clamp to 3nm before the post starts to hang, weirds as it’s not an issue on my other bikes with seatposts torqued to 5nm. Kinda wish I could get a 150 dropper on there (maybe I could?), but happy with the huge weight savings of 241g over the TransX dropper on there previously (and also so good to have the saddle at the right height now).

I’ve been a bit cheeky and installed the grips 5mm out from the bars on each side (in essence now running 710mm bars). Feels pretty good to me. The whole setup felt better to me today than the high rise and wide bars with the 140mm fork. Yes I had pedal strikes, but they weren’t major and I think some shorter cranks would solve this. The 80mm stem might be a touch too long, might give 70mm a try.

Strava: I got 4 more PR’s today, all on climbs. For the entire Cliffs Trail segment I was 15 seconds faster on this 27.5′” setup with the 120mm fork vs the 140mm Fox fork, but 4 seconds slower than the 29″ setup. On the Kirrawee Burning Legs Climb segment I was 32 seconds faster on this setup vs. the 140mm Fox setup and 1 minute and 6 seconds faster than the 29″ setup. On the Proposed Hwy Climb segment I was 29 seconds faster and on The Way Back segment I was 45 seconds faster. Just numbers, but The Way Back segment is the boring fire road bit back to the car, and I just felt so much fresher on that today. Gearing is just perfect, bike feels like it takes no effort at all.

All in all, really happy with the bike! Weight is currently at 12.8kg’s. Definitely curious to see if a 28T front chainring would make a difference with the 29″ setup, but maybe later as I’ve got some light and fast rolling 27.5″ Conti Dubnitals on order which I’ll probably at least try out (the grip with the fat plus sized Butcher is so damn good though I’m hesitant to give them up). Clown bike, so I’ve also got shorter 155 cranks on order to replace the 170mm cranks on the bike atm, and a super light ZTTO cassette to replace the heavy 615g SRAM Eagle cassette.

Rolling Resistance – I thought slower grippier and more aggressive tyres made a huge difference to rolling resistance, but I put some Forekasters on the Starling (which are known for being faster rolling than an Assegai) and the Starling just felt sluggish to me on my first outing. One my second outing with the Starling I was with a mate who was on an old 26″ bike. We swapped bikes a few times. His old bike felt like a race car. The Starling felt like a powerful luxury car. No doubt about it, the Starling rolled faster but it didn’t feel faster.

27.5″ vs 29″ – For the record I’ve never gotten along with 29″ wheels. I’ve always felt like they make a bike feel like a tank. I gave up on them years ago and stuck with 26″ up until late last year when I bought my 1st new MTB since my 2008 Giant Reign. Since then I’ve had an Amflow (settled on mullet and I love it), 2 x Norco Torrent Hardtails (tried both in mullet and 29″ front and back) and the Starling Murmur (29″ front and back).

Today I felt that sluggish feeling again on the Chisel with a 29″ wheelset. It wasn’t the tyres, it’s the wheel size. I failed to get up a pinchy tech climb that I easily got up yesterday on the 27.5″ setup because I lost momentum and I didn’t have enough power to crank it up. I think there’s something in this. IE: I don’t make enough power to get the most out of a 29″ setup. I feel that as soon as I slow down the bike asks me for more power to get the wheels moving and each pedal stroke just feels more laboured than when I am on the 27.5″ setup. Fire trails are where I like to recover. On the 27.5″ setup I can just spin (I’m a spinner more than a grinder), but on the 29″ setup I feel like I need to get it up to a certain speed in order to spin.

Frame Size – One thing for sure is that I’m really happy to have sized down to a small frame from a medium. The 27.5″ felt really playful yesterday but way less playful on the 29″ setup today. The bike felt more like any other bike to me today with the bigger wheels. Yes I could bomb down the rocky descents more comfortably with the 29″ wheels, but the bigger wheels just make the whole bike feel bigger.

Strava – looking at the data from yesterday’s ride and today’s ride my average speed was 1.6km/hr faster on the 29″ vs the 27.5″ setup but I was still faster on the tech climbs with the 27.5″ setup, but overall I got a PR for Cliff Trail so I was faster on the Chisel with 29″ wheels than the Starling or the Torrent hardtails. So no doubt about it the 29″ setup is faster but I also feel way more wrecked after today’s ride than yesterday’s ride.

OK that’s my brain dump. My brain is fried and I’m quite confused. I don’t race. I make little power and I just want this bike to be super fun so I’m going to stick with the 27.5″ setup. The smaller wheels lower the BB by a huge 18mm. I can put the flip chip in the high position to get 5mm back. I’m already running HT pedals which have a super low stack height. The massive 2.8/2.6 Specialized tyres measure 5mm taller than the 2.35 Hans Dampfs but I’d low this 5mm if I went for some fast rolling XC tyres (not that I need them as the bike just feels so fast on these fat tyres but I am curious). If I was to get some 160mm cranks I’d actually have more clearance than the stock 29″ setup but the only 160mm crankset as light as my 170 SRAM XX1 Eagle Carbon cranks are the Race Face Era SL’s which are damn expensive. That said, as a weight weenie it hurts me to say this, but maybe I’m starting to believe that weight doesn’t really matter as the bike just felt so much more fun on the smaller wheels (heavier setup by 200g).

Can’t read shit up close but also starting to have some short sightedness so I got a new pair of prescription glasses. Inspired by Lennon, made by Valentino. They’re light, comfy and best of all they’re transition lenses!

Our life is governed by what we are capable of doing and what we do determines what we become

Personally I’m not scared of much in life but I am absolutely terrified of dumb fucks. If I ever get murdered, it’ll be because a dumb cunt killed me.

I grew up on Grease. And Olivia was Caryn’s (my ex-girlfriend of 7 years) next-door-neighbor.

Super sad.

Grease is a great movie (and I hate musicals). Conceptually a lot of the movie resonated with me later on in life.

Danny (John Travolta) falls in love with Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) on a summer break, but when they go back to school, he had to be one of the boys. Too cool for school. He had to treat her mean to be cool with the guys and it crushes her.

I’ve been there so many times since. I’ve sometimes loved being with a girl in isolation, but mentally was unable to stop thinking about what others would thought about her and I together.

In 1999 The Matrix blew my mind and will forever be one of my fave films of all time.

Christian, my BFAM (Brother From Another Mother) gifted me access to his HBO on NYE to watch the new The Matrix Resurrections which I got around to watching last night.

Volume up and resolution cranked up to 4K I was immediately immersed once the green code appeared on the screen. Was it good? Fuck yeah it was great fun! The first Matrix was a masterpiece, so there’s really no point in trying to compare, but Resurrections was fan service and as a Matrix fan I’m 100% satisfied.

I reconnected with Leslie, an old friend from the car scene when I was coming out of depression a few years back. I learned that he too had been through tough times with cancer. We had a great catch up and shared stories. Mine of my fall and climb out of depression, his of his diagnoses and fight with cancer, overcoming it and quitting his corporate job to start something new.

Leslie and his good mate (and outstanding human being) Shaun have been there for me when I needed guidance. They’re now helping others to help themselves.

Together they run True North and soon they’ll be running a free webinar on how to better navigate these turbulent times.

If you’re interested, here’s a link to all the details: https://www.facebook.com/events/613528243362499

Having fun getting drunk with this one.

In this one I rant about hanging out with 4 kids for a whole day and night and do some Q&A too as usual. Thanks to all who sent in questions! Much appreciated, have a great week all!