Well my sweety surprised me this morning by booking us into Lake Crackenback ski resort in October for a weekend away (!). Christina’s been there before, as a kid, and she loved it. She also sent me this link (nyaaaw what a girl aye?!). Looks like we’ll get to do some biking! Not to mention fishing, good food, wine, trail walks, horse riding (?!) and a great resort apartment too! It’s love I tell you! I can’t wait!
Great weekend (as always!).
My cousin Nicholas turned 19 on Friday night, he’s such a goody two shoes that kid. He’s clean cut, polite… unbelivable really (my wicked teens didn’t influence him at all!). Then again… he’s getting into clubbing A LOT . All he talks about is clubbing, trance and the Melbourne shuffle. We had dinner at Pink Salt, a restaurant at Double Bay (runners up a few years back in the ‘My Restaurant Rules’ show. I even recognised the guy off TV). My steak was great, blue almost but that’s a shitload better than being overcooked. We tried our best to get Nicholas slashed, didn’t help that his dad halted the drinking after a cocktail and a round of shots (lame!).
Sweet 19. Nicholas and my Mum.
Suga loves the shots.
Blue inside.
Suga’s Salmon.
Suga, Richie and I did 25km’s around Centennial Park on the Saturday. I was just testing the Titanium bike out both on road and on the jogging trail. She’s amazing on the road and the big hill going up to Oxford Street has become all too easy. On the tree roots she’d damn bumpy, it’s almost as if the forks are on lock-out (but they’re not).
Finally got dirt.
On Sunday Clifton Jing and I went to Loftus (Jing took some video here). Jing noticed my pace forks weren’t moving at all, we let some pressure out and the forks literally dropped 20mm. No shock pump meant that we just adjusted the rebound to fast and well… I rode for 3 hours with the fork bottomed out… so it wasn’t a great test. I did adjust the saddle angle though to a position I was happy with. I love the SPD’s as far as power and functionality goes, they clip in so damn fast/well. I love that the most about them, but my confidence was slaughtered by having them on (doesn’t help when you forget to clip out and fall going over the train tracks fresh out of the carpark lol… too funny).
The bike on gradual inclines is fast (in comparisson to my Reign) but going up really steep hills in granny gear it’s not got as much grip in the rear but it tracks a lot better than the Reign does. It’s really fast in single trail but on fireroad downhills it’s bumpy as all hell and I have to choose the smoother line all the time (I love how the Reign can go off the line, any time, no worries).
Gear wise, the XTR set just performed well. The shifters/shifting was fast/smooth/spot on. The clicks on the shifter aren’t as strong as SRAM (which I do like) but it works really well. Brakes seemed weak initially but they lock up OK, all in all they feel like they’re lacking punch but they do work alright.
All in all I’m not so excited about it. It’s a great bike but just not as playful, fun, confidence inspiring and comfortable as the Reign.
I’ll have to sort out the fork issue at least. If it means selling it for a new fork, so be it. Lesson learnt as they’re 2nd hand and the only 2nd hand item on the bike.
18 car freaks registering for battle.
Suga and I – Daft Punk?
Mark Pakula’s MX5 (Photographer for Autosalon Magazine) is sooo fast the paint is coming off.
The Sunday night Suga and I went to Steve’s B’day mini grand prix at Eastern Creek. My legs were deaded from the ride and after 5 races my arms were deaded too. When you go karting with a group of great drivers you get hardcore competition and aggression, the best thing was that Suga caned a lot of the guys whilst their girlfriends watched on from the stands (that’s my girl!!!). Out of the 18 drivers I placed 5th on the grid at the final grand prix. Steve was behind me and I warned him not to play dirty but he shunted me off the track 3 laps in and I lost a lot of positions, it’s OK, he’s the B’day boy afterall. I forgive him. I had another off when Dave from Buddy club spun out in front of me but still managed to hold 10th. So sore, hungry and tired I only just stayed awake to stuff some hot pot down my esophagus, drive home in a daze (yes driving the Jazz is sureal after karting), dunk a glass of red and fall asleep to F1 on the TV.
Lovely and inspiring: http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/
It’s been subtly suggested over the years that I should go buy myself some “nice” shoes so I caved in and finally bought myself some of these. They’re as close to a “dress shoe” I’m going to get lol.
I also couldn’t resist adding a new deck to the wall. Old Skool Santa Cruz Salba re-issue in greyscale. Niiiice.
In other news, my SexinArt.net site has been hacke and Google has taken it off their listings (wow the power). It’s a combination of WordPress and Servage (hosting provider) it seems as a billion other people hosting WordPress sites on Servage have also been hacked. There’s nothing I can do about it but move to a more secure server which is going to be a hassle and cost me more $$$.
The weekend felt long (maybe because I watched the tour de france and got all emotional about it?). For the first time in many weekeds Suga and I didn’t go for a ride, the ride was instead substituted with alcohol abuse and junk food (nice).
Son Saturday we went to Sexpo for a laugh (we were careful not to laugh too loud when we weren’t meant to lol).
The girls getting some shopping in.
This guy paints with his penis (great).
Swedish designer toys.
Elephant? Suga wanted to buy me this.
And today we had our JDMST end of month meet (EOMM) at JDMyard. Great turnout with a stand out Celica.
Funny how into bikes I am right now. I’ve hardly got any heart left for cars. When asked about how my GTR is going, all I could say was I am taking a break from it all, from cars and that I’m into mountain biking + health + saving cash… it’s cool, people are cool. I’m happy. Life’s great :)
World Cup 2008 – The world’s best downhill mountain bikers will be fighting it out next month in Canberra, this is going to be greater than the olympics! I’ll be there. You will be too I hope.
