Once you start, you can’t stop!!!

The ghetto setup.

Before

After

New dropout adjusters, (note the campy dropouts = teh sex).

My sister’s after another cat, and we went out to Blacktown to visit an Egyptian Mau Breeder. Upon walking into her house we were greeted visually with a billion cat show award ribbons and our noses were pierced with the sharp smell of cat urine. We were ushered over to a dark room where all the kittens were, next door to the dining table and kitchen, and the smell in that room was so full on Christina almost threw up. The room wasn’t ventilated, it was carpeted and there was a soft couch in there too, all soaked in urine. I had to wonder how the fuck people live like that. Jamie assures me that ALL cat breeders are the same but knowing that they’re all the same doesn’t make me think these unsanitary conditions are OK. Having said that, cute cats though!

Pretty boy.

1 year old.

The kittens (which were a bit jumpy).

I’m “meant” to be polishing the old Paino road bike’s parts and putting the Paino together but I spent a few hours cleaning up the Kuwahara (instead of going out clubbing on Friday night lol). She’s come up a treat!

The morning after.

Mixed up – Mongoose cranks, GT chainring, Sugino chainring bolts.

Banged up Tange headset.

Skyway forks could do with a blast and powdercoat.

I’ve also found some vintage Kuwahara gear on eBay and I’ve been shocked at how much everything goes for. The frame pads (shown on the bike below) went for over $160 on eBay last week. That’s nuts. I’m not doing a restore on this bike so I’m not going to bother with buying bling old school NOS parts.

Inspirational.

Vintage BMX heaven.

Ahh the bachelor life! Christina cleaned out my pantry and fridge (good girl). How the hell to I survive? I don’t know.

I haven’t ridden menai in ages. And it felt good to put on the Met + pads again. I met up with Zi and Andy and 2 minutes into the trail it started pissing down. Water glistenning off the rocks and cooling us down too, it was actually beautiful!

Zi loves to fuck around on technical shit and there’s a lot of that at Menai. He gave everything a go and had a classic stack on a 3ft huck where he pogoed off his bike and landed in a tree. Shame I missed it on video, would have been an instant youtube hit.

Bring on the rain.

Andy and Zi walking the dogs.

Zi made it down this 1st go.

Zi sizing up the big steps.

Zi lends Andy a banana. On the trail, sharing is caring.

Huge 4 car pile-up on the M5.

Zi’s bruises coming up in an instant!

Zi, David, Jing, Clifton and I rode Loftus last night. The new high rise bars on my Reign are fantastic. More control, more comfortable and climbs just as good as before. I’m happy. Zi took a fall on the downhill into Temptation Creek. Had to happen sooner or later as it’s just so rocky (think fist sized rocks all the way down) and deadlier the faster you go. The climb out of Temptation Creek killed me. I still can’t do it in one go but I did manage to get up a part of it I had not gotten up before so I know I can do it (next time!). David’s got a fair way to go before he can keep up with us but he gave it a good go. We all dropped in to Sizzler on the way home too. Might start being abit of a ritual post ride!

PS: Jing’s got 2 vids. The 1st is following Clifton, the 2md following Zi and I. Nothing special as he was just testing out his new camera.

A month ago my brother-in-law Richie and I finally convinced my sister to buy a bicycle. She’s 29yrs old and has never ridden a bicycle in her life.

When she was a little kid she had a bit of an accident where one of our cousins smashed into her. She was on one of those kiddies play toys with wheels and he was on a BMX. Perhaps that out an end to riding for her? We can’t be sure but in any case she now has a bike:

Great deal on this little bike from Grant at MC Cyclery.

I left Richie to train her, not thinking about it much at all, when I asked her how she was going a few weeks later she said they were looking for training wheels, but no shops sold training wheels for adult sized bicycles. I thought to myself, surely she doesn’t need training wheels! It’s easy to ride a bike! Anyone can do it right?! Well, wrong.

Turns out she had no idea how to ride a bicycle at all, and all of us that learnt from an early age should consider ourselves lucky as she was really struggling to gain confidence and balance at the age of 29.

I took her to the kiddies track at Centennial Park last week (despite her being embarassed about it!). Jamie was scared of the conctrete so we found a grass field. I got her sitting on the saddle and then just literally walking/shuffling the bike around. After a few minutes of this we found a slight slope and I got her to do the same but try to lift her feet up and roll. It was then that I realised how hard it was for her.

We made our way over to the kiddies track and tried our best to ignore the little 3yr olds who were already riding without trainers! Watching Jamie push then not comfortably lift her feet up was strange. Definitely something we take for granted. Rolling at slow speeds isn’t easy so I tried to get her to push off harder and roll faster. What’s interesting is that handlebar control is so important when learning how to balance on a bike. She doesn’t know what to do with the bars, so when she lifts her feet up and the bike goes left she does nothing with the bars and has to put her left foot down.

She felt good after that day though. I didn’t push her too much, we started at the very bottom. She’s since told me that she’s started pedalling a little and has had a couple of stacks in the backyard. I’m pretty sure she’ll get it any day now.

I’ve just launched the MC Cyclery blog It’ll be updated daily so be sure to check it out and bookmark it!

Being banned off Farkin has given me the time and motivation to finally get my own cycling forum off the ground. I’ve just launched Bikes Move Us so PLEASE register and get posting guys and gals!

PS: Only if you’re nice!

I feel fat for not riding this weekend. Great weekend though! Here’s the wrap-up.

On Saturday Suga got dropped off at Top One to get her tinting done.

We dropped into ISMR to pay off some debts (doh!). R34’s are slipping away from me. My once dream car has lost it’s sparkle.

We dropped in to Hell On Wheels in Newtown. How amazing is this bike? It’ll be featured in their next advertisement in 20/20 magazine, all photoshopped up.

I’ve been thinking about motor bikes lately too.

I saw this deck on their site and had to have it. I’d met Tom a couple of times but I got to meet Rob this time around. He said he couldn’t believe it hadn’t sold, and that he wanted it for wall art but his girl said no (why?! Christina loooves this deck!).

Up on the wall it goes. HAHA.

On Sunday I’d woken up on dreaming about bikes (sad I know) and even before I had my morning coffee I was in the car off to Kingsford markets. Not sure why, just was. I crossed the road and was greeted by this sight:

Holy fucking shit I thought! I asked the old Russian guy “How much do you want for this?” and he says “Nice bike, it’s perfect for you, $45″. “45?” “Yes $45″. I didn’t have the heart to bargain him down some more. I just took it!

Then I saw this beauty. Clamont racer with Tange 900 tubing and a beautiful brown suede Turbo saddle. $100, so tempted but I let her go.

This old GT was awesome too, check the frame, it’s hot.

I even wanted this, used to have one as a kid. They last forever unlike new belt driven onces which die in the ass.

It’s a bit of a ritual getting an egg and bacon roll from these guys at the markets. Best bacon and egg roll in Sydney no bull.

Scorage!

JDM goodness.

Tange tubing.