I dropped in to Heasmans today to visit Doug Heasman, Peter and his son Chris for a wheel alignment on the Jazz. I installed the coilovers ages ago now and I never bothered with a wheel alignment, mainly because I was just too lazy. LAZY IS BAD! The tyres have been screetching badly on right hand corners not to mention understeering like a motherfucker all the time. I haven’t been complaining though it’s made the car even more interesting to drive lol. Kind-of like a challenge but I knew this was going to lead to some pretty bad tyre wear so I booked it in.

Doug was busy backing in an R8 when I got there.

Nice and easy does it, she’s in the bay.

I had an hour to burn so I took a long walk down to Newtown to check out Hell on Wheels BMX shop which was so ridiculously chock with cool shit I could have dropped $10k in there but I’m glad I didn’t. Newtown’s still got it though, despite being attacked by yuppie cancer it’s still cooler than other suburbs around town.

Bombed van.

OMFG they were shut!!!

The drive home was super fun, the Jazz feels completely different. Cornering is a lot heavier now, heavier steering doesn’t always equate to better steering feel but in the case of the Jazz anything is better than nothing! Doug’s always setting my cars up as aggressive as possible. I don’t even have to ask him anymore, love the guy and love his work.

I came home and found a parcel at my doorstep:

Specialized Deviant with Oakley O-Frame goggles (hmmm not sure about the gold, wish they had the flouro green!).

It’s light, fits really snug and make me look hard even in the bathroom mirror…. bahahahah!

Peaty’s my age and he’s still competing in downhill mountain biking and finishing top 5 every time. Inspirationment! This clip is one of my favorite clips from the Seasons DVD. It’s just shot so well, the soundtrack for this clip “My Love” by The Sessions also fucking rocks.

Chris King is now making BB’s. Things are getting bling. Buy me buy me buy me! It’s almost as if they’ve directly targeted their new new products at me.

I just came across a Cannondale brochure from 1990 and I’ve finally tracked down the bike I used to have. It was a 1990 Cannondale SM1000. One down from top of the line. I bought the frame in Hong Kong, packed it in a suit case and built it from scratch. I remembered taking in kitchen scales into Europa cycles in the city and weighing parts (I was a weight weenie even back then) only to have the guys in the shop laugh at me. I used BMX brake levers for less weight, flouro green brake cables for style. I had some custom wheels made up with double butted spokes and I worked at Europa cycles for many weekends and was given a Deore XT rear derailleur for payment. The bike came in at 11kg’s if I remember right. I loved it a lot, and sold it for an amazing lot of money in the trading post (a few thousand if I remember right!) in order to buy my first motorcycle.

MWG pointed me to Bikeradar which has a little interview with Gary Fisher who is practically THE MAN that INVENTED the mountain bike. Gary was in Sydney and where did the Australian mountain bike fraternity take him for a ride? M A N L Y D A M ! My fave trail! I’ve always felt like it was an absolute privilege to ride the Dam. If it’s good enough for Gary, it’s good enough for me! :)

Full article here.

In other news, a few hours ago Jing just went out and bought the Fit BMX bike I was drooling over a couple of blog posts below. LOL. He’s too fast (too furious?). He’s just uploaded images of it to his Flickr.

A couple of weeks ago I came across these awesome hoodies at Headhoods.com and had to buy myself the Lego one on the spot. Christina also got one for herself and her sister. I love hoodies and I love Lego too. Perfect!

Had a chat with the boys last night over msn about their ride at Lucas Heights/Menai earlier that Sunday. Andy, who only just bought his new bike a few weeks ago, did his first ever trail ride at Manly Dam last Saturday with Felix. That’s doing it tough as the Dam is fairly technical, and definitely not a great place for a beginner, but how’s this… Andy tagged along with the boys (Jing, Clifton and Timmy) to Lucas Heights/Menai yesterday! Brand new bike, never been on a trail, the Dam on Sat, Menai on Sun. That takes the cake!

Menai’s definitely harder than the Dam. I called Clifton pre-ride to make sure he looked after Andy (funny how I asked an 18yr old to take care of Andy, and not Jing, who’s 25 but has the state of mind of a 16yr old lol). I had Andy on my msn last night and he was absolutely buzzing from the weekend, especially going over the handlebars on a rocky section!

Speaking of rocky sections. I thought the boys would be all over this section I did last week, especially since little Timmy had the nerve to comment on my video (he told me to ‘get of the brakes you pussy’) but apparently no one even tried it! LOL! Bahahaha! I heard all sort of excuses (talk). Timmy was sick (awwwww poor timtims), Clifton was casting some negative scary voodoo and apparently is was a hot day and they were tired yadda yadda). I’m a bit dissapointed in them for not even trying it, but at the same time I’m happy that I’m still one up!

In other news: Zi just pointed me out to this eBay auction for a Giant Reign. The eBayer has stolen 2 of my images for his auction listing.

Also: Jing’s got me thinking BMX again (the guy is insane, one week it’s obsessing about dirt jump bikes, the next it’s freeride/slopestyle bikes, the next it’s downhill bikes, this week it’s going to be BMX!). He pointed me out to a store in Newtown called Hell on Wheels which I already had bookmarked a while back for their awesome skate gear. I trawled through the site last night, what a mad shop! I’m sure I could blow thousands in there on T’s and more decks for the wall. Must. Steer. Clear.

Suga had planned for the Saatchi crew to come over to Maroubra for some beach, beer and bbq this Saturday as it was predicted to be a scorcher (and what a scorcher it was!). It was so hot I thought I was going to run out air at one point, but then again that could’ve just been my state of intoxication.

Renato manned the BBQ and served up some rumpalicious churrasco (Brazilian style BBQ). A ridiculous amount of alcohol was consumed by all, music Nazi’s were all over the iPod dock and some furious pong action was had (it was way cooler in the house than out). I was having too much fun to take pics, it was only at 7pm that I realised I’d lost the camera somewhere!

SUNDAY: I had planned to meet up with the boys to ride Menai this morning but I woke up way too late for the ride so Suga and I worked the hangover off with a ride at Lady Carrington Drive instead, which was lovely (despite the traffic to and from). We also dropped in to Kim’s to pick up a few new pieces for the tank (some pics below).

Pong On!

Churrasco!

Saatchi crew.

My mate (he’s my mate now) Kooka.

Cracked iPhone.

Blacke + Christine.

Asahi – My precious.

New cati.

Some new rare purple zoas.

It’s always great to stock up on good Karma. Zi dropped in (with his new Jazz yo!) for lunch today and we stopped to help a lady change her flat tyre. Zi got his hands a bit dirty in the process so I got to drive his new Jazz to lunch.

It looks and feels a lot bigger and more solid than the old Jazz, from the look and feel of the dash/interior right down to flicking the indicator stalks. The smooth CVT transmission of the old Jazz is now gone too, and instead you get your typical auto slush box, but strangely a typical auto gearbox feels and sounds a lot gruntier than the CVT. The car brakes 100 times better than the old one and the steering is a lot sharper too.

Suga owned!

I organise my life one sticky note at a time (lol) which is why I’m always forgetting things, and missing dates, but Christina (my saviour) got me on to Google Calendar and damn it’s frikkin awesome! I love it, and will embrace it. I’m pretty sure this is a life changing moment for me.

In other not as exciting news: I’ve just uploaded some of my artwork to Flickr. I’ve also started a Sex in Art Flickr Group.