Well it’s been 2 years since Suga and I started dating, and what an awesome 2 years it’s been. I’ve just been so ridiculously happy the entire time. When people ask me “Hey Justin how’ve you been?” I don’t reply with “yeah alright”, or “yeah good” I reply with “FUCKING GREAT!”. w00t!

Last night we planned to drop in to pony at The Rocks for dinner and we were instantly greeted by Ioannis, the Restaurant Manager. I’d only been to pony once before and on that night this guy with a shocked expression on his face called out to me: “Justin?!?!!”, turns out he was one of the little kids who used to live on my street in Kensington when I was growing up! Seriously, the last time I’d seen this guy he was 4ft tall, 8yrs old and had a curly afro! For him to somehow recognise me was insane!

Ioannis: He’s the man.

Anyways, Ioannis (pronounced ‘Yani’) was totally booked out for the night. He still insisted on trying to sort a table out for us, and sat us down at the bar, got Christina a lovely glass of red and myself a beer, as well as some finger food. What a guy. Christina and I agreed that he’s just one of those people that you like instantly. I felt pretty uncomfortable with the free drinks and food, as well as him trying so hard to fit us in for the night that I just grabbed his card and said we’d be back for dinner another night (and we’ll be sure to book it in next time!).

Doricious.

So for dinner, Suga and I ended up strolling over to Doyles to feast on some Dori (mmm Dori).

Well Charlie and I snuck out of work again today and we hit up Lucas Heights/Menai this time as Charlie’s not done anything other than Manly Dam. I’m really not sure I like Menai. It definitely doesn’t flow. There’s a LOT of walking to do and overall it just gets repetitive. There are some really nice tech rock bits though that you can hang out at, and that we did.

This massive rock structure has been on my mind ever since I first saw it. We (the boys) had never attempted it the first 2 times we’ve been there but today I was determined to give it a go.

I think I can.

I think I can.

I think I can.

Going back up SATISFIED!

Charlie the man, he did it too and took a way cleaner line than I did. He’s awesome at picking lines and to think he’s doing it all, up and down, on an STP dirt jump bike, that’s just awesome.

Here’s a video:

I just came across this post on John Lampard’s blog: disassociated. Made me smile. I used to live by “go with the flow” but John once said to me “only dead fish go with the flow”, and that kinda changed my lazy way of thinking back then (I love a kick in the butt, well, not literally).

John was there in 1999 at the very first Australian INfront meeting with myself and Andrew Johnstone, founder of Design is Kinky. We were first generation bloggers back then (having a personal homepage wasn’t even called “blogging” as there was no blogger!). Whilst I definitely stopped blogging many years ago I think John has never stopped!

Keep it real John! Much respect.

My Thomson masterpiece (read: blang!) seatpost came in today for the Scott Scale. It’s 191g and brings the weight of the bike down to 9.72kg.

I can now give Jing his Scott seatpost back and the bike is officially complete. I like it a LOT more than the Ti, but I love my Reign a shitload more. Great that they’re both such different bikes to each other though, that’s a good thing.

For Christina, Friday night usually ends with drinks at the pub across from her work but this Friday night her boss was away and so his flatmate Shaun, who lives with the boss, invited us all over to their place for a party (lol). I was already pretty pissed when I got there, a few more mixed drinks later and I passed out, had a chuck, got up and went home (lol yeah one of those nights!).

The girls.

Renato man beast.

Shaun man beast.

Of-course we broke into the Bosses room and jumped on his bed. Here’s his underwear draw.

We played with his pussy too.

SATURDAY – Saturday day Suga, Mum and I checked out some home show out at the Hordern Pavillion, it sucked ass. I’m renovating the house at the end of this year and it’s almost getting time to start buying stuff for the build. Saturday night we went to Azuma Japanese Restaurant for Christina’s sister Jess’ B’day. We stuffed ourselves on the degustation menu, which started out great but just got worse and worse. After dinner Suga and I went into the cross for one of her friends B’day parties at World Bar. I usually hate the cross, but the vibe wasn’t so seedy this night, perhaps because we were early (and they were late). World bar was loud (we couldn’t talk it was that loud). Maybe I’m just old but I’d rather be at a mate’s place, or a pub/bar where you can actually have great conversations rather than sit there trying to look cool.

Jess and Rosemary.

Azuma dish.

I love salmon.

World Bar.

World Bar – Suga loves her iPhone.

Huh?

Suga getting out of her ouchy heels.

SUNDAY – My sisters husband Richie was free today (whoo hoo he got off the leash!) and he was up for a ride with the boys (myself, Jing, Felix and Clifton). I woke up at 5am to hard rain, at 8am it was still pissing down. After a few SMS’es we decided we were still up for it. Jing almost bailed out, and only needed a bit of encouragement to get out of bed. Felix bailed out which was a shame as I think he would have had a ball. We got there to find a few riders packing up, and all of them had massive grins on their faces (oh yes a great sign… surfs up!). As soon as we got going on the single trail we were giggling like naughty boys, the rain made it hard to see. Mud went flying into my eyes and mouth… it was such awesome dirty fun! Definitely the most fun I’ve had at Loftus, hands down. Oh, also… I scored a flat! Yes my 1st flat EVER. That’s just ridiculous hey?! I was going over a pretty sharp big rock structure at the time and I was also running a thinner rear tyre (2.1) and 30psi. The 2.1 wide Nevegals are so much faster than the 2.35 wide tyres I had on there before. I felt a massive difference on longer gradual uphills and cornering is just as great so it looks like I have a winning tyre combo at last.

2.1 Nevegal Stick-e sticky compoud on the front for more cornering grip.

And a 2.1 Nevegal DTC on the rear for faster rolling.

Pissing down at the car park.

I almost got it the 1st time (dabbed a foot on the rock) but made it the 2nd time (and scored a pinch flat doing so). Photo by Jing.

Skid marks (lol). Photo by Jing.

Muddy goodness.

Richie did well to fight his hangover.

Clifton and Jing.

More muddy goodness.

After a quick hose down and a hot shower Suga and I grabbed a hot Laksa at the jungo (that’s Maroubra Junction to everyone else).

It’s been a long time coming (we haven’t updated our folio in 4 years!) but Caryn Gillespie and I have finally launched our new site!

You can check it out here:
http://www.gillespiefox.com/

Today I’m dreaming of this helmet which is on sale at TBSM for $359 this week only.

Matthew brought his Carbon Scott Scale over tonight (well, he rode it over from work in the city). It’s massive! (check out the size difference between his Scale and mine in the pic above). He’d been dying to weigh it, so it literally went straight on the scales and weighed in at 10.98kg’s. Nice weight considering it’s a large and has a lot of heavy parts on it (all of which will be replaced with lighter parts over time I’m sure).

Much bike talk was had, Seasons on DVD, a “healthy” Crust pizza, apple juice and of-course I got to play with the Carbo a little :) We set up his front fork sag as well as lowered his stem for a more aggressive XC stance and position.

Working for myself, and from home is paying off big time this year. I’m starting to not feel so guilty for ducking out for a part of the day to go riding (I’m even starting to rub it in a bit to the full timers hehe).

Today Charlie and I hit up the Dam. I decided to take the Scott Scale of-course.

The Scale was fast from the outset. Manly Dam has a nasty little heart starter of a road climb before the trail even starts (carpark to the school) and it was evident right there that the Scale was fast. It feels very much like a road bike! Soon after the school there’s a sneaky pinch of a hill which I’ve never gotten up, usually because I’m not warmed up yet, or I usually couldn’t be bothered so early on the trail, but today I got out of the saddle and mashed it, the Scale exploded up the hill no problems. Ridiculous really.

The single trail section of the dam was so fast on the Scale, there’s a bit of rock work here and there which really bucks the bike around but I found that dropping a bit of speed for the rocks wasn’t a problem because a few revolutions of the crank and the Scale just accelerates back up to speed so effortlessly.

The downhill section though was definitely where the rigid frame (or is it the geometry or both?) showed it’s weaknesses. I was nowhere near any sort of comfort zone and instead of mashing it down I was instead coasting, having to pick smoother lines and when I found myself off a smooth line I was just holding on and riding light.

All in all the bike is amazing in tight flat single trail, amazing up hills (heartbreak hill was way too easy and I have to mention that Charlie did it without a granny gear on his STP, what a man!) but on rough stuff it’s just super harsh and far from confidence inspiring. The bike doesn’t like jumping, even hucking it off the steps wasn’t easy (after a while I just didn’t bother and rolled down steps instead). I also feel the tires are way too thin as I had troubles tracking on rockier surfaces.

At the end of the lap we had a little race back up to the school just to burn off the bit of energy we had left and the Scale, once again, just rocketed up the road. It’s almost better on road than it is off road!!! All in all I’m happy, little whippet did great. I feel much more relaxed and less tired than I usually would feel if I rode the Reign. Is that a good thing?

Charlieeeeeeee.

Charlie taking a fall at the end of the downhill section.

The Scale just doesn’t like to jump, or huck for that matter.

I was happy to just relax and cruise home behind this bus.

Little whippet did good today.

I’ve finished setting up the bike, she’s fast! That’s for sure.

There’s an annoying mouse like squeek coming from the rear cassette. I’ll have to take it off to inspect what it is exactly. I forgot to buy derailleur cabling and since I’m an impatient fucker I used the lightweight crap I had lying around (it doesn’t fit too well in the Scott’s cable clamps). The bars I have at 580mm are way too narrow for my liking and I absolutely hate the foam grips. I’ll look at getting some wider bars, most likely still a flat bar too.

10.02kg.