It’s official. I rammed the final nail in my Ti project last night.

Jing came around to drop off my Scott Scale frame and fork which he sold to me last week. We took off his parts and whacked on what we could off the Ti bike.

The Scale frame uses full jacket housing all the way (nice) and I’ve decided not to use the funky lightweight alligator/nokon style cabling from the Ti, but instead settle for normal housings. I’m also going to need a seatpost + clamp as the Scale uses a strange size. Jing’s letting me borrow his one in the meantime. Apart from that I have to get the LBS to help me remove and replace crown races but after that I’ll be ready to roll.

The Fizik Alliante XM saddle I bought for the Reign will go on this bike for more comfort. And for once I didn’t weigh anything. I didn’t weigh the frame, the Truvative BB… nothing! I’m going to try my best to curb the weenie and stay functional on this build.

What no clip in pedals?! Tough titties!

Nice touch: These little dudes support full cable housing on top tube.

I dropped in to Maroubra Cycles today to help Andy buy a bike. Andy had been riding a BMX up until now. He did consider a Talon hardtail (like Christina’s bike) but I convinced him to go dual (well, maybe he convinced himself). Giant make an entry level dually called the Yukon SX (2009 model is called the Halo) which got pretty damn good reviews, both locally and internationally, in magazines I’ve read (here’s one article). I’m looking forward to more riders to ride with! :)

New bike smile.

Grant’s (store owner) amazing Yamaha. Cafe Racer stylezzzzz.

New 09 Alias running SLX + small block 8’s.

Masi fixed gear in the window with Sugino crankset (JDM yo!).

My Reign’s back together again. The wheels are now true and dished correctly too. Wider bars feel strange. Looking forward to testing them out on the trails this week/end.

My mate Andrew Chan just send me this pic he took in Japan. He says the guy on the left looks like me (but more buff lol), it’s always got to be some Japanese guy doesn’t it?!

Teisuke Morimoto has just uploaded a billion pictures from Eurobike 2008 – A lot of the 2009 gear looks nuts. JEALOUS. I wish there were shows like this in Sydney. I’d geek out so hard.

The tennis balls are opening up!

My clowns are still very much as cute as ever :)

Big weekend this weekend. No riding at all, too much food and I’m absolutely wasted right now after going through a bottle of good stuff solo (too drunk to sleep lol).

Suga and I ate at Kelly’s Grill at Bondi Junction on Friday night. I only wanted to eat ribs as I’d been craving Hurricanes lately but to our surprise Kelly’s ribs were jucier and tastier that any ribs I’d ever eaten. w00t! For the first few minutes I felt a bit guilty for eating the meat with my hands as the ladies on the table to the left of me were daintily cutting their steaks with their knives and forks, and the romantic couple on the table right of me were trying to look good whilst chewing their food, but after a while I just bogged in hard. Felt great, man, meat, monster, animal. Good. We watched Tropic Thunder at the cinema after the meal, and whilst I was balling for the first 5 minutes, the rest of the movie just failed to surpass the ribs.

Saturday night was nuts. We were invited over to Nanami and Shaun’s place for dinner and we also had a burlesque party to go to afterwards (Janice, one of Christina’s work friends B’day party). It had been raing hard all day, it was fucking freezing as we waited for over 15 minutes for a bus into the city (would be easier if they just let us drink and drive?).

Thanks God then that Nanami’s place was warm, funnily enough it’s the same apartment that I used to live in a fair few years ago. In the picture L2R: Shaun, Richie, Christina, Kellie, Christian (my brother from another mother) and Nanami.

Nanami’s studio.

Nanami skate deck (I so want).

As great as the conversation and Arthurs Pizza was, not to mention a tempting invite to stay and watch The Karate Kid again on DVD (Sweep the Leg Johnny!) Suga and I bailed out to go to Janice’s party.

Janice’s party at Tatlers.

Suga and Janice.

Flavio, Tom + Suga.

Sugaaaaaaah.

Sunday: Fathers day is now split (same goes for Xmas, or any other family occassion) between Suga’s family + my family. I spent lunch with Suga’s family today. Suga’s mum founded the Chinese Parents Association (CPA). The CPA’s a non-profit, charitable incorporated organisation which aims to help children and adults with disabilities especially those of Chinese origin to realise their full potential as well as to promote the needs, rights and well-being of people with disabilities and their families.

I had no idea Christina’s mum was the brainchild of such a massive project. The CPA had it’s 20th anniverary in Bankstown (at a wedding reception building in Bankstown, lol so hardcore) and she was literally greeted with tears and lots of love upon entry. She was praised in speeches and even invited to make a speech. I’m so proud of her!

Christina’s family.

CPA.

The directors + the kids who performed dances (to Brittney Spears no less) and played music (funny but super cool).

Christina’s younger sister Jess with a bit of JDM yo in the background.

Then it was off to visit my Dad and have dinner at mums.

Dad.

Richie (my sister’s husband), Suga and Jamie (my sister).

Wasted lol.

I’d only just got back in from eating that massive beast of a brekfast to have Zi contact me to go out for brekky again as two of his old school friends are here from Malaysia and he wanted them to be treated to the best eggs benny on the east.

Cute couple, they just got engaged on the Gold Coast.

The little potato rosti hidden in between the 2 slices of bread makes for a special surprise. Coogee Bite’s eggs benny are the best eggs benny in the east (they make a great soy flat white too).

This gold Kronos top cap was in the mailbox upon my return home. GOLD FEVER!

2 new pieces (I call them Tennis Balls) I aquired today from my Uncle John’s shop. They’re already opening up bigger than they were in his tank! I’ll take a picture in a few days when they open up even more (hopefully).

My Coral Bandit loves the new blue lights and he’s coming out by day again now. He’s as big as they get, full adult size.

I thought I’d give a local shop a plug today. I’ve been going to A Fish Called Coogee, a little fish and chip store in Coogee Beach for a while now. They spend all morning preparing their herbs and sauces (shallots, aoili in a blender with mustard… too good), then marinating their fresh fish delivery in various different marinades. I picked up some John Dory fillets in sweet chilli sauce and we cooked them up for dinner. Makes cooking easy, fresh and super healthy.

This morning I dropped in to visit my Uncle John at Bondi Beach, he wasn’t open yet so I ducked into one of the many great cafe’s around the Beach and got served this thing:

Eggs, tomatoes, spinach, crispy bacon, garlic aoli on fresh sourdough YUM! (I have to put weight back on right?!).

And this is my Uncle John’s shop on Glenayre Avenue. My Dad passed this store on to him over 20 years ago and my Uncle John hasn’t done one single thing to it, as you can see. It’s got to be THE most ghetto Aquarium store in the whole of Sydney.

That’s just about right in terms of where I’ve placed my values between cars and bikes :)

When I first took the Ti project out for a spin (initially around Centennial Park) I did feel a slight click in the crank, it was so small I thought nothing of it. I didn’t feel it so much out on the trails around Loftus, mainly because I was having problems with my 2nd hand Pace fork (I did the whole ride with the fork bottomed out!). Upon close inspection of the bottom bracket the last time I rode (again at Centennial Park) I noticed the non-drive side bottom bracket (BB) cup to be slightly angled/not straight.

Here’s a picture:

The guys at Maroubra Cycles don’t see it as a major problem as the drive side screws in fine, and the non-drive side only exists to support the drive side which is flush and perfect. The cups screw in easily by hand but on revolution of the BB spindle it touches the sides of the BB cup on the non-drive side. That could be the slight ‘click’ that I’m feeling.

In the picture above I’ve installed 2 extra spacers on the non-drive side and this stops the spindle from touching the BB cup but it’s pretty dodgey. Fact is that there’s something wrong with the thread on the non-drive side of the titanium frame. Maybe it’s why I picked trhe frame up for $500 (you get what you pay for).

I’ve contacted Cheeky Transport in Newtown as they have a machine that can re-face my frame. Depending on the cost I’ll do it, otherwise I think this frame had more praise when it was up on my wall and when I passed it around whenever guests come over to the house (hey check out how light this thing is!!!).