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.

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.