OK, final update on the single speed for a while. The bike’s finally semi-finished!

Avid BB7 brakes came in today. They were an absolute pleasure to install and the a2Z rear disc caliper mount worked perfectly.

I rode it around the block, it’s awesome. I do miss not having clip ins, would suit the bike a little more perhaps, will just have to try it now that I have a spare set (or 2) of clipless pedals. The steering is damn fast, almost twitchy, but I like it. Brakes aren’t working too great. I assume they need some bedding in/adjustments. Grips are a little strange, chunky, soft, but not sure if I like them or not. Still not used to working hard on a single speed, but I love it, it’s fast and simple.

A few things to do:
– Lighter wheelset to get her into the 9kg’s
– Try to remove tensioner, or at least shorten chain with half link
– Red Chris King headset
– Comfier seat, this one hurts!
– Figure out a sexier way to route rear brake cable

Well, first I find the Hardrock under my house, then I find this under Christina’s house! One mans junk is another mans treasure!!!

Mr Lock was telling me he had an old folding bike which a good friend of his had asked him to store, but never ended up shipping overseas. It was in the shed, in a bag, it’s moved from house to house and they had never opened it. Of-course I was itching to check it out, and that we did.

It’s a Bickerton! The bag was covered in mould and bits of bike were sticking out. We took the folding bike out of the bag and assembled it, took us all of 5 minutes. Funny Christina, her father, sister or mother had never seen the thing before!

It’s awesome, like an old school roadster, light, aluminium frame and alloy parts, 3 gears too. I’m really looking forward to restoring this one. A little TLC will go a long way I’m sure. Photos here.

As always, some hot cars turned up to the JDMST End Of Month Meet (EOMM). More pictures here and here.

OK, so we finally did Manly Dam. It was always going to be tough, but after a nutter weekend on the booze, it was going to be even tougher. Jing came and got me at 9am, my eyes were stinging from severe lack of sleep. We got throught the traffic AOK and even riding from the car to the trail was burning my legs!

The trail starts off through peoples back yards, which feels pretty strange, but then you enter some very tight single trail, and it gets pretty damn technical in places. The 11km trail just got better and better, and more and more challenging as you go along. It’s a super diverse trail with everything you can want. Technical uphill, downhill, fast flowing downhill with jumps, drops, general flatter XC… the works.

Everyone we came across was super friendly. There were also a few volunteer bike riders fixing parts of the trail which I was super impressed with. It’s such an awesome trail. I’d be more than happy to help out.

Jing and I got to ride each others bikes too. I’m pretty sure I made the right purchase with the Reign. It chomped up all the tech downhill and fast downhill stuff. It’s not great at climbing though, which is abit of a bummer. Climbing on the Reign means staying in your seat (no power!) and trying as hard as you can to keep the front from lifting. Jing’s Scott was amazing at out of seat climbing and great in tight technical stuff, just not great on the faster downhill stuff where your wrists would ache and the rear would just jump around a hell of a lot. Having said that, the Scott did manage to do everything the Reign did, albeit a little more un-comfortably.

Photos here. Awesome trail, great ride. Will be back for plenty more, please.

For the Giant Reign. I’ve decided to get rid of the clip ins (save it for a road bike later on) so I got some DMR V8 pedals, in army green of-course :) I also got some Maxxis eXCeption High Rollers which weigh in at 480g/tyre (lighter than the OEM’s 760g/tyre). Weight now comes to 13.64kg.

Little update: New KMC red chain and red non-quick release skewers all around.

Eclat. Nice graphic design, nice products.

Here’s a list of mods with weights and budget all up is just over $1k (scary how $10 here $20 there adds up!):

Frame (2978g)
SASO carbon fork (815g)
FSA Pig DH-Pro Headset 1-1/8 (205g)
Amoeba carbon spacers (10g)
Controltech scandium bar (114g)
Ritchey 2008 WCS Grips (52g)
Syntace Stem (98g)
Shimano Hone Crankset/bb (918g)
VP 196 pedals (260g)
Fire Eye Single Speed kit (85g)
Sette Single Speed Tensioner (110g)
Shimano HG50 chain (338g)
Maxlite 310 (320g)
Tubes flyweight x 2 (100g/tube)
Avid BB7 (697g)
Shimano XTR levers (166g)
A2Z disc brake convertor (100g)
Tioga MC Lite Saddle (200g)
FSA SL-K carbon seatpost (240g)
Tranz X seatpost bolt M6x45mm (15g)
Seatpost shim (12g)
Sette Skewers (109g)
Weinmann Bull Disc front (1080g)
Sun Ditch Witch Deore hub rear (1335g)
—————————————————–
FINAL WEIGHT: 10.4Kg

I like the idea of being in the 9kg’s, a lighter wheelset will do it. A wheelset and a Ti frame will see me in the 8kg’s!

The flat pedals and brakes to come but are listed above. The wheelset isn’t THAT heavy. The frame turns out to be pretty heavy but it is chromoly afterall. The headset is heavy, I could save 100g with a Chris King, or lighter FSA. I’m tempted to get an ultralight Ti frame, but I’m nostalgic about the Hardrock. It’s got character unlike some Chinese Brand-X Ti frame, something romantic about it :)

PS: Also got the A2Z rear disc brake mount on the bike (the Hardrock frame was not made for disc brakes on the rear). Looks like it just might work!

Oh wow. Bring it on!!!

ControlTech Scandium Flat Bar: 114g
FSA SL-K carbon seatpost: 240g
Current build weight: 9.36kg

Looks like once I put the brakes on I’ll have failed my mission to stay in the 9kg’s. It’s amazing how little things add up (weight and money wise!).