Yet another great bunch of art from FYXOMATOSIS

http://www.fyxomatosis.com/gallery.php?gal=30#709

sometimes bikes and girls cross paths in the most sensational way.

I want you to vote at this "Bag POLL"

If your a messenger or a nerd on the bus. If you use a messenger style bag please vote at this poll.
http://www.callejeronyc.com/foro/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2

to you my family of friends.

Yogi Says....

1950s pinup model Bettie Page dies in LA at 85

Born April 22, 1923, in Nashville, Tenn.
Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday. She was 85.

In the late 1940s, what were known as camera clubs were formed as a means of circumventing legal restrictions on the production of nude photos. These clubs existed ostensibly to promote artistic photography, but many were merely fronts for the making of erotica. Page entered the field of glamour photography as a popular camera club model, working initially with photographer Cass Carr.[3] Her lack of inhibition in posing made her a hit. Her name and image became quickly known in the erotic photography industry, and in 1951, her image appeared in men's magazines with names like Wink, Titter, Eyefull and Beauty Parade


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettie_Page
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/11/entertainment/e191926S32.DTL

AT&T are headed to release the OS SYMBIAN for its handsets. (if your asking about Australia "WHO CARES".. until anything happens here and it won't its best to keep an eye on what is really happening in the werld of telecommunications).
A possible slap in the face to the number of IPhones using the Apple and perhaps a competitor to Googles Android that was released as open source a few months ago. Will Apple release it's IPone platform to the public giving it a much needed user side.

Symbian has been used for some time on a variety of popular international phones, including Nokia's own S60 line and phones from Sony Ericsson. With this acquisition of the entire platform, though, Nokia plans to open source Symbian, making it a much more service-agnostic choice for AT&T versus Android, Google's open source mobile phone OS. Android had developmental help from a variety of hardware manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, and LG, and already offers advanced functionality like the application marketplace. But Google's OS has been criticized by some carriers and manufacturers as being too Google-centric, tying too closely into services like Gmail and Google contact syncing.

Also

Nokia responds to the projected drop in handset demand by effectively ceasing its efforts to penetrate the Japanese market... or, rather, what's left of the Japanese market.

Windows Mobile has become 42.9 % more popular.

meanwhile my son wants to play flash games fro the nickelodeon site and forces me off the computer. I am considering buying him a glorified communication device in the form of an eeePC. I can buy one locally for about 50 to 700 bucks , powered by possibly the better CPU in current release the ATOM from Intel. They are WiFi ready , have bluetooth but somehow miss the 3G connection to get on the phone line. many of them have web cams and so this makes them ready for SKYPE or social networking.. If your a geek and your not up to speed on this ... Your not a geek.

I went to a handfull of local mobile phone providers of hardware and service and of the approximately 20 service staff that claim to know something only ONE of them knew of ANDROID in any form. ... what is ANDROID? i t is an open source mobile phone opperating system. And there are LOTS of apps being made for it every day.

So is the mobile phone becoming a multi media device or is the multimedia device becoming super portable?

I have become addicted to the BLOOD series of mini games on facebook. It has basically cured me of a long passion I have with RPG genre. I used to spend hours killing trolls and shadow warriors and the like in EverQuest and everquest 2 then I went to AoC and even tried WoW. but was soo pissed off that they claim that they cant do stuff cause it resembles real life then around christmass you find snowball and candy canes to waste slots in your inventory. Did it make me mad. Yes , especially when they are the reason why they did not do stuff cause it was to REAL LIFE. the ad Christmas trees (only cause they are so NOT real life... what crap is that?).

Celibrating real life holliday occasions and events in a fantasy game is just trying to butter both sides of your bread... but where do you hold on to it without getting butter on your fingers?

Second Life is dead (not quite)..... I tried it 2 times and both times it was a waste of my time. The learning curve was steep but its flaw was also one of its charms. the fact that there was Telstra badges on my start up location was almost like having cops standing in the corners at a rave... it just does not work. especially when like in WoW, the more experienced users "grief" the noobs, so do the older users of secondlife dish out how basic you are in your 2nd hour... makes the whole thing a waste of time and unfriendly..... perhaps if I could just find an OS server instead of the telstra one.

Griefers are bullies .. end of story.

Star Wars: the old republic is being taken on by BioWare... this has surly have to be a good thing

Death Penalty ....


not the real life one but when your CHAR DIES... here is a mouthfull of crap we dont need explained about EVE. Eve is a great game but seriously it get really booring if you do one to many missions... I was in a bunch of great corporations (guilds) but now that my last one has disbanded im bored... VERY bored.. oh was that MY Account that lapsed.. im sorry... but my muninn and broadsword sits in a proverbial black home until i bother to re start my account.
I have been having the hardest time finding a pice of space that was right for me.... I just became bored... the most exciting thing to happen was a vlob of reds not see me as I was on the gate they came through... must have been a blob of about 130 ships or so.... exciting but no one was close enough to "de cloak" me.

Also I find the idea of having to pre-book for fleet battle 2 things.
firstly its a cry for help to secure the diminishing nuber of seats required to actually have a fleet.
and secondly it takes away the impromptu of the MMO. I play MMO cause there is a certain level of randomness.. In my life at the moment somethings I cant BOOK to fight... I must fight now or l just log off.

Although I am quite tired of EVE it has one thing that is great... ONE SERVER... this ONE server model is great.. cause all your frinds and enemies will eventually log on to the same server.

found this .. interesting but it not me.. this might be...
http://www.massively.com/2008/07/21/eve-evolved-suicide-ganking-investigated/


I am an avid hater of WOW. I hate the kids and I hate the rubbish that you need to put up with.. I hate competing egos over coffee and I hate the fact that it takes an idiot to play the game. Once upon a time before class leveling MMO games where actually fun because you needed a wizard or you needed a priest or you needed a warrior... now its all leveled. WOW is leveled, EverQuest is definately class leveled and it was even wound back to make it easy for people who don't want to read the maual or think its to hard for a druid to fight past a gate... get a life.. its a game... wait for someone to help you.. not just complain. Wow won the MMO game between itself and everquest by making the system requirements to be LOW as opposed to the uber machine required to play EverQuest. Essentially the games are more similar now than when they where conceived. Wow is better hands down but it still looks like a cartoon whilst everquest is truly imersive.

Age Of Conan has come between them to give easy game play, quick leveling and a variety of leveled classes and a cool char generation. I have stope playing lady characters and now only play men. I was lucky in AoC as it was true (since fixed) that female chars did not hit as hard... War Hammer is now the flavour of the month.

Thanks http://www.neinlives.com.au/ for bringing this pic to us. even though it came from here.


Bike polo in Sydney http://sydbma.org/bikes/bike_polo
and forum here

Bamboo Bike


Bamboo!!

Wow, I have heard of this stuff before but slowly I an getting more interested.
Not sure about these bars though. Not aware of any Tracks locally that will let me ride like that. CUSTOMS might stop me too. http://www.calfeedesign.com/singlespeed.htm



Built by Warren Von Botbyl. Warren's been building furniture for about ten years now and had some oak leftover from his last piece. http://www.bikeforest.com/homebuild17.php

pretty impressive and definably unique. There are a few other bikes like that on the site too. The

I also found a blog by Nick Frey. I did not really look to deeply into other pages of it but this page was hoot. They built a Bamboo prototype fixie and it seems to work ok.. apparently, I might be understating . check it out here

The BFF or Bicycle Film Festival went through Sydney with a bit of a lump this year. Brent, the patron and organizer was still bleeding from his inside mouth and was still sore from being beaten up in Paris a few weeks earlier.. He did not drink and was not quite the social butterfly he usually is. He also managed to make the organizers of this years Sydney event fell rather bad. A real pity really as it was just not needed. I think what Brent really needs is some quiet time away from the needs of others and concentrate on just lying around and getting some vitamin D. Then a few weeks later perhaps take up where he left off. It was also very hard to market and promote the event with the next to zero notice we got about the program. I had the feeling that Brent wanted to take over the event for the short time he was here and disregarding the 9 months of event planning and council negotiation that went on. Sydney is not an easy place to do anything (that is just a reminder). There are many bike sub cultures in Sydney and getting them together is a chore.

The organizers this year did a great job getting the bike riders of Sydney involved from opening bike rides and parties, art galleries, fashion show that was dominated by bike messengers, nude ride, polo, the event, swap meets and a host of other side activities. Well done to the core group. team players all of them and not to mention cool too... I cant believe that was not the words of our benefactor. I am annoyed at Brent about that. My favorte movie had my mate Adam and Meg in it. Very cute very quaint. made me smile.

The Bike Valet Parking on King Street, Newtown was a great success. It was used well, set up well and was seen by lots and lots of people who went past the Dendy Cinema in Newtown.

The After party on Sunday was also a great with Paul and Fiona providing the "most excellent" food. ( I feel like a scene from Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure ( 81%) )

Last week I went to a red carpet showing of Quantum Of Solace (65%) I went with a mate of mine who often is my company at movies to the flicks. We see good movies and bad but generally we don't see drama or girly stuff. I was very disappointed with the fact that it was a Red carpet affair and We where the only ones in dinner jackets. It put us both in a bad mood and frankly I was disjointed that no one else thought it necessary to dress up to go to a James bond premier. The movie was not the normal james bond, No cars, no inventions and no panting sex scenes as corny as they are. The intro drive scene was a joke as those 250 HP alfas that might be 4WD can kick the begeeezuz outa a rear wheel drive Austin Martin on the tight dirt track that we where supposed to believe was a pit of construction. However the intital fight scene was awesome but might have been more at home in a kung-Fu movie. I reckon the best ever Kung Fu movie is this. ... not excatly a nice way to end a paragraph about a James Bond Movie but really.. it was crap...
This is a second link to The best Kung Fu movie of all time

on a more here and now...Some of you locals might have heard about the gang who are hitting ATMs in the wee hours and robbing them of money. Well 2 nights ago I woke at almost 2am from a loud bang in the night.

Going down for my morning coffee on a rare child free day. I took this photo. (cool bike on the road)

But the gas cylinders used to blast the Clovelly Road ATM destroyed the machine, the front of the bank and damaged the thieves' getaway car. from SMH

And, I can confirm that...


A police spokeswoman could not confirm reports the car was stolen in a carjacking. (from smh) to be true.

In fact the passenger was holding her door so hard she ripped it off the inside of the door as she was wrenched out of the car. The driver whom I know to be meek and mild to be rather shattered this morning (the next day). Im just glad they are ok and I hope that the incident did not shatter the Driver of the hijacked car too much.

The car of choice seems to be an AUDI as Audi seems to pup up everywhere .. almost as much as in IronMan.

So I spent 30 minutes sitting in a borrowed chair from the cafe in the street and watching the police divert traffic and watching the media take report after report. Some detectives turned up and its true. They stood out like very sore thumbs and wore very bad ties.

The rest of the day was a hoot. Managed to organize a blind date for Lane, Take a few pictures of very nice bike with ladies hang in the sun for a few hours also. A great day really
Also got this great shirt from KINGKOG


I would like to correct a mistake on my last post. I was talking about some stand out games from the past where I mentioned Soul Caliber. What I really meant to say was SOUL BLADE It came out on the PS1.

I find myself being less of a Troll or Space Pilot or Conqueror on line and tend to contact a friend or invite them to smirsh ideas.
Games at one stage used to take up a lot of my days and some might even say I needed an intervention at some stage. However I managed to pull out rather well in retrospect.
Also I find that once I was keen to overclock a intel 90 CPU (released 7th March 1994) to 130 mghz. The 300a and the pent 3 700e was running 1.3 for almost 5 years b4 it just went no further. Now I just get yesterdays top of the line so I get performance at a discount, Parts are expendable for a basic coputer. So now my tomato computing habit have long gone. I find myself searching news feeds and the weather.

Times have changed. Wizardry on the apple ][E where on the bottom level if you stayed Left at every junction you would live. Little clues on the walls "ANDREW" was the creator of the game and "WERDNA" was written on the walls. It was written in Pascal and if you opend the bat file all you had to do was go to find roll values... and add some kinda exrta bit like (strength (roll value)*3.3). Keeping the cheat values low meant you could still play the game without playing GOD mode. And the spell Titawait actually was described as a radio active blast

When it came out. Soul Calibur on the playstation really was a gaming benchmark. It had every aspect of a complete game experience. So did lylat Wars on the Nintendo. A very stand out game for its release in game timelines. They actually made the experience GAMELY, fun and mostly playable. I mean Original Sonic with the mega Pad joystick was awesome.

The Atari was a neat unit. but finaly decided it was the best music creation machines. Playing on the Amiga 64 was really just trying to mimic the arcade. It was a bad comparison.

Computers today... well we are about to hit a networking revolution.

I feed we are about to become cold and constantly in need of more and more. EEEpc is 550 bucks. its able to connect to 'hot spots' but some are not3G compatible. They should be. women can carry on in a small handbag whilst guys can fit them in their thigh pocket of their cargo pants. Anyone cna op't for a small back pack. The IPhone is under threat of actually having to de- regulate itself to keep up. Multi Media and the phone is about to become a very very thin and winding line. Android gains momentum. Its a free mobile phone platform or Opperating Sydtem.

Meanwhile over here, people drink coffee in their caffe's wondering if the bill can be paid with their credit card. Our telcos scoffle over the way they are going to release technology to us to make the most money. A lot how Sony as a game Vendor service. The Playstation 3 and PSP have features that are fantastic making every bit worth the money you spend, Whilst here is the land of Sweeping planes and grand blue mountains these features are released as net get or "to look forward to".

If your not up to speed with computers and want to learn, I rate Sci-Fi Neuromancer by William Gibson and if you like an book of short stories called Burning Chrome.
I tell ya this guy is almost a prophet

ok, A few weeks ago I posted a pic of a nice looking ... bike frame. (A lot like the one above It was about 6 grand US. I thought that it was a tad outa my league but then I saw this and I cant figure a single thing that made me smile about the bike frame any more.

I don't care if BonJovi puked on it, I don't care if it was used in James Bond or on the set of 10 000 BC. I dont care is full of cocaine.
WHO ARE YOU KIDDING !!!

on the lighter side. Tonight My main man OhOhtwo is takin me as a date to Quantum Of Solace. I've gotta wear a zoot. Looking forward to it.

Found a shirt that made me feel cool. It keeps on making me feel cool everytime I think about it. Thanks Kig Kog. Delivery of this baby was less than a week from OS. thats better than local times. This little self portariat is cool for me. I wonder if I wear it to work, will my boss say "NO COMPLY" or not... Last weekend the BFF came to town. Brent, well done mate. Also Elaena from Bike Sydney did a great job in building the whole Sydney project. There where a bunch of groovy things other than the film festival propper. here is the menu and it was really a good time from the opening bike ride and party to the post party at Pyrmont Park.
I have never really been keen on Vego food as i am the kinda guy who things of vegies as optional. Paul.. Your a legend. I have no idea about Vego "only" food. BUT THAT WAS FANTASTIC.

I also managed to Take/Get Given this great cap from Brent B. (see right)

Also, saw a crap movie but I had to see it as I commented on the Jessica Simpson forums about bike messengers. This movie rates ok for a basic movie about small town girl gets ahead in big town noo yourrrk. crap really.

Below is Fraag's Bike. It' customized with Manga. EXCELLENT job.

How Funny or what?????

Very hello kitty. but softer.

One for the men.
and the Bike film Festival is on in Sydney this Friday and Saturday. King St. Newtown. Ssydney
Thanks yellow brick road for the bike placard poster pic.
wanna find the menu of the shows.
hit ME HERE . Just look for the poster link.

Bike

no pics.

Newtown Festival

HUGE

From a very un-assuming start in Mary St. The bike Valet ran all day and once aging remained triumphant.

I would like to thank Ash and Adrian for starting a gun set.
Adrian and Chris for carrying on from them.
And Chris and Craig in the afternoon.

We had lots of bikes through at random times. Well what I mean is we could be staring at the passing parade for 10 minutes then suddenly 6 bikes and then 4 more.. then 2 more than stop for a while... it was just random, then 2 groups of 3... was fun.


A lot of 70s bikes and townie types. Even had some up scale euro transport lookers too. About a dozen fixies or singles from non messengers, but looked the beeswax.
lots of nice bikes...


We all had fun. Everyone was happy with the comfort of the service.
One guy came and quizzed me, and I said "All care, no duty"and he blatantly said no thanks. Well there is a first for everything. One guy locked his bike in the racks too.

Thanks Crumpler and Bike Sydney. who made it possible

Was a great day.


need more volunteers for BFF
gimmie a yell if your up for it.

I can't figure out what makes me angrier: my habit of anonymously trolling web. forums, or my video game playing.

this statement is kinda the ultimate bored web user.. somehow I empathize TOTALLY. grab a visual here full story here

.A new Bike Messenger photographic slash artistic site.

I have serious travel plans for 2009, culminating with the World Championships in September. Big dreams that need real funds. To help finance my trips, I will be launching a series of online raffles. I’ve organized lotteries before and they have always proven to be highly successful.

Not only will I be giving away large format limited edition prints, I also have some sponsors who are joining in and donating some products and gift certificates. I think there will be some really sweet prizes up for grabs.

stay tuned, all the official info will be online by this weekend.

Now when couriers complain about the weather in Sydney. Hmmm. You know not to listen.

Fixie Specific Crash
I met some of my friends on Federation Way and we rode towards St. Peters to the Art Show RODE,EDGE. We where late and we where not in a huge rush and we just took our lane and went along the Wilson St highway (a local road that is shared by cars and bikes).

I was out of the saddle and pumping a little when I felt my legs fly free with no friction like my chain had come off. At the time I was standing out of the pedals. Down I went. hitting the ground hard and rolling only my elbow and onto my back. I noticed a car right there on right (behind me), still clipped in, I managed to throw my bike away from the cars towards the side of the road as I was still clipped in.

The guys I was cycling with thought I really know how to fall, but the look on my face of knowing my bike was in harms way was apparently "golden" I threw with my legs my bike with deliberate actions to put my bike out of harms way.

My slide stops, I'm stinging on my elbow and hands and knee. The car occupants asked if I was OK, my friends on bikes asked if I was OK... Ohhhh the humility.. I'm OK.

my lock ring had somehow un-wound a thread or 2 and my cog had jammed tight up aginst it in a slightly unwond possition. when peddaling the cog wanted to "tighten" on its spline, when i did tighten I had a no fricion against the weight I was putting into the cranks. The cog tightened back into a secure position but it was enough for me to "bin it" in front of Adam for his Birthday.

Happy birthday mate

We ride to the Art show , we are late. It looks like everyone was having a great time. Bikes and bike art and fashion is everywhere .

We where there for about 1 hour and a Police Man came and shut the party down. No seriously Sydney really needs to re-evaluate it's police force. to explain what was going on was a medium sized group and very not drunk or disorderly. The public where a very tame group and the music was not loud and people where talking and not yelling. So the crowd was very under control and there was no dangerous things happening. Things where tame. The police shut down the group for no reason other than they must have been super bored. after all most yobbos where inside watching the football. Sydney Police really are not very community friendly. The Art/ fashion show was a community event that was soft as flowers. Cops just need to stop treating us all like a communist state or like we are ALL CRIMINALS prior to being one.

Probably a knee jerk reaction to being a penal colony 200 years ago.. the rum coat and rum rebellion vibe is still alive in Sydney.

to my friends on this special day. Hope you have a better one than this vegie

here it is... Only 2 days after I mention it.
Although you can not buy one locally you can get it from EBAY. Im not impressed about that that fact as I reckon we should be able to buy up to date stuff when it is available... OHHHH you mean we only have 21 million people and that is not a real market (they say).
In direct competition with the IPhone, HTC is another version of the multimedia phone. I have read a few reviews about it and it rates better than the IPHONE too. I have seen this in a few of magazines I read, T3, APC, WIRED, PC Monthly. They all do product comparisons and rate them. Admittedly some of the mags have advertizing contracts with Apple and cant really give it a low rating but most of my friends seem to love their IPHONE until they drop it or it fails. Do Not Forget folks, its a phone.

I still think that a decent phone is still better, especially with the cost of EeePC type of product.

Also windows 7 in beta is making the rounds. It is of course still rated against apple OSX with a religious fellowship of users behind it. and more people every day trying out one version or another of LINUX.
Meanwhile they (the marketeers) are convincing us to move our social networking to our phones.

you know how and you know where.

come and dress like a pirate all day for bonus points.
bring all your pirate gear for time bonuses.
Find Dan for more info.
I wont be there as I have found out by looking at my calander that I am booked to look after my kids from 5.30 till they go to sleep...

Arghhhhh, Dam nations... In a prior life I was working on tall ships.. they are very majestic, even the dogs.
todays wordle

Lust is a bicycle. just check this out and its new.

Its on ebay today for a few days so just let your fingers do the purchasing and spend 6.5 grand. This bike is just gorgeous and my size . It is a track bike and has no marks o it at all, master light and ohhh what a paint jobby. Pity it is a 54 and not a 53 .. forget the fact that I wont buy a bike that I cant ride without worrying about it.

whats this then??? A Fashion Show.. looks very flash.
Tell em Yogi sent ya!!!

(have a stab at the image for a bigger look)

Found a cool toy / tool on the web this morning. It makes a kinda collage of words you put into it. It also lets you select pages and blogs to source the words from. Neat trick I say. This one is of ohoh2's blog.

I have been given a second year of subscription to Wired Magazine for my birthday and I can tell you. It is a great read for the not nerd or the not scientific types who wanna keep up to date with trends and future ideas. Its is not quite "New Scientist" but forward thinking never the less. A very good read for those occasions when your stuck in one place for too long. Just have to remember to keep it in your bag. Alternately you can go to the web site and get a news feed. I have also become quite fond of slashdot.org . A little less layman than wired but very informative without the NEWS sourced from standard places in the standard format.

Are you tired of lies and miss quoted statements from the standard media? Stop using them. With computers and web 2 and RSS and the like it is now possible to just find the news you want and you have the option to filter the shit that seems to flood our local tabloids that seems to share with broadcastes news items. I have even felt that they often seem to reference one another and it is mostly a "not" news story that they do this to to make it seem important.

So what is important? You, your neighbours and then the enviroment. Somethings gotta give. If you dont stop spending your coin on crap your gonna be in biiiig trouble. I feel that our addiction to trinkets and personal commodities is goind to be our undoing. Sorry for the bad news.

On the up side. ANDRIOD has become open source. What is it? Well lets see now. Hmm connect your phone to your computer (or server) and negoitate with your contacts and just about any app or program you like. Seems like the ideal platform to make your own logistics company connect to your Phone, PDA or laptop or any other WAN device. I am poretty sure that it wont take long to create a usefull application that can do Accounting, and invoicing for clients as well as list off pickups and also give them a level of service (being regular or rush). Infact I am so keen about this I have downloaded the SDK and when I have finnished I will give it to my friends at SYDBMA for free. This means (as I see it) you will able to go register your business and then start finding your own clients. I have no problems giving this to you. My experience with courier companies is that they only rip of the rider as much as they can. Typically this app built with ANDROID is getting close to the mark.

It talks about the different pieces in the puzzle that is an "app"

A local ride is always pretty cool.

Ya gotta love it when its cold enough to wear scarves whilst cycling.

It is one of those things, You ride and you like to take it easy and check out what sydney has to offer. These guys look cool and had the worlds best smiles on their faces.
Kudos to you.

So you don't need lycra to look good after all.

Another cool bike that I admire from afar. "The Contessa" If you look carefully at the down tube you can see the glare and then you notice the twists and reverse twists in the tubes. Very beautiful, kind of like the skin of some alien spaceship come to ride over the earth. have a look at "The Contessa"

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My bike is such a floosy, I went to Norton St today for the ITALIAN FIESTA Festival, the street was closed off and the Bike Valet was operational. I arrive in the morning and you can ride down the closed road and things are warming up. 30 minutes later it was chock-o-block with people from everywhere. I was impressed by the vibe of the event and that kids where catered for in both activities and shows.

I would like to thank the people who put up with me and helped with the bike valet service. I think we had a great day. Sunday is always good when you can do something that requires you to people watch at an event. Paddy, Rob and Rob and Elaena.

My bike had the best day. I had a hard time figuring which bike to take as I was running late. The green one or the red one.. hmmm what was I wearing... ohh my dilemma. I might not get dressed for anyone ... but picking the right bike is very important.

Anyway I rode my skidstar. The skidstar was a gift from Owen Denmeade and was a frame and bent forks only. it was covered with black house paint and had a coat of kinda sunfaded orange original paint on it.. It even had some original decals under there. The paint job is so dodgey im sure the decals and house paint is under the bright red/orange top layer...

So I built this with new wheels and parts I had in my garage. the wheels are Velocity with flat spokes and formula hubs. the cranks are from my mate Adam, Raleigh 70's era cranks (170mm) with 50 x 17 ring and cog, turbo seat and nothing fancy bars stem. I am rather scared of my forks. They are series 1 TCR (yes GI##T) and they have a one inch steerer tube. I reckon my bike looks sweet and by the looks of it a lot of others do too.




photos by Nokia E65

Some Advice to those fashonistas out there...

I recently spent big bucks on some name brand sunglasses. To look though them is pure joy. I can wear them in the brightest of place (outside for starters) and clearly see the other side of the street.

I firmly believe that if I buy an expensive set of glasses and they last me 5 to 8 years then I don't mind spending 20 to 400 dollars for them. If you break it down 400 divided by 8 is 50 bucks a year. I do not think I know of any polycarbonate lens that lasts longer than 10 seconds in your pocket without scratching or somehow getting damaged.

I use glass, its slightly heavier but I can rest assured that the lens should be more scratch proof and much nicer on the eye with better clarity and better visibiblity.

Testing the glasses.
to test them I put them on my head and try to jolt my head as if I am in the ride possition and change direction suddenly. Normally my new glasses need a heat treatment and then a bend of the arms and bridge.
I only use windproof frames and I find it helps a lot.

if you have had eye sergury or laser treatment they say to use polarized lenses. I have had neither but my new glasses come with them. Super clear and comfy on the eye. I can see the wind on the water and see how the cats claws strike the water. However, when riding diagonally behind a car ... a problem happens. You cant see in the car. What you do see is the darkening of the windows of the car and sometimes a checkerboard pattern or diamond pattern. its a multi coloured effect that stops you from looking in on the driver. Infact I would even say it is dangerous. you can not see the driver, you cant look into the wing mirrors to see the face of the driver and you sometimes cant see anything inside fro right next to the car.

I do not recommend POLARIZED LENSES fro bike riding

Also some other noticeable things are the screens for my Ipod and phone are un-viewable until I take off my glasses or slide them down my nose.

Computers monitors of the LCD type also suffer imiage degridation but is only medium on the way to rotten.

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Did you see that bike

Look, i like bikes. I like girls on bikes even better. It somehow  passes my mind that the concept of a girl on a bike is cool. I see the bike and what kinda bike it is. I then draw back and look if tey are on the bike correctly. Or perhaps its a style thing. What I dont see is a face or a person. I see a woman on a bike and it made me smile..

Ladies who ride for transit really float my boat. You see them from 30 meters away and they are  gone as they cross your path. Its like the finding of an elusive fish, that you saw on your last Dive.... it exists... now I saw this bike the other day in In Wayne's old shop in Bondi. OBEY...  wow...

Did you see that bike.
Seeeeel, metal badge, formula hubs and not crap cranks and rings and stuff.
black and gold.
very stealth looking frame, quick and twitchy look about it...

Did you see in my last post the black and gold bike?
here is a production brand other brand, and it looks great mate. I dont really know any more about it. well its a supercheap auto thing...

personally everything gold must be ummm how do you say... gonerized, gold is just so big gold axe around my necklace typa thing... Not Very Me. (no insult to any of my Greek fiends).

So if your a lady and you have to get a new bike. This one is basicly the perfect pocket shape for your jeans. Instant yogi appeal... and I'm sure I am not alone.

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The spring cycle was on. A community event that costs a bit of bucks. What kills me are the people who bring out their bikes the day before and event and bring it to the shop where I work and expect us to service the bike with only 4 hours left before closing. The thing is, They bring their friends too. who also have just as broken bikes.
"can I have a service please"
"yes, sure. When would you like to pick it up"
"ohh no rush.. in about 2 hours"

not fair stoopid

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I tell you.
The latest craze is giving me the shits.

I do ride a Fixie and I enjoy it. There are plenty of reasons not to ride my fixie and I sometimes ride other bikes too, as I have a range of a few bikes I can ride given the ride, weather and terrain.

I have a head turning fixie with a very hard gear ratio. I was always a spin up and push kinda guy, rearly did I sit but I would lean on my saddle. most of my weight was always on my pedals.

I am no longer young or cool or in fashion. I don't try to dress like anyone. I just get up and do my thing and get dressed.

2 days ago a message arrived in my IN BOX and it was from a journalist. They wanted info on "why are fixies so popular".

I really am not the best person to ask. I have a little spoke card that says FIXIES SUCK. I ride one too, and I enjoy it. Please don't forget my other bikes.

The journalist was asking the same basic questions as the previous Jurno asked. The jurno then said that they got a Trek Single Speed, for the article. As far as I know, and that is limited to what I see, I had the idea that Fixed gear bikes have their appeal because of the "basic-ness" of them, the cool in the ride and the feeling of nothing making a rattle sound and feeling attached. This all comes with the riders personalised position, set up and bits. After all there should not be to many bits to a fixie. A real fixie might treat a bike like trash, but you could call that artistic expression and style.

I just find the whole idea of fixed gear bikes on the general market interesting.

Bike messengers are possibly the hardest people you will meet in your urban sprawl, And possibly the hardest working versus how much they actually get for any one job they do.

They have been left unprotected by the law in relation to rights they have on the road (in my city anyway as it is in MOST others). HOWEVER, they are mimicked even to destruction. Everyone wants to look as cool as a Bike Courier. The free life outdoors.

Bike messengers ride fixies cause they want to. There is no reason why they cant. But I warn you budding noobies and fakengers. Riding a fixie is not for the feint of heart.

My neighbour who jumped on my bike made almost a whole 2 pedal strokes before he fell off. yep he tried to stop and paniced. Over the bars he was thrown. Quite funny but pending law suit is what I saw in mid air when everything just stopped. If I could just hit the rewind key and bend his knee. But to my amazment he neglected to let go so he landed on his back and not his face.

Fixies are for those who can do it. When asked by the jurno over the phone interview, what accessory would I not be without. I said a strong and small enough "D" lock. Small enough to put in my butt pocket. and no I dont mean up my arse thanks.

Bike Couriers have spoken to the media a lot of late and even when the journalist asks questions that seem harmless. It seems that the editors at one of our main publishers seem to always put a negative spin on the story when there is a bike courier involved. I can say they are burning their bridges.

2nd Bottom pic is of Simon from Perth doing a 315 meter skid ( 1017.0572999999999 feet)

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