nCr_Online

nCr_Online

Well a shameless plug... it's in serious need of attention, but oh well... it will get it if there's more activity.

New Direction for my blog

So it's been a while since i last updated because well, not much has happened with my cycling... and I think I will change the direction of my blog. it will still include my cycling endeavours and trips. I will now use it as my blog for everything!

It will still include my rides and developments with my bike. Since my last post, I've managed to pick up some old Hayes Mags with G1 calipers... I canibalised one of my Hayes Nine's G2 calipers and got a set of Goodridge hoses to fit! It works superb... well as superb as Hayes goes. I have to admit, these brakes are pretty crud! But oh well.. no money means no new parts.

In other cycling news... our very own Stuart O'Grady won the 2007 Paris Roubaix!!!
http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/hell-of-a-victory/2007/04/16/1176696758767.html
(haha, i'm too lazy to html it up... maybe another time).

I've been so busy... including... travelling Sydney, and Tasmania, cos I've met a special girl.. yep! and that's another story.

So back to the point of this post. I will hopefully be updating this much more... just on thoughts, reviews, more rides, pics etc... so yeah. As I am, I may be lazy, but I never give up.

-_-;;; update...

Gah!!! can you believe it?! About two weeks ago I broke my rear brake lever... the most frustrating thing is how and where it happened. (will post pic of lever)
Like I go downhilling, dj'ing, street hucking, and my bike is fine. But at home, it fell over... it was leaning against the couch and fell towards our wall, and the lever landed on the pedal of the road bike. It pulled the push rod right out with the retaining washer and split the pivot on the lever completely open. Luckily the sirclip is still in there so no brake fluid came out.

I've taken my rear brake off for the time being, and it's made me realise how much I feathered it and how much faster I could really go! But I still want a rear brake for off road I think. I got Matt's mag levers, so I'm waiting for a response from DirtWorks about what parts i will need. I think it's just the olive, but I want to know if the old mags will work with the newer calipres... taking so long.

In other news... I buggered my left ankle again. Yeah, and not due to riding. I was out with Tom, and was on a food high... LOL, food is the best! and it was raining, and I thought it would be a good idea to slide one of those green benches outside Myer on Lonsdale street... I nearly made it... at least nothing broken. I can sorta move it... so yeah another 6-8 weeks. I gotta stop injuring my ankles. I was really getting better at riding, been really hammering corners and smoothing out on the fun box. Oh wells... at least I have an excuse not to go on the wednesday night ride.

You Yangs... again

HAHA, was gonna go Narbethon...but yeah ended up going to You Yangs again. Which was great anyway. Got to sleep in till 11:30, the weather was awesome. It was clear for most of the day, just right, but there wasn't much of a breeze. Just Adrian and I this time, Tom went and played hockey, Ricardo's shoulder's still buggered front last week, and Matt said he just wanted some time off.

We parked at the bottom this time, and as always the first walk up was a killer. But it only got better as the day progressed. No photos of the riding, I was too lazy to get the camera out... I did want to tape my phone camera to the front of my bike, but we didn't have any tape... NEXT TIME!

Managed to get... I think it was 5 runs in. First one was slower, semi-sessioned... and the remainder were just complete runs. But yeah, sweet runs down, the roll off into the step down was sweet this time. No crashes today! I clipped a tree on the last run, but that was it. The runs were pretty smooth and everything just flowed well today. Bit unfit due to uni. No injuries or damaged parts to bicycle... so all's good! I was worried about my left ankle, especially on the walks, but overall it was fine. I didn't reinjure it, but I had to stab at the ground at the left turn just after the roll-off and step down. It's swollen, but not more than normal so :thumbsup:

My fork needs some work, but they felt better as the day progressed. I really need to change the oil in them.

Overall, an excellent day spent! What better way to spend your Sunday off... all that's left to do now is find somewhere for dinner.

Down Time

Things have been a bit buggered up lately. It seems I tore something open, can't walk very well, but can ride fine... managed to play some soccer, but mobility was limited.

Was gonna go DH'ing on ANZAC day, but people piked and Adrian was too ill. Ended up just zoning out. Not much riding unfortunately, mostly just around uni or just outside on the street. Tom and I discovered some fun could be had with a soccer ball and our bikes =D

Unfortunately no photos... 6 weeks for ankle, so... another 4? so I guess after exams, but I've no doubt I'll be back well before then. Otherwise I'm gonna go insane... need... more... endorphines... drug me up...

YouYangs DH'ing- Easter Monday '06

Nothing like a ride!
ok, first where is it? You Yangs National Park, has specific mountain biking (both XC and DH) tracks. It's located West of Melbourne, about a 65km drive from North Melbourne. You take Old Geelong Road and get off at Little River offramp, just after Werribee, and head North. The service station there was surprisingly cheap! Cost of items were same as cost of items in the City. Advice: by a bag of $2 mixed lollies, cos you'll need them for the walk back up. I ate 2 GU's only!!!

There were jus three of us today, Adrian, Tom, and I. Adrian's mate, Troy, pulled out. And here we are setting up:
In the foreground is Tom, in the background is Adrian and his STP Zero, and that grey lot is my bike and gear.

And me kitted up... check out the reflection in my helmet.

On to the riding...

There are like 3+ tracks, we rode the race track, and another XC track downhill once. I don't have any pics of the XC track, but there's a easy wall/rock ride at the start and continues very quickly, no big drops just lots of low boulders to speed-roll over. Terrain was "boudlery" and surrounded by very loose silt/sand/pebbles, my front wheel kept washing out, although I wasn't the only one. Damn buggered by the end of it... felt like my chest was gonna explode, but damn fun!

Ok, onto the DH section. Was very rocky, a little like Buller, but a little less dusty. The run goes for about 3-4minutes without sessioning, and a 10-15minute walk back up. The first run was rough as guts, luckily we had Adrian with over a years experience to show us the lines! The walk up was agonising and reminded me of why I ride, and not walk. My calves were burning and the muscle pump meant they were as stiff as wood... fortunately it only got better. Subsequent runs were smooth and without any hassle, except the second last one where I had to bail and landed hard on my right heel. But 3 neurofens made the pain go away :thumbsup: (gotta love painkillers!). All up we did about 4/5 (i have bad memory) complete runs, and we did the hard/most technical sections again and again... cos we like pain!

Unfortunately I couldn't take as many photos as I'd like... well we were just too lazy, so found two sections for photo shoots.
so onto the photos:

first up...








Two angles of the drop. On the run we rolls down these, but out of sheer amusement we decided to huck this on camera. BTW, all pics and videos in today's blog is from my phone!

and now the actions shots!

First up Adrian:




and now me:




And now the best bit... got videos but here are the pics. Now, we had to roll off the big boulder behind me in the picture first, but it just happens the 4 shot burst mode only got me doing the step down that links in after it. But it turned out sweet. I did it about 8 or 9 times, and stacked about 4 times >_<






I can't seem to get the videos to work... but here's the link to my photobucket...
http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/iUDEX_nCr/
It'll be under the You Yangs Easter Monday folder.

They don't work for everyone though.

and finally... the most graphic of my injuries. Please note, that the full size version is rather...detailed! My phone camera has a macro mode (I mean WTF?!).


Hope my ankle/heel heals up before my next ride which will hopefully be Thursday!!!

until next time~ smile lots, eat chocolate, and ride hard!

My New ride!

Ok, first my old bike... A 2005 Norco Rampage, seriously tweaked. Had new Azonic hotseat saddle, after demolishing the old Berserkr saddle, new LX chain and cassette. oh I had just put some new High Rollers on the rear, converted to homemade tubeless, new RH rocket shifter which was dialled perfectly in with my low normal XTR rear derailleur... and it was stolen! gah! but so here a pic for old times sake... before the final additions, oh and I had a pair of Diabolous cranks on order which I had to cancel... why steal?!!!
The "Chocolate Fondue" At state library, thanks to my best friend Nathan for his pro photos... unfortunately I've edited them a little and lost some resolution.

and here's the new beast, a 2005 Norco Torrent. Yet to be named.
taken with a real camera, cheers to my housemate Tom.

and then I got a new phone... the pics are fairly decent...
Oh, yeah you can see my old XC bike too. Resolution isn't that good, looks better small.

So far, I've only changed the saddle and added the rocket shifter...
Upclose shot of the rocket shifter... so positive...
ah, yeah, planning to go YouYangs Sunday and next Thursday, hopefully we'll get some nice pictures!

Downhilling on Australia Day

Backdate: 26th January 2006

Australia Day 2006... went Downhilling at Mt Buller with the crew from work, however since my bike was stolen, Jas (Monee Ponds Store Manager) lent me his Lopes Signature =D. Such a sweet ride, 130mm fox vanillas up front, mavic crossmax/crossland wheelset (can't remember exactly, but tubeless XC wheelset, LOL), deore hydros. It had been really hot the past few weeks, with temperatures at 30+ degrees and near extreme to extreme fire warnings in the air. On the way up we passed charred pastures on one side of the road, and lush green pastures on teh other side... on, and I had to duke of hazard style into Adrian's car (Camberwell, and my, store manager). Uh, dun have picture of the crew, cos I didn't have a camera(phone). So all the pics are from Jas's camera. So without anymore delays...


The Road train. Lead by Adrian, myself, Hobbit, Matt (Monee Ass Manager), ah... Hobbit's brother, and Matt (our, Camby, mechanic).

There were two tracks, A-Bomb which was a fast downhill track... not that much fun with a hardtail to be honest, as it was rather rocky so keeping my feet on the pedals caused some strife... and serious loss of speed. Whilst the International track was awesome, some technical sections, lots of fun bits, and we sessioned it to begin with... I regret not having any photos of the ski jump, but I will get them next year! or later this year!

Me riding one of the earlier sections on international.

Me, just before I cased it, too used to hucking in the city, forget I'm dropping to effective tranny, not flat >_<... hehe, Buller rules are no full face=no ride! always wear your helmet!

but yeah, had great fun! for like... $38 (i can't remember anymore) you get unlimited runs all day and lift pass... first time on a ski lift. It's like *rattle rattle, slam, skid, rattle rattle* all the way down, and then on the ski lift it's complete silence. Can't wait to take my own kit down!

And so it begins...

Hihi,

so like, this blog thing seems so complicated... I mean more complicated than it needs to be... but as long as i can attach photos, then it's ok.

So i'll begin posting my adventures soon.