Giving the bike some love.

The other day while out riding to do the last bunch of photos, I noticed a few things on my bike that needed addressing. After you ride the same bike for so long you can feel when something is not quite right, like a faint vibration through the pedals or perhaps a bit of stiffness somewhere. Some people think I'm either psychic or just mental when I pick these things, but it just comes with a lot of riding and building a lot of bikes.

So, I decided to do a strip and rebuild to find these little issues. Sure enough, I had a headset bearing that was getting a little rough, a pair of crank bearings that will need replacing soon, and a stiff link in the chain. I also serviced my hubs, painted them and laced them to a different set of rims. I re-painted the frame in satin black as well. So here it is:

After almost 3 years of solid abuse, this frame is still going very strong. When I designed it, I intended for it to last 18 months to 2 years, and chose to have it built from Supertherm tubing. FBM did a great job of turning the dream into a reality. I am now expecting this frame to exceed the 5 year mark, which is almost unheard of within the BMX industry. Cheers to the only bicycle so far that can handle being put through hell and back!

Riding photos #4: Nick Barnier

Finally got the chance to head out riding again yesterday, unfortunately I'm now totally wrecked. It's the middle of summer here and the sun was an absolute killer yesterday. Australia sucks in summer. It may as well be the surface of Mercury. Even with sunscreen I started to burn within 10 minutes of being at the skatepark so I tried to become a shade dweller. Well, that still failed anyway and I'm now sunburned senseless and a bit dehydrated too.

While the riding was pretty limited, we still got the job done. Nick wanted to learn to do truckdrivers yesterday, which is a 360 barspin. It's definitely not a simple trick, there is a lot involved in a short space of time and requires fast thinking and heavy concentration. I can't even barspin to save my own life so needless to say I was stoked when he landed it. First stop of the day was Thornlands skatepark.

360 Barspin, trick of the day.

Decent Barspin.

Next stop after Thornlands skatepark was an undercover street spot to try and get a break from the sun. It's just a spot with some square benches but the metal edging makes them ideal for grinding without causing damage. For some reason, the council never put grind stoppers on these and never complain when we ride them, I think partly due to the fact that people respect the spot and take their rubbish with them and never cause trouble while there. I got a couple of shots from this bench, just trying different angles, and this 180 to fakie from the bench seemed to work best.

Last stop of the day was Cleveland skatepark. The quarter pipes here are quite wide so it's easy to pick a spot to sit and let people ride around you while you shoot photos. Though, it was still freakin' hot so it was just a mellow session of basic stuff. The result is this photo of Nick locked in to real nice footjam. I like taking photos of footjams for some reason.

That pretty much ended our day, the heat and sunburn was just way too much to keep going. Thanks to Nick Barnier for shreddin' like a boss even in the ridiculous heat. Possibly some more riding photos next week, depending on the weather and work.