putting her on a pedestal

I decided to give the bike an early Christmas present. This neat prop which is named "Stand By Me".

You can start giggling now.

what's better than a post-ride Cafe Liegois?

A Cafe Liegois(mocha ice cream, on top of cold espresso) with an extra shot of espresso!


Nothing like this on a cool windy day to help you digest a post-ride meal of unaju.



For the uninitiated, that's broiled eel in sauce, on top of Japanese rice. Yummy. Hey I deserved it. I went up the hills of Sta. Rosa twice!

project AVA update

Project Ava, our loaner bike, is almost done. After stripping off the original livery, I took it to the powdercoater for some baby blue loving. Actually, the color is called Sea Green. Heck, it looks blue to me!

All we need to do now is slap on our inventory of used (but perfectly working) parts, and this bike is rolling. Its dropped top tube should give enough standover for the ladies (and make it more manueverable for urban riding and jumps too). Should be done by the New Year!

P.S. Photo taken with my new Nokia N70 cameraphone :)

keraaaasssh!!!

Ok, I'll cut to the chase. Sunday's ride was a day of firsts. It was the first time I took Cherrybomber aka Jay back up the long downhill we usually hit at the end of our usual route (this effectively doubles our mileage< since we go back the way we came), it was also the inaugural ride of my titanium bottom bracket (hey, it's Christmas, and the Tingle needs some...attention). Finally, it was my first crash on the SS. Incidentally, it was Jay's first crash too. Don't laugh now, but we managed to crash into each other. While riding though the barrio, I glided right to avoid a local, and next thing I know, Jay was saying "on yer right...on yer..." then our handlebars got tangled up, and we went down in a heap of flesh and metal...

I think the whole town went outside to find out what the commotion was about. Jay and I dusted ourselves and the bikes off, and after a quick check, continued on...all the while laughing. It could have been worse, guess we were lucky. The rest of the ride continued without incident, and topped off by a Chicken Katsu lunch. Yum.

ridin' with Santa

What a busy Friday night. Committed to join up with the Firefly Brigade for their monthly Critical Mass ride. Didn't make it to the assembly point at All Terra, so managed to catch up with them in Greenhills. Not quite the numbers I was expecting (I think we were a dozen), it was a fun group just the same. The ride was even led by Santa Claus! Our route took us to the party district of Morato, then to Kamias for snacks and a viewing of the film We Are Traffic, which documents the history of CM rides. I was able to witness one such ride in SF, back in 1994. It is something else seeing hundreds, nay, thousands of bicycles occupying city streets. Big props and mucho respect to the Fireflies for spearheading bicycling advocacy over here. The country needs more people like them. There was even a raffle, and I snagged myself a Firefly Brigade shirt. Neat!

Midway to the film I started to receive SMS's from my co-workers, asking where I am and that they are all at our office Christmas party...all the way back in Greenhills! So I bid my hosts and fellow riders goodbye, and pedal the Tingle to the party. It was swinging by the time I click-clacked in with my riding shoes...BBQ's and ice cold beer never tasted so good. Ended up alternating beer, wine and bottled water till 2:30 am, where I decided to head home...

Kicking home was pretty interesting. Especially the start, where I thought I had lost all sense of balance! The night/morning was cool...which helped me sober up. The best bit? No hangover the next morning! Hehehe

for sale

Well it's been a year since, but it's time to move on. The Salsa is officially for sale (frame and fork only, mind you). Now why would I be selling this sexy piece of Scandium art?

Could it be this:

The titanium frame. The Mary bar. The simplicity of being on one gear. With no suspension. I must be crazy.

Hell Yeah!