Candy Cranks

I’ve been lazy and just finished sorting out my great memories of bike trip to Australia. I miss the weather back thereee, it is snowing here in Nagoya today, awwwww! so I would like to share some pics of my holidays to keep warm here like the sumer time…

Riding in Melbourne is great. It’s really flat and everything is close together so it is easy to ride around.

I went to see my friends there. I met these lovely messengers at CMWC Tokyo.

The funniest guys in Melbourne! Gotta see Brian & Lane if you are ever around there. They know how to throw a party. It is really great to have cool friends all over the world.

Melbourne was over 37℃, I was just about sit down in the shade of a tree… then 2 guys on bikes came up and said “Are you Brian’s friend?” I was like “Yeees…” Mmmm, I recognized him by his dread locks hair from CMWC tokyo. We didn’t know each other, he is from Dublin and Im from Nagoya but we start getting some drinks and became friends. It was just an accident that we met in Melbourne but it happens when you ride a bicycle!

For New Years Party…

Swimming in the living room!?

OMG these guys were so hilarious! They have a swimming pool in the living room, RAD!!!

Ausie BBQ

Exploring the city...

Lots of good coffee shops in Fitzroy

NUTS! tee & Love Wheels Nagoya Calendar. *Thank you*

Thanks a lot  to everyone who made my trip so much fun, to all the great people I met who helped me out, put me up and showed me an awesome time. All the things made me want to move into Australia more. Im definitely coming back soon. See ya!

Don't stop! GO TRAVEL THE WORLD!

My Bike Journey to Sydney → HERE!

More pics of Melburn → HERE!

Hello mate! I went to travel around Sydney & Melbourne with my best friend Nikon & NISHIKI for my holidays. It is summer time there, Gotta Go now!

My biggest reason to come out to Sydney was…

Meg and Tarn

“MEET THE MEG!”

Tarn, Rie and Meg

As you can expect through the Candy Cranks blog, Meg is one of the greatest and nicest people you ever meet! I met Meg at CMWC Tokyo and became great friends. I didn’t know anyone in Sydney but thanks Meg! Candy Cranks screwed up my courage to make a lot of new friends in Sydney and all over the globe!

Meg and her partner are so kind and took me a lot of cool places. They’ve got their own work space for bikes hidden the back stage of the Sydney Theater Company, looks soo sick! I was riding my bike on the stage as an actress in front of NO audience, hehe… (Rie in Sydney by Meg)

Cross Sydney Harbor Bridge by bike

on Sydney Harbor Bridge

Emily and Rie

★Emily's Candy Cranks★

Sydney Sunday Nite Crew

Group Riding

Emily & J just found this warehouse, so D O P E...

Sydney Sunday Nite Crew

Great to see messengers working in the city!

Ausie burger is HUGE!!

I like riding in the city to explore bikes and coffee. It is the best way to feel the local culture, I think★

I am a big fan of her blog btw…

Traveling with bicycle is really amazing… 

Bicycle leads me to meet great people. I like Japanese proverb;

一期一会(Ichigo-Ichie)： Treasure every encounter, for it will never recur.

I was so impressed that people in Australia are so nice and friendly. Also Wine, Beer and Coffee are absolutely my type of taste. I will definitely move in this year!

Thanks to Meg, Tarn, Emily, J, Sydney Sunday Crew and messengers. It was great to meet u all! Awesome time. Cheers Sydney!

More pics HERE!

Aimed at capturing the lifestyle of female riders in the testosterone-ridden world of mountain biking, the makers of a new film, Awesome Land: Women of Dirt, hope to shed light on what drives these women athletes.

“The inspiration for Women Of Dirt starts first with the women who make up an important part of our sport and yet get overlooked,” said film producer Mark Brent. “We felt that our lifestyle gets overlooked, and that the women in our sport get overlooked. By focusing on two elements that we don’t see in DVDs, we are telling a story that hasn’t been told.”

More preview videos at:

Via Bikemagazine, Photo Wil Smith

Meet Karin, she’s a totally rad downhill / freeride biker from Switzerland. She’s also Candy Cranks newest author. You can check out her blog/bikes and her favourite trails here. Welcome Karin!

It’s been a while but I finally made it back out to Ourimbah State Forest to hit the cross country track. It’s one of my favourite rides but a bit of a hike to get to at roughly 1.5 - 2 hours north of Sydney. They often hold races in the Forest and it’s also home to a gnarly downhill section that I mistook for the cross country track on my first trip there. I only made that mistake once.

Emily and I packed the van, loaded up on some tasty snacks and got rolling. It was superb day, lots of sunshine and not too hot, although you quickly warm up on the trails.  For some reason the start of the trail is now called ‘bong alley’. It’s not far until you come to a ‘caution’ sign and ‘the drop off’ which also has a chicken run if you’re not feeling too confident. There’s a little stream to pass through and a lot’s of ups and downs, before you come to the ‘jelly legs’ climb. Once you’ve made it to the top you get to my favourite section the ‘roller coaster’. It’s a lovely, fast, flowy downhill ride with a few rocky sections to keep you on your toes. Or off them in my case. I got a bit excited and stacked it but luckily everything came out in working order.

Once you get to the bottom again you head into the ‘grave yard’, this is the most beautiful section of the ride, it’s a sub tropical rainforest and a stark comparison to the gum trees and open scrub on the top sections of the ride. Overall the ride is not too technical, it has nice switchbacks, a couple of steep drops that get the heart fluttering and a few log piles but good for both beginners and the more experienced rider. I just love being in nature and surrounded by so many trees. It’s awesome.

More pics here.

Hello All- I just returned from a month of vacation and fun!  Here are a couple of biking highlights:

Lumberjack 100: The trip started off with the Lumberjack 100 mile mountain bike race in Michigan.  It was my first 100 miler-4 laps of 25 miles on buff single track.  I entered the single-speed category.  All was well until mile 32, when my egg beater pedal broke!  It couldn’t be repaired and of course I didn’t carry extra pedals, so at the next aid station I begged the race volunteers to duct tape my foot to the pedal so I could finish lap 2.  Hey, I traveled a long way for this race and there was no way it was going to end over a mechanical!!  Anyway, the duct tape held, although it SUCKED to have to mash the pedals on the steep climbs instead of just hopping off and walking them.  I had no choice as it isn’t exactly easy to walk with one foot attached to the bike!  Regardless, I managed to finish lap 2 and get some new pedals.  Finish time was 11 hours and 7 minutes.   DUCT TAPE ROCKS!

Biking and dogs update:  The new dog has fit seamlessly into our biking focused lives!  We put a lot of effort into discipline and it really paid off!  We never had to use any training tools other than voice command.  We did some trial runs in a campsite with my husband biking in front, the dog running after, and I was the sweeper doing voice commands to keep her in check.  She quickly understood that her job was to stay a safe distance behind the lead bike or a bit to the side regardless of speed and she was an ace!  Although we won’t ever do this on a road or on busy trails, the Colorado back country trails were perfect for this.  As far as animals, squirrels, etc, she had no time to chase anything if she hoped to keep up with us!  She was very focused on her job. 

Saw this weird little hairy unit hitchhiking on my wheel after a ride in Ourimbah State Forest. Looked cute as hell all fraggle like and furry, but I hear the hairs break off and can get into your skin like fiberglass causing all sorts of problems.