Candy Cranks

Photo by Keith Gallagher

Nashville’s Centennial Park has a full-scale replica of the Parthenon with an art museum and a recreation of the fourty-two foot Athena statue found in the original one. The park is one of my favorite places to practice tricks in Nashville, and you’re always sure to run into friends riding there. If you’re in town, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

My Hold Fast Straps arrived in the mail last week and I am in love with them. I left work early to stop by two by four on South Street in Philadelphia to pick up some Animal BMX pedals. The guys at the shop were gracious enough to let me borrow their pedal wrench to swap out my old cages. When I say borrow I mean … they did all of the work for me. Thanks two by four!

I can’t see myself going back to cages and straps any time soon. They really did their research and testing and made a great product. I highly recommend these. The best part is I can wear any shoes with them. Shoes that have a slim sole (flats) and sneakers with a little thicker sole are fine because I can adjust the straps in a matter of seconds. One note: make sure you tighten the fastening buckles down.

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.

I was up in NYC this weekend visiting some friends, checking out King Kog goldsprints (more on this later), and my friends bike shop in Park Slope. On Saturday we rode out to Coney Island from Brooklyn covering around 30 miles round trip and only getting caught in one downpour on the way.

On Sunday we were all over the place. From Brooklyn, to the LES, then to Chinatown, then back over the Manhattan bridge. We stopped by my friends Pete and Jessica’s new bike shop RIDE BROOKLYN. They have a really wide selection and a great repair shop. Pete’s such an awesome guy that he handed me a teeshirt and some water bottles on the way out! It poured rain while we were eating cheap dumplings but as soon as we were finished the sun came out again.

It was quite an adventure riding around in a new city. For the most part the drivers are pretty respectful of cyclists and bike lanes, but the roads were pretty terrible. Thanks for a great weekend NYC!

There was Bike Carnival ‘09 in Tokyo yesterday. I haven’t visited Keirin venue before, this was the first time for me. I saw Keirin track race, point race, scratch race, BMX performance, track stand, foot down and more!

http://www.joa.jp/carnival/top.html

This year’s lookin like its gonna be epic! Bike Rocks kicks of 09’s Bicycle Film Festival June 17th followed by Joyride June 18th. If you’re around, don’t miss it!