Bikes matt caffrey

Hi all,

It’s official now. This is officially my first post one the new website I have constructed to document the many wonderful thing that grace my life.

Let’s start with my bikes. I have 3 bikes at the moment, still not the right amount. Someone once said to me the perfect number of bikes is the number you have plus one. They were correct and ill tell you why later.

Now let’s start with the first bike:-

This bike has been with me for a long time now (2003). I have taken this hard tail through hell and back. It is a Gitane Rocks T-1 a hard tail which now has pretty flimsy RST CapaLt Shocks with front Cable Acuated Disc and rear U Rim breaks.

This old steed was once a 24 speed Shimano Deore setup and is now a free wheeling SS machine. I spent around 150 dollars AUD converting it (IE Chain and Cog Set). For this setup I have a 32×16. This is suitable for cross Country Mountain biking yet I am still to do it. It currently has hybrid slick 1.25″ tyres on it and I use it for the odd commute down to the pizza shop. I do enjoy riding this bicycle as you do not have to focus on gear changing instead your main focus is keeping a high cadence.

All in all this bike has served me well and do not wish to depart with it my whole life. I guess there is a certain sentimental attachment with the bike which started my obsession with the two wheeled muscle pumping exercise people call cycling.

My second bike:-

This bike is a Giant Trance X2(2008).

This dual fox racing suspension bike has provided me with lots of enjoyment especially with friends. There is nothing like bursting along a single track at 30km/hour hopping off 1/2 metre ledges with no problem at all.

The 5″(120cm) travel front and rear on this bike really comes into its own on fast flowy decent. One decent of around 170m vertical over 1km< is on a track which I frequent regularly at manly dam which is on the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia. This decent sees you reach speeds of 40+km/hour without a problem.

This is what brings me into my next item which I want to talk about. The stock Deore hydraulic brakes are quite powerful and reliable. I have only ever had to replace pads at around a $20 cost. These puppies can change your inertial forward momentum to what I call and A over T moment.

To make this short and sweet. I have been using this bike for almost over a year now and it hasn’t failed at all. I have been able to keep with some quite fast riders with no problems whether it be on downhill flowy or single tracks, it’s a great bike for the price and looks awesome. Soon I will have photos of all my bikes on here.

My 3rd and not last bike is my Malvern Star 400 dollar road bike:-

This may not be much of a bike but for an all alloy 7 speed machine I have been able to make the Sydney to gong ride in less then 3 hours which is a 96km event. I am also going to be taking this on a little expedition my friends and their families are going to be attending which is called the GAT (Gentlemen’s Autumn Tour) which is a 3 day ride from Sydney to Canberra which is a little over 300km worth of riding. On this bike I have so far done over 1500km without replacing anything other then tyres. I think this is quite a good run for the money.

Which brings me to my next thing. Remember the +1. I have a feeling before the GAT I will be buying a Cell road bike which comes with 10spd 105 gear and carbon fork for less then 1400 dollars AU. This is a steal in my eyes, so once Kevin Rudd (Australia’s Priminister) hands me $950 from his economic stimulus package. I will be all over that awesome deal quicker then you can say global recession.

Well that’s enough from me tonight.

Matt.

P.S. For the extra fun of cheap PlayStation 3 – read how to stay frugal on the video gaming hobby.