Recent News
24 Dec 2011 I found this bike behind my local coffee shop and, at first glance, though it was a Hotfoot. On closer inspection I realised I had found a distant cousin of the Hootie - a Giant made Orion. With no serial numbers on the bike to help, I cannot guess its age!
21 Nov 2011 Somehow I ended up with a single left-hand, black SX lever and have been trying to get a pair for it but it seems these are extremely rare. Today I bought a chrome DX lever and painted it to match the SX .. the calipers I bought off OzBMX for cheap as someone had powdered them black. They look great but they are not original .. and the hardware needs polishing!
20 Nov 2011 I have completed artwork for four different Hotfoot padsets. If you need a set, contact me and I'll either get you a set made or send you the artwork and you can get your own made!
19 Nov 2011 I have previously put up photos of some MX1000 calipers and Tech III and IV levers. I recently got a second set of calipers from Malaysia and have had them restored as well and now have two complete sets of brakes .. but no bike to put them on!
16 Nov 2011 Mountain bike fiend and workmate, Tom Watson, has returned from a riding tour of the Canadian ski resorts. Check out the images of the Whistler and Silverstar resorts..
08 Nov 2011 I have been toying with the idea of restoring my daily rider - a mid '90s Mongoose with an oversize frame - so have started collecting parts. Got both from OzBMX - the decals from John and the pads from the Wizard of Oz..
04 Nov 2011 I've had this frame sitting around for a while now - I sold the original Suntour groupset off to help finance the rebuild. This bike has NOS Shimano 600 brakes and levers and freshly restored Shimano 600 cranks thanks to my trusty polishing wheel!
03 Nov 2011 Got some lovely NOS Shimano PD-MX15 pedals today in the mail from Malaysia. These are really nice, however I have no idea what they might end up on..
18 Oct 2010 I recently returned from a ♫ Holiday in Cambodia ♫. It had been raining for weeks before we arrived and the Tonle Sap lake had flooded downtown Siem Reap and the surrounding countryside. This didn't seem to worry the Cambodian people - they still man their shops, tend their fields and ride their motorbikes / bikes to .. nowhere!
15 Oct 2011 I have been talking a lot about this bike over the last couple of months - boring you with the arrival of parts, etc. Well its finally finished and IMHO it looks great. There is something really satisfying about building a really cheap but quality bike!
25 Sep 2011 I have a couple of bikes with Xav's copy Araya rims. These rims are great value for money considering that the real deal costs a couple of hundred for average condition rims - maybe even $250 to $300 for NOS ones. However, I already have these same blue rims on my Kuwahara so I decided to polish off the annodising on the rim's side walls and polish them up .. IMHO they came up nice!
17 Sep 2011 I never really understood the fascination with Dia Compe MX1000 calipers .. my favourite brakes have always been Shimano Tourneys mated with Shimano DX levers. Sure they were standard equipment on a lot of bikes BITD and they are pretty indestructible but their price nowadays is ridiculous .. Anyhow I have bought a set and had Benny restore them and I must say they look great, I just need a bike to put them on ..
