My wife is telling me that she is getting acne just thinking about the spending if ever I decide to have a toy car. She might need a really effective acne treatment for every acne she will get from worrying. I think she is funny. Well, seriously, I’m really thinking of buying a toy car but I have no plans in giving my wife a headache, must worst acne. So I’m actually selling my bike frame and decided to shift to a hard tail frame so I can still save some money from the earnings of this bike frame, if ever it’ll be sold. I hope soon…

I’m parting with my dream frame to have my dream toy car. Thank God my wife understands.

It’s Summer and it’s the best way to go mountain biking but with my busy schedule since January, I haven’t been going to any trailing. Add that my wife booked us to so many gatherings this weekend. We are practically booked the whole month but nice as she is, she left Feb 27 as my bike day. She told me I better get some exercise or I will be needing the best diet pill for men if I don’t. I must admit, I don’t get enough time to burn my fats and I take in so much calories that I’m getting those flabs here and there. Thank God, I’m still not overweight but I know I can get to that if I don’t take actions so this week will be the last week of not going to trailing then by next week, I have to schedule a trailing trip, maybe in La Mesa Ecotrail by hook or by crook.

I will be biking again today. I filed for leave at work since I will be fetching my brother from the airport, he will be here from Dubai. My wife will stop teasing me that I need Fastin real bad. I gained weight from all the yummy foods this Holiday season. I will get back into mountain biking again religiously. I got my new helmet yesterday by the way which makes me more excited to go back.

Spyder Trax

So where will I lose the excess fats today? I will be biking in Aguinaldo while our Rav 4 gets fixed in the shop. Very relax Friday. Nice!

I fell in love with mountain biking the first time I tried it. It is a great way to get good exercise plus you get to be in contact with nature. You see trees, you smell fresh air and you get dirty without worrying. I feel lucky that we have enough extra money to sustain my hobby. You see if you want to be in this hobby, you have to have enough money to buy a good quality mountain bike with all the good quality parts that can withstand the tough terrains. I’m not a seasonal biker, I bike when I can so some of the parts get so worn out and from time to time it needs replacement like the tires or the breaks. So I need to look for ways to save money.

Great thing, I discovered Coupon Trunk where I can get coupon codes to use when I need to shop. It will be very easy for me to spend my bike money and still save a little from getting great deals. You bet I will use those Jenson USA coupon codes soon. I need to replace some of the bike parts I need since I’ve been biking on mud lately, it has been raining for weeks now and water and mud are not a good combo when it regards to the wear and tear of my bike.

New frame. New white rims. I love my new bike, I haven’t tried it often as I can because of the rains but I’m glad that it turned out to be as what I want it to be. The black/red theme that I decided to have turned out nice. I will blog about my upgrades soon, right now let me share to you the photo…

My bike is again running. I bought new rims and a few parts and sold my old ones. I have to post the picture soon. I rode again today, I missed trailing though. I just rode on the road with my brother in law riding his precious bike. HIHI. I hate rain, it’s been raining day in and day out with no warning here in Manila. It’s so sunny and the next minute, it’ll be pouring. Very unpredictable weather. I hope to put my Marin to action soon, at Lamesa Ecopark, I hope!

I sold my old reliable and weight weenie suntour axon fork because I changed my frame from NRS to Marin.  I needed a higher travel fork than my axon, and so this Marzocchi Fork came in.  This is an old school Marzocchi Exr Pro 120mm travel fork.  It has a dual air stanchion with both positive air preload and an aluminum steerer tube which makes it lighter than other exr pros.  Black is the original color of this fork. Since my handle bar and stem are white, I needed to change the color of this exr pro to white to match my color theme, Black/White. I made a DIY with this fork and repainted it to white.

I stripped the paint off with a paint remover called Strip Sol which I bought at around $2 in a hardware store near our house.  I used a paint brush for the paint remover then I had to sand the remaining paints not removed by the strip sol.

After sanding off, I rinsed the fork and let it dry under the sun.  Then I started applying a primer paint so that the base paint will stick to the metal. Had to put around 3 coats of primer.

I applied the base coat (white color) thoroughly with I think 6-7 coats.
I wet sanded some paint irregularities and remove some impurities. Then
applied another coat for it. last but not the least is the Clear coat to protect
the white paint from getting scratch easily.  The finish product of my DIY
fork makeover…

I designed the two decals using Photoshop and downloaded the Marz logo on the web… My new
Marzocchi Exr Pro 120.

Next time I will be very excited not just because of biking but because I have Las Vegas Show Tickets on my hand signaling that indeed I’m already visiting the US for the first time and will be having fun in Vegas!

I upgraded my frame to Marin Quad XC and I scouted a lot of forks on Ebay and is actually watching a second hand Fox Talas like this…

I really want to win this auction and hopefully my wife’s friend gets the bid. My budget is limited and with this kind of FOXZ fork, even if it’s second hand, with it’s price, I’m getting a really great deal. Wish us luck!

My wife is so excited with our US trip next year and as early as today she is already browsing some Vegas vacations that we can possibly have in Las Vegas since we are planning to stay for quite some time there aside from doing a side trip in LA plus not to mention our very long stay in Illinois since her Aunt is based there. Hopefully everything will push through according to our plan plus of course we have to meet our savings to have a comfortable trip, if you know what I mean?!

Anyway, let’s go to biking. I’m in search of a new fork today, I bought this frame, Marin Quad XC from my BIL who will be upgrading to a full carbon frame…

but my old fork does not match the frame since the travel is only 100 mm and I need 120 mm. So I’m actually dreaming of this fork for my new Marin frame…

It’s a Fox F-Series 120 mm fork. We’ll see how it’ll work, I mean it’s my birthday next month! hahaha…

DOWNHILL (from Wikipedia)

Downhill biking (DH) is a gravity-assisted time trial mountain biking event. Riders race against the clock, usually starting at intervals of 30 seconds (seeded from slowest to fastest), on courses which typically take two to five minutes to complete. Riders are timed with equipment similar to that used in Downhill skiing. The placing is determined by the fastest times to complete the course; races are often won by margins of under a second. As the name of this discipline implies, downhill races are held on steep, downhill terrain with no extended climbing sections, resulting in high speed descents with extended air time off jumps and other obstacles. The 2008 Downhill World Champion is Gee Atherton from UK^[1]. The 2008 Women’s Downhill World Champion is Rachel Atherton (Gee’s Sister).

I know my wife will react to this post. She doesn’t like me getting too curious about this. She feels it’s too extreme and dangerous for a family man like me. I’m still unsure whether to be a downhill biker or not but this kind of biking interests me.

A different high maybe. Blood rush. Nature and man power combined. I have no clue but I really want to try it and I can see my wife frowning right now. hahaha.