Well, as you may or may not know, I have been receiving e-mails from ImmobilienScout24 daily as I am no longer happy living in our current apartment.  That is by no means to say that our apartment sucks, it’s just there are so many fucking things that annoy me about the place. Here, let me make a list for you:

• No dishwasher – I am 34 years old and am sick of washing fucking dishes and don’t see why I should, if I can afford a dishwasher why don’t I get one I hear you say…..well, there is no freaking room in our kitchen, that’s why.
• Shitty kitchen – let’s get it straight, our kitchen sucks……balls! There is not enough bench-space, the oven sucks ass, basically we would have to invest at least  a couple of grand to get something better and I DO NOT see the logic in investing in anyone else’s apartment.
• No balcony – this is a sucky point, not always do I want to go outside to be outside, a balcony is the only way this can be accomplished and we do not have one.
• We live on the Hochparterre, so it is pretty freaking dark in Winter. This was planned because of the noise I can make when making music (not that I’ve been doing any of that for a while). If there is no-one under you to complain about the bass you are generally in a much better position. The only option to this is to have a multi-level apartment as we do in Sydney.
• Basic apartment reminds me of Uni housing, not really modern at all, nothing has been done properly, even the relatively brand-new flooring squeaks really badly because it was so botched! It’s a nice enough apartment really but I want a few more creature comforts I guess and I want the place to look a bit nicer.

Anyway, I received an e-mail on Friday of this totally wicked apartment where there would be a viewing on Saturday only, at 10.00am and I was totally g’d up to go – I specifically DID NOT go out on Friday night so I would be all nice and fresh for the morning. This apartment was just around the corner, was 100 square metres, had a roof-top terrace and a balcony, was split over two levels, had a beautiful kitchen with plenty of bench space AND a dishwasher – basically – this place was the shizzle.

Since I have been looking at apartments for such a long time in Berlin (I originally found the apartment we’re in at the moment as well) I really have a good idea on what’s out there and this one was most definitely the wickedest I’ve ever seen in Friedrichshain.

Anyway, the plan was to wake up early on Saturday and go over there for a look – but did I wake up? NO – No, that’s right, either my alarms didn’t go off or I slept straight through them and missed the fucking appointment. Can you fucking believe my frustration? I am soooooo upset with myself, this was one of the apartments you generally look at and wonder how the hell the tenants were so lucky to have scored it……………and I didn’t even go into the race trying to score it.

So that’s it…..stuck in this fucker for a while longer, if it was up to Ina we wouldn’t move, because as usual, nothing really bothers her; – not the kitchen, nor the benchspace, nor the lack of balcony etc. I guess it annoys me more because I know for a fact that we have none of these worries when living in Sydney, we have exactly the things in Sydney that I have mentioned in this post that I want to have in Berlin and that makes it suck balls even more. I want to have the same freaking things here too…..I want my life to be nicer and easier and if I can’t make it that way then I start to wonder what the fuck I am working for……..cause I’d rather just quit while I’m ahead rather than stay stuck in the mud!!

I would have added some pictures of the place which would have made me feel more sick – but of course they are now unavailable – why? – because some lucky bastard has already rented the place!

Well, no sooner do I say I’m having problems finding a chainring/spider combo than I watch a little video on mtbr and what do you know, they’re interviewing a guy who makes custom chainrings…….perfect! The place is called Homebrewed Components and he makes all manner of chainrings amongst other things. So, I’m pretty sure if I get something like this one to the right but in black with Shimano cut-outs I should be right as rain. Let’s wait and see shall we??

Wow, seems to be a little quiet around these parts…..I guess that is my fault really since the last couple of months I’ve been a little busy and haven’t added much here.

Well anyway, the major reason I’ve been busy is because the World Cup is on……and it has been quite an exciting one to date (a little depressing for quite a few of the favourites but I won’t mention any names like Brazil or Argentina). Australia were unfortunately out pretty early, as were New Zealand so my back-up team by default (Germany) were there to pick up my crushed dreams. And pick them up they did – ok, I said I wouldn’t mention any favourites but how can I not mention the crushing defeat against Argentina dealt out by Germany 4:0. Yes, you read that correctly….so, if my math works ok – which I’m pretty sure it does, that means Australia plays at least as well as Argentina, who also suffered at the hands of our favourite little Deutschland. Great stuff I say, everyone here is happy, and when they are – I am!!

So, I thought this was quite fitting, a bit of AC DC with the highlights from the Germany vs. Argentina game, check it out:

Apart from that what has been happening? Hmmmm, not a lot, got some new forks for the bmx and finally put some new cranks on that I had lying around for ages. All in all they lightened the bike a little and it weighs in at around 9kg in total…..I guess I should join Weight Weenies now – that is if they had a BMX section Anyway, the forks are Answer Scythe Carbon Pro 24 and the cranks are FSA Carbon Pro and look like this:

All in all I’m pretty happy with it, although I still would prefer my chain to be a little more in-line with the rear cog. Oh well, I still have some ideas as to how I can manage that so will keep you informed on how I go. What I would really like is to ditch the spider and chainwheel combo and just have a chainwheel that integrates the spider. I have seen a picture of someone’s bike where they had manually cut a Profile Imperial to fit the cranks…..that would be perfect….obviously a lot of work and quite difficult. I believe the FSAs use a similar pattern to the Shimano XTR M952. Can’t find a picture at the moment, but if I do I will add it.

Got a pump track near me now too which is quite wicked. Problem is, it is too freaking hot to ride hard at the moment……that is no complaint by the way. I love it that there is finally daily sun and warmth, just a pity that Germany doesn’t really believe in air-conditioning because it means everywhere is hot…..even work.

So, that’s the news for the moment, as I said, I’ll keep you up to date if I do end up changing the chainwheel, I think it is quite a worthy project though.

So, the time has come when Jordan starts to think about the purchase of a new pushy…..not that my BMX has anything wrong with it, I think it is just more a progression thing, which I don’t find anything wrong with. And yes, we do have a few bikes at home that could fit this category, but I want to custom build something that perfectly suits my riding style. I was on a 20″ dirt jumper/street BMX for quite some time and am now on a 24″ Track BMX and want to go to a 26″ Dirt Jumper/Street MTB. In all honesty it’s kinda to do with my back, sometimes when I’m pulling air on the 24″ I’m also pulling muscles in my back which take ages to heal and hurt really bad and before you say it, no, I am NOT overweight!

So anyway, I have been scouring the net for quite some time now on my quest to build the perfect 26″ Dirt Jumper/Street MTB which is no easy task. So much to choose from which equals so many mistakes to be made (and mistakes can be expensive). Basically I initially wanted an aluminium frame but I started swaying towards 4130 chromoly just because it seems to be the thing a lot of framebuilders are using at the moment. It is also a lot tougher but nearly always heavier, regardless of treatment or butting, as well as the fact that it can rust and might need more looking after. These were the two frames that stuck out, great geometry and a great finish, the Spank Tweet Tweet and the Superco Charger (both have great names too):

I can get the Spank for around €370.00 locally whereas I can only buy the Superco in the States (because it is handbuilt there) and it would set me back around €570.00 and of course I would need to import it to Germany, which if you have read any of my previous posts regarding this option – it is NOT the thing to do. Customs would bend me over! Anyway, I could always just fly in for the day on stand-by and pick it up – but what a hassle – and although these frames are both great, they do not have the possibility of adding a rear derraileur to them at any point in time. They are both strictly single speed bikes. That is cool and all but I wonder about that possibility, I wonder if I will ever want to have gears…..it sounds like a good option to have. Take a look at this example of a Spank Tweet Tweet though, really nice looking build:

So, after a lot of thinking and calculations, I worked out that any build I made with either frame would still be well over 10kg which I am really trying to avoid. I want something as close to 10kg as possible, it just makes it so much easier to throw the thing around. This brought me to a new option which hadn’t crossed my mind until then. A Santa Cruz Jackal; below is a built up version:

This frame has quite a few advantages:

• An aluminium frame
• Exchangeable drop-outs to suit geared or single-speed
• Quite light for a Dirt Jumper/Street frame

The only disadvantage is that it is the most expensive of the lot! It comes in at around €650.00, but at least I can get it in Europe. So that is where I’m at for the moment. I’ve pretty much decided on building that frame up and have started working out which parts I’m going to build it up with. This is my current list including weights of each item:

• Frame: Santa Cruz (2.18kg)
• Forks: Fox Float RST 831 (1.69kg)
• Headset: Chris King (120g)
• Hubs: Chris King (front 15mm axle 207g) (Rear 10mm axle 336g)
• Rims: Spank Tweet Tweet (570g each)
• Spokes: Mawri Titanium (blue maybe?) (228g for 64 spokes)
• Brakes: Hope Race X2 (284g Front, 284g rear floating)
• Handlebars: Spank Tweet Tweet (450g mid-rise)
• Stem: Spank Tweet Tweet (170g)
• Pedals: Reset Racing Pedal1 titanium (286g)

Sub-Total = 7.375kg

Missing:

• Grips (around 100g)
• Cranks + Bottom Bracket (around 800g)
• Chainwheel (around 60g)
• Chain (Maybe KMC XL around 250g)
• Seatpost (Maybe SDG Micro Carbon 200g)
• Derailleur (Maybe Shimano Dura-Ace 10sp RD-7900 (166g)
• Casette (Maybe Dura-Ace CS-7900 10spd cassette 163g)
• Seatpost Clamp (Maybe Spank Tweet Tweet 25g)
• Seat (Maybe SDG Skylite 245g)
• Tires (Maybe Conti Race King 2.2 Limited 450g each)

Sub-Total = 2.909kg

Total Weight= 10.284kg

I can live with that weight, keep in mind also that this is the fully built up weight with a 10 speed cassette, if I had it as a “normal” single speed bike – which given the frames flexibility I could easily do – that would mean losing at least 250g from that total weight as stated. Anyway, I guess this will be a bit of fun, probably won’t be finished in time for this Summer but should be a good project for Winter. As we all know, Winter is a bit of a bitch in these parts and having fun projects to do which involve staying indoors are the best to pass the horrible time