demo man
11-09-2006, 06:54 PM
I was going to do S. - but then i realised we'd already done him - so found his cheap imitation and chose him instead.
Lucky number 12, ladies, gentleman, and mountain bike enthusiasts, is Tu Plang!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/Mugger_UnTrueDisc0/ipswich-008.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a184/demo_man/P1010052.jpg
1. Who are you (name, bikes you ride, age, job)
Ben Hall - Balfa BB7, Trek 1400 (roadie) and soon a Brooklyn Machine Works Park Bike ?. I’m 18, full time student and currently work in a bike shop doing repairs and sales. Over Christmas holidays I’ll be doing vacation work for various energy companies, should be interesting.
2. When and why did you become a member of Farkin?
You’ll all be familiar with the common google results when you put in anything mtb related, usually MTBR is right up there and a few British forums which seem to be filled with rubbish. Well there was something in particular that I was looking for and Farkin.net just kept coming up, and being a forum (I hadn’t used many before) I just kept brushing it off. One day I bit the bullet and joined and have been talking crap on here ever since.
3. The inspiration for your user name was what exactly?
Back in the bad old days of primary and high school I was a big fan of Regurgitator, those in the know will be aware that tu plang is the name of one of their albums, others just assume I’m Asian.
4. Why are you still a member?
This is a question I get asked a lot (by the voice inside my head.) I’m really not sure how I’ve spent so much of the last 3 years of my life on this place, don’t get me wrong it’s great but boy… I live here! I think its interesting just to see the place evolve, both the format, the group as a whole and especially the older members that I’m more familiar with. I think more than anything it’s incredibly easy to sound smart and witty on the Internet!
5. What was your favourite ride of all time?
I don’t recall a specific ride but during block exams in high school when it was all getting too much, me and a mate would get the trials bikes out, head down to kangaroo point and muck around for hours on end. Everything just seemed so relaxed back then.
6. 3 trails you must ride before you die:
A-line is definitely one, I’d probably have to do it after the other two or I mightn’t get a chance at them! I like the idea of Moab, it’s just a completely different landscape to what we’re all used to over here. For a third, I’m not entirely sure but Europe is definitely somewhere I want to go, so riding a bike while in Europe sounds pretty good to me, Les Gets maybe?
7. What is something about you that few people know?
I’M NOT ASIAN! Heh, while it seems that’s something few of you know let me think of something else that’s a little less obvious, if not only from my point of view. I wear lycra AND ride a road bike!
8. What is the heaviest thing in your house?
“Physics for Scientists and Engineers Extended Version – Tipler and Tosca” - That thing is seriously huge! Other than that, probably Dad’s Tasmanian Blackwood desk from his office way back when, moving it is atleast a 3 man job.
10. How did you come to own that thing?
Well the book – the bookshop for some outrageous price. The desk – its not actually mine but I believe Dad salvaged it from the company’s building in the City when they relocated.
11. What is the earliest you have woken yourself up to go for a ride?
With our wide array of local downhill, you never have to wake up before 5am to arrive by 8am – it’s wonderful.[/sarcasm]
12. The latest you’ve been up riding?
Some of the aforementioned rides with my school mate would go looong into the night, I was pretty terrible at trials so things took time.
13. Group rides, 2/3 people rides, or solo rides?
Definitely like 2-4 people on a ride. I draw confidence from knowing that only a select group of close friends will see me fail.
14. What’s the riding culture in your neck of the woods like?
It changes lot, like everywhere. We went from good quality urban night rides, to huge groups of prepubescent kids riding from one 7-11 to the next. Downhill seems to be ever-growing… however my attendance at races is somewhat non-existent…refer to question 12. I think at the moment we have a pretty good community, the younger guys are keeping in line and I haven’t heard of too many pensioners being terrorised in the CBD by kids popping mono’s.
15. What does your other half think of mountain bikes?
HA…HAHAHahaha. Oh you’re too funny. My other half… At the moment the closest thing I have to an Other half is my bike. For what its worth, she thinks its great!
16. What does your boss think of mountain bikes?
Funnily enough he is a huge fan.
17. What is on the desk you log onto Farkin from?
Aah Dear! A pile of Cds, honourable mentions go to 10,000 Days and Definition (Resin Dogs), a baby blue silk tie (Races duties), 2/3 of a ralph lauren blue gift pack, a diesel watch, derailleur hanger off the bmw, a multitool, a phone, a digicam, miscellaneous items that together form a 8” pile. OOOW OOW aaand a Chris King SS hub which could tell a story or two and of course my faithful Powermac.
18. Mac or PC?
That doesn’t even deserve an answer :P
19. Ipod or Iriver?
Ipod, but given the chance I could go either way.
20. Last time you got approached by the police?
The last time I was approached by the police coincided exactly with the one and only time I have ridden without a helmet. The worst part of it all was that it was going through West End where every second hippy and bum rides around without a helmet on, and somehow I get caught the one time I don’t wear one.[/rant]
21. Last time you yelled at someone?
My mate at uni, Thursday afternoon playing pool. Sometimes he couldn’t hit a ball straight if it were on rails, it cost us the game and the table.
22. Last time someone yelled at you?
On my way home the other day I dropped past work to collect some pay. A couple of tandems had been dropped in for servicing and my boss asked me to help him test ride them to determine what would need attention. Needless to say the passing traffic found the sight of two guys on a tandem pretty funny and we got a few comment thrust at us. I wouldn’t have minded but my saddle and bar were loose as anything and I was having enough trouble!
23. What is the most intimidatingly expensive bike you have worked on?
I was recently handed a Pinarello Dogma FP. 6+k frame with campag record. The customer had wanted to swap the cranks and somewhere along the line had damaged the first few threads in his BB, now before I go on, the BB is not a campag BB, it’s specific to the Pinarello and is worth $500. Taking to it with a tap was pretty scary.
24. What is the best (worst) home mechanic stuff-up you’ve had to repair?
I think the best was one Saturday a gentleman brought in his Gi*** road bike and explained his headset wasn’t running smooth. You can usually smell something isn’t quite right when they are very apprehensive about giving you details (they know they have stuffed up,), that wasn’t the only thing that could be smelt. So anyway he tells me he had taken the headset apart but didn’t have grease at home to sufficiently reinstall it all and he really wanted to ride. A bit of interrogation revealed that in a desperate attempt to make the bike ridable for the Saturday morning coffee shop adventure he has substituted grease with butter and various other kitchen products he could find. Inspection revealed that not only did he replace grease with butter; he removed the bearing, which he explained had exploded. The set up, as it arrived took headset bind to a whole new level.
9. Who would you like to see become a member of Farkin?
I Think there’s always room for a few more females. Failing that I think input from industry folk (namely distributors) is great. In my opinion you can discover a lot about a person and their business ethic by the way the conduct themselves in an environment like farkin.
*9 is meant to be after 10, although only the number not the question, so whatever. i'm sure you can cope!
Lucky number 12, ladies, gentleman, and mountain bike enthusiasts, is Tu Plang!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/Mugger_UnTrueDisc0/ipswich-008.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a184/demo_man/P1010052.jpg
1. Who are you (name, bikes you ride, age, job)
Ben Hall - Balfa BB7, Trek 1400 (roadie) and soon a Brooklyn Machine Works Park Bike ?. I’m 18, full time student and currently work in a bike shop doing repairs and sales. Over Christmas holidays I’ll be doing vacation work for various energy companies, should be interesting.
2. When and why did you become a member of Farkin?
You’ll all be familiar with the common google results when you put in anything mtb related, usually MTBR is right up there and a few British forums which seem to be filled with rubbish. Well there was something in particular that I was looking for and Farkin.net just kept coming up, and being a forum (I hadn’t used many before) I just kept brushing it off. One day I bit the bullet and joined and have been talking crap on here ever since.
3. The inspiration for your user name was what exactly?
Back in the bad old days of primary and high school I was a big fan of Regurgitator, those in the know will be aware that tu plang is the name of one of their albums, others just assume I’m Asian.
4. Why are you still a member?
This is a question I get asked a lot (by the voice inside my head.) I’m really not sure how I’ve spent so much of the last 3 years of my life on this place, don’t get me wrong it’s great but boy… I live here! I think its interesting just to see the place evolve, both the format, the group as a whole and especially the older members that I’m more familiar with. I think more than anything it’s incredibly easy to sound smart and witty on the Internet!
5. What was your favourite ride of all time?
I don’t recall a specific ride but during block exams in high school when it was all getting too much, me and a mate would get the trials bikes out, head down to kangaroo point and muck around for hours on end. Everything just seemed so relaxed back then.
6. 3 trails you must ride before you die:
A-line is definitely one, I’d probably have to do it after the other two or I mightn’t get a chance at them! I like the idea of Moab, it’s just a completely different landscape to what we’re all used to over here. For a third, I’m not entirely sure but Europe is definitely somewhere I want to go, so riding a bike while in Europe sounds pretty good to me, Les Gets maybe?
7. What is something about you that few people know?
I’M NOT ASIAN! Heh, while it seems that’s something few of you know let me think of something else that’s a little less obvious, if not only from my point of view. I wear lycra AND ride a road bike!
8. What is the heaviest thing in your house?
“Physics for Scientists and Engineers Extended Version – Tipler and Tosca” - That thing is seriously huge! Other than that, probably Dad’s Tasmanian Blackwood desk from his office way back when, moving it is atleast a 3 man job.
10. How did you come to own that thing?
Well the book – the bookshop for some outrageous price. The desk – its not actually mine but I believe Dad salvaged it from the company’s building in the City when they relocated.
11. What is the earliest you have woken yourself up to go for a ride?
With our wide array of local downhill, you never have to wake up before 5am to arrive by 8am – it’s wonderful.[/sarcasm]
12. The latest you’ve been up riding?
Some of the aforementioned rides with my school mate would go looong into the night, I was pretty terrible at trials so things took time.
13. Group rides, 2/3 people rides, or solo rides?
Definitely like 2-4 people on a ride. I draw confidence from knowing that only a select group of close friends will see me fail.
14. What’s the riding culture in your neck of the woods like?
It changes lot, like everywhere. We went from good quality urban night rides, to huge groups of prepubescent kids riding from one 7-11 to the next. Downhill seems to be ever-growing… however my attendance at races is somewhat non-existent…refer to question 12. I think at the moment we have a pretty good community, the younger guys are keeping in line and I haven’t heard of too many pensioners being terrorised in the CBD by kids popping mono’s.
15. What does your other half think of mountain bikes?
HA…HAHAHahaha. Oh you’re too funny. My other half… At the moment the closest thing I have to an Other half is my bike. For what its worth, she thinks its great!
16. What does your boss think of mountain bikes?
Funnily enough he is a huge fan.
17. What is on the desk you log onto Farkin from?
Aah Dear! A pile of Cds, honourable mentions go to 10,000 Days and Definition (Resin Dogs), a baby blue silk tie (Races duties), 2/3 of a ralph lauren blue gift pack, a diesel watch, derailleur hanger off the bmw, a multitool, a phone, a digicam, miscellaneous items that together form a 8” pile. OOOW OOW aaand a Chris King SS hub which could tell a story or two and of course my faithful Powermac.
18. Mac or PC?
That doesn’t even deserve an answer :P
19. Ipod or Iriver?
Ipod, but given the chance I could go either way.
20. Last time you got approached by the police?
The last time I was approached by the police coincided exactly with the one and only time I have ridden without a helmet. The worst part of it all was that it was going through West End where every second hippy and bum rides around without a helmet on, and somehow I get caught the one time I don’t wear one.[/rant]
21. Last time you yelled at someone?
My mate at uni, Thursday afternoon playing pool. Sometimes he couldn’t hit a ball straight if it were on rails, it cost us the game and the table.
22. Last time someone yelled at you?
On my way home the other day I dropped past work to collect some pay. A couple of tandems had been dropped in for servicing and my boss asked me to help him test ride them to determine what would need attention. Needless to say the passing traffic found the sight of two guys on a tandem pretty funny and we got a few comment thrust at us. I wouldn’t have minded but my saddle and bar were loose as anything and I was having enough trouble!
23. What is the most intimidatingly expensive bike you have worked on?
I was recently handed a Pinarello Dogma FP. 6+k frame with campag record. The customer had wanted to swap the cranks and somewhere along the line had damaged the first few threads in his BB, now before I go on, the BB is not a campag BB, it’s specific to the Pinarello and is worth $500. Taking to it with a tap was pretty scary.
24. What is the best (worst) home mechanic stuff-up you’ve had to repair?
I think the best was one Saturday a gentleman brought in his Gi*** road bike and explained his headset wasn’t running smooth. You can usually smell something isn’t quite right when they are very apprehensive about giving you details (they know they have stuffed up,), that wasn’t the only thing that could be smelt. So anyway he tells me he had taken the headset apart but didn’t have grease at home to sufficiently reinstall it all and he really wanted to ride. A bit of interrogation revealed that in a desperate attempt to make the bike ridable for the Saturday morning coffee shop adventure he has substituted grease with butter and various other kitchen products he could find. Inspection revealed that not only did he replace grease with butter; he removed the bearing, which he explained had exploded. The set up, as it arrived took headset bind to a whole new level.
9. Who would you like to see become a member of Farkin?
I Think there’s always room for a few more females. Failing that I think input from industry folk (namely distributors) is great. In my opinion you can discover a lot about a person and their business ethic by the way the conduct themselves in an environment like farkin.
*9 is meant to be after 10, although only the number not the question, so whatever. i'm sure you can cope!