aliao

I used to be really terrible at switching bikes, even within the same "style" of bike. I would hop on a friend's bike for 2 minutes and it would actually ruin the rest of the ride on my own bike because of how much it threw me off. Even if I added a 5mm spacer or angled my handlebars slightly different on my own bike it would take me a good few hours to acclimate to it. Nowadays, I don't have this issue anymore. I can ride other people's bikes half decently, and I was even switching between mod/stock every other ride for a while. I strongly believe that the big reason it's not a problem anymore is because I take the time now to feel and then think about how a certain bike is responding to my inputs during the first few minutes that I hop on it. Whereas before, I would just hop on a bike and assume it rode the same as my own and try to let my muscle memory power through it even though it obviously didn't apply to a different setup. p.s. You know those days where you hop on your own bike, but it somehow feels foreign to you? I've found that this also really helps when I'm having an off day where my own bike doesn't feel quite right either. p.p.s. With regards to your original question, since street/comp bikes are so different, I don't think that the wheel size will make a difference in helping you be more used to one or the other. I would just go with whichever seems more exciting for you to ride. I think a 20" bike would be great to help you dial in your control (although for a bigger rider these can sometimes feel too small), while a 26" bike will let you use the wheelbase and wheel size to keep doing some bigger moves.

lol I've told you this before Sam, but in my opinion you're not even close to being old enough to complain about age yet. From watching your recent videos, you've made a lot of progress on your street bike, but I think you maybe have a bad habit of throwing yourself 200% at moves when you haven't quite gotten the fundamentals down and this is making learning things more "risky" than they need to be. We haven't ridden together in ages, but if we did I would probably be that annoying guy that tells you to slow down and take things step by step first.

Yeah I just meant the 2018 version. The rounded edges are much better than the old blocky ones.

I've ridden both materials. The weight of carbon bikes is awesome, but they kind of have a "wooden" feel to them. When I went back to a Jealousy from my first gen K1, it was a pleasant surprise to me how lively the aluminum felt (which is funny, because that's what people would say about steel vs aluminum back in the day). Carbon frames can last a long time when done right (Maestro for example), or almost certainly break within the year (Clean K1 lol). I don't think the XOX has been around long enough for anyone to really know how long it will last. I wouldn't trust any of the manufacturer's posted geometry measurements (for example, all of the Jealousy frames were different over the years). You need to get someone that actually owns the bike to do the measurements for you. Even though the Jealousy is shorter and has a lower BB, it also (presumably) has a steeper head angle than the XOX. That's going to make a pretty big difference in how the bike will feel at the end of the day. Regarding AS30, I had problems with the cranks creaking back in like 2016 when they first came out, I don't have issues anymore with the newer stuff. I'm not sure if the tolerances have been tightened since then or what, but I'm also now pretty meticulous when I put it together (retaining compound on the cups + lots of grease on the cranks themselves). My favorite cranks are the newer generation Crewkerz ones (the spindle on these definitely fit much tighter on the bearings, also the 2022 ones are ALL BLACK since you hate red). I inherently don't like the Clean cranks because they are 3 piece, but I've also seen more than a couple two piece AS30 cranks break when ridden by left foot forward riders.

Glad to hear that the fix helped! And thanks for getting the visual instructions together for canardweb. If you want new IGUS bushings you can probably email trialtech directly and they might be able to send you some. I will say though that the smaller amount of play that you have now looks normal to me even for a fresh lever out of the box. One more thing that you might want to check is whether the previous owner of the lever lost the black rubber o-ring that sits between the lever blade and the lever body in the pivot. This o-ring is really easy to lose whenever you take the lever blade completely out of the lever body and is often forgotten.

This is pretty typical. Over time, the set screws on the end of the lever that tighten the blade down to the lever pivot loosen up a bit and slide down the lever pivot. You can see in your video that the lever blade is moving, but the lever pivot is not. If you want to get rid of the play, all you have to do is loosen the set screw slightly, push the pivot bolt down from the top so it bottoms out on the lever body and then tighten up the set screw again. Be careful not to strip out the set screw head or threads when you're loosing and tightening it. If it's giving you a hard time when trying to loosen it, use a bit of heat from a hairdryer to soften up the loctite and use a fresh allen key so you don't strip out the bolt head.

This just kept getting better and better as it progressed! That last bail has to be one of your better ones, hope it didn't hurt too much haha!

@aener 2:33? If only someone would create a site that had all the best trials videos from the “golden era” For me, it would have to be something from TRA’s echo/koxx eras. He was pretty much doing the biggest TGS at the time, and the determination/effort he put in really showed in his riding. His videos were a big inspiration for me in my early riding days to push myself harder and fight through the struggle to get better / go bigger.

Legend!

Crap, I wish I saw this sooner! We are literally hosting the first competition in multiple years tomorrow on the mainland with apparently 20+ riders (4 from Vancouver Island). If you’re on Facebook, check out the group “University of bike trials” https://www.facebook.com/groups/301922779893286

I remember seeing this one from Fontenoy's account a while back: https://www.instagram.com/p/8bA-dfpWlY

I’ve been riding 26” again for around 8 months now so this info may be a bit old, but the Vee Flow Snap is the best 24” rear pogo tire that I’ve tried so far (the other tires were the Maxxis 2.5 DHF and Schwalbe Hans Dampf). Pros: - thick sidewalls, the least squirmy 24 tire ive tried - really soft slow rebound compound - good puncture resistance (i only had one puncture on a sharp rock when i was riding it) Cons: - The top profile is very square and mostly made of knobs. It felt kind of weird for me until I cut all the side knobs off to make it round again. - The tire doesnt have much bounce due to its smaller carcass Overall, if the tire had a bigger carcass to liven it up a bit, the tire would be perfect for me. It’s bigger than the maxxis dhf 2.5, but smaller than the schwalbe hans dampf (which would be around my preferred size). p.s. Norco bikes (one of the larger distributors here) carries them in Canada, so it’s actually pretty easy to get a hold of here. If you guys are curious to try one at tarty, just let me know

A Scorpio is likely not as much as you think... I’d encourage you to reach out to them and get a quote!

You can get a custom Scorpio like mine and get whatever you want

they will! send them an email =D

i have the carbon through axle disc 26” and its just as nice as the hs33 one. the only thing i dont like is how you need an adaptor to run a 180mm rotor (it has a 160mm disc mount). the vertical version is your standard 9mm vertical dropout for bolt on hubs. i imagine it looks the same as the hs33 version they made a while back https://trial-world.com/en/26-forks/1304-crewkerz-waw-wpp-26-carbon-fork.html 9mm front through axles were pretty common on mtb a while ago, you could (and probably still can) get adaptors for hubs like hope and i9.

Just gonna leave this here

really shitty to hear about the injury! the street bike must have known you were hanging it up the build looks good!

05/06 zoo python that’s been sprayed is my guess

loved the video! hope we get to ride again soon im curious as to what the new bike is as i saw your rim brake post the other day

If you're looking for an arcade-like geo with a slightly shorter reach, I've been thinking of selling my ti dean lately

Glad to see you're back at it!! Some seriously mint clips in this one

Would be cool if someone made these out of steel, but frames really need to start just doing post mount considering you can’t really get ISO calipers anymore

I'm planning to build up an old dual disc ozonys curve 24 soon. I have a 26" crewkerz that I love, but I've been wanting to try out a smaller more playful pure trials bike that I can bunnyhop and throw around a bit more easily. I would have jumped on one of the 2019 GU frames, but I can't get over how a 1075 wheelbase just seems sort of wrong for this wheel size. The Jitsie hybrid 24" looks interesting, but I want a higher bb, and there's just so many things that I really wish they would update about their designs (standard headtube, ISIS bb, 116mm dropouts, 160mm disc mounts? LOL). For rear tires, the Vee Flow Snap 24" seems interesting to me (it comes in a super low duro too): https://www.veetireco.com/listings/junior-specialty-flow-snap/

Awesome to see a rider taking the plunge to try one out! Let us know how it goes. Edit: Do you have any intention of opening it and taking out the grease? It looks like I9 uses grease now instead of oil like they used to on the Torch hubs. A friend of mine has an I9 Torch Classic and his skipped every now and then until he cleaned it out. "The pawl mechanism of our Hydra, Torch Road, and 101 hubs has a distinctive sound. It has the sound of nothing more than the highest-quality sprung pawl system. Most riders report that the noise is inaudible over the wind at higher speeds. It is loud enough to be heard, yet not so loud as to detract from the experience you are trying to enjoy. Our stock FH lubricant is Dumond Tech Pro-X Freehub Grease. For riders who enjoy a louder hub experience, simply wipe down your drive ring, apply Dumond Tech FH oil and you will notice an audible difference."