Duncy H

So a few of you may be aware of this one particular chap. On Gnarrative.com I try and document the unsung and rad folk's stories of the biking world. Adam has an uncanny knack for delving into anything mechanical and coming out the other end with an amazing level of expertise and knowledge. One of those delves just so happened to lead to the creation of Tartybikes, the go to shop for trials parts and knowledge and a yardstick by which all others should be measured. Grab a brew, this one is a long and fascinating read... http://Gnarrative.com

What teething problems did you hear of? The new generation of rockshox squishy bits is very different to previous. It approaches it from a different angle, it’s a firmer platform/damper and does not have that flattering off the top suppleness of old but in contrast it stands up in the mid portion of the travel so much better rather than wallowing through it and there is no desire to start throwing volume spacers in there. It feels as though the front end is pushed into the ground and bites more as a result. As an experiment I did a ride setting the fork up as you would like the previous gen and it felt poor and wanted to brake traction a lot easier. So far very impressed by my ultimates but have seen non ultimates pass through our place and been less than impressed by the finishing. I’m still yet to really totally figure it out as my rides have mostly been limited to prework laps on tamer trails whilst we have snow here at higher elevations. Also keen to pull it apart soon and see what’s going on inside and get my head round it.

Built myself a new vessel last week. Been piecing this puzzle together for best part of six months and the frame finally showed up. Medium Bronson 23, relatively low unsprung weight for alloy wheels, new gen rockshox squishy bits which honestly feels like a different approach to how to do suspension but in a good way, hayes dominion A4s, 165mm cranks to try out the hype. Sitting at 14kgs I think which I’m stoked on for it’s intentions. So far looks promising for achieving some things I set out to do with this build from initial ride impressions but we’re currently buried in snow, Santa is bringing warmth and rain though. Shoutout to my old bike too, had my Airdrop Edit for three years and I still found moments where I would stop and was just dam impressed by how it rode. Will genuinely be sad to see it go but hopefully passing it onto a friend and giving it the works before I do.

Might be worth dropping by a decent bike shop and ask if they have spares or have recently changed a bb out. Dub bbs are common now and they commonly wear out as the bearings seem so small. Feels like we change them every other day at my place. For a permanent upgrade the expensive wheels manufacturing bbs have much better larger replaceable bearings, although I guess a hope bb would be a similar more available U.K. option.

Thanks Mark, still around sharing your wisdom and saving the day! Think I’ll just go for a new front brake then rather than faffing around with this one, is it absolutely worth going with modern trials specific pads for a front disc? Have no personal experience with them. What’s the story with trials parts these days? A quick glance for me looks like stuff is not as readily available? I guess because production of trials parts took a backseat with the ol’ C-19. Excited to play on this thing, feels super nostalgic throwing a leg over it.

It’s been a while since I’ve been posting on trials forum about an actual trials bike, maybe ten years since come to think of it. Anyhow my boss gave a me a lil summer bonus in the form of an Echo 26 trials bike in amazing condition. (Maybe a pure, someone correct me on that, it’s one of their full builds that I remember being awesome value.) Front brake needs attention, the pads are contaminated, brake feels good and doesn’t appear to be severely leaking. Is It worth investing time and money in these brakes or are they no good? If it’s worth fixing what are the go too pads? Rear brake has some white looking pads, I assume the originals from the build, they worth using or upgrade them? Can the echo brakes be water bled? Likely will give the rear rim a grind. Also is it worth putting a brake booster on these frames? Seems to be a lil bit of flex in there. Rear tire I don’t recognise the name of, might see if we have a maxxis downhill tire at work to replace it. Anything else good to know or to change on these things? Excited to have a play on one of these again, didn’t really expect to own one again anytime soon but here I am. There should be some amazing terrain over here in British Columbia to play on.

Wish you all the best Adam, always had huge respect for your wealth of knowledge, technical expertise and how you ran tartybikes. You were always the benchmark which I would compare to when ordering absolutely anything online even years and years after not being involved in the sport directly. Huge props for making the move too, I imagine it can’t have been an easy thing to do after all these years. When/if you do fully move on I hope I can support you in whatever it is you do next.

Late update but went to look at the car above and it was mint. Barely a mark on it, had a substantial amount of work/service work done to pass inspection too. It’s been modded a bunch the further I dig deeper, which I feel on the fence about, on one hand I don’t have to do those mods myself, on the other hand it’s not an unmolested example and don’t have the fun of doing them myself. I’ve found it has a cts down pipe which makes me think it’s mapped as they would throw a CEL without a map, h@r springs, maybe a blow off valve spacer due to it being audible (hard to see). It’s a lot of fun, very quick, yet can put it in ‘Normal’ mode and it is quite docile and subdued. It’s also a chunk better on fuel than expected which is good right now. Future plans: -Install tow ‘hitch’ -Kuat Sherpa bike rack -Potentially lift it back to standard ride height or half low depending on what springs can be found.

Been a while T-F. My LR discovery is in bits on my drive away at the moment. Had the oil light flickering when the oil was real hot, spent a weekend pulling the oil pump out which was pretty involved to find it was cracked in two places. Put it all back together and the problem persists. Tore the sump off and found I’ve got a walked cam bearing. Been sat there since, it’s fixable but I’m sat on the fence about if I actually want to tackle it or move it on. Would be so good to have it as a 4x4 beast ready for out there adventures in BC but it’s been a frustrating ownership. Before all this and before fuel prices went crazy I was considering a little more eco hatchback or similar anyway. Out in Canada there isn’t a whole lot that excites me that either doesn’t cost the earth or isn’t North American. I’ve kept circling back to a Golf GTi mk7 as one of the best options for price, newness, eco enough, spiceyness, resale value etc. Anyone have experiences with the platform to share? Going to look at one next weekend. It’s been lowered, sign of me age that I think I’d raise it up, it would have to cope with my north shore rack and the occasional dirt road.

All everyone really wanted was for clean racing and the stewards to oversee it correctly. As exciting and dramatic as the ending was I agree the stewards made a shitshow of the race yet again. I personally believe the first lap overtake should have stood and Lewis should have yielded the position (with his pace he’d have got him back anyway). I was astounded that not even yellow flags were waved when Giovinazzi parked up on the outside of the banked hairpin, it took far too long (might have been as much as two laps) for a vsc to be called. With the final incident they’ve quite clearly not followed their own rules and dug a huge hole for themselves. Can’t wait to see how they respond to the protest, absolute lose lose situation, I can’t imagine them overturning it though. The FIA need a huge reshuffle and to clearly define the rules of racing as it’s been so inconsistent this year. Credit to Lewis he can hold his head up high he did everything he could have and his and his fathers response following the race was classy after what must have been an incredibly bitter pill to swallow. Incredibly entertaining season, Max and Lewis have been on another level compared to everyone else. How does everyone think that compares to other years? Surely has to be up there.

Built this camp kitchen earlier this summer for the Disco. Been awesome to have everything in there always ready to go at a moments notice. Where the sink is flips up and the left side is just a big storage door. The bed platform is two pieces so I can put the front piece over the boxes and retain all the seats in the car. I did plan on wrapping it in some cheap carpet type stuff and making a custom foam folding mattress for it but been using/enjoying it too much to do that.

I was pretty adamant on buying something new for my dad in order to get a warranty, also adamant in choosing something with a Bosch motor as they appeared to be the most reliable and no hassle if there was any warranty issues at the time. E bikes definitely have more issues than a regular bike, not helped by the fact they’re usually ridden more, higher stresses, extra weight and so much going on in a small package.

I’m of the opinion they’re great but there’s still a lot of space for development and improvement. I’ve first hand seen people use them as tools to aid their recovery after severe injuries or health problems. Without them it would have been much harder for them to step onto a bike again or their recovery would have been longer. My Dad is a larger chap and hasn’t been athletic for a number of years, for his 60th birthday I bought him a Cube hardtail e bike and it gave him a new lease of life and freedom. We were able to go on rides together it’s been brilliant for him. For me personally I’m interested to see how these lighter weight full sus bikes develop such as the SL specialised range. The big attention grabbing power numbers aren’t really necessary for most riders and they can still be pedalled reasonably without assist as well as having respectable weights. I definitely don’t need an e bike though, it would be a nice luxury though in future, would sure make some photo shoots easier. Having previously worked in bike shops though they need more refinement. It will come with time but it’s still a ways off.

It all became a bit of a Karen situation, the two team principals arguing their corners which is understandable but was kinda pathetic to watch? Then Helmut Marcos comments after, what a helmet. Pretty sure I heard him trying to say albons poor performances were down to fernando alonso or something recently… I’d have been able to understand if it was deemed either a racing incident or a penalty as I could see both sides of the story. We want to see racing though and I’m a bit concerned about overly penalising the racing out of the sport. On the other hand I do believe there needs to be a better solution found for the scenario whereby someone is at fault for an accident but manages to continue and the other innocent driver is taken out of the race and will score no points. While I was on the fence here about who was at fault if they do indeed decide to penalise someone it has served no purpose in this situation as Hamilton still managed to go on and win!?

A little over a month ago I bought potentially the most unreliable car I’ve ever owned and I love it. It’s incredibly good as a vehicle to access adventure here in BC. Threw a north shore bike rack on the back, found some rocking horse shit oem roof bars and building a camping kitchen/drawers/bed platform this week. I’ve done a bunch of work to it so far, some just because and some necessary. Put a lower temp thermostat on to keep her cool, exhaust manifold gaskets, new shocks, pulled the sagging headliner and painted it, fixed an xyz switch transmission problem, coolant hose, power steering hoses, fixed the sunroof leaks and standard service items. I’m planning on giving the brakes a refresh and have a new tie rod/drag link to go on to tighten up the front end, might eventually put some slightly larger tires on but trying to get it to be in good standard working order.