aener

Hey woooow. That was mint Agreed - cool ride. Too hot though. Edit: BLINK182?! Christ. I'd never've guessed at that. I quite like it

Obviously there's price differences - but each can be more expensive than the other if you get the best there is. E.g. Vees can be the cheapest, but you could also set up Avid Ultimate arms and lever with expensive cables, pads and CNC backings, and adaptors if you have a 4bolt frame... They can get VERY expensive. Maguras: Quite often an on-off brake, very little modulation. Great for TGS/natural riding, but anything that wants feathering brakes, like manuals etc. will often suffer from a break like this. If you bleed them with water, they can freeze in the winter, which can pop hoses - but mix the water with a bit of anti-freeze and it won't. Good: Very powerful - will stop you dead. Very standardised, so if it brakes mid-ride, someone there might have spair bits. Once set up right - it'll not change untill the pads wear down - so you can put faith in it working. Have a TPA, so if you want a small adjustment, you don't need to move it about. Quick to bed in to a rim. Bad: Hoses can pop, crossovers break, need bleeding every so often, can be irritating to set up. Vees: Don't listen to anyone who says Vees aren't as good as hydraulics. A well set up vee can happily outperform a HS33 - the trouble lies in most people not being able to set them up correctly. Usually on streety bikes. Still got good bite and hold, but more easily feathered, and so better for manuals etc. Quite light, but very few frames come with vee mounts, so adaptors are needed. Good: Easier to feather. Just as powerful as maguras. Barrel adjuster on lever for small adjustments. Very light on bikes with vee mounts. Spare cables can be gotten from the likes of Tesco, Wilko's, halfords, and any bike shop, if it breaks mid-ride. Quick to bed in to a rim. Bad: Most people can't set them up well enough for trials use. Not many vee specific pads, so you almost always have to glue material in to backings. Very few frames have mounts, so have to use adaptors. At this point, I feel I should do pro's/con's of grinds/smooth/tarred rims. Smooth: Left as you got it from the factory. Good: Can perform very well - and often silently, which means no annoying wails. Bad: Almost invariably turns in to a crap break once it gets even a little wet. Sometimes just not very good in general. Have to keep the rim clean. Tar: Rub some roofing/roadside tar over the breaking surface of the rim. Good: With the right amount - once you pull the lever, that rim is going nowhere. A bit better in the wet than smooth. Bad: Pads can stick to the rim, which can prove very dangerous. Repeated application of tar makes it build up - too thick a layer of tar will kill any performance gain, so has to be cleaned off with solvents occasionally. God-awful noise acompanies you whereever you ride. Looks poo Grind: Run an angle grinder over the breaking surface of your rim to roughen it up. Good: Best protection against wet weather available. Often better stopping power than other methods in the dry, too. Bad: When a grind wears down, you re-grind - too many of these makes the rim weak. Wears pads down quicker than smooth/tar. Back to breaks... Disks: Excellent modulation and excellent power. Hydraulics and mechanical ones are available, and differ only in feel if you set them up right. Good: Very powerful, and all the modulation you could want. Feel very nice when you're used to them. Silent. Actually get BETTER in the wet. Bad: Rotors bend rather easily, which is usually a ride-killer. I won't mention all the combinations... that'd take forever. Most people use HS33 on the rear, disk on front. Rear magura offers very good bite and hold, though not much modulation. You want to be able to trust your rear brake - it's most important. Front disk modulates, but also has lots of power to lock up. Rotors can bend easily, but on the front they usually stay out of the way. Very good combination - which is why so many people use it. Dual HS33's means you get all the snappyness, but having no modulation on the front end can make things difficult. Usually used by comp riders who know very well how much power to put in to what. Dual disk - in my opinion - is the way to go. You get all the locking up power, as well as all the modulation - at the expense of risk. I went dual disk for two rides, and bent my rotor. If you go to the left on anything, rotors are highly suspect to bending. If you go to the right - or just never fall off, I would say give this a go. It's not for everyone though - when people get too used to a magura on the back, a disk can feel weird. Another benefit of dual disk is that your wheels can get as buckled as your frame will allow, and you can still ride. Vees are kind of like disks crossed with maguras... All the power, but it's on the rim so you don't worry about bending rotors. Favourable for people who like techy stuff, 'cause feathering is so much easier/more effective - though a vee can be set up to be horrendously snappy. They can take Damon Watson's down to fronts - so they deffinately have the power there. Now - it's up to you really, it depends what you're after in a break, and how you ride. Edit: If you decide to get a new frame with dual disk in mind - I'd SERIOUSLY recommend getting one with rim brake mounts, too. If you find you don't like it - you have to sell the frame on/swap it. Think that's about it.

Wow. That must've cost SO much to set up. The size of those sections of trees! f**k! It almost looks alien.

Had a trialtech lite for 4-ish months now - still as good as new.

:$ My bad.

As a video, I didn't enjoy it nearly so much as your others - but the riding... Cor blimey. Nutter. Also - congratulations to Speedrace for bagging you as a team member

Coming with Ben and Josh tomorrow - don't know Coventry at all. Google tells of 4 Sainsburys. Which is it? Intend on parking at the train station. Cheers.

Ok - now - first off ... that was obviously amazing... but I have a niggle. In my honest opinion - you quite often put too much stuff in slow-mo. Why oh WHY didn't that up-to-front-massive-skid-I-have-no-idea-how-you-managed-to-keep-it get slow-motioned? That's the ONE thing I wanted to see at low speeds

Suddenly stops mid-move at 4:32... Is this the same for everyone, or something on my end? Edit: Was my end. Excellent video!

Helmet.

I would disagree. All four people in this area that have tried them (one of them being me) have had nothing but bad experiences. It's not that we can't set brakes up, Ben's is usually TOO good. Maybe there's just some inconsistencies in the batch Seriously - koolstops performed better than those things. Also - isn't this a thread you should make before wasting money on them?

Is that so? I always thought it'd be something to do with the chemical compound :$

In my experience: Had a V!Z 72 click freewheel for about a month before it started skipping 8-9 times per hour. Took it all apart, serviced it several times, nothing seemed wrong, but it still kept skipping. Replaced that with a Tensile 96 click. Had this for about 3 months now, and it's only skipped once. Friend's had 2 Enos, and they've been nothing but a nightmare. Constantly skipped, no matter what new bits got put in, and then couldn't get them off without welding and grinding thanks to the wrong pitched threads. He proceeded to get a Rockman 108 click, which also skips quite a bit. I've never heard ANYONE say anything bad about the Echo SL freewheel - so I'd personally hold out and get one of those when they're available. If you desperately want to ride NOW, though - I'd not be afraid of bigging up the Tensile 96 click massive.

Will have to see how much house-moving gets done on Friday/Saturday. Hopefully can make it though

Teflon... That's the one. I meant that

Oh crikey. Not seen you in a LONG while. I'll make a special effort to get there if you're travellling all that way.

Inur - 18:18?! I thought 20:17 felt too light :|

What year model do you have? If it's one of the old ones - don't put water in it. I'm sure someone'll tell me I'm wrong (quite likely OBM ) but I think it's these that water kills.

He already said he's new to bikes - so I guess he's just going of what's written on CRC - which is more than fair enough. The only tyre-limiting factor of the magura is the crossover. Good luck finding a tyre that big To OP: I think the 2.5" guideline on Chain Reaction Cycles (usually referred to as CRC) is written there as the majority of riders would never consider going bigger than that. The brake won't make too much difference to the tyre - it's more down to the clearance the frame offers. What frame have you got?

GT85 is... ...something-based. I want to say silicone, but I'm not sure itf that's right. As I understand it - WD40 lubricates, then evaporates/moves aside, whereas GT85 lubricates and forms a sort of layer on top that keeps it lubricated. Like cartilage

I've just finished uni, and have three months to do absolutely nothing except what I want. I feel I should do something at least vaguely academic, whilst having time off, though. I'm interested in knowing if there is actually a "right" size bike for an individuals height and weight. For this, I need as many examples as possible - so if you've got a spare two minutes, please copy and paste the below in to a response. Thanks a bunch! The things I'm really interested in are asked for in the brackets after. Anything extra is a bonus - anything less is not a problem... I'm doing research, after all. I'll find out elsewhere. You... Height: (cm) Weight: (kg) Style: (Street/Natural/TGS - which style is your bike most comfortable to ride in - NOT what do you prefer, or are best at.) Your Bike... Type: (mod/stock/24) Weight: (kg - if known) Frame: (name will do, but if you know the geo - that'd be great. ((WB, BB, CS, HA, headtube length and especially reach (((BB to top of headtube)))))) <--- 6 closing brackets Forks: (again - length and rake if known, please) Headset: (internal of standard) Stackers: (total mm) Stem: (rise and length) Bars: (rise, width, upsweep and backsweep) Cranks: (length and offset) BB: (width) Finally... Comments: (does your bike feel a little too long, too short etc... What would you want different about it or is it absolutely perfect for you? Cheers P.S. I realize it'll probably interest very few of you, but I promise I'll share if there's anything worth sharing at the end of it. P.P.S. If anyone's done this before, please don't tell me - I like finding things out for myself.

You got a 20mm front hub to go with it? Also - 470mm height will be bumping the front end up quite a bit. Geo-f**kers. Also - suspension forks can't hook, and I doubt they like going to front much. Depends on your riding style as to how long they'll last. Also - bit 'spensive

GT85 does it for me Not saying WD40 won't - just always had GT85 to hand first.

Possibly. Helping Josh move house over the weekend - but might be able to make it.

Oh wow. That was a better scare tactic than the "People who learned to drive and are 17 will have to start over again 'cause the limit just got lifted to 18" game.