La Bourde

The videos from your trip are amazing... Hope some more are coming. Really like to see you ride boulders, it looks so nice. To answer your question: there use to be some Maxxis Minion SS (semi slick) 26" x 2.3 with dual down (120 tpi). Not sure they are still available though. I was looking for an alternative to the holy roller with thicker sidewalls but I never found a tyre that matches. Cutting down a DH tyre could be a solution.

It is a though question, hope I can help. First of all, a fork has two purposes: to delay energy of an impact to absorb energy of an impact The first purpose is achieved through a spring function and is the most important: without a good spring function, nothing can improve the fork overall function. The second is achieved using for example a hydraulic cartridge. The compression adjustments are NOT position related (how much you are in travel) but related to the wheel displacement speed. 3 domains are defined: low speed, mid speed, high speed Mid speed setting cannot be externally adjusted (only a few exceptions on the market) Most compression adjustments affect low and high speed simultaneously or only low speed. The rebound adjustments are more position sensitive. There are only a few suspensions on the market that allow to adjust high speed rebound - and 99.9% of the riders do not need it. Almost all forks allow only to adjust low speed rebound. Movements from you body like to push in a flat turn are mostly considered as low speed displacements. So I guess most load transfers like a pivot on the front wheel or some placement hops/maneuvers are low speed displacements. Getting an impulse for a bunny hop shall be mid speed/high speed (for sure high speed if you use a brick edge for example to kick higher) Dropping from a high wall will generates high speed wheel displacement. Hitting edges like to tap against a wall with the front wheel will be controlled by the high speed compression. You want to use all of your travel on the biggest hits so that a lot of energy is delayed/dissipated and the landings are not harsh. Most forks do not offer a high speed adjustment, this is done internally in the shim stack. But it is not a problem, most of the energy of a drop shall not be dissipated but delayed, i.e. will be temporary accumulated by the spring and released so that the fork can extend back fast enough (the end of the extension is controlled by the low speed rebound damping - this is the rebound adjustment on most fork, the high speed rebound is determined again by the shim stack). So the first and most important setting will be the spring function (either with a coil spring or air spring). When the compression adjustment of your fork is fully open (I.e. the oil can flow easily) it should be able to remove most of the harshness of the biggest impact. This can be achieved by changing the coil spring rate or the volume of the positive air chamber. Preload of a coil spring will NOT really affect this! Modifying the high speed shim stack will also have almost a negligible impact on this. Changing oil viscosity too. As a trial rider, you want your fork to transmit the energy when doing a tap. But it does not come for free: the comfort will be affected, hits will be more noticeable. It means the high speed compression setting is a compromise (I think one can rely on the energy delayed by the spring, but I don't know if a rider can really benefit from this) Now regarding the low speed compression: I guess a trial rider wants his/her forces to be transmitted to the ground and does not want the geometry to be too easily affected. So closing the low speed compression adjustment seems to be right. This implies here again less comfort, but not on impact directly more arm fatigue (arm pump), cause more forces act against your muscles/body. Regarding the low speed rebound: this difficult to say. I guess because there are no succession of impacts (at least in street), the rebound could be slow. But having it faster might help to get more energy on a tap for example. The preload (case of a coil spring) defines his much forces has to be applied to displace the fork. It means it can remove completely the small bumps compliance. This is not great, use the right spring rate. The sag shall be adjusted to obtain the wished geometry. Ideally, a trial fork should have a dial to adjust how much damping the high speed compression shall have. It will be nice to adjust slightly the low speed compression to match the current fitness of the rider. Maybe the low speed rebound shall be adjusted by the same dial as the high speed compression, but the opposite way. Unfortunately, on most dirt forks the adjustment are basic: low speed rebound, spring preload or sag. Sometimes there is a sort of lockout that impacts low and high speed compression (and rebound).

Thanks a lot Mark, will have a look and with this in depth explanation I will try again.

It is also a difficult one! I can manual, I can do a 180° but the manny 180° ... it seems out of reach to me! It is also quite hard to see a nice one to be honest. It seems to me to be particularly tough on a 26", even more without bitch crank. But I agree with you, the 1:45 line was a highlight too.

Hi, I have some BB7s on one of my bike and I am really happy with. The difference with the BB5 is quite small afaik, one can adjust both pads position on the BB7 but not on the 5. They require more forces to actuate the lever than hydraulic brakes, but they are powerful enough. I have standard brakepads on them. I have really good cables though: BMX Odyssey linear cables. It makes a huge difference in the feel. Be careful also with the rotors. Some take a long time to get bet in and some combinations of rotor/brakepads suck. I would not recommend Magura brakes due to their fragile levers. Shimano Zee are good enough with good brakepads like the trickstuff. But to be honest, in your case I will stick to the BB5, put some nice cables and brake pads. And if the power is not enough go for bigger rotors. What levers and what rotors do you use?

His last video is quite nice too:

I really enjoyed your two last videos. Thank you for filming your riding, it is so inspiring!

Hi, maybe you can try the Internal Housing Damper from Jagwire. I never tried it but I heard some people are satisfied with. Cheers!

OK, thanks. I would like also to emphasis, that even if the quality of the current bikes isn't as one expects, we shall not blame the brands behind - regardless of the brand. I am pretty sure they do as good as possible but unfortunately, this is not perfect (even not satisfying). The market for trials is so small ... Hope you can find a solution and ride a bike that fits you!

One question though: Is the rear wheel from Crewkerz (or waw)? the tolerance of the rim could be on the small side , amplifying the problem. But still, there is an issue here! I agree with you AdamR28, I don't think the error is only due to the manufacturing process, but I have already seen ugly things in MTB (like a frame which swing arm had such a lateral offset, that it was really difficult to install the shock and the shock then rubs against the arch of the frame. I recall also some Koxx frame which chain rubbed against the chainstay out of the factory. I though trials were further now. Also with the current difficulties to produce, I would control twice what my supplier delivered... I heard bad stories in others industries since Covid.

Tolerances in the bike industry is a hot topic ... I think there are several aspects to consider: Milling the tube and putting them correctly on a jib is not as simple as one assumes. Maybe can AdamR28 share his experience. During/after welding the material, the material moves and bends, due to the difference of temperature for example. It isn't isotropic either ... Nicolai, Devinci and other brands fix the alignment issues later in their process. I think this is done by most companies too. But do they check the wheelbase or the head angle? Not sure. A slight variation in the component (headset height, fork length, fork angle, etc.) affects the wheel base maybe the brand does not want the user to know that the geometry changed ... maybe it is now just a label and does not refer to the actual wheelbase length, i.e. the equivalent of Large, Small or Medium. like most brands, the construction of the frame is not done in house. So the supplier makes some prototypes and I guess nobody cares about the geometry further ... They won't produce 50 prototypes too. I don't think that 1, 2 and 3 can explain a deviation of 10mm. From a legal point of view, are there some tolerances defined? It is the case for some products sold by weight (at least), but I don't know for other products.

I think you should try to straighten your back and put your chest forward, at least when going down with your body (impulse for a gap). I am not agile and even on a comp trial I can t do this well. I think it is related to the hips range of motion. Also try to use more your weight distribution and apply more forces on your pedals when moving. I noticed recently that I used a lot of body language with my back to move the bike previously, but now it seems I use more the pressure under my feet and my knees. I can imagine that the back is then less stressed.

Yes that is something experienced riders know (and I always tight the bolts as less as possible). Be careful, in trials it is more difficult to find the sweet spot. For example, when doing big drops, one will apply a lot of forces due to the harsh landing...

The lever is made of aluminum (I think it is cast). It was the longer version and the left hand, so the front brake for me. I usually don't pull it that strong. Hope the rear one won't brake, I will inspect it regularly for cracks.

The Trialtech Carthy levers look nice, I agree. I did not buy the newest version of the Clean levers, but the T13 V3. Hopefully they got the third revision right. To me they look simple from a mechanical point of view, will see how they perform. In addition, spare parts are available and easy to find. And they use 13mm pistons, so maybe I can use the Carthy Trialtech piston. A friend of mine has some Jitise levers and he is not fully satisfied ...

Hello, today I broke the lever oft my magura HS33R, which is maybe one year old, by actuating it. I think the lever previously hits the ground many times during diverse crashes, but I was surprised that it failed so suddenly. Also I never had a similarity issue with other brand. I think the conception is weak, the logo has a sharp edge and it is located where the lever can first bend (there is a steel metal part that prevent bending closer to the pivot) Did you ever encounter this?This failure can be dangerous in my opinion. Funny coincidence: I bought yesterday a new bar and the vendor had some Clean levers to sell. The price was good so I bought them ...

That is sad to see how the acceptance of Center lock is. A lot of brands are not able to produce parts that fits correctly due to the tight tolerances required. And yes, Shimano itself made CL even more complicated. Centerlock is from a mechanical point of view a much superior standard. First, the interface with the hub is much wider and the surfaces in contact bigger. This allows to conduct the forces better, to prevent a disc to twist (the rotor could be much more stiff) and to align the disc perfectly (some 6 holes hub use bad tolerances and thus unalign/twist the rotor). Having a bigger contact surface allow a better head dissipation too, but we don't care in trials. From a safety point of view, centerlock is also better, cause even if the rotor is no longer maintain by its lock ring, it can't fall off and one can still brake. But the tolerances of the hub and the rotor are tighter and thus companies can't produce cheap components by ignoring tolerances, like they do with 6 holes mount.

Had a snapped bolt hole on a DT Swiss 440fr hub on my hardtail (I was doing some trial moves with but no big transfers or so) and it did not cause any issue.

Last week I attended a show of Leo Nobile in Les Gets. I already saw the Drop & roll tour thrice. Leo Nobile is an amazing rider, his fellow too, but I have to say that I found the Drop and Roll tour better. More riders, more tricks, the public was more involved ... The Drop and Roll show is really really good. I can imagine that Leo had to compose with little space and time. It was a great show too, the public appreciated much. But as you said, Ali is incredible, so smooth, so precise... Everyone knows that already but you have to see Ali live to really appreciate his skills. Danny impressed me with his speed and explosive moves. Both Ali and Danny make the show somehow special. They mesmerized me with their style... I recall Ali was doing some 360s and 540s on his front wheel to warm up... It made already my day. Regarding Danny, I met him also last week in Morzine, we seat in the same gondola! Such a nice guy! I did not want to bother him but he was so happy to speak and share his passion! We are so lucky to have such great ambassadors!

The angle is written on the bearing itself. Sometimes also on the cups.

Thanks. It is a EC34/28.6 EC34/30 headset. Hope has good headset, but this FSA model isn't bad too. Do you have any trouble with? You can change the cartridge bearing, but be careful there are at least two standards: with 36 degrees and with 45 degrees

Hi! Can you please take a picture of your headset or precise what version do you have exactly? If I recall correctly, the first versions (black, yellow) requires a EC34/28.6 EC34/30 headset, while the third generation (with curved tubes) requires a ZS44 /28.6 ZS44/30.

I think it is difficult to answer. I was many years one of the moderators of the biggest french trials forum and I observed many times people giving up with trials just after a few months or weeks. Sometimes they even had bought a better bike than mine. It was not related to the frustration of having a cheap bike. They just found this sport thankless. Trials differs a lot from regular mountain biking. Maybe it can be compared to riding downhill in a - real - bike park. Many people think they will enjoy it when looking at neat videos. But when they are for the first on a 17kg bike with double crown fork, with a full face helmet and protection on a track that is steep, fast and rough as hell, with burning legs, arms and hands ... They realized first that it is much thougher as they expected. But some will enjoy the sensations so much that they will continue. Please don't get me wrong, I don't want you to abort your project. In my previous answer I just wanted to point out that you might need some weeks or even longer to get used to the bike and really start to enjoy riding trials. So my advice is to persevere... I guess perseverance is a common trait of trial riders. Determination is key, it is a long journey! In addition, if you enjoy the process of building a bike, this is already enough to continue... But as Ali mentioned, you don't need a trial bike to first know whether this sport fits you or not. You could have try to learn the basics (if you don't have them) on one of your bike and observe whether you get bored or not. A trials bikes makes some tricks easier but other harder. For example balance on 2 wheels is much easier on a DH bike than on a comp bike (mostly due to the head angle). If one starts with a comp trials bike, he/she will have to switch his/her riding style from rolling to hopping directly. With a comp bike you basically don't ride and you even try to avoid to ride some distance! Ideally you live 200m far from a good place to ride or you take your car (or other vehicle) to get to the adequate location(could be almost everywhere for a novice though). To me, you seem to be highly motivated and that is really the most important! If you train regularly and correctly, you will progress and notice how your riding evolves. This is really enjoyable! I think it is more difficult to observe in other MTB disciplines.

Amazing level of riding! What did you conclude from your experiments? Is there a setup to recommend?

Magura are not made of plastic but from Carbotecture "Sie Plastik zu nennen, wäre eine echte Beleidigung." Translation: To call them [the materials] plastic would be a real insult. Maybe "plastic mixed with industrial waste" fits better Good point! Trials bikes feel weird and you have to be aware of that. It felt really odd for me to ride again a 26" comp bike more than ten years later ... My previous one had double discs, a 54 (?) clicks freewheel and now I have HS33 front and rear on ground rims, 135 clicks freewheel, etc. It took me almost one month to get use to this kind of modern riding... Switching to a 20" is even a bigger change ... But it is also a lot of fun!!! A different kind of fun but I really enjoy to ride trials.