himikey

FiveTens much grippier than Vans, and they come in high and low versions, but don't see them cheap anywhere.

As I said, it'll change the geometry a bit - making your front end a bit higher and give you a longer wheelbase, the actual amount depending on the axle to crown height - I put up the pic of a long suspension fork to show the difference in principle! It's OK to run a 24" wheel in a rigid fork for 26" wheels in terms of whether it's likely to break or not.

You need to think about whether you want suspension or go rigid, and how high a front end you want. You can use any forks for 26" bikes if you're running discs or no brake at all, but with a higher front and longer wheelbase than using one designed for 24". Really the only 24" specific suspension fork around is the Marzocchi D-Street, but this won't suit everyone because it is 20mm through-axle and weighs something like 7 pounds. It will run 24" rim brakes though. You can use rim brakes on 24" wheels in some 26" suspension forks by using older Pace brake-mounts that clamp on to the lower legs, but you need to make sure the legs are the right diameter. This is probably not recommended by the manufacturers of most forks! If you want to go rigid with discs or with no brakes there is a fair selection of 26" forks that you can choose on the basis of front end height - look in specifications for the axle to crown distance. If you want to run rim brakes there's a bit less choice. If you're buying new/recent forks, Identiti Rebates have clamp-on mounts (for an extra £25!), these might fit other rigids too - check the diameter of the legs. The current Pace RC-31 clamp-on mounts (£35!!) will fit some rigids too. The Charge Nozzle has screw-in mounts to let you run brakes on either 24" or 26" rims at no extra cost. If you want an especially low front end you could try a BMX race/cruiser forks in 24" size - S&M Pitchforks for example have a very short axle to crown height. To show what can be done here's my bike rigid with 24" Rhynolites and Charge Nozzle forks with rim brakes and springy with 24" Sun SingleTracks, 26" Fox forks and discs Hope this is helpful!

NOT my bike - saw this at the park: guess part wasn't made for a 6 foot hip.

Axle gone!!

Well - I've looked at the pics on Neil's site, and they're not very clear on the drive side, but on the non-drive side he seems to have done without the axle-end piece altogether - you can see it in any online store pic and its clear from the parts sheet here (see top left) that Neil isn't using it!

Could he have put the narrower driveshell assembly from the BMX hub or the singlespeed hub on the Classic hubshell?

You can get a pitbull with 135mm spacing or 116 spacing. The Hope Pro II is 135mm so it will fit one but not the other! If you mean this frame here at Tarty then the Hope won't fit. If you mean this one here then it will. Hope this is helpful!

I've used BB5s and Hayes MX-2s. The BB5s have more and better adjustability for fine setting-up. Comparing cable with hydro, one thing to remember is that a cable or cable lever are easy and cheap to replace if you break them. If you catch a hydro hose on something and it pulls out of the lever or caliper (it can happen!), or you bang the lever resevoir and crack it , then you've got to pay nearly the same money again for parts and bleeding kit as the original cost. Cable discs just run ordinary v-brake cables and levers so it's a cheap fix.

You can get Try-All rims in 20" - e.g. here but I'm not sure that the colour you've seen is orange - these seem to be the same colours as the 26inchers - maybe it was gold?

Can you run Magura H33 levers upside down as I like to run my front brake on the left but only have a right hand lever.

I've just looked at mine from a T-Pro: it's the standard cromo 2-bolt stem and it's 180mm long with a rise of 40 degrees.