Captain Scarlet

The thickness of the axle should be fine. They are all give or take a few mm the same sort of size, if not then a little butchering is nothing to worry about. New frame again...?

Back in the day the main Onza online retailer (the name has gone from me now) used to sell a rubbery grip that went over the levers. Called "Lever Condoms" if I remember rightly.

I think its cool if your good at it , or can do flips (I personally really want to learn some kind of flip, like a wall flip or something). I couldn't stand it when beginners would do it in the same way you would trials, like loads of amateur lads would make an actual meeting at this wall in town and spend hours just doing vaults over it. Another example was that a couple of mates actually quit trials to get into this, I suggested the idea "Why not ride trials, and when you feel like freerunning, just put the bike down?", but they just didn't bother with the bike at all. The best way I can see of doing it (and I guess I do this to an extent), would be just to go out with mates, walking somewhere (i.e shopping or just about on a nice summers day) and just do obstacles as you come to them, once you've done the vault carry on talking and socialise, you approach a road gap, you jump it, and again continue walking.

If you think it may be coming from the BB area you can do a series of checks to eliminate all the possibilities of noises. Could be four things. Pedals - Are they loose?, as in the axle itself or the bearings?, are an pins loose? get an old pair of pedals and put them on, if the noise has gone, problem solved. Cranks - Again, are they loose? ensure they are tight and apply some copper grease to the tapers (especially on square taper where the dry metal on metal can bring up a creaking noise). Chain - Is it too tight or too loose? a tight chain can make some horrible noises when moving, similarly a dry chain can make horrible noises, give a good spraying of WD40 to get it well greased. Bottom bracket - Is it loose? make sure by trying to tighten it, has a bearing gone? you will only know if none of the above work.

Rankin run a Koxx XTP2 with the long magura lever blades, he had that bike for nearly a year and was fine on him (and he is a huge rider). The advantage I'd go for in a longer lever blade is ease of pulling the lever, so in a section it takes less effort to hold the brake on and reduced chances of cramp or arm pump. They can't make your brake better as there is only a terminal amount of force the brakes can give when braking, and therefore any extra force will be lost elsewhere (such as the frame or booster).

Reece ("Bearded Midget" on here) is a damn keen coarse fisherman, competes in matches (were you win by quantity of fish as apposed to weight). Like I say coarse fishing is his thing, but he can probably tell you a bit on the sea variety.

Seems a bit of waste, what do you mean "my rear brake went", surely you could have fixed it rather than consider buying a new one?

Any engineer capable of engine rebuilds (car, motorbikes, etc) will be able to helicoil it for you (or at least know someone who can). I took my frame to a performance motorbike engineer, he helicoiled 2 holes for a fiver. Its really not worth buying the kit if your only going to use it once (as you will need; a drillbit and therefore drill to remove your exisiting thread, a tap/die of the correct size, and the helicoils themselves)

The fact how you weighed it in pounds just reinforces the fact its a wannabe BMX. Surely you can save weight on those forks, they are hench!

Joe is a beast! I saw him at London not having a clue who he was, such an inspiring and powerful riding style.

I would say that you need to face your brake mount. If there is excessive paint or metal on your brake mount, it doesn't allow for the calliper to sit exactly parralel with the rotor (which is very important). Of course what happens there is that a small amount of pad contacts the rotor first, followed by the remaining pad. (Much like with standard vee brakes on £200 mountain bikes, if the pads aren't set properly square it can create the some kind of squeak). Hope do a mount facing tool, which slips into your drop out and essentially files away at excessive paint or material to create a perfectly parralel mount. Most specialist bike shops will carry one. On a related note, what is your wheel alignment like? (is it front or rear brake) if its your rear wheel then it may not be central so the rotor itself isn't parralel to the calliper.

It depends on the situations. When I started out I was on the bandwagon of; "I'm never having a rear disc as I need brake noise as a placebo, so I know my brake is working". Having riden some peoples DD set-ups, I was in love, it just had a solid hold to it and no noise just yielded a really smooth style. The only thing that put me off was that my front Hope was tempremental and occasionally slipped, and that everyones bike I tried to manual with rear disc the second I went to feather the brake, it would lock and slam the front wheel down. I've finally got around to ordering a rear disc as; I now have a disc frame, I have the money to, and I've had enough of my magura. I can easily say that I would rather have a good working magura (nice audible honk as it locks the pads into place) than a disc anyday, but I tried different pads, different grinds, the second I got a good brake working it would only be a matter of a week until I would have to rely on tar to get a hold. So we'll see how it goes, I should be getting the disc today, hopefully I'll be able to whack it on and get the majority of it bedded in today.

So you've bought a full build bike with the intentions of upgrading it all immediately? Why not just buy a more specced full build?

I haven't seen these post up yet, just stumbled across them on the picture page of the Essex bike trial club site. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ebtcbiketria...okWoodsMarch09# Some beastly photos in there.

Even when you look at me..?

Sure thing pal, should be a good one.

Reece and I will be up for this, pretty much anyday in the holidays but best day would be 10th or 11th. =D

Try-All foams. They last for a ridiculously long time, and are damn comfy. I ride gloveless (only wear gloves when it is freezing winter weather), I get pain from the blisters on my hand after a long days ride, but aside from that they are perfect. Initially going from gloves to no gloves will be painful, just stick with it and you'll soon get used to riding without.

Most builders merchants will stock tar (for roofing purposes, and similar applications). Just look for builders merchants/supplies in the phone book, give them a bell to find out if they stock it. Road tar is a mixture that is designed to be set (contains little grains of sand and rock, so its not the stickiest of substances). But tar ready for roofing has a nice tacky quality to it, is best raw and fresh.

Thats the most ridiculous post ever, they way how you talked about two unrelated frames to give a conclusion that Zhi is better..?

Foam Grips. (This is easily the component where I don't think about buying anything different). Try-All tyres. (The grip on these are instantly recogniseable over Creepies or Monty's) Kenda DH tube. (I will always run one of these tubes, I'm not a super low pressure person, but it gives me massive confidence when riding having one of these tubes). Onza frames (On my Limey; decent chain tension, perfect geo, disc and 4 bolt, in built booster, intergrated brake mounts), just perfect.

ENO is American. =D

Bionic is a sub-brand of Zhi, and the UK's only authorised distributor for Zhi is Fred Savage (NSE on here).

Just nabbed this from MCN I think thats hit just about every point.

Why is it always a need to change? Emission laws killed off the 2 stroke production, probably the single greatest icon of a classic motorbike. The big advantages and selling points of a motorbike or moped is; "cheap to run, cheap tax, low emissions", how is this supposed to be encouraged by rising tax? Have you got any numbers or percentages as to how much it rises?