Bill_B

I have what I'm pretty sure is a Monty 219 (it looks right and is steel) with curved blade forks, currently being rebuilt with new paint (powdercoat). I'll post piccies when its done.

cool replies, I'm more looking for a discussion than advice, I've just gone from a steel to aluminium XC bike and the alu frame lacks the compliant feel of steel, I'm only really starting to play with trials so do not have the experience to translate that to trials riding. I know Aluminium frames will be cheaper to produce than a good steel frame and being stiff and light will make them popular, especially with the very slim low frame designs you see now. anyone else have any thoughts (I did try searching first but found nothing).

What do people think is the better material for frames and why? Aluminium is lighter and stiffer but more brittle (hence cracks) steel is heavier (although thinner tubing means frame shouldn't be far of Alu weight) but possibly more robust and has a bit of spring/bounce to it Steel is much easier to work and build IMHO (Maybe just my aluminium welding that is poor ) Aluminium doesn't rust What are your thoughts people?

There is a Leeson in the classifieds, £150+P&P may be more than you want to spend but it hasn't shifted despite multiple bumps so make him an offer??

If its aluminium make sure you etch prime it otherwise you will have problems making the paint stick

White and shiny with matte black hardware IMHO looks very cool in classy kind of way Satin black with chrome/polished is similar but more stealthy Olive green/grey/brown sort of colours can look good without screaming 'look at me' Or go for something a bit more flash, I'm powder coating my Monty in black with a holographic flake (when the powder turns up from the states ) should be a bit different, don;t know if it will be a bit much really, but if it is I'll go over it in translucent black to tone the flake down a bit.

Hmmm, if its purely a pimpy thing I'll leave it until I have some cash to burn. I assumes they would be stiffer and offer more 'feel' to the brakes, as braided hoses do in a car, I guess the pressures are just not high enough. Thanks for the honest opinions

Paid £30 to have my frame shotblasted ad £30 to get it powdercoated, pics will be up when its done.

I'm thinking of upgrading the hoses on my XC bike, they are only Shimano Deore calipers, but I'm wondering if better quality braided hose will improve the feel of the brakes. I assume someone must be running them on their maggies or similar? did it make a noticable difference over the std nylon/poly plastic hose that comes as standard? Thanks

Those crank bros 5050s do look nice, I'll have a closer look at them. I put V8s on the girlfriends bike and I'm not keen on them are the V12s the same physical size? I'll look out for the revells

I'm looking for some pedals, I have a pair of Atomlab trailkings on my XC bike with seem pretty big. I have wide size 13 feet and often find my feet overhang the edge of the pedals, if the ball of my little toe/foot joint is not solidly on the pedal platform I don't feel so confident. so what pedals are out there that are as wide as or wider than the Atomlabs (I also have some outlands which are a bit narrow). ta

CycleWorks in Burpham? I'll no doubt see you in there sometime being relieved of cash

Thanks guys, yes I've been looking at custom frames, Iolo and Leeson were two frames with hidden pipework and both look so much tidyer for it. I just though using solid lines would be less flexible than braided hose and potentially give a more solid/predictable feeling brake lever. I wouldn't dream of doing this on an aluminium frame, but then I wouldn't trust my lardy arse on a alu frame either. I'll have a look into M6 and 6 hydraulic fittings, as for the syringe thing, I would fit brakes that I couldn't bleed through by adding oil in the caliper and beeling it through the lines and through the caliper. I'm pretty sure I can get 1.5ish mm copper pipe, just need to check if I can get fittings on to it (they may need soldering) and a suitable method of attaching them to the frame.

were they alu or steel frames? I think of a steel frame with the correct strengthening gussets it would be do-able, on an Alu frame I think you waould be asking for trouble.

No I'm thinking about internal brakelines in the frame, I've seen it done before by: a) drilling holes in the frame tube and threading nylon brake hose through, then spending hours trying to get it out of a small hole in the other end of the frame, and drilling holes in the frame tubes and brazing internal small dia tubes in to simply thread the nylon lines through I'm thinking of the next step and fitting internal copper hard lines in the frame terminated at the frame surface and just using short braded lines from the lever to the frame (probably just under the top tube) and then a short braded line from the seat stay to the caliper, everything inbetween would be a single hard copper of stainless steel line. this should marginally reduce weight, keep brake lines out of harms way and most importantly look bloody cool and make for a very tidy frame. I have also though of using hard lines between the caliper and frame as they do not move relative to each other, but a hard line would not take kindly to knocks and unless very short and out of the way would easily get damaged and cause problems. thoughts people?