psycholist

It won't work well anyway. The piston diameter in a HS33 lever is much bigger than in a louise lever, so the brake will feel very wooden and have nothing like the power a correctly set up Louise will have. Also the Louise uses a high pressure brake line rather than plain plastic tubing (Again because it needs a higher pressure to work), so it may be very difficult to fit the lever in the first place as the tubing doesn't match. This is before you account for the Louise being an open system brake, so it automatically adjusts for pad wear rather than requiring adjustment with the TPA. Pretty much all the Louise and HS33 have in common is the fluid they use...

Chances are you'll be able to lift the front wheel a little as soon as you get on the bike (Bigger lifts need bigger weight shifts). Trackstanding or lifting the rear wheel (Without using the front brake) are the next tricks. Then probably alternating front and rear wheel lifts (rocking forwards and backwards) to allow you to walk the bike sideways or in a circle (Try this up steps to force you to lift the wheels properly and to place them correctly). Combining front and rear wheel lifts at the same time will allow you to hop the bike. Mainly just ride your bike on as many different things as you can find and get used to how it feels as you move your weight around. Don't get too hung up on static stuff either - rolling down steps as slowly as possible is a lot harder than it sounds and it builds braking control and balance. Rolling hops onto and off kerbs/pallets help with timing and smoothness too. Don't get frustrated if you don't get a move you're trying, try something else and then go back rather than getting fixated on one move...

or one of those black Lipsknot hoodies the skater kids wear... Riding trials to get 'noticed' seems to be a strange motive to me. Just make sure you're approachable if people do stop to watch and you'll find you get way less harassment and way more interest. Only problem is sometimes you'll find you spend more time talking to people than riding if you're not careful...

Trials is all about stealth ... Apart from the loud brakes of course...

Google for 3V vouchers - buy them with cash in a shop, spend them like a prepaid credit card on the internet...

Setting up a paypal account is easy, just fill in the form online. You'll need a credit card and transaction sizes are limited until you verify the card (They charge your card about 2 squid, you type the number that appears beside this transaction on your bank statement and that proves to them that you're the genuine owner of the card and refund you the 2 squid).

That ebay account is Superstar Components - I've used those pads and they're not bad at all. They're really really loud though. They last better than heatsink yellows, but don't have quite the same hold or bite. If all you have is a fiver they're the best option for a trials bike...

The main thing to do is get a reasonable track stand, both with and without brakes and learn to lift and place the front and rear wheels. After that (Or better yet while you're learning that) go straight to trying to ride your bike over things. Have a look for the kerb competition videos on here to get an idea of how much can be done on even simple stuff. Getting on the back and front wheels will happen as you need it to get across things... When I was starting, one of the main things I spent time on was riding up steps (Mostly because they were convenient). Start by walking the bike sideways up the steps wheel by wheel, then move to hopping the bike up sideways or forwards two wheels at a time, then sidehopping using a pedal kick, then sidehopping on the back wheel, then pedal kicking forwards on the back wheel, then hopping multiple steps at a time, then hopping up the steps sideways alternating front and back wheels but only having one wheel on the ground at any time, then hopping forwards up the steps on the back wheel without using pedal kicks etc. Once you've got all that you just need to worry about doing the same things only bigger. Try and ride on as many different obstacles as possible too. Even if you don't have a lot around thinking of new ways to ride old obstacles is still rewarding... I'd also recommend wearing some shin guards ...

If you don't snap square taper BB axles then there's no benefit to paying extra for splined cranks unless you're building a cost no object lightweight bike. Since I changed to splined cranks 3ish years ago I've not had an axle snap while square taper BB's lasted me about a year before snapping... I reckon some of this is Shimano letting their quality slip as none of their high end BB's have been square taper for well over 5 years...

Atmospheric pressure should be enough to allow the lever to compensate for pad wear (It'll support a 10m water column, so a cm of DOT Fluid won't be a problem). The problem is that any air bubbles will tend to end up in the brake line though if you're lucky they might stick elsewhere in the reservoir. Problems like variable brake bite point and sponginess are almost certain to keep recurring though.

There is always the Norco Manifesto if you're looking for something with a seat...

Best quote ever to take out of context from Tarty Adam ...

I run an ENO front freewheel and it's the single most reliable freewheel I've ever seen or used including rear hubs. The problem I have is that the threaded cranks available for front freewheels seem to be junk. I'm currently about to fit the 4th right hand crank since I bought my bike new at the start of 2008. All the cranks failed at the pedal threads or freewheel threads (Or both in the case of the last crank, but I'm at fault for the freehweel threads). I'm not exactly a lightweight rider, but I don't do huge gaps or drops either. Previously I ran Middleburn cranks for 2-3 years without any issues. Problem is I don't trust any of the rear hubs on the market. The Hopes, while they're great to replace under warranty, often fail by having the drive shell crack, which means you've to dismantle your wheel, post the hub to Hope and rebuild when the replacement arrives, so basically you'll probably be off your bike for a week and need to spend an hour's work at stripping and rebuilding the wheel (Assuming you build your own wheels). Chris Kings cost a crazy amount of money and are very reliable. The problem with these is that when they do skip (And it does happen, sometimes even when you are religious about stripping and cleaning the hub every couple of months) they really skip, so that puts me off them, as does the price given they're not infallible. If I was building my bike from scratch again I'd have to think long and hard about whether the front freewheel is worth it given the crank reliability, but I reckon I'd probably still go front freewheel and just keep a spare crank handy... If ENO made a freewheel that fitted Middleburn cranks it would be the perfect setup...

If the clicking is repeatable as in the same movement produces a click every time it's more likely to be ligaments/tendons popping over the outside of the joint than bubbles in the synovial fluid. I'm pretty sure most peoples joints make some noise as they're moved around, but its more obvious in people who exercise (This could be just a side effect of the muscles/ligaments being stronger to begin with) it doesn't seem to be harmful unless it hurts...

I'd try different pads or different backings - sounds like the pads you have are too loose a fit between the locating forks in the Magura slave piston. The danger with too much movement is that it could break the tip off the slave piston so no other pads would hold in either.

The Scott Dommett section in Dirt was the first time I saw trials riding (Though I'd been messing with similar before I saw that video) - canti brakes, smooth rims and 17" frames are the way forward ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I42LrVrs3s0 - This video epitomises why I ride bikes... Anyone remember Hans Rey and Co. at the closing ceremony for the 1996 Olympics? Probably the biggest audience to ever see trials riding...

Movement up to about 1mm is perfectly normal. If there's a lot more than that the pin on the end of the brake piston is likely to see loading and get snapped off. Ordinarily it takes no side load at all and just holds the brake pad onto the piston. If there's loads of play your brake pads may be out of tolerance or the forks that locate the pads in the brake may be worn/broken.

If it's an orbital style sander then it won't work well at all. If it's a sanding disk attached to a power drill you can put radial grooves on the braking surface by using one edge of the disk all around the rim. It will give the brake a little more bite and old, especially in the wet, but nothing like as good as an angle grinder grind.

Here's another classic from a few years back:

This is the tool for removing headset cups: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=10223 There are also specific tools for fitting headsets (Headset press), removing the crown bearing race (The ring that sits on the bottom of fork steerer - a lot of headsets use a split ring which is easy to remove, but some cheaper ones are still on a press fit) and fitting new crown races (Again easy with the split race, harder with the press fit. None of the headset tools are strictly necessary though. I made a headset press from some M12 threaded bar and a couple of 60mm round plates with a hole through their centres for the threaded bar and it's a lot neater than trying to hammer headset cups in. To remove bearing crown races some careful tapping with a screwdriver and hammer is fine, to fit crown races I have a block of wood with a hole through it big enough to fit the steerer tube and I use the block of wood to hammer the new bearing race on or hit it down with a hammer if the bearing race is very stiff. I'd get this crank puller: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=4939 It's suitable for square taper cranks with the end cap off the centre rod and ISIS/Octalink BB's with the cap fitted.

I'd just fork out the £5 and buy a crank puller unless the crank threads are damaged, in which case I've had good success using a screwdriver combined with a 450mm adjustable wrench on the hex section of the screwdriver shaft to lever cranks off - this was for a well greased ISIS crank though. Take the fork out and then either hit the headset cups from inside with a hammer and chisel or (Less likely to wreck your headtube) hit the cups out with a block of wood from the outside. Keep alternating which side of the cup you hammer in order to remove it straight - if you only hammer one side it will try to turn sideways in the headtube. There's a specific tool for this job too, but there's less benefit to buying it...

The HD videos from the Koxx site, particularly the TRA ones are my favourites - very well shot and a perfect sharp picture... http://koxx.fr/index.php?lg=fr_FR&sec=trial&pg=video And of course the new Danny Mac one, but that's quite a different style...

You could just deflate the tyre and move the rim tape by poking at it through the holes in the rim so the tube doesn't bulge out. Failing that a strip of insulation tape along each side of the rim tape will hold it in place and cover any gaps around the edges.

I'll second this one - what I find though is that the spoke nipples will tend to round before you get to the buckling tension, so unless you've got a very weak rim, having the wheel pop into a buckled shape as you tension it won't really arise. This can be seen on the cheap ass wheels bike shops sell for £20 though if you want to do a cheap experiment ... 1kgf is 9.81 Newtons - I mostly hate kgf as a unit because it's a side effect of people who have got used to the imperial unit system applying the faulty thinking that made that unit system a mess to work with to the already consistent SI unit system ... I've never measured the tension in spokes in a wheel I've built, but I've ridden the same wheels on one bike for XC/DH/Touring/Street for 6 years now and had no issues until one spoke failed in each wheel a couple of months ago - the spokes both failed at the root of the nipple threads rather than at the bend too, indicating that the wheel was stress relieved properly too. I can't remember the last time I even looked at the wheels to true or tension them either, but they were D521's .

If you find a very good bike shop or a frame builder they'd straighten your frame for you. Google 'cold setting' to get a rough idea what's involved...