psycholist

The splitter is three barbed fittings joined in a 'Y' (One for the line from the lever and one for the line to each piston). The slave pistons already have barbed fittings to connect the crossover line. I'm not sure what you're meant to do with the remaining port in the slave pistons though (Each slave piston has two holes, on a standard setup one port on each piston goes to the crossover while the remaining one is either plugged with a bolt to be used as a bleed port or connected to the brake lever). If you don't have a suitable bolt for plugging the hole left free in the slave piston where the line from the brake lever used to enter then you have a problem - the connection from the brake lever in the slave piston is a shroud nut and olive style (as used to connect the brake line at the lever too), so you may have to use this for one of the lines from the splitter as it is a bigger diameter than the other fittings and can't be plugged with a bleed bolt like the holes that take barbed fittings. So to summarise to change from a standard working Magura you'll need: The splitter A new length of brake line A new olive A new bleed bolt You'll also have to bleed each slave piston individually to remove all the air from the brake after you've got it all assembled.

I haven't used one, but I presume they fit the same way as the barbed fittings used in the crossover on normal Magura rim brakes. For those you need to clamp the brake line (Leaving about 1cm of tube sticking out of the clamp so the tube can expand as the barbed fitting is hammered into it) and tap the barbed fitting into the end of it with a hammer - using a bit of oil on the barbs makes this a little easier, as does heating the tubing (though you run the risk of weakening it of you go too hot). I find a bit of oil is all I use. A clamp suitable for tube can be made by clamping two pieces of wood together and drilling a hole about 1mm smaller than the brake line half in half through where the blocks touch and clamping the tube in the hole. Since the Monty splitter is 'Y' shaped, hammering it in the correct direction is a bit more awkward than for the straight barbed fittings, so I'd suggest you use more wood (Possibly shaped to fit the angles on the splitter) between the hammer and the splitter to get the angle right and not damage the splitter.

That ratio doesn't seem right - well over half the people at the London ride were on Stock bikes from what I saw...

I wouldn't go near any Echo rear hub with a freewheel mechanism - A friend of mine has killed two of them in the past year riding it once a week... If you're after a fixed rear hub, I've been running one of these Echo hubs for a year and a half and it's still flawless: http://www.tartybikes.co.uk/product.php?pr...;category_id=21 - It also solves the problem of having to fit a separate tensioner if you're running vertical dropouts.

A 'fixed' type hub just has threads for a sprocket or a freewheel to screw onto on the side of the hub, so it should be very cheap and simple. For track bikes with a fixed gear where the sprocket is loaded backwards to slow down, there should be a smaller diameter thread for a lockring to stop the sprocket loosening. With a front freewheel or a rear freewheel for trials use the hub will never be loaded that way, so you just need the standard thread. If you want a front freewheel get a threaded fixed sprocket and screw it onto the hub, if you want a rear freewheel, screw a freewheel on instead. Rear freewheels will force you to use a bigger front sprocket to get the right gear, but it does mean you can use Middleburn cranks (Which have never failed on me unlike every other crank I've used) - I'd recommend a 22:18 ratio (Assuming a 26" wheel bike) if you're going rear freewheel or an 18:15 ratio if you're running the freewheel on the front (The freewheel is an 18 tooth in both cases)... As for getting the old cassette off, just put more torque on the lockring and it'll unscrew...

Just make sure to have the end of the fork within 2-3mm of the top of the stem with all the spacers and the right headset fitted. I have a pipe cutter that I find great for getting a perfect perpendicular cut on steerers, but if you don't have this, use an old stem or a marker/masking tape to mark the line you want to cut along before you start. You'll need a round file to get rid of sharp edges inside the steerer and a flat one to do the same for the outside edges to stop the inside of the stem getting scraped as you fit it on.

Turn the lever on the bar so the reservoir is level - when you replace the reservoir cover roll it onto the surface of the oil to make sure no air is trapped in the reservoir. Push the pistons in the caliper back as far as they'll go and remove the brake pads before starting the bleed. Bleed from the lowest point in the brake to the highest as this helps drive air out of the system.

Some I took here: http://www.skynet.ie/~ceason/photos/20090301_LondonRide/

Best thing to do to make road commuting more challenging is to fit the biggest knobbliest tyres you can find to the bike... The main reason bikes are much more efficient than walking is because you don't need to bounce your weight up and down to stay moving, so a weighted vest will add very little to the effort required cycling on the road (Aerodynamic drag is by far the biggest energy requirement if you're going in any way fast). Unless you start overheating or it constricts your breathing of course...

I clamp the wheel in a bench vise and let the grinding disk spin the wheel by holding it at a very slight angle to completely radial on the braking surface - very quick and very effective once you use a cutting disk. I also wear eye protection and heavy gloves - nothing like small lumps of aluminium moving at high speed into your body to ruin a perfectly good day...

Like a pedo in a Barney suit I'd say...

That's the way I sidehop too. I reckon if you like to spin clockwise (Viewed from above) and trackstand left foot forwards you find it more natural to sidehop left. I try both methods though, more because being able to sidehop both ways is better than only one way regardless of which way you happen to prefer - still not really breaking 30" in either direction though, but can do 27" ish in either direction (On a good day ). Not having the nerve to commit to higher stuff is holding me back a lot more than my technique though... Still can't spin anticlockwise to save my life...

I run a HS33 on the back with yellow heatsinks on a worn in but fairly harsh grind and they're unbelieveable. I've a Magura Louise with 185mm Avid disk on the front and that's amazing too, but hasn't the lock and hold the rear brake has. Here are some cheap pads to tide you over: http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_inf...?products_id=95 Though you might want to check they're right before buying as the picture looks like what you need, but the text on the page says they're for road bikes rather than for cantilever brakes.

I set my chain so it's tight (No slack but not under serious tension) when it's at its loosest point. I use one of the Echo hubs with built in tensioner, so there's enough spring to not have the chain overtight when the cranks are turned to the highest tension position (Particularly with a front freewheel, the front sprocket is never perfectly centered on the crank, so the chain will change tension as you turn the cranks). Flex in the frame/chain/BB/axles will make the lower run of chain slack while the upper run is carrying pedaling tension while the chain is initially tight anyway though.

This won't affect wheel stiffness - it used to be done on penny farthing style bikes to stop broken spokes flailing around and injuring people. It has no effect on wheel stiffness or reliability. For a 32 hole wheel 3 cross is the best option. Lacing 4 cross means the spokes will cross over the heads of the spokes in the next hole over from them in the hub, so when replacing a spoke you've to loosen the one beside it too. For 36 hole or greater 4 cross can usually be used without this problem. In terms of wheel stiffness, the difference in torque carrying between a radial wheel and a 3 cross wheel is noticeable, but between a 4 cross and 3 cross it might be measurable, but I doubt if it's noticeable riding the bike...

Are you describing post mount style pads? All V Brake pads for current designs (AFAIK) use a threaded post and spherical washers to mount to the brake arms. Do the pads you're looking for have a cylindrical post sticking out the back of them that isn't threaded? If so I'd recommend upgrading the brake arms as finding anything decent to fit the ones you have will be difficult.

They'll have standard pads, but unless there are loads of trials riders in your area already, they're very unlikely to have anything trials specific. If you need brake pads immediately get some standard ones and stick them in to tide you over... At least V Brakes will give reasonable hold on standard pads - when you try a trials specific setup you won't believe how much more more hold is possible though.

One of the problems with standard pad backings is that they bend and flex under brake loads. This means that while holding the wheel locked the pad can roll off the rim slightly and make less contact leading to sliding when you need hold the most. The CNC backings are a lot stiffer than standard pads. You probably won't get the full benefit of the pad material without a stiffer backing anyway.

True - to summarise, a freehub that skips is bad ...

He speaks the truth ... Heatsink pads are awesome - unless you're looking for a front brake with loads of modulation rather than savage bite and hold of course, in which cash the cheapest V pads chainreaction stock are perfect...

If it's not supposed to skip and it does then it's a bad design. It's only a matter of time before a skip of 2 degrees wears into a skip of a whole crank turn. High engagement point ratchets are usually built less strong than ratchets with lower numbers of engagement points because the shock loadings a high EP ratchet will see are lower because there's less crank turn possible before it engages - the depth of the ratchet teeth reduces the more teeth you try to fit too. Once it starts skipping (A 180 EP freewheel skipping on one ratchet tooth gives the same movement before engaging as a 90 EP freewheel, if it skips two teeth it's a 60 EP etc.) the shock loading becomes as high as a lower EP ratchet, but the ratchet teeth and the pawls aren't designed to take it and get damaged. If the 180 engagement points are created by something like 5 pairs of really big, strong pawls, each pair offset by 2 degrees, running on a deep 36 tooth ratchet and it was made precisely from the right materials, heat treated correctly, it could work perfectly...

I contacted Neil in Superstar about the hub I broke (See thread on 120 EP hubs for photos) and he's sending me on a new freehub. The hub was about a year old, but he said in the email he was shocked to see one broken and that he'd still have sorted me for a warranty after 2 years - he's definitely great to stand behind what he sells, so thumbs up from me .

Superstar's Magura brake pads are second in performance only to the heatsinks I've just got ... A poor enough second as it happens, but they are cheap...

I'm looking for something to match the reliability of Shimano XTRs from 2002 ish. They'd run for 6 or 7 years with no maintenance at all. Only downside is they only have 16 clicks, so pick up on drive is a bit crappy, even for XC use. I snapped an axle in the current model XTR hub (32 clicks in the freehub) after about a year's XC use, so they're also junk unfortunately . Kings need too much minding to stay going as XC hubs. The 3-6 month strip and relube maintenance schedule they reckon the hubs need with a full rebuild every year is a hell of a lot more than I'd ever bother with - for trials where they're not routinely exposed to mud, rain and mileage, King hubs are a great choice (Though I prefer my ENO). Industry nine might be the next ones I'll try - have to see if Superstar will give me warranty cover...

Believe it or not the bearings are all still perfect. To save weight the freehub body is aluminium while the carrier for the ratchet pawls is steel. The freehub body threads onto the carrier. The threads on the pawl carrier have snapped off and chewed up the threads in the freehub body. You can still see the threaded ring which used to be part of the pawl carrier wedged into the freehub body in the second picture. The moral of the story anyway is that this hub isn't up to XC use, not to mind trials. Industry nine are the next ones to try - only other 120 click hub on the market AFAIK...