psycholist

If you put bricks under the corners that can help since it eliminates a lot of the problems you get putting flat bottomed obstacles on ground with a curve to it. Love the ghost bike in the first picture ...

Are the bearings in the freehub running smoothly? All I can think of is that the freehub bearings might be seized and jamming the hub up when its clamped back in the frame. Does the wheel spin without dragging the freehub on or are they locked together? Take off the freehub again and spin the wheel on the axle to see if the hub is somehow running off centre. You've already said the axle is straight, so that eliminates that, slide the freehub on part way and see does that spin centered properly on the axle too. Is the ratchet ring in the hub body undamaged? If there's a crack in this it may be able to snag the freehub body. Never heard of anything like this before to be honest...

I reckon an 11T sprocket that was dremeled out to fit further down the spline of a freehub would snap pretty quickly - the reason they leave them overhanging the end of the freehub is to make then strong enough. 16:11 is a pretty high gear by trials standards anyway. 16:13 would be more suitable unless you're looking for something streety...

My video is subtly different ...

Here's one of my favourite drinks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYadcNmF28k

My worry with riding solo is the increased risk when something goes wrong. It's always nice to know somebody is available to call an ambulance if the worst happens. There's loads of tech stuff that's not that risky for pacticing on solo rides - repetition is the main way I make progress riding trials. It's nice to see a video showing that aspect of riding. It's more interesting in many ways than watching the pros do huge stuff and get it perfect all the time as I can learn from this .

Same as trials UK then - plenty of people say they've got their orders without problems too, but it's what happens when things go wrong that's where the bad reputation comes from.

The two 90 degree bends on the side plates of half link chains means there's bending stress as well as tensile stress in the chain as it is used. This leads to much earlier failures than with normal chains because the total stress is higher. I replaced the KMC Kool chain I've been running on my bike since the start of 2008 last night. It was stretched, but never snapped on me. I used to snap at least a chain a year while using an 8 speed setup.

Hee hee hee http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7953421.stm

It could be worse though - Dave Hinde's been doing that sort of stuff for years under various different trading names: http://www.bikemagic.com/forum/forummessag.../0/cp/1/v/1/sp/

Here are a few classics ... http://www.geekologie.com/2009/03/eye_cand...of_google_s.php

Strangely it is - I found (When I ran two HS33s) that when part of one lever fails, the same part on the other lever is almost guaranteed to fail within 2 weeks (If both brakes are the same age). If you're using a water bleed it may be hard to spot a very slow leak as it will evaporate. If you have an oil bleed, clean the outside of the brake, use a cable tie to hold the brake lever tightly pulled and come back in an hour. This should make it a lot easier to spot a slow leak, which seems to be the problem. Lever piston seals are the likely culprit if you don't find a leak in a shroud nut or bleed port.

It's not that drinking water causes you to cramp, but if you sweat you lose salts (Which are electrolytes), so only drinking water while sweating means you're losing electrolytes and not replacing them, even if you stay perfectly hydrated.

This is probably a long shot but check that the brake bolts aren't bottoming in the brake mount hole. If they're hitting the bottom of the hole the bolt will feel tight, but won't put decent clamping force on the brake.

I rode for about 6 hours on Saturday on power bars (They were what was left in my bag), Coke and water with a decent bowl of weetabix for breakfast. If you don't like water, Sports drinks are better for hydration than fizzy drinks - If you look at the sugar content sports drinks tend to be about 4% (Which will work to hydrate as well as supply electrolytes), while fizzy drinks are mostly around 12% (And all they have is sugar, so a source of energy, but not ideal). Drinking water without anything else will leave you more prone to cramping as the water will wash electrolytes from your body (Purely through dilution). The combination of bananas and water is a very good one for keeping hydrated while also keeping electrolytes supplied. The ripeness of a banana incidentally it will affect its nutritional content. Really ripe sweet bananas are mostly simple short chain sugars, while green bananas are mostly complex carbs, so better all day energy, but they take longer to digest.

Except in the wet of course - I've never used another rim surface where the difference between wet and dry braking was so pronounced ...

The initial expense is irrelevant because you can learn the fundamentals of trials on any bike - it would be a very foolish parent indeed who forks out for a trials bike for their child if the child wasn't already pushing the limits of their normal bike... Even the cheapest of the cheap bikes now have brakes powerful enough to lock the wheels - even that couldn't be assumed from cheap bikes before V-Brakes came in, but then again I rode trials (And everything else) initially on a 19" framed Raleigh that weighed over 17kg. Just pray you don't have to fund anyone getting into DH racing - no shortage of youngsters getting into that sport AFAIK...

Google returns:

That's the one. If you have a very old Magura, the olive might look slightly different, but I think they're all compatible anyway. When you're reassembling make sure the brake line has a square end cut on it, there are no scratches/dirt in the area the olive will sit and that you push the brake line as far into the lever as possible so it's completely through the olive when you tighten the shroud nut. Have a look at how far the shroud nut is tightened into the slave cylinder at the other end of the brake line and copy this to gauge how far the nut should go to create a decent seal.

There is an olive pressed onto the brake line under the shround nut. To remove this the easiest way is to cut the brake line just above the olive. It's a bad idea to try removing and reusing olives (Apart from the split ones on some Hope setups which are designed to be reused) as they're crushed onto the brake line as you close the shroud nut. You'll need a new olive to reassemble the brake.

This question on trials vs. BMX is pretty much the same as asking why everyone doesn't play soccer or go fishing (The top two sports in the UK last time I saw figures). Since they're already popular why would anyone bother doing anything else? Also the mindset of BMX (A lot of which is the 'hit it fast enough and if you don't die it will look cool' method) is one that is more common in general society, so it's easier to get people to start BMX. People understand all or nothing type moves better than the subtle increments that often measure progress in trials. TGS riding is more like the BMX style in that the moves can be understood as all or nothing by a casual observer, but since they don't usually involve carrying huge amounts of momentum they'll never look as impressive. I'm pretty sure most people on this forum did not take up trials to impress other people - for me it's always been about seeing what I can do. If I was worried about what other people thought I'd take up soccer or some other boring activity (Or more likely not done any sport at all) in order to conform better with society's expectations.

Go to the Avid website and read their instructions - you'll need the correct bleed kit to do it right too. It sounds like the brake needs the reservoir topped up more than a full bleed though. Rotate the lever so the reservoir cover is level. Pump the lever until the brake bites and zip tie it in the pulled position to the bar. Remove the reservoir cover and drip DOT fluid into the reservoir until it is full. Take the zip tie off the lever and pump it (Move the lever slowly - some levers (not sure about Avids) squirt oil directly out of the reservoir into your eyes when you pull the lever suddenly) looking for air bubbles coming out of the lever piston into the reservoir. If the brake feels OK, all the bubbles are gone and the bite point is right then replace the reservoir cover, rolling the diaphragm onto the surface of the fluid first to stop air being trapped there and screw it back in place.

Most of that strangeness is because we're mostly used to the way these things are done in Aluminium, so it's weird to see how little metal is needed when you move to steel or Ti...

Sometimes the cog tightened against the bashguard to hold that onto the cranks too, but it really is that simple - removing cogs afterwards can be anything but simple though...

All the DeKerf bikes have the same sort of seatstay bridge - the fork I linked to shows it better then the frame picture I think - If you want to be truly frightened the fork with a custom paint job and V and disk mounts comes to CAD$830, so over £464 for a rigid steel fork ... I haven't seen a levelboss frame in years and then it was only briefly, so I'm not sure if they do the chainstays the way I described.