psycholist

Even when my bike isn't too tyred it's always cranky... My friends and I have also been known to describe ugly women as Bashguards ... Pedaling ass around town could be another way to describe urban trials...

Don't tell them it was used for trials unless they ask though ... Or you could go with the honest option of coming clean and admitting it was used for trials and asking for a discount on a trials hub instead of replacing with the same hub again (That's what I'd try)...

It's true - you can buy skill if you spend enough money on your bike ... That's what I tell anyone who asks anyway - it's always the bike, never the rider ...

I tried a formula ORO K-18 on my bike for about a month - based on the same brake on other people's XC/DH bikes it should have been fantastic, and on occasion it had great bite and hold, as well as decent modulation - only problem was one of the piston seals leaked oil really slowly from new onto the brake pads, so the brake would work for a few minutes after being sprayed with water and then turn to a howly bite-free mess. I'm guessing it's poor quality control, but that is the first brake I've ever bought new that had any issue like this out of the box and it may be because the brake is held locked on for long periods compared to XC/DH use. On an XC bike the leaking fluid is more likely to get cleared off my mud/water spray, so it's less noticeable too. I've fitted a Louise now and it's fantastic, loads of hold and enough bite for front wheel landings and wheel swaps even with a 160mm rotor on a stock bike (However it's not like I'm gapping 6 feet to front wheel or anything). I'm still not sure about disks for back brakes though, there's something very reassuring about a well ground rim and maguras, even if they do need to be fed brake pads regularly ...

Have a look at this: http://vimeo.com/1831788 Now everyone should feel crap at trials ... It doesn't matter what level the pro's are at these days - they're so far beyond the risks I'm willing to take and the skills/coordination I have it's only of academic interest anyway (But it does make for good video), it's all about whether I can do something I couldn't do before or do something I can already do but smoother, more precisely etc.

That's how motorbikes are generally laid out - the most expensive part of that bike is more than likely the engine. Having to customise the engine to output drive on the other side is pretty much certain to be more expensive than using a different disk mount at the back.

It's a left hand thread for the lockring (Assuming it's put together the same way as other freewheels I've used).

Here's one ...

Does that mean that if you're cycling a normal bike standing up you're not in control of it or does the saddle have mystical powers... Sounds like you've fallen victim to the general ignorance of the public - only problem being this was someone in a position of power who didn't know better. Were you swerving all over the road at the time ... I'll echo most other people's comments though. Just agree with the cops, make sure they see you're not out for an argument and continue as you were once they're gone - same as most of the criminals do really ...

Are all the spokes the same length? If by every 4th spoke on the disk side you mean every 4th spoke hole in the rim and every pulling/pushing spoke laced to the disk side I reckon you might have one cross less on that side of the hub. If you've built wheels before all that will be obvious though, so unless you have some spokes/nipples the wrong length and the rest of the spokes are the correct length then it should all work...

I like the syringe one ...

Fronthopping forwards is still wrecking my head - hopping backwards because my weight isn't far enough forwards is easy enough, but I can't get my head around hopping forwards (In no small part because my weight isn't far enough forwards I reckon). As for breaking the fork - sometimes the fork isn't the problem This may not have been designed for trials use of course - but very little available at the time and on my budget was ...

Do a search - most people link the use of these hubs to a requirement for reconstructive dentistry in your near future. A friend of mine had his one fail when the ratchet ring came loose in the hub body, allowing it to spin forward even with the freewheel engaged. It was replaced under warranty and the new one is working fine so far (Though the frame was retired a few weeks ago when a brake mount ripped off). Chris King are the standard all trials hub aspire to, I run an ENO freewheel and a fixed rear hub and I trust this setup completely.

It doesn't - the stiffer it is the higher the resonant frequency, and if the frequency is above what we can hear there is no vibration as far as most people are concerned.

If the figures given for current CO2 cartridges are correct, they hold something in the region of 6000 PSI - based on the information here. If the cartridge has a volume of 20 cm^3 and holds 16g of gas (Molar volume 22.4 litres, molar mass of C02 is about 44g/mol), it's internal pressure will be just under 6000 PSI - I'm pretty sure the gas will be liquid at this pressure, so the pressure won't be this high in reality, but it will contain an equivalent amount of energy. The reason it can be gotten away with at all is that the cartridges are built with a massive factor of safety...

Yellow on white isn't a good colour choice for the logo as there isn't enough contrast between the colours to allow them to be easily read. Unless you're looking for very understated graphics or your background colour is dark rather than light something with higher contrast would be better.

There are a lot of variables involved in how a brake feels and works, so saying yes or no to a brake booster (Not to mind the type of booster chosen, frame, pads or brake) is never going to have a definite answer (That'd be why most people gave the setup they used when saying whether it worked or not). As for arm pump and whether it's improved or worsened by a stiffer brake based on cycling off road with a rigid fork, just holding onto the bars gives arm pump because your arms are always being moved/vibrated by the bumps you're rolling over, so there's a constant change in the tension in your arm muscles, particularly the ones that allow you to grip the bars. In trials the movement is usually from hopping to stay balanced (One off big moves seem to make no difference to arm pump). If the brake lever is stiff enough that your braking finger doesn't move a lot relative to the other fingers as you hop around with the wheels locked, the tendons in your arms should take less of a hammering, reducing brake pump. The other behaviour that could be occurring is that when the lever comes to a reliable dead stop, you can set it to bite nearer the handlebar and know you'll still have full brakes. This means with the wheels locked all your fingers can be curled near the bar and you can have the brake lever sitting nearer your knuckle, giving you more leverage over it, reducing the tension in your arm muscles from holding the brake. I don't know enough anatomy to know which is more likely to be right (Or if something entirely different happens).

Not the same as asking what age you are . There should be a 17 to 19 and a half option for me to correctly answer that one in the best traditions ... If you want something novel, a rechargeable canister would be an interesting idea - use a shock pump to take an empty cartridge to 300PSI (20 Atmospheres) before you go out cycling, so you can inflate your tyres quickly while you're out. To get the tyre to 30PSI you'll have to have a 300PSI reservoir with a tenth of the volume of the tyre though, which definitely isn't compact . The important thing for this device to be used in trials is toughness - part of the reason I'm slow to use compressed gas cartridges is the (miniscule) risk of explosion if you do land wrong on one (It'd have to be very wrong, but given it'd potentially be in my pocket, the shrapnel/freezing from the sudden expansion could be nasty). Also I don't puncture very often on any bike (XC or trials) I use, so this would be sitting unused for a long time between uses, so sealing the elements out is very important.

Your picture of the Tuf Guy actually proved my point - everything breaks, but steel forks tend to bend rather than snap, so they're less likely to kill you in the process ... I've broken/cracked a lot of steel forks and apart from a couple of steerer failures back in the 1" steerer tube days they've all creaked, flexed and bent rater than snapping without warning like the urbans I broke recently.

After slapping a 4 bolt control booster on my echo control frame, the performance of the brake didn't change noticeably in terms of bite/hold. The feel at the lever though was much better - the lever pulls to the point where the pads touch and then it stops almost dead. It makes it easier to release the brake predictably when I'm kicking across gaps as well as reducing arm pump (I find arm pump is caused/exacerbated by your finger flexing the lever in and out as you hop around, so the less the lever flexes the less your arms tend to pump).

If you're a 90kg+ fatty like me who doesn't ride very smoothly, you have very little choice but to accept that forks (And everything else) tend to break every so often ...

Shit... How old were they?

How long did it take you and did they snap suddenly or bend first? I can almost hear my dentist rubbing his hands in glee in anticipation of nasty fork failure related crashes in my future ...

Get a steel fork then - even if it does break, it'll tend to give you some warning through creaking/flex rather than the first thing you know about the fork being broken being when you're picking yourself off the ground... I got an Onza Tuf Guy to replace my snapped Urban - geometry feels exactly the same, weight isn't noticeable either.

There's an EX729 from Mavic now as well - its 29mm wide rather than the 21mm (Internal width) for the D521. Possibly worth looking at if you like Mavics. If Mavic started making rims in the 40mm width territory they'd make an absolute killing...