psycholist

Hardcore stuff ... I just run my angle grinder over the callouses after I'm done grinding my rims, I find the masonry disks best for the callouses at the base of my fingers, while the metal cutting disk gives the best finish on the braking finger callous. No point in taking unnecessary risks though - make sure to wear appropriate eye protection while using the angle grinder ...

I've no idea how short cranks help balance. Power is torque multiplied by speed, so whether you get more power from your drivetrain or not depends whether your legs like to move quickly or like to produce a lot of force. Generally if you run gears on the high side of the average you run longer cranks or on the low side you run shorter cranks. There's not a lot of difference to the feel of different lenght cranks on bike though. A lot of people run 160mm cranks for ground clearance as much as for any other reason...

If the grip is stiff enough (Not one of the really thin sticky rubber grips) you can use the brake lever to push it off - just loosen the lever clamp and slide it against the grip, this will bulge the end of the grip and unstick it enough to allow it to slide off. This works best with thick grips.

If the Gu's are anything like Echos it'll need a 128mm BB. I ran a 118mm in a Pure a year or so back and the chain rubbed on the inside of the bashguard, but the cranks did clear the frame... Easiest thing to do is put the same length of BB in as before unless you want to change your chainline...

Have a look at http://www.jensonusa.com/ - they undercut EU prices even with delivery included on some things... Here's a list: http://www.jensonusa.com/search/?s=bb+isis...p;btnSearch.y=0

The Echo is a cartridge BB - time to buy a replacement then: http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_inf...;products_id=31 It's the same as the Echo BB but 2/3 of the price ...

What BB is it? Most modern BB's use sealed cartridge bearings, which are not adjustable, so it'll probably need to be replaced. This isn't a big job and continuing to use your BB as it is shouldn't damage anything else, so it isn't that urgent...

Fit a longer BB axle. Problem solved...

That'd be hilarious - suspicious white marks all over your bike and clothes, the cops wondering what the white powder you're carrying around with you is... I'd suggest carrying the talc in a selection of small ziploc bags to complete the effect... Given that while exercising I sweat like a pedophile in a Barney suit I'm guessing talc wouldn't be that effective in my case either...

Stop before your hands start to bleed - it takes them much longer to recover if you do too much damage... All you need to do to tell whether someone rides trials is take a look at their hands - I have callouses under three fingers from holding the grip and a callous on my index fingers from the brake lever as well as noticeably thicker skin on the palm of my hand between the thumb and index finger and down from my little finger. Everyone I know who rides trials has this to a greater or lesser extent. I find that without gloves I can't reliably hold the bars after a while thanks to sweat making the grips slippery. With gloves I have no problem, though it's a good idea to take the gloves off if you stop riding, so your hands don't soften too much before you get on the bike again. I find that Azonic gloves hold together longer than most others.

You'll know when the rim is on its way out when the sidewalls start to curl outwards thanks to being too thin to resist bending from tyre pressure.

I have trials lessons and it's pretty good. Not too sure it's worth what they're asking for it, but it's got some amazing riding. The only annoying thing about it is that the voice overs in English are all in a comedy French accent - presumably the French or Spanish audio would be better... The content of the voice overs is good though and well worth listening to . Watching these riders in action is pretty depressing though - damn they're good ...

Definitely worth giving a go. Only issue I see is that since each frame will be a slightly different shape and you probably don't have a sample of every frame out there handy to fit the guard to, it will be difficult to give the custom fit required for the stiff guards you describe for each person you make a guard for. A way around this may be to sell the kit for making them with instructions, so if it doesn't fit afterwards, the person who bought it is at fault for fitting it wrong...

If you have a spare working caliper just unscrew the brake line from the jammed one and fit it to the working one. If the working caliper has fluid in it you mightn't even need to do a full bleed on it...

Was the rim straight before you started? If yes, then you might need to slacken all the spokes off again and tension again more carefully, if the rim was bent before you started it may not be possible to build it into a straight wheel.

I thought this thread would die ages ago - seems to have a mix of people taking the piss and a couple actually believing what's been said... Some clarification: 1. Helium is a inert gas, a welder will not ignite it (Helium weighs twice as much as a H2 (Hydrogen) molecule, but is currently used in preference to Hydrogen for balloons and lighter than air vehicles because of its inertness). 2. A tyre filled with Helium will lose pressure about 2.5 times as quickly as one filled with air according to Graham's law. It will feel exactly the same in terms of bounciness though. 3. To work out the weight saving, consider that 1 mole (6.02x10^23 molecules) of air at atmospheric pressure and 25 degC occupies 24.47 litres and weighs 23.97 grammes, 24.47 litres of Helium will weigh 4.003 g. At 30 psi (About 2 Atmospheres gauge, or 3 atmospheres absolute pressure) your tyres will contain 3 times the mass of gas they would contain if they were just at atmospheric pressure. The volume of all the tubes of your frame plus 3 times the volume of both tyres probably comes in around the 24 litre mark, so your weight saving switching to He will be about 20g. 4. Sealing your frame and evacuating all the air from it will save more weight than filling with Helium, but this is still negligible compared to the weight saving possible if you just ride trials naked...

Just go out and ride your bike - do you really need a support group? I had a fantastic day riding trials around Limerick with two of the other riders I know (Possibly 30% of Ireland's trials riders there ). One drove from Dublin (120+ miles) and one from Cork (60+ miles)... If I needed to put a group together before I could go and ride my bike I'd never get anything done... If they hadn't been up, I'd probably have done more or less the same thing anyway... One of the big advantages of trials riding is that it's weird enough that people that see you generally don't harass you or if they do they're genuinely curious rather than out to cause trouble. Given that in Limerick city (Also known as stab city, and declared the murder capital of Europe this year apparently) I've never had any trouble in over a decade of cycling there, mostly solo, you probably have very little to worry about...

Sounds like you'll need a new hub - possibly one of these: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=1584 though you can go cheaper...

Sounds like the rim isn't running centered on the hub if that's the case. Unless one pad is a lot more worn that the other they should both sit at the same level in each brake arm. adjust wheel dish (The more common term for rim centering) as follows; 1, Make sure the wheel is fitted the full way (vertically) into the dropouts of the frame - this might be all that's causing the problem. 2. Once the wheel is seated compare the clearance between the rim and the frame (Not the tyre and frame) to see which side you need to move the rim to. 3. Starting at a spoke by the valve hole, work your way around the rim tightening each spoke that goes to the hub on the side you're trying to move the rim to by 1/2 a turn and loosening the spokes that go to the other side of the rim by the same amount until you get back to the valve hole. This should shift the rim to one side without affecting the trueness of the wheel. 4. If the rim is still off centre repeat step 3 until it isn't... You might get further by calling SRAM, but I've no idea what their customer service is like. Finding an email address off their website and trying that might work too - just keep the email brief, specific and polite...

Sounds like your brake pad has toed itself in after you adjusted it. Have a look to see if the leading edge of the brake pad touches the rim before the trailing edge. If this is the case readjust it flat to the rim and the brake will feel solid again (And squeak when dragged in either direction). Toe in is the solution for noisy brakes in normal XC bikes where the brake is mostly used t control speed rather than as an on/off wheel lock ... As for spares, if your local shop does a lot of SRAM stuff they might have spares or be able to order them. Given they're the parts most prone to breaking on the brakes, spares should be available unless Avid isn't bothered selling spares at all.

Provided the spoke nipples get at least 5 or 6 full turns onto the spokes they should be reasonably strong, Having an ideal spoke length means the ends of the spokes are flush with the backs of the spoke nipple, there's at least a mm or possibly even the 2mm you need, of adjustment possible each side of this point on most spoke/nipple combinations. Worth a try to get you back on the road anyway. Worst case you've lost an hour trying this (Which you couldn't have spent biking anyway) and will have to wait for a new rim to be delivered or for new spokes anyway, Best case is you're back in action straight after the wheel build with the spokes and rim you have...

A quick google turned these up: http://www.tartybikes.co.uk/category.php?id=28 Surly splined sprockets are only available down to 13T though (Read down the page)... http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/singlespeed.html

You'll make shite of an 11T sprocket off a cassette in no time. Have a look for Surly cogs though - they might do an 11T, thugh it's a bit on the small side - 11T cassette sprockets don't even fit the full way onto the freehub spline...

There's a big difference between a sponsored rider using a part because he's heavily sponsored by the company and the average trials rider using it - remember Hans Rey and his XT V Brakes in Chainspotting? Given Saint hubs are a lot cheaper than Chris King, it seems a little strange that so many people without sponsorship deals still pay out the money for the King hubbery. If you're after a hub with loud, strong engagement that's not Hope and is about Saint money (probably less) try for a Ringle hub instead. Good reviews, though nobody using them for trials: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Reviews...x?ModelID=12048 Reviews for the more expensive hub aren't as good though: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Reviews...x?ModelID=12039

If you were getting an XTR hub from the year before last I'd recommend them. They only have 16 engagement points, but lasted for years on my trials bike (Last one ran for abut 3 years, freehub has got stiff in freewheeling now though, rather than the ratchet failing like usually happens shimano hubs). I fitted a new pair of XTR hubs (The 36 point engagement hubs released last year) to my Giant Trance about a year ago and the axle in the rear hub snapped after less than a year's use. Saint's use the same setup for their axles AFAIK, namely an oversized aluminium axle with threads cut at each end for the bearing cones - mine fatigue cracked through the threads of the axle by the drive side bearing cone. I've just finished building a superstar superleggera hub onto the old rim on my trance tonight. This is a 120 engagement hub described in the 'New engagement system' thread from a monthish back... Probably not up to trials use, but a beautifully made and finished. If it's a reliable design for XC I'll tell you in 3 or 4 years ...