psycholist

Stainless steel spokes last decades if they're built into a good wheel and not knocked off anything, same with titanium and aluminium though, once the material is kept below its fatigue limit (For steel and Ti) or kept pretty low on the s-n curve for Al you're not really going to see failures. If you're not going to titanium for the pimp factor and your bike isn't already as light as it can possibly be with steel sprockets, there's very little point bothering. If you have loads of spare cash send it to me - I'll find a way of spending it (Blackjack and hookers )... Or you could buy this: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=5157 - I've only heard of one person who's used it for XCing and it wore out a lot quicker than steel chains (I'm guessing because they're only using a crappy grade of Ti or not giving it the right heat treatment). KMC apparently do a 10 speed steel chain that's both cheaper and lighter than the Ti one however... The Ti jet engine blades I've seen (And the reject blade I attacked with a hacksaw - sawed for about a minute before I made a noticeable mark, I was mostly polishing it with the hacksaw rather than cutting) are extremely hard wearing, so Ti can potentially be excellent in wear type applications.

You may have a higher end hub though. Better materials and/or heat treatment possibly. The hub I saw fail came stock on a giant Trance 2...

A friend of mine (Who's nothing like as hard as I am on hubs) has mashed the engagement system on his DT rear hub after under 2 years of XC only use. They're no longer on my list of good hubs. Theoretically they should be as strong if not stronger than Chris Kings thanks to the deeper ratchet teeth. In reality they're made from cheese, so they don't hold their shape. Chris Kings use the pedalling force to increase the force with which the ratchet washers are pressed against each other too, which helps with the freewheel hold.

Based on my experience of Hope XC hub's I wouldn't even rate them for XC use ...

Survey done. I'm in Ireland rather than the UK, but since I'm buying from all the same shops my survey info should be relevant. Thesis writing sucks big time, but it's usually worth it at the end. Get as much proof reading as possible too. I have some shameful stuff in my thesis .

Absolutely spot on Tim! Pigments are called pigments because they change the plastic colour and nothing else of significance. A colour is usually chosen for pimpery reasons or to make it easier to easily distinguish different compounds used by the same company (For either branding or convenience reasons) .

I'd have my doubts about the trials durability, but I mostly posted because I was so impressed with the speed and the quality of the reply. Best reply I've got to a product question I've ever got from an online retailer. Most of them don't even want you to see inside the hub before you buy - shows a certain confidence I think...

I contacted Superstar about the rear hubs and got this reply: Pictures: Still not too sure it would work for trials, but one may be appearing soon on my Giant Trance ... That they replied to me with pictures in less than a day is also way above and beyond what I've come to expect from any other online retailer .

...That sounds a bit rude :$ ...

I've used the rock green pads on smooth rims and they're fantastic provided you never ever get them wet (Much like Gremlins then...). In the wet/damp they have no stopping power at all.

That BB looks like they've cut away a chunk of the BB axle cross section, making it as weak as the square taper axles again (With stress risers where the slot fo the bearing race is cut in the axle. If the bearing race is part of the axle and the red highlighting is just for display purposes then it's fine . The Chris King has two plates with radially toothed faces that push against each other with one turning with the hub and the other with the freehub. The helical gear bit you can see is the edge of the plate that turns with the freehub, so pedalling forces act to push the washers together more firmly. I haven't pulled one of these apart though, so can't say for certain. The picture is class for the expensive shinyness factor alone anyway.

Here's another hub that might be of interest (Probably not trials rated, but 120 engagement points same as i9 hubs): http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_inf...;products_id=81 The same website does some very cheap trials Magura pads too. I paid discobrakes twice as much for the red ones shown on the website and they're fantastic (If very loud).

The point I'm making is that the XTR crank is hollow, so if you land on the cranks, especially if the sides of the crank arms hit the corners of things, you'll kink the crank walls which will significantly weaken the cranks, leading to failure. If you're a sponsored rider then the cost of replacement cranks isn't an issue. If you have to pay for the parts on your bike you're better with something else unless you're unbelieveably clean over obstacles...

No question, but he's also given new cranks every time he trashes them - the joy of being sponsored ... Nobody is fool enough to pay me money to ride my bike - possibly because I'm crap...

Ryan is on XTR's presumably. The XTR's will be even more hollow and have even thinner (And more easily dented) walls, making them worse than Deore for trials.

This happened my 8 speed SRAM chain after about a year of trials use. You'll never see an XC chain fail through the plates like this one . This chain (And the previous ones) was run with a powerlink which gave no trouble at all. The Wippermann Connex chains are about as strong as the SRAMs, but I snapped a connex link, so wouldn't recommend them for trials. The chain rollers were all mashed by the time the chain came off too...

To go back to the point - square taper BB's (Shimano XT) take a lot more mileage without failing than ISIS (Except possibly the SKF ISIS ones that cost 2 or 3 times the cost of an XT). Square taper BB's do tend to snap after a year or so though (I don't go big, but I weigh at least 90kg, I've never snapped an ISIS on my trials bike, but I killed the bearings on the ISIS BB on my XC bike in months - replaced it with a Octalink Shimano XT - not the hollowtech II's which last worse than ISIS if you put miles on them)... So to conclude - for XC/mileage, square taper is best, for trials, especially if you're heavy, ISIS is the best. As for Ryan Leech's setup - if you like to put the cranks down occasionally hollow Shimano cranks may not be the way to go. Here's a sawn up Deore crank to give you an idea how thin the walls of the crank are: If you put a dent in the cranks they will fold on you. This crank was retired because the pedal threads pulled out of it - this seems to happen Deore cranks after a few years but not XT's...

Hold the brake block on the piston that's not lazy against the rim and pump the brake to force the lazy piston to move. If it's only slightly stiff that can often be enough to sort it.

Try asking at your local post office. I think Royal mail have a parcel delivery service too and it's pretty competitive. The other option is to try haggling... Ask your local bike shop what courier they use for stuff too - if you know them well they might be able to piggyback your parcel on one of their orders or at their discounted rate...

I think it's the Alfine groupset from Shimano that has a 9 tooth sprocket at the back.. It's designed for folding bikes, so trials is pretty much guaranteed to snap it. There are some BMX drivetrains with 9T sprockets too AFAIK, again I'm not too sure they're strong enough for trials, but they might be. It's always better to go with the biggest sprockets you can as this takes a lot of stress off your chain (More teeth means load is transferred by more rollers, bigger sprockets means less tension for a given crank force)... The only reason to go with small sprockets is to save weight, and saving weight at the expense of a chain that's more likely to fail probably isn't all that wise...

Kevlar bead tyres (The folding ones) are lighter but more expensive. Makes no difference to the performance of the tyre. The weight saving is nice though. You'll appreciate slow rezay and dual ply casing more (These features are possible with either bead type) thanks to the increased grip and puncture resistance...

There's loads of options including some of the more obscure manufacturers with pictures here: www.discobrakes.com

Presumably you've a mechanical hayes disk caliper? This is set to work correctly for a 160mm disk if fitted to a post mount fork (Post mount is where the caliper mounting bolts point into the fork leg). If the fork has an IS mount (Where the bolts are parallel with the front axle) there will be an adaptor from the caliper to convert the post mount to IS to allow the caliper to be connected. This is still for a 160mm disk. If you want to fit a bigger disk you'll need an adaptor that moves the caliper further away from the fork so the pads stay lined up with the disk braking surface. Each adaptor should say what sized disk it's suitable for. Since all IS mounts and all post mounts are to the same standard, any adaptor designed to convert from one type to another or for a particular disk size will work provided it doesn't interfere with the particular geometry of the caliper you have - buying an adaptor with the same brand as the caliper guarantees this won't be a problem.

It looks like a retro direct with a shifter as well... Seems a bit daft, mostly because the shifting seems to be on the tensioned side of the chain, so everything has had to be reinforced lots to keep it together.

Next question is what chainline is it set for - it doesn't look to be adjustable in any way. Given that it's for running with certain of shimano's geared hubs, it's probably about the same chainline as singlespeed bikes such as BMXes...