psycholist

I have 30 psi in each end on my trials bike and pinch flat less than once a year. Depends how big you're going too though...

Isn't Albuquerque where Bugs Bunny keeps making wrong turns? ... I reckon part of the reason trials is bigger in the UK is because there aren't a lot of BMX parks, so people who like more extreme riding and live in cities just ride on what they've got around them. Anyone who thinks trials is small in the US should try Ireland though. I know or know of possibly 8 trials riders in Ireland (And I got 3 of them into the sport) - that's 8 out of 4 million, so the sport is pretty obscure here. The only one who's really good moved here from Poland last year, where they have better facilities for trials riding... Come to think of it, if it wasn't for the internet I'd have no idea how big the sport is at all... The good thing about the small numbers is that the cops have no idea what to do when they see me out hopping on stuff so they tend to just leave me at it. Part of this is that I tend to go pretty light on the bashguard, so I don't leave damage after me like a lot of BMXers/skaters and don't give security anywhere hassle if they do tell me to leave. I reckon though that security's issues with trials riders stem more from a general fear of any group of 'youths' collecting in public. I don't think I qualify as a youth any more at 28 though... I still cycle mostly alone as nobody locally is anywhere near my (mediocre at best) level, so I spend group cycles showing people how to do things and teaching technique or suggesting ways to manage lines they're looking at using the ability they have. It's educational for both them and me, but doing that all the time won't get me fitter or better at trials.

A lot of the work to lift the back wheel in bunnyhops is done by the handlebars. The trick is to move your feet out of the way of the bike as it rises while still keeping it under control. Same as required with a skateboard where you can't really brace backwards into the board to add to the lift, so it's all about getting your feet out of the way to allow the board to come up rather than lifting it directly with your back foot. As a quick demo of the forces involved, stand in front of your bike and pull the handlebars upwards and towards you suddenly - you'll see the back wheel lift. If you pull them up higher and push them down very suddenly the back wheel will lift more (This is more like what you do bunnyhopping). By pushing back into the pedals (By pushing forward on the handlebars while on the bike), especially the one you keep to the back you can add more to this lift. Strangely as far as I can tell the front foot, which is your 'good' foot plays almost no part in hopping like this as force applied backwards to this pedal will try to turn the cranks. To demonstrate lifting the back of the bike with your feet, stand astride the bike, put on the back brake with the cranks level and with your front foot on the ground, push back into the pedal with your back foot and lift the bike up. You'll notice that there's a lot of strain in the back of the lifting leg and you can feel the tension between the handlebars and the pedal. This feels like a lot more than I'd notice while hopping, so this is the reason I would say the feet play less of a part than arms in getting the back wheel airborne. Your legs still provide the initial lift by pushing you into the ground before take-off begins at all though.

Only wheel I've ever folded was an 06 Echo rim... I think that year was just a really bad year for them... There's a video around showing a couple of them getting folded around the edges people are landing on too - very weak indeed. No such issues with the BMF I replaced the echo rim with or the 07 rims on my current bike though...

Usually the US goes to war with somebody when the economy is on a downturn to boost their big industries... They've already tried that option - not sure what they've got left now...

There is a good reason to put the disk mount on the front of the fork. It stops braking forces from pulling the front wheel out of the fork dropouts... There have been some nasty XC and DH accidents linked to this...

Make damned sure you get the 5mm allen key headed skewers though. 4mm head ones can't be tightened enough to hold the wheels on (Based on a friend of mine who used a 4mm set of skewers and had his back wheel shift out of place on hard landings regularly, a problem which almost completely disappeared when he changed to 5mm head skewers)... I used 5mm head skewers on my last bike for years with no problems at all. My current bike has Echo hubs, so no skewers at all.

Mongoose very weirdly were also specifically named as the bad guys in the BMX film called 'Rad' from the '80s, with the evil team owner encouraging the team to take out other riders in possibly some of the worst shot bike racing sequences I've ever seen . Only place I've ever seen a brand specifically named in this sort of context... The 80s were a weird time ... I found the film on google video last year some time...

The bolts holding the wheel in should be tight enough to stop it moving regardless of the chain tensioner position. In practice depending on your hub/frame this might or might not work for you. My singlespeed commuter has no chain tugs at all and the wheel never moves - not exactly trials loading though...

See if you can get a few railway workers to help for a few quid - a friend of mine used to work for Irish Rail and one of the guys on the crew he worked with could carry two sleepers at a time, one on each shoulder... One thing that really annoys me is that the boot of my car can't quite carry a pallet, so I'll need to fit roof bars or a towbar and trailer to transport them - currently my garden has one pallet, a couple of bricks and paving slabs and the slipperiest patio this side of Iceland...

How did the Echo logo survive the anodising removal?

If the chainline is perfect then consider grinding the part that's rubbing. Otherwise try a different length BB axle or a spacer under the drive side BB flange (If the BB has a flange on the drive side and the non drive side BB cup will screw further into the frame to allow this) to make the chainline straight. Getting the chain straight should be the priority.

Sounds like the brakes aren't holding very well. They only squeak when the rim is slipping through the brake blocks, so they should be silent unless they're bringing the wheel to a stop or you're letting the brake off. Certainly backhops shouldn't be enough to knock the brakes loose...

Just never, ever take the bike out while it's wet or even damp. Any moisture on a smooth rim turned the rock green pads I got on my bike from instant lockers to no braking at all. I wouldn't recommend them unless you live somewhere the weather doesn't suck...

Here's a similar discussion for a friend of mine who dropped an XC bike into a supposed reputable shop for work. He never asked me first though. AFAIK the law in Ireland and the UK is very similar on this stuff, so you might find some help there. http://mbul.csn.ul.ie/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3977

A friend of mine did this to the front wheel of his bike. It looks deadly, but if a spoke fails it's a royal pain to replace it as there's a load of interlacing at the hub. You may be able to get around some of the interlacing by lacing the middle spoke of the 3 leading spoke to the opposite side of the hub flange to the other two.

Check the relative efficiencies of bevel gears and chain drive - gears are crappy by comparison, so the only benefit is the potential to increase service intervals or allow drivetrain efficiency to be maintained in very muddy conditions. Have a look at the Millyard DH bike for a far better solution to this problem - full enclosed chain drive run through the rear swingarm ...

The idea with the freehub was to cut threads for two freewheels into the freehub body and have three freewheels (Crappy pick up) but much better durability in the back hub - Axles tend to fail all the time when used with screw on multi sprocket hubs because there's too much unsupported axle at the drive side. Another interesting feature of the drivetrain is that the bike can't be rolled backwards, handy when locking it leaning against things. The idler wheel will allow the chain to be tensioned as it wears without having to move the wheel forwards and backwards as in the singlespeed I'm thinking of modifying for this. I'm definitely not building this as a trials bike - it will remain my commuter...

Have a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro-Direct I'm seeing about converting a singlespeed bike I use for commuting to this system. The plan is to use an old DCD or a Tension Seeker or something similar to supply the idler gear - no significant chain tension is carried in the chain on the idler, so it doesn't need to be strong. The problem is getting a hub with enough threading to allow two freewheels to sit side by side. I'm considering threading the outside of a freehub body (Need to check the dimensions to confirm that this can be done 1.37 or 1.375" diameter by 24TPI seems to be the thread - there are ISO and English freewheels around and I've no idea what the difference is). Something like a Surly fixxer with extra threading would be a good plan, but I'd rather do this very cheaply and the Fixxer is silly money for what it is (Given how much a freehub sells for by comparison) . Anyone tried this? I plan to set the bike up with the forward gear as the high cruising gear, while the backwards gear is for grinding up the hills - it'll wreck people's heads watching the gear change .

Smooth rims are great till you hit one spot of wet and your brakes stop working... My last grind was with a cutting disk rather than a masonry disk I think and it eats brake blocks but works better than anything I've ever used before .

There's so much arcane bizarre stuff involved in wheel building thanks to it being something people pick up through practice, often with no understanding of the engineering behind the design. I build pretty much as recommended by Jobst Brandt in the only engineering book I'm aware of on the subject of wheel building. I bet my wheels would be better if I sacrificed chickens before starting or something ...

The problem with all the geared hubs is that the pickup on the hub takes quite a bit longer than the number of clicks on the freewheel would suggest thanks to the internal gears and clutches having quite a bit of backlash. If a hub was set up with the trials gear being the 1:1 ratio and locking out the planetary gear system in the hub it might be feasible (On Sturmey archers 2nd gear is a 1:1 ratio, but there's still crap loads of backlash in it). Can't imagine many people want the extra weight though...

You know whether it's a half, quarter or full turn because that's how far you turn the spoke key. Aligning the flats of the nipples to the rim means you can see if spokes have started loosening with use because they won't all be sitting with the flats of the nipple parallel to the braking surface anymore. Some loosened spokes naturally will happen to be a 1/4 turn opened from their as built positions and they won't be obvious, but usually where one spoke goes slack more of them will also loosen, so you'll still get a visual warning. For this to work well you do have to account for twist in the spokes. Generally going about 1/8 of a turn past where you want the spoke nipple to go and backing it off to the correct point will eliminate twist in the spokes, but there is a certain amount of feel that will come into play for this. If you have twist left in your spokes you'll get loads of pinging from the wheel the first time you cycle on it. Don't forget to stress relieve the wheel after building too - pretty much eliminates spoke fatigue failures.

It's easiest to back off all the spokes to get them slack again, wind all the spoke nipples to the same position on the spoke threads and then put tension back on the wheel, turning each spoke nipple the same amount (Usually a turn at a time until some tension appears)... Start at the valve hole and work around the rim to make sure you do a full round each time. Put the rim tape on as soon as the wheel takes tension - If a spoke snaps it will fire out of the wheel and hit you in the face otherwise...

Sounds like a completely incompetent wheel build. Taking it apart and building it yourself is a better idea alright. I like to line the valve hole up with the logo on the hub for added pimpery. Loads of how to guides on d'internet, Sheldon Brown's site is the first place to try. Without diagrams it's pretty difficult to explain though. There are a few rules to lacing. Lace the spokes that go from the insides of the hub flanges first as they're a pain to put in after the other spokes are laced. Lace the spokes from the right hand flange to the holes offset to the right of the rim centreline. To pick a specific orientation for the hub find the spoke hole that lines up best with the feature on the rim. A radial spoke will line these features up correctly. For 1 cross lacing move one spoke hole over from the radial spoke position, for 2 cross go two holes over, 3 holes for 3 cross etc. The spokes should be angled back towards the radial spoke hole to leave the hub lined up with the rim as required. Once the wheel is laced, wind all the spokes to the same position (Either using the alignment of the end of the spoke with the spoke nipple or so that one thread is visible under every spoke nipple). The spokes should all be slack at this point. To tension the wheel start at the valve hole (So you know when you've done a full round) and wind every spoke a half to a full turn (Depending how slack the spokes are) tighter. Align the flats of the spoke nipples with the rim walls so you know you've got a full, half or quarter turn. This also allows you to visually inspect the spokes for loosening. I haven't seen some of this advice printed anywhere, but I've been using it to build wheels for the past 7 or 8 years. I have yet to have a wheel build fail on me (I've worn through a lot of rims and killed a lot of hubs though)...