psycholist

Get someone to record you on video (Preferably with a proper video camera or something that has a decent frame rate - not a phone camera, though this might still help) and look at the move you make, comparing it to the big sidehops you see on other videos. TRA recently posted links to some fantastic HD video of him riding - this should be an excellent source of near biomechanical perfection in doing this move ... Compare what you're doing to what he's doing. If you know anyone who can genuinely sidehop 10 feet I'd love to see that being done ... Are you pushing on the pedals to lift the front wheel initially? If not you're close enough to the limit of sidehops done with the brakes full on at two feet. The timing is crucial for this all to work. I doubt if I could clear 3 feet, though I haven't devoted time specifically to high sidehops in a while, so they're a bit rusty at the limit anyway. I'm messing with sidehops starting from the back wheel and to land on the back wheel at the moment.

I like my Echo Control a hell of a lot. Been riding it for less than a month and I'm already noticeably better than I was on the Echo pure (2005 probably) I used before that.

What bike are you using now and what geometry is it. Measure from the centre of the BB to the centreline of the top of the steerer tube, the wheelbase and the chainstay length. Then decide what you like/don't like about your current bike and what geometry/component changes will be needed to sort it. That's how I picked my new bike...

Avoid radial spoke lacing unless you're unbelievably light and smooth (Though since you haven't broken the last wheel and I've made shite of the same hub with XC only use, you're probably easy enough on them). Unless the data on the hub specifically says it's designed for radial lacing it isn't. Radial laced spokes have very little hub flange to support them (Tangential laced spokes pull at an angle to the radial line from the hub and therefore have a lot of extra material to support the spoke head) and hub flange failures are particularly common in Hope hubs. Three cross is about the minimum to lace them, but 4 cross is common on wheels for trials, though on most 32 hole hubs 4 cross spokes will lock in the head of the next spoke over from them, making replacing spokes a bit of a pain, but more or less completely eliminating the chance of a hub flange failure as the spokes are leaving almost at a tangent to the hub flanges.

So far both freehubs and front freewheels have been dissed, not really helping I think... A friend of mine got an adamant rear freehub recently and has had no problems (Once he tensioned his chain correctly to stop it skipping). I've been running an ENO since christmas and again have had no problems. Given the threads on Hope Pro II's exploding and that Chris kings need a lot of stripping and cleaning to keep them reliable, the simplest solution is probably to take up a different sport . Nothing on a trials bike is unbreakable, but most of the stuff that claims to be designed for trials (By reputable companies) tends to be pretty good for at least a year of hard use. At least if you know other people using the same parts (And keep an eye on the forum) you'll get some warning if there are known specific reliability problems with different parts.

A more correct version is of course 1.5" * (25.4mm / 1") + 375mm = 413.1mm but the 25.4mm/1" is silent...

On 26" wheeled trials bikes the chainstays are already pretty much as short as possible in order to give the bike the kind of handling required for trials. Factor in the extra 1.5" a 29er will add to the chainstays and the handling will be terrible for anyone under 2m tall I'd say... 375mm is about as short as anyone is making stock chainstays at the moment - nobody makes trials frames with 413mm chainstays (1.5" + 375mm = 413.1mm, the theoretical minimum chainstay length a 29er can have) because that's too long for most people to be able to get the bike on the back wheel easily. A 29" wheel up front like the 69ers use might happen though. Better for rolling through stuff, possibly will be able to get away with a narrower (Lighter) tyre since the bigger diameter of a 29er will make for a longer contact patch of the tyre (Could be a problem on edges and rails though). This however will lead to the need to make longer forks with slightly different offset to give the right steering geometry as well as the design of 29er compensated frames to keep the head angle correct for a headset lower crown that's 3" above the usual positioning for a stock bike, so a lot of effort for a difference many people may not notice or appreciate. There's also the problem that all other things being equal a disk on a 29er will be about 10% less powerful due to the bigger diameter wheel and the possibility, particularly on the short frames, of toe overlap with the front wheel. It would be very hard to make a case for the benefits outweighing the disadvantages I reckon, though a 69er style bike would be very interesting on natural stuff ...

Just remember to clean the disk before trying the new pads. No point in transferring the same contamination to a new set of pads via the disk...

Now that's my kind of shopping ...

Those two bashrings are designed for different cranks. The Tensile one has splines on the hole for the crank while the other doesn't. If your cranks have a spline to match the splined one get that (This is probably the case given Tensile make both). The unsplined ring may not fit over the splines on your cranks - it may also be thicker at its base, so even if it fits it may leave less free threads for the freewheel to thread onto, moving the chainline inwards and risking overloading the crank threads. If you use your bashguard a lot the Tensile one may not be up to the job though as it's a UCI style ring and not intended to be landed on too hard.

The main problem with trying this is that you're going to need spokes of lots of different lengths to make it work. Also have a look at the rim, the chances are every second spoke hole is offset to one side or the other of the rim. This is often needed for the spoke nipples to not bind (Lace spokes from the RH hub flange to the spoke holes offset to the RH of the rim to guarantee the spoke nipples won't bind in the rim). If you start skipping holes at random you'll end up with a weird mix of spoke angles into the rim (It'll look horrible) and the potential for binding spoke nipples. If you've never built a wheel before you'll be completely screwed trying to lace this thing, not to mind true it (I've built a lot of wheels and I would only do this as an academic exercise, definitely not as something I'd trust to use or even trust not to ruin the rim in particular (The hub should be OK, spokes and spoke nipples are cheap). £40 is more than enough to buy a decent rim for trials bikes/MTB/road bikes new - BMX stuff tends to be cheaper I'd have thought, so that rim must be unreal - is it worth buying a new hub for?

I'd be very interested in that video ... Is it youtubed it or on d'internet somewhere else?

A V brake with trials pads should just as loud as Maguras - the ones I've tried are anyway. Maguras or Vees with stock XC type pads will be pretty silent but won't grab very well either (Unless you're using the mother of all grinds and even them probably not). I'm surprised you actually want the brakes to make loads of noise though. I don't mind noise as I lock the brake before a landing, but currently I can't roll downhill dragging my brakes without almost deafening myself. Luckily where I live is pretty flat, but it's still annoying... If you're using a wide rim some Vees will stick out further than Maguras as they're designed for use with quite thin pads rather than the thicker trials ones.

Most of the 4 bolt mounts in trials frames are aluminium. Generally once you have 5 or 6 turns of good thread engagement, about 1/4 to 1/2 turn past what you can tighten it to using the short end of the allen key for leverage should be fine as a starting point. If you do strip a thread it's not the end of the world anyway. Helicoils are your friend . Also grease the bolt threads and under the bolt head before installing it so that frame friction isn't contributing disproportionately to resist the torque you're tightening the bolt with. The grease will also help stop the parts seizing together, not an uncommon problem with steel bolts in AL... The table linked up is for US customary sized bolts. All the bolts on bicycles are metric (Thankfully)...

That's for bloody sure... Though the UK wouldn't really get my vote either, much the same problems as Ireland (Namely similar levels of rain and worse scumbags - The UK is supposed to have the worst chavs in Europe at this stage ) - If I was moving somewhere it would have to be nearer the equator. Warmer with a lot less wind and rain would be good... I consider emigration until cognitive dissonance sets in. If it's really so bad here why haven't I moved? Maybe I do like it here... Then I listen to a few of the rebel songs, you know the ones - the old songs, the ones that'd melt your face, sang by scary unkempt men with wild eyes, red windburnt faces, yellow teeth and hands like shovels in humungous woolly jumpers passed to them from father to son along with about 3 square feet of land that's mostly rocks for growing spuds in (That they're willing to both kill for but mostly end up dying for), that tell in gruesome and excruciating detail how much fun the Irish had suffering all the time (Occasionally due to English rule, but that's irrelevant to song, it's all about the suffering) and I realise things could be worse ...

Go to youtube and look up 'Boro Pat'. This will tell you all you need to know about being a postman. Not sure whether the admins will allow a link to be posted (So I haven't posted one) as it does contain the odd sexual swearword. There's a similarly modified version of Tin Tin around there somewhere too...

Jaysus - I only charge 250 Euro a month rent, have loads of bike storage space and I'm not even anyone's mother ...

Sounds like the handlebars are quite high then - that may be why the front is dropping. If you're using the same movement (Which is likely) you use for your other bikes, the front wheel is likely to end up lower when you level the bike in the air. For a 180 hop it's all about pretwisting over the bike. One thing I can't do is 180 to land with the wheels exactly swapped - I'm always 1/2 a wheel out as I spin more around the back wheel than the front - any fix for this? For the rolling version of a 180, turn the handlebars in the direction you want to spin just before taking off to use a bit of your forward momentum to create the spin.

My holiday is booked ...

Whatever you do don't fall in the trap of selling bits you're using based on new bits scheduled to arrive in the very near future. Every time I've done this there's been some delay or mix-up that's left me bikeless for weeks. I've seen the same happen to loads of people I know too. If the current setup works don't touch it till you have everything you need to leave you with an upgraded but still working bike ...

Given how few people would be interested in buying this adaptor it would probably cost a hell of a lot since there's no mass production economy of scale to be had. It would have to include a washer so that a square taper sized threaded bolt would be able to apply pressure to the splines in the crank arm and hold the crank on. The next question is what material to make it from. If you use aluminium you get a good interface with the square taper BB and lower manufacturing costs. There is a danger the part will bulge due to the taper on the BB axle and possibly damage the ISIS splines on the crank as ISIS cranks are not designed to deal with forces trying to bulge the crank spline in the same way as square taper cranks (This is probably not a big issue though). If it's made well from steel it'll interface well with the crank and the BB but cost more to make (Steel is just plain harder to machine). Steel is the material I'd choose though. I'm guessing the cost of this interface plus the cost of a square taper BB would buy you an ISIS BB. The main reason people stay away from square taper BB's is that they snap a lot more easily than ISIS so I can't see anyone being willing to run one long term as square taper BB's aren't strong enough. Just save your money for a bit longer and change over completely.

Try it and see. What geometry you like is a personal preference thing anyway. I'm guessing it'll feel happier launching off things at speed than with the correct fork and will probably be easier to manual. Depending on what you like to ride on and the style you prefer, it might be better than the recommended fork...

I have Ryanair Dublin Reus flights for 55 Euro return (Not including the charge for bikes). Should be handy enough (Nothing from Shannon airport unless I go via London and the less changes the less baggage handling the bikes will get). Have you contact details for those hotels? I mostly ride street (Though a few nice rocks have been put down for 'landscaping' purposes around where I live, so I'm finally getting some practice on that stuff)... Me and another guy are booked from Wednesday 19th to Saturday 22nd March for Sabadell. Flying Dublin Reus, picking up a rental car and driving to Sabadell. We'll stay in the Husa Valles too. Thanks so much for your help. The location of the park is on google earth at 41 deg 33'05" 2 deg 05'44" - the satellite image doesn't show it built yet though...

After reading this thread and finding the pictures of the park I and a friend of mine are planning to head for Sabadell for probably 4 days of the week starting Monday the 17th March. Neither of us have any Spanish, so this might be a problem ... Found some Ryanair flights to Barcelona, so what's the easiest way to get from there to Sabadell (minibus style taxis would be ideal for two bike boxes ad two people) and where should we stay (With secure space for bikes - preferably allowing us to keep the bikes in our rooms). Are Pat Donovan or Scott Wilson on this forum? If more people are interested in going at this time it'd be really cool - I'm not great at trials, but I'm looking forward to a few days of bike riding on stuff designed to be ridden . The week we're going coincides with the spring semester break in the university I work in, so possibly other people will have holidays at this time for the same reason.

Where is Hook Woods? Google Earth sends me to Vermont Woods near Wokingham when I search for it... That website doesn't seem to have any content past the front page either ... Nothing worse than finding a trials website with a media link that doesn't work ...