Rumplestiltskin

Dob's tend to crack quite easily. Ross McArthur on here cracked a set of their forks in about a week, and a second set in about the same time. Towler had a dob mod as well, but cracked the disc mount fairly quickly. I'd go for an Echo. General consensus is they're stronger.

We're all town centre ish - Marchmont, Tollcross etc. Just get dropped off anywhere in town and we'll come meet you. Usually we start at Bristo square on the Edinburgh University campus so you could also get dropped off there?

You should come out with us - we're regularly out weeknights, and usually have a big day long group ride at the weekend either in Edinburgh, or Glasgow as Rojo said. Just pm me, Jonny, Greig or Chappie whenever you're heading out and we'll come meet you. Rojo and Tam, you guys should come out as well.

Don't know where you get the idea that its one lifestyle or the other at Uni. It's easily possible to study hard and have fun. It's what most people do after all. Contrary to popular belief, the student population isn't split between nerds and jocks. I won't claim uni has been more amazing than any of the other paths in life I could have chosen, but its certainly matured me a hell of a lot, given me some awesome times, let me travel to places I wouldn't otherwise have gone and also given me the time to choose what I really want to do with my life. Some people here seem to think you're locked onto one single career path as soon as you hit uni. Thats totally untrue - I've studied over 8 disciplines in the course of my degree, and only had to make the final choice as to what I graduate in at the beginning of last year. Uni lets you try several different things without the obligation to take them up as full time careers. It gives you a better safety net (in my opinion) than, say, signing up for an apprenticeship, realising you don't like it or can't cope with it, and being back at square one all over again. At least at uni, if you don't like something, you can just transfer to another course that truly interests you without it putting a spanner in the works of your life.

"That's one for the to do list."

http://www.interrailnet.com/ - An excellent site to buy European train passes. It also gives you access to essentially all of the timetables for every train running in Europe, so you can plan your journey almost to the minute in most cases. Passes are either one country (self explanatory) or global (which means the whole of Europe). You buy them for a set number of days, just for example say, 6 out of 14. You get the tickets with your specified start and end days (for me it was the day I landed in Europe, and the day I took off for Britain again) printed on them. You then have six slots in between them on which you write the dates of travel you decide to use a journey on. The days don't have to be consecutive, just within the time period you've specified. The passes work on all trains, the three main types being local, regional and international. Reservations aren't generally required for the first two, but are essential for the last. You'll be using these since you're crossing borders. Before you make your journey you need to book a seat reservation, which usually costs between 2 and 7 Euros, depending on the service and country you're in at the time. Just cos you have a pass doesn't guarantee you can just get on a train at will - nationals of wherever you are will also have booked seats, so if you just climb on, you could be taking up somebodies seat, or there mightn't be be room for you. The trains in Europe are excellent though, so you'll hardly ever get bumped cos they're too booked up. Make sure you write the dates of travel on your ticket before getting on the train - it's called validating the ticket, and you have to do it for most trains, subways and trams in European countries. If you don't validate your ticket you can be whacked with the full train fair. I didn't validate my subway ticket in Berlin, and got a rare ticket inspection. Luckily I sweet talked her or I would have gotten an 80 Euro fine. You can get all this information on the website, and you get a really useful, easy to read information pack with your tickets when they come. None of this restricts your travel though. You can still travel anywhere in Europe, pretty much going where the wind takes you. Just think about your next destination a day or so ahead of leaving one place so you can book your reservation on the train to the next. Locations wise, if you're set on Berlin, research it first. A lot of cities in Europe have "touristy areas" people automatically just gravitate toward because of the concentration of old buildings/museums/pubs or what have you, or are just generally nice to wander around and check out. Paris, Prague, Amsterdam e.t.c Berlin doesn't, and is one of the most f**k ugly places I've ever been. Filled with horrific concrete architecture. You can't just wander around the streets and find masses of cool stuff, cos it's just like any other British city. Its got a zoo, the wall, the Reichstag, Sachenhausen (the concentration camp), but none of these apart from the last is too thought provoking or great to go to. We made the mistake of going there without checking what to do, only to find out after we left, and not having experianced anything amazing, that it's got lots of excellent clubs/bars and a really vibrant night life. It's also super easy to get around using the subways. Amsterdam's great fun. Obviously the red light district is a pretty bizarre experiance. I'd recommend Vienna. I don't know what floats your boat, but I loved it. Tonnes of culture, a really clean, civilized, super friendly city with awesome beer. When we were there they were having a beer festival/outdoor cinema fest which was epic. We also didn't see a single ugly girl. They were all beautiful and under the age of about 30. They must shoot the old ones or something! It's also got a great transport system. You can get a subway day ticket and get to every part of the city using it. Accomodation wise, you're unlikely to find a free hostel unless it's the local homeless shelter. You can get discounted/free stays in some hostels (usually the smaller independently run ones) if you're staying somewhere for a longer period of time, by working on the desk/cleaning for them etc. Otherwise its not going to happen. Europe's not a foreign planet. Would you expect to walk into a hostel in Britain and stay for free? Hostelworld's a pretty sweet site to book from. Booked from it for the past two years and it's been excellent both times.

Really like that, looks like a good quality build. What brand of seat is that you're running?

Well it's the last I heard of him in any kind of mountainbike media - official or otherwise. He was only 20/21 when they did the feature, so who knows. Maybe fatherhood and the real world got in the way and he quit, or maybe he gets out once or twice a week like a lot of people on here with jobs/uni/college etc.

Didn't Neil Lemon have a kid? I seem to remember MBUK doing a follow up on him and he's got a family now.

Rock greens? Super soft compound, but excellent life despite this. Had mine for over a year and they're nowhere near worn down. Squeak a wee bit, but more importantly bite (and then hold) like nothing else I've tried. One problem I've found with them (and noticed with other Rock pads) is the backings seem to be slightly too narrow for the magura clip, so they wobble around quite a bit and can drag on the rim if you've got a slightly squint set up.

That looks amazing. Where do you order those from? I'm thinking about getting one next summer, but haven't been able to find a uk dealer.

Shut up Rob

Sit in front of a computer all day and wish my dissertation would write itself. I'm in the last year of my geology degree, so hopefully I'll end up working for an oil or mining company.

Why would he need a kicker that close to the object, and for such a low object as well? Considering Akriggs standard of riding, I would've though he could've hopped up that easily.

I was pretty sceptical about the paintjobs from pictures I'd seen, but that looks extremely nice in the flesh. Looking forward to the video

Ride bmx's dvd Cassette used it in a section. Don't know about mountainbike/trials films though.

There's a difference between interesting chit chat and time wasting, boring, pointless waffle. This whole topic falls into the latter category. But each to their own. I'm not going to argue about a keyring.

I analyse rocks for 18 hours a day.

Just take it. All that'll happen if you don't is that the council'l cut it off and resell it. I'm not sure if this applies where you live, but up in Edinburgh the council employ a company to collect all the semi dismantled bikes you see still locked up. The company then sorts the good stuff from the crap, then sells whatever it can via its website for knock down prices. My flatmate got a totally minted scott road bike frame for his commuter this way.

No need to get pissy because I pointed out the simple truth - you've managed to crank out four pages of discussion about how much it costs, how large it is (with quoted diameters etc), how large it is relative to a real trialtech bashring, what its weight is, and then moved on to an analysis of certain members financial circumstances. Not to mention the subsidiary thread that's now opened where people are posting pictures of their own keys. Has trials forum gone mad? Its a keyring. Nobody cares what its wheelbase, bb rise or chainstay length is. Regardless of its spec, I'm fairly sure we can sleep safely in our beds knowing it'll stop our keys going awol.

Four pages. It's a keyring...

Just give it a go and see how it turns out? It's not that difficult. I was out a few nights ago and just decided to try it for a laugh. Pretty much got it the first time, and nailed it the second. I think the key is to only spin the bars with one hand, whilst keeping the other in essentially the same position so it's there to catch them when they come back round. I'm right handed, so I spun with my left, and caught them with my right. After that I assume its just a matter of perseverance untill you find the balance point you need to stay upright whilst not holding on to anything...

As plenty of people have already said, a helmet isn't optional when you go out riding, it's something you should be wearing at all times. I never go out on the bike without one, whether I'm commuting to uni or on a proper ride. I've had plenty of close calls where my helmet has undoubtedly saved me from some serious injury, and the ironic thing is that they were all on small walls when I was mucking around. It's not always going to be the massive gap drop that'll get you - you can't choose the time or place you do something silly, or the moment a car pulls out in front of you unexpectedly as you cross the road. Don't gamble with your life for the sake of £40 quid, or because you think it looks daft. Wear your helmets children!

That was actually pretty sweet. Good job getting some rolling camera action on the go, we need more of that in trials vids. What was the song? I remember it being over a section in cassette, but never found out who did it.

Rocks or rocks. It's a tough choice, but I'm going to have to stay at home and write about them, rather than go out and ride them.