Lilley
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Posts posted by Lilley
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Bump!
Hihihi. I'm currently in Brisbane, Australia for university. (recently completed my military service)
I've been in Brisbane for a week now, and would like to know if there are any riders here. To be specific I live in St Lucia.
Yep there are plenty of riders in Brisbane, though a couple of the regulars have just moved or are moving interstate
Best ways to get in touch are through the Queensland Bike Trials Club http://www.facebook.com/pages/Queensland-Bike-Trials-Club/289135146951
or on OTN http://www.observedtrials.net/vb/showthread.php?t=29936&page=19
or at the ExpressiveBikes facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/ExpressiveBikes/164929373518281
If you don't do Facebook you can also go to www.expressivebikes.com
Kangaroo Point in the city is your best starting place for an urban ride or Toohey Forest is great natural. If you travel a bit further Springfield Lakes is awesome. I'm down the Gold Coast so if you are heading down this way I would be happy to show you the local spots.
I should add that all the riders in that Pt Elliot road trip video are from Brisbane.
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I had the opportunity recently to talk with Gemma Abant about the trials school they have in Sabadell. They have a local training park where the kids come and ride every weekend and then once a month they might head out to the mountains for a trip away and some time riding natural terrain. I thought this was a pretty good idea, encouraging the kids to practice locally and then giving them the opportunity to travel further afield for better locations.
It would be hard work but maybe if you could recruit a talented/ knowledgeable local rider as a coach and a couple of old learner bikes you could get some local youngsters riding. You wouldn't need to run competitions or events but you could perhaps still create "a club".
I am president of a trials club in Australia and our club was started by an ex moto trials rider Richard Kent who wanted somewhere for his son to ride push bike trials. It was Richard's hardwork that made our club happen and since then others have taken over the mantle. Unfortunately the lessons from this is that if you want somewhere for the kids to ride you may need to be the one to take the lead. I know one of my big motivations this year is the fact that my 5 year old son has taken an interest in riding comps and has even has even had a little go at our last 2 events.
One other thing we are going to try this year is to get kids from the MTB community involved. I do the commentary for the local 6 hour XC races and at at every event their are half a dozen kids playing around on little 20" mountain bikes and BMXs. We often run little mini loop XC races for them and I think they would all love to ride a modified version of a trials course. So this year I plan to set a small fun trials event for them and try and motivate some more participants that way.
I guess this rambling post was my way of saying that sometimes you need to take the initiative a build something new, it might only ever be small but it can be very rewarding.
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Nice work, I really love to see a passion project of this kind. Resources like this exist for other cycling disciplines and can be very useful for parents taking on a "coaching role" with young up and coming riders, especially if they themselves don't have a back ground in bicycle trials.
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The 5-10s are extremely popular with the natural (and street) riders in my local area. The 2 best models are the Freerunner (which I like myself) and the Chase. Both are excellent, with grippy soles and decent pedal feel (unlike the DH models). If you are used to pixie boots you might initially miss the ankle protection but people seem to make their peace with that pretty quick. Heaps grippier then the Ribos.
We all ride them and are happy to pay retail for them so I think if you are getting them free you will be super pleased.
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As Mark says there is something special about a print magazine. I subscribe to Trial Inside magazine and even though my French is terrible I love receiving my copy in the mail. Being able to browse the pictures and articles at the breakfast table over a coffee is so much nicer then staring at the computer screen.
Unfortunately putting together a magazine is a lot of work so unless you have the skills, time and are prepared to throw some money at it for the love rather then financial gain it is going to be tough getting something off the ground. That said most things in our sport exist because of people with that passion. DVDs like Trials Is Dead and GET 2 are passion projects for their creators, maybe one day someone with a passion for print will do the same with an English language magazine or perhaps an annual.
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You need to post up some pictures.
Also did you buy a complete Echo or just the frame?
Rear hubs, sprockets, cranks, freewheel spacers etc can all effect chainline. You talked about using the parts supplied by echo but I got the impression from your post you had only purchased a frame kit not the complete bike.
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PM sent
I have plenty of axles made up to suit the 116 hub.
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That's kind of the point of him including wages
And mark, cos multi quote doesn't work on the phone, surely sponsoring riders and events and suchlike would also be a business expense? That's the point... Profit is wasted money unless split into dividends (which should happen anyway to the shareholders which in my case is me) or reinvested into the business.
Or maybe my business a level, accountant and experience are totally wrong...
I guess the point I wanted to make was that after expenses a business (Rockman, Tarty, my own) needs to make a profit (doesn't need to be a huge one), what they do with this profit through creative accounting, reinvesting, donating to charity or distributing to shareholders is up to them. I just know from experience that if your business is only breaking even it only takes one unexpected change and everything can start to look very bleak. A clever business will find ways to give back to their customers through things like event sponsorship and as a result their customers will be happy to keep them profitable.
There is certainly a balancing act here, overcharge for your products and your customers will soon desert you. To return to the orginal post if to many Rockman parts become available on Ebay under other brand names then they will need to innovate or loose their market share.
lol lets face it money is what makes the world go around
Very true, we could always become freegans but I would rather ride on bins then forage through them so I'll stay in the economy for now.
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And how much profit do tarty bikes make just by selling the bits on?
Well they probably make enough profit to pay the wages, rent, electricity, website hosting, freight, increase stock levels, invest in workshop tools etc. Hopefully after this they also make a profit which will keep them in business for many years to come.
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I had an Echo 24" that I got when they first came out. It was an excellent bike. I've always liked long mods and shorter stocks so the Echo felt like the perfect in between (as you would hope). I've since sold it but I would certainly recommend it for anyone struggling to find that happy middle ground. Mine was built from frame with a mainly Trialtech spec. The only thing I should have done was make the front end slightly higher with some Trialtech High Risers and I think it would have been perfect.
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Recently one of our demo riders set up his Inspired Fourplay with dual TR discs specced with Hope Pads and Hope Rotors and he has been very happy with the performance to date. My feeling would be to go for the Hope pads.
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For me it is all about building bikes in different ways and the fun that comes from that.
Of course you can ride any bike brakeless, just like you can ride your mountain bike single speed by not changing gears. However when you set up a trials bike brakeless or an XC bike single speed it changes the way you ride. Whether that is for better or worse is a personal preference but I reckon the variety is always fun.
I had my Inspired Hex brakeless when I first got it, now I have brakes on it. Changing from brakes to brakeless makes it feel like a completely different bike even when all the other parts stay the same.
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3rd picture down is almost too green, but looks amazing. Love the rims, they complete it
Love the Kermit avatar popping up as the first reply.
I guess he knows "it's not easy being green"
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Rocking the vintage EXB stickers.
New ones are in the works.
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I will have a similar problem in about 18 months time as my missus and i are moving to Adelaide/Murraybridge area. Anybody around that area?
This spot is about 90minutes from Adelaide. Hope you like rocks.
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I will have a similar problem in about 18 months time as my missus and i are moving to Adelaide/Murraybridge area. Anybody around that area?
Yes there is a great bunch of guys in Adelaide, they organise weekly rides and do quite a few demos. They organise their rides on the Adelaide thread in the Aussie section of OTN. Stu and Lindsey are the guys to speak to.
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As mentioned Sydney will be your best bet of regular rides on some awesome terrain.
If you head further north to Newcastle and the Hunter Valley you will also find some guys who now run regular comps. Well worth a drive.
Otherwise your 2 big scenes are Queensland (Brisbane) and Victoria (Melbourne). Both places hold about 6 comps a year and there are a bunch of good spots and good riders.
Other then that there are small groups of riders scattered around the country.
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TNN now sell the clamps for the integrated booster system aftermarket. Drop your local TNN stockist an email and see if they have some yet.
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Yes the ACCC has banned them from making unsubstantiated claims in Australia but they can still be sold. In fact we were doing some demos on the weekend at a triathlon in Melbourne and noticed the guy sitting across from us at the cafe was from Power Balance. This made me laugh for 2 reasons:
1) He was the only person at the Triathlon smoking, I guess he felt that the bands also helped improve diminished lung capacity and prevent cancer.
2) At a triathlon last year they gave some free samples to my riders and the promotions manager was saying he would love to have us do some trials demos for them. However afterwards I was discussing how I thought the bands were fake with another rider and slagging them off in general, I didn't notice the people sitting next to us who turned out to be the Australian owners of Power Band. Strangely they haven't asked us to do any shows for them. Oh well at least I have my principles.
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I noticed both Stan Shaw and Mark W have had products for sale in the second hand section recently, maybe that is the next best thing for you.
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Is 27 to old be getting bike into the sport?! Been having a real itch to get back on it! What do you guys think?
Of course not, 27 is young but even if you were 37 or 47 I would say give it a go.
All riders regardless of age need to ride within their body's limitations and capabilities. Trials is a great sport because it has so many different elements, speed, power, technique and decision making all play a part. As you get older your body may not respond in the way it once did but that doesn't mean it no longer works. Ride to your strengths and have fun.
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Maybe set yourself aside 5-15minutes or so in every ride (or everyday) to train balance. You should be able to do this without getting to "bored".
You could get a long piece of wood to put in your garage and practice skinnies on that when you get home from work every night or try working on wedge type balance up against the wall of your house or between some walls and pallets.
This should help you basic balance and then you can start integrating it with your power moves (sidehop to skinny ride for instance) and probably find it becomes an enjoyable part of your riding.
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Trial Inside is a magazine as well as the website. It is French so if you are like me you might have to brush up on your high school French but it is still very cool. I think issue 8 has just come out. They have great photos, bike reviews, tech help, comp write ups and more.
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Am I right in thinking I should just be concerning myself with dialling in trackstands, rocking and hopping to begin with?
Edit: Ps Lilley - that pic makes me so glad I've got a kid.
The basics are crucial but don't bore yourself. If you feel the urge to try some other stuff as well go for it, it is all about having fun. Just keep coming back to basics.
The kids are great, I'm sure they will "rebel" as teenagers and get in to something like Triathlon or Fixies but at least I can ride trials with them now. I am lucky as well that I do get to ride with my mates without the kids as well so I get the best of both worlds.
Janine's New Bike
in Videos
Posted
Over the weekend I grabbed some training footage of Janine "J9" Jungfels on her new bike with a brand new buildkit thanks to her generous sponsors at Trialtech.
http://youtu.be/5KtSbQWks8Q