[Front Disc Or Magura ?]

I have always run front disc (Magura Louise FR) and its always reliable. You would have to have a fairly hard smash on a wall or rock etc to bend a front rotor. I have hit the front rotor plenty of times and never put a serious enough bend in it to have to stop riding. I have tacoed a rear rotor though! I have ridden a mates bike with a front hs33 and it didn't do much for me.

At the end of the day it is personal preference really.

[Massive Gapping]

Thanks to everyone for the ideas and tips. I would spend the time on the bike before a weight bench anyday!

Not sure if this helps but one of my mate's found if he took off slightly diagonal and gap sideways a bit he could get a lot more distance on his gaps.

I do tend to gap with the bike angled slighly toward my good (right) foot as all the flat spots are on the left side of the rim!

I'm riding the same frame/gear ratio as you and I've been struggling to get past 8 latley since I got a longer stem, with my shorter one was getting 8 and a half. Regarding technique, you want to kick the pedals as fast as possible in the shortest amount of time, and try to go upwards aswell as forwards and concentrate on jumping towards the front of the bike.

Pulling upwards as well as forwards does seem to help too. Does any one else find stem length affects how far you can gap? I run a Zhi 120mm x 20deg and was thinking to get a 130 x 15deg Echo but now I'm not so sure.

[Smooth Rim?]

I bought rock pad greens recently and they worked awesome on my smooth echo rim. Even more awesome after roughing the walls up with a wire brush wheel in the grinder

[Massive Gapping]

How is it that so many of the top riders can gap 8+ feet? Anyone who can gap that far can you please tell me if you could gap close to this distance soon after learning a basic lurch or is it something more progressive developing the strength and maybe better technique to do this? I have been riding trials for two years now and can only gap just short of 7ft, and dont seem to be getting any further! I believe my bike has the right setup... 26' A1 (long frame) 18/16 gear ratio and 11.2kg. Once the tecnique is mastered I can only assume it is brute strength pushing bikes across these gaps? Especially after seeing videos of TRA doing heavy weight training! Are all these guys that strong even though they may not look it?