Heatsink

Edd Potts has PMed me with 22.1mm Thanks for all your replies. This can be locked now

Hi, Just a quickie - Can anyone let me know the outer diameter of their King Fun Bolts for me? [attachmentid=2594] It would be really useful, and then this thread can be locked Steve

This is the Heatsink + Coust combo in the flesh

Nice vid!! I will post some more thoughts later tonight. Great to see from your riding that the CNCed Alu backings and your Coust pads work great together Steve

I'm doing quite well at looking young still, which is a small crumb of comfort! Genetically I shouldn't be going bald for many years, and I think that I'm still sufficiently in touch with the youth of today through trials etc to keep thinking and behaving young! Give it a few years and there will be lots more trials riders in my boat, 30+ with kids, still with a young attitude and keeping the middle age spread under control. I'm looking forward to having some company and exchanging parenting tips! Steve Mrs Heatsink here! He has been an old f**t for a long time its just that he has an excuse now May need to start thinking about trading him in for that younger model

Cheers for all your comments! I have been contributing into my works pension for the past 5 years, although I know that when I retire (they will have raised the retirement age to 80 by then) it will still be worthless! My expectations are realistic though so I won't be disappointed - See you all pushing trolleys at Tescos! Advice to those in their 20s? A decade of so much growth and excitement. I found that when you get past 25, and so are nearer to 30 than 20, those years are where you actually have to remind yourself what age you are. Enjoy it! Life is amazing once you're able to make that jump to supporting yourself and so able to talk control of its direction. You think you're all grown up when you hit 20, but as you go out into the world and live comes knocking at the door, you'll never stop learning and growing. It's great. I certainly wouldn't want to be younger and loose out on my life experiences as a result! I think that the key thing is to remember that everyone fails, and that time is the healer of everything. It's corny, but what doesn't kill us definately makes us stronger! Basically, when you get sacked from that job, or your girlfriend dumps you, dust yourself down, and start to see all the positives that have come from it. In this way you make your own luck Steve

Major emotional crisis happening in the last few days of my 20s.....where did all those years go! Post your condolences here Steve

As long as you consider both up and down tensioning, then you should be able to find a short chain length which allows the tensioner to tuck up close to the chainstays out of the way. Even if you loose some tension from a knock, the tensioner should do enough to guide the chain and so do the important job of stopping it from coming off unexpectedly. Steve

Pete, Give me a shout via email - I've got something exclusive you might be interested in. Steve

Don't forget Heatsink!

To get the overall picture I'd suggest adding some info on the Stem and Handlebar geometry too. This is often the least well documented though! Here's a suggestion for how you could look at some the relative position of your hands and feet on the frame. Place your bike on some flat ground stood up straight and run a tape measure up to the centre of the BB. Do the same for the centre of the handlebar tip. Do these measurements for both sides to check the bike is propped up vertically. Take the BB from the handlebar to get the vertical distance that your hands are up from where your feet are. If you had a wall to touch the front tyre up against, then you can also measure the horizontal distance of the handlebar ends relative to the BB as a datum. Again, measure from the wall to the BB from both sides (to check bike is vertical) and do the same for the handle bar tips. The interesting info that drops out of all this work with the tape measure is the relative postioning of the two interface points you have with the frame, your feet and hands. Steve

I found some Tesco's Baby oil the other day at an even cheaper pricer than the Johnsons stuff- 500ml for 99p! At that price you can indeed buy a few bottles and make sure you flush out the old stuff thoroughly ^ Here it is Steve

Where is that cool pallet playground in Cambridge? Sorry I couldn't make it chaps! Looked a cool ride

I'd ring them myself to check out their version of events It'll only take 5 minutes Steve

I don't think moulded pads will be available until March 2006 or later. This is because to mould pads in this compound I'll need to have some completely new mould tooling which I'm currently being advised on and given costs for. It's looking expensive at the moment which would make it impossible to spring into action for quite a while. The good news is that for now I'm able to hand make pads from the large sheet sample that I have. It does take more time to do it this way, so there will be delays of a few days if people want pads. From the feedback I've heard they work best in the rigid backing set-ups like the Vees or CNCed Magura backings. They are relatively untested in normal plastic magura backings, but I can mount them into those if required. The pad compound is slightly harder than the blue pads, and any refills/pads would have 6mm of material. I can't promise that I'll be happy to keep making the red pads by hand for ever because it's so time consuming. Also I don't know whether I'll ever be able to justify the expense of all the tooling all over again to be able to mould them as a longer term solution. They may never be put into proper production. I'll get some more info on my website tonight about the hand made red pads which are now available due to popular demand Steve

That's correct I've gathered together all the geometry in the news article on my website - It contains some figures not on Mike's site. Steve

Hi Alex! Mike and I have been emailing back and forth like crazy these last few days working out the best prices and discussing how to organise custom geometry frame orders. At the moment I believe that Mike is very able to produce custom 26" frames in the same vein as the Sidehop/D-day designs with variations to the geometry. Bikes aroung 24" and 20" geometry would involve some time upfront to develop a starting point for the frame, and I think now is the time that we start to gauge the interest in custom non 26" frames. I'm sure I'll get a few email enquiries about a variety of things and I'll gather this all together to pass onto Mike so he can see where it would be best to invest some time and money. I'm making no secret of the fact that I've already suggested that a 24" bike would be perfect for the UK market. We're talking about a bike to plug the gap left by the demise of the ET replica. A proper street based design designed to take a seat! I popped Mike some typical geometry and once word spreads that it's being considered, I'm sure we'll be able to measure how strong demand would be for that. If any more people are interested in custom mod geometry then get in touch and I will keep a tab on suggestions and numbers for Mike. All being well once these first 26" frames are introduced into the UK then a sound reputation will start to be established for MikeBike frames, more people will be aware and get excited of the possibilities for future frame developments, and things will start to gather steam. Steve

Hi, The Vizbikes sticker is on the frame because it belongs to a chap in Poland who was importing Viz parts. The eagle eyed amoungst you will spot the Heatsink booster on the back, and he's also running my magura pads I'm looking forward to gathering together a thorough amount of information and my own photos of all the frame details and getting this up on my site during the next week I'm sure that once I've got all the info nice and clearly presented in English, then they'll attract alot more attention. I believe that the stickers can be easily peeled off if they're not your thing too. Steve

Hi, Some extra info: Mike runs a bike frame manufacturing place in Poland, and they have some excellent quality trials frames with upto the minute geometry available at a fraction of the price of many of the frames on sale in the UK. There have been a few threads on this already with more information if you have a search in New Member Chat English isn't his first language, but remember that he speaks better English than we all speak Polish! "Sidehop" The good news is that I'm shipping these frames over to the UK to make it easier for UK riders to get their hands on a bargain. Some first details are on my website....which you should be able to work out if you look at my profile! Steve

I talk regularily with a Polish rider, Lukasz Doton, who rides a MIKEBIKE "Sidehop" frame. He's been bringing my parts into Poland for the scene there. I've heard great things about the MIKEBIKE frames, and you can see video of one in action and photos of a built up bike on Lukasz's site, which you can view in English: http://www.doton.prv.pl/ I've got a MIKEBIKE frame coming in about a week, so I'll be able to give you some 1st hand feedback on them very soon. Steve

I'll tell you in about a week when mine arrives :) Steve

If you're also talking about the lever body and the internals, I'd say that these seem to be well designed since they are very reliable. Compare the rare leak problems with the problematic RB version! One thing I don't like is the way Magura have used non standard tube fittings and hose sizes so that they can protect the control of spares and charge over the odds for them. I guess it makes sense from a business point of view, but some of the spares are being sold at a crazy mark up. Also, when I was putting together my bleed kits I found that they don't sell in bulk direct to shops that don't have a premises, so meaning I couldn't buy them at the bulk price. I questioned whether this was still valid in this day and age to Magura UK in my politest voice, and the bloke became rather curt and rude. Not my favourite dealers! Steve