chris4stars

haha that was exactly what i was hoping this would turn into!...brought a fair few smiles last year:D

very impressive, the brakeless stuff was huge!

check the pad reviews section! (the topic 2 above this one currently) to be honest, you could get lots of replies and no definative answer...its almost a pointless question in that case, theres just too many influencing factors 1. rims - the type, the grind (harsh/fine?), how well the grind has been applied 2. booster/frame - different levels of stifness effect how well certain pads seem to work, cnc backings? 3. setup - how well its bled? how well its been squared to the rim? 4. maintanance - is the h33 sluggish? lazy slave? recently serviced? 5. personal preference on what a good brake is? 6. how clean the rim/pad is kept - contaminants are one of he biggest influences on a pads performance 7. the batch of material the pad has come from! those are the sorts of factors that you just dont hear about with other peoples set-ups - so how can you really compare? its why the belaeys have been given both rave (by me too) and awful reviews some names do crop up repeatedly - lgms/beleays/cousts/heatsinks etc - if youre going to change, id stick with one of the popular ones....its still as much of a risk whether they will perform as well for you as they do for whoever recommends them

i know its for BMX, but could help for visualising: http://bmxcolor.narod.ru/

after seeing that new triboulat vid im pretty glad i didnt stick with the raw and went for green...fingers crossed!

love the colour too, im hoping mines close great vid, locations were amazing - a little repeatative on some moves, a few more rail rides / technical tricks would be welcomed

recently ive heard only good things about 29ers - in the same way people who try apples also say theyd never go back. lots of raving so there must be something better about the bigger wheel (or the pros outway the cons) Slightly off topic, Im very temped by the new 29er trend mainly because id like this 'antifreez snow bike'!! Lucid Cycles

twas my girlfriends friend who took this vid...such a small world!

i couldnt give you a definative answer to that, but i did a fair amount of google searching when i saw that it was barely working and that did seem to be the general opinion from frame to frame. the skye does have a very thick layer of powder coat though which didnt help i used a full 750ml tub (£15) to get perhaps 30% - 40% of the paint off, and most of that was because i was able to scrape large sections with a knife. that didnt get the welds or tricky bits to anywhere near an acceptable standard. used about 300ml of the 'old' stuff to complete it and get every single last bit of paint off without masses of elbow grease. a scotch pad and the cheapest hard bristled dishwashing brush i could find and it was sorted basically, had i not found the old stuff, i was going to search for somewhere to do it proffessionally. would cost less and save me literally 10's of hours to get the same finish! id not use the new nitromors again unless it was on to get a thin layer of 'wet' spray paint off. ever

I do see where both sides come from, the helmet police can come across as pretty harsh and the vast majority of the time it has no effect on the guys riding with them its still not the nicest of sights to see anyone with a cracked head, or your mate suffereing with the severe effects it can cause after...also, its really not nice seeing the family/close friends of said person if they were to come to quite an abrupt end to me...yes, its completely the riders own risk and its not my worry, but any negative thoughts/worries from myself generally come from how it can effect those close to them if the worse does happen guess it just depends on our experiences on such things huh?

No other place in the UK did the colour I wanted!! even those who did similar needed to order stuff from the US - and that was going to take a while for them as they had to order it with a group batch

last time i had issue with a pad that seemed to loose all performance it was due to some contaminant on the pad (not necessarily oil)...make sure you give the rim a really good wash and then use your grinder with an old disk on the pads... sounds daft, but it was the only thing that properly cleaned and leveled my pads, done right you will loose barely any material i had the grinder upside down, and used the area close to the centre of the disc. hold the pad firmly and level and let the disc to the work. you'll see a little bit of pad come off on the disc and thats you sorted with (for me) what felt like a brand new pad

lots of votes to keep it raw! didnt expect that.... thanks again for the comments, was hard work but as the scrubs line captured perfectly "nothing worth having comes easy!" well, as much as i agree about keeping it - it does look pretty cool, raw just isnt me. so the frame and forks have been sent off earlier today to get painted and fingers crossed should be with me in 2/3 weeks depending on when they get a chance to do them. may not end up as everyones cup of tea but it'll def be my ultimate bike in the end (as the orange was for danny im sure?!)

ditto...i wonder the same thing even more so with bmxers, sean burns inparticular springs to mind with how big he goes...no idea how there arent more serious injuries!

since the recent ban of the chemical i mentioned, as of dec 2010 paint strippers all over have had to come up with new techniques and environmentally friendly chemicals that do the same job. (all trying to match the qualities of the old dichlo...etc). these newer chemicals may not bode well with your frame 'he' is orange mountain bikes...they do all their painting themselves. it was the guy who does the custom paint jobs who was asking specifically what sort of aluminium my frame was so that it didnt react with their acid tank and potentially damage it or my frame for them to attempt to strip it - i would have had to sign a wavor to accept responsibility if anything went wrong, thats why i did it myself inspired (the manufacturer of the frame and forks) told me that any changes in the look of the frame (like a repaint etc) would void the warranty as they have no control over the standards of how it is stripped etc so - thats a bike company who deal with stripping and repainting only bike frames saying they are not 100% sure nothing will go wrong AND a bike company who painted it in the first place stating they are not 100% confident in the processes used to strip/repaint to me, that suggests, that no matter how 'good' a proffesional stripper is, you cant be too careful. thats why im recommending the guy to only send it away it if they are 100% sure it will be fine *edit - what sort of temperatures were used in the oven? not sure id feel comfortable with that on a frame that takes much more abuse than your regular type

i repeat my point - do not do this unless you are 100% certain that your frame will not be affected by this. some chemicals and some stripping tanks CAN affect your frame depending on what sort of material it is. that is part of the reason why a frame warranty is voided (quoting the manufactures there) and that is the reason i stripped my frame myself. the company im sending to needed to know the type of aluminium before they'd agree to strip it as there can be adverse reactions. it can even effect thier tank as well as the frame. to quote you - "if you do your homework" - nitromors getting weak is down to the lack of the active ingredient 'dichloromethane'. this was banned in both paint strippers for consumers and proffessionals. this sparked off a petition as alternatives are not as good and have more adverse side effects (acid tanks now become more popular). being in the industry, i assume you knew all of that?

im sorry, the stuff i used is the right stuff for the frame. (see the inspired skye post in bike pictures section) - piperfraz, i have listened to advice given to me (by more experienced members) and have been stripping my frame over the last week and the pics suggest i have an idea of what to do the 'old' nitromors contained the recently banned chemical that actually made it work well. the new stuff is rubbish and does barely anything. dont take your frame to any stripping tank unless you are 100% sure that the chemical they use wont react to the frame material. some use acid, others use a nitromors based chemical (its partly why frame warrantys are voided when the bike is repainted)

leave a decent coat of nitromors on for a good half hour or so - so alot thicker than just painted on before using a scotch pad (which is alot better btw) use a sharp knife and gently peel the paint off as you would the skin of a veg of some sort do this until it almost gets down to the metalwork itself then use a credit card or something plastic/bendable/stiff to scrap the paint off without damaging the frame after that then use the scotch pad - with the new nitromors, you'll be there for literally days on end doing the whole thing with a pad

had an blue inspired fourplay for 2 years and it was still in good condition to look at...im not much of a basher so whatever i do to it will last?! so to me, it is worth it - i wasnt a fan of the orange so anything would be better looking at it another way, if youre going to spend 2k+ on a bike, why not having it look exactly how you want for the effective price of a pint every 2 weeks (if i keep it for 2 years say)....the nicer looking bike gives me a decent amount of satisfaction to make it worth while good observation there...they are higher, same rise as the TT highrise bars

when looking for the colour, part of me was tempted to contact inspired and ask if they could do the frame and forks in the team colour! they are very nice....but then i figure that was an easy way out and wasnt quite what i wanted, a little too neon thanks to the other comments, lets hope a colour doesnt ruin it!

fair enough - i ran for a good while though with forks before those with the stem barely clamping on to much more than it is in that pic - there was about a cm or so of no steerer and that never hinted at showing an issue! retrospectively id not use that now, but it was fine the forces involved with the extention as it is just wouldnt effect the steerer, the stem clamp would have to snap before the steerer went if you get me?!

it wasnt extended - that was the length of the steerer before cutting. i cut it, then decided to reattatch when i wanted more rise (after seeing the likes of mr rowlands setup etc) i refer back to the original post i made showing his, im sure its more than mine? and ive seen plenty of others with around 4cm... * edit * just read the post below this - this is exactly what i did with a random topcap i had. only difference is that i used the original cut off piece, and not a piece off another fork so it fit together nicely

going for boldish green - how it'll come out exactly im unsure, but the limey greens against black that you often see on all sorts of things i think looks really good cheers i had that midway through the forks - a moment where i wondered if a orange frame and black forks would suffice! had i not found the old stuff id i was close to caving in. with some vigourous brushing i had a bit splash on the corner of my eye today when i was finishing it off. s**t that hurt! i havnt moved that fast running to a cold tap for a good while

Well, here it is!! Finally finished and riding a treat...love it, its unbelievably stiff and feels more at home on the front wheel that i could have imagined. the pictures dont show how the green changes depending on the light, at times its almost leaf green (for want of a better description)...the photos make it look like a yellowish green and its not really like that?! doesnt do it justice but ah well additional parts to the skye spec are: black hope bar ends (mr marshall, i agree the little details do count ) team green dials on the hope tech levers (thankyou stoozie still for your kind offer) carbon hub spacers on the rear (thanks mark w) carbon frame protector - come on, looks aside, youre going to protect it arent you?! saint cranks custom green paint job (thankyou to orange bikes for doing that for me despite the rules! and jamie williams for the time spent on photoshop helping me decide) huge thanks to the girlfriend who helped with pretty much every aspect of the build and is probably sick of shades of green, bidding on hope equipment at the late hours of night whilst im at work, and helping massively with the financial side of things thanks em another big thanks to tarty for the advice on all areas and all of you forum guys on the numerous posts, luke for decals efforts etc etc...been a massive help (she wanted a mention with all her help with it!)

i agree...theres a recent clip of some guy doing a wall ride to a drop, its a pretty big move and his bb or crank snaps. the clip in slow motion looks dam painful, but shows perfectly how the body just falls straight into the frame swap that for a bar snapping on one side for example? i imagine you have your chest/neck area potentially falling into a snapped piece of bar pointing upwards out of the stem (as your hand on the unsnapped side pushes that side downwards - tilting the bike) i may have seen a vid a while ago of someone snapping their bars mid move, cant remember who it was but it looked like they got off lightly! just not worth the risk in my opinion