bundee80

That first frame is a Slate. Indeed, it is custom painted in the Akali paint. He's a distributor for Rockman and has some good pull with them. Rockman has done some custom paint jobs on the Kortz II also for a few guys.

Thanks for the words. I am using snail cams. I had to make some spacers, because the ones that came with the rear hub were too wide and wanted to have them just in case I decide on going back to vertical dropouts. I love the front tire. I do mostly urban, so it works perfect for me.

Here it is. I've already upgraded the rear tire to a Der Kaiser and have a new front wheel. I may make some other adjustments such as going to front Maguras - but the BB7 is dialed and I have a Hope sitting around too. Definitely new pedals, though. I'm having a hell of a time with the rear Magura mounts not going high enough, so I had to go from Echo TR mounts to the stock ones with the washers. Ghey. Otherwise, I'm loving it. I was riding a +60 GU before this, and the Meta geo feels pretty similar except lighter on the rear wheel. I don't want to grind the rear wheel, just because it looks stealth, but I'll kill myself if it gets wet. Thanks to pav for the frame, and props to Tarty for a whole bunch of integral parts. You guys rock!

I second this idea. (No offense to the TF'ers). It would just be nice for classified postings.

Try the Wiki area... Bleeding Magura Brakes Instead of using oil, just use water/antifreeze.

I first got into MTB in 1994. Rode for about a year and in the meantime, picked up the movie, "Tread." Epic. That was the first time I had seen Hans Rey or trials. Rode pretty seriously for a year or two after that, getting picked up by a demo team. Once I started driving and smoking, things slowed down. I had a couple of resurgence moments when I met Reed Merschat when he started filming "Revolution." I was with him and Ryan Leech on the ride in Portland. (Still bummed I didn't make the final cut.) I pretty much didn't ride for 10 years between 1999-2009, but I always had a stock bike built just in case. I'd go ride randomly about once a year when the itch came about. This latest itch came from seeing D-Mac's April video on an aviation forum actually back last summer. Thankfully, I actually had the funds to get back into it...

Listen to this guy...

It kind of depends on how you ride. If you like your front to be off/on, tar is the way to go. Grinding tends to have much better modulation, albeit if you have magical tactile sense, you can modulate with tar on your rims. BTW, try using some punctuation... I almost got a seizure reading your post!

LGM...that's what I meant. 160mm rotor, so not huge. I figured rotor sized WOULD make a difference but not that much difference. I guess I'll need to upgrade and upsize.

for the life of me, I CANNOT get my BB7's to lock consistently enough to do gaps to front. Does the rotor have much to do with it? Pads? Pads and rotor are brand new a few months ago, and I thought I broke them in ok. I'm using an XTR lever, just changed to new slick cables and housing. The feel is $$$$; the lock-up is $. As far a tar vs. grind goes, I've just started grinding, and it works really well. I'm old-school, so I remember when tar was the only way to get a really good lock. I still use tar in the summer when I'm too lazy to grind. I need to get some new pads though; they glaze up pretty quick in the wet. What's the advantage of CNC backings? Firmer? I'm thinking about the TNN CRM set-up. Anything close to comparable for the wet? I live in the NW, so it rains quite a bit.

Duane! Glad to see so many OTN members here (much to the chagrin of the trials-forum members) but also another fellow Oregonian. I'm kind of in the exact same boat as DaveGT. I started riding in Junior High/High School. I weened off when I started driving and smoking. I just got the itch back last summer and haven't looked back. Glad to be part of this forum now!