Swoofty

So here's as far as I've gotten. I managed to modify my Profile 10mm bolt on hub to work with the 12mm through axle as a surrogate wheel until I get my I9 hub. I might be able to get a Shimano crank to work, but it'll have to be a 'boost' version that I don't currently have. The Bonz is on, but trials cranks on a street bike is still silly. Since I had to go with the Bonz, it's 18t and sadly I don't have a 13t for the Profile (stupid proprietary splines!) so now I'm waiting on a 13t cog (or a Shimano boost crankset, hmmm...).

I ran MT5 calipers with an XT lever for a while (rear) and it was fine. Didn't blow me away and I eventually went back to MT5 levers, but like Mark W said, if you've got the parts, might as well give it a go. It's a very easy swap. I put my Shigura experience in my brake review vid, but my final verdict was, it's just another brake option.

As a self professed weight weenie, I was all about horizontal drops for a long time, but I'm totally over it now. Too many bent chaintugs and the ever drifting chainstay length finally got the better of me. I'm not completely sold on rear through axles, but my last 3 bikes have used them so the industry seems to be going that direction. I think the shortest possible chainstay and the extra chain wrap of the newer 2 wheel tensioners makes up for the weight penalty. My vote is solidly for vertical or through bolt dropouts. I hope this doesn't turn into the new 'V brakes vs Maguras" ;-)

Oh darn. That's what happened to me too. But, yes, great customer service. Like I said, I had an out of warranty Torch and they replaced it with a new Hydra hub anyway. Yes, there was the whole unbuilding the wheel and rebuilding it again and the shipping back and forth, but I had a spare wheel to pass the time luckily. Hopefully my Hydras will last forever ;-) How old is your Hydra, Daan?

Sadly I didn't get a deal on this frame as the US dollar is crap right now, but the fully built bike is going for $2700 plus! I'll definitely beat that price with my build and it'll be (almost) exactly the way I want it.

Thanks for the offer, but I'm all good now. Everything I need for the build has been ordered. I've been 'making trials bikes work' for 11 years now and I'll make this one work too ;-)

A direct mount 20t would be fantastic, but I won't hold my breath...

The 91mm isn't the real problem, the offset is. I don't think a 22t and a bashring will clear the chainstay yoke. I'm going to borrow a friends 'Boost' XT crankset and see if it'll work, but I don't have the BB yet. I emailed Bike-trials.com in Spain and they got me a frame in no time. I emailed Serious Connection and TMS as well about it and they never got back to me. Ridefactory.ch has just the frame on their website.

Oh sure! I hadn't considered that. Guess that's why I've never noticed it because my rig is always tight ;-)

Yes, I'm very well versed in the Bonz crankset. The secret is to ditch Bonz' non-drive side arm altogether and use some kind of Shimano arm (SLX/XT etc) with two pinch bolts instead of one. Otherwise, find some 24mm spacers to allow the Bonz non-drive arm to bite more of the crank spindle. The spacer Bonz gives you for the non-drive side is too wide. It looks like this is going to be a 'project' bike so I'll keep the updates coming.

I had an I9 torch hub (I have a hydra now) that didn't skip for over 2 years, but it did start skipping. I tried to convince myself that it was anything but the hub too until I finally put a different wheel on and the noise went away. I'm not saying it is your hub, but if that's a possibility for troubleshooting, you should try another hub/wheel just to rule that out. My I9 torch was out of warranty when I finally sent it in (drivering was slightly cracked), but they replaced it with a brand new hydra anyway. I only have good things to say about I9 overall. I'm waiting for my second hydra hub now.

I've owned both sprung and chaintug bikes, but I've never noticed the slightest difference in engagement responsiveness between the two. Is that really a thing? When you punch the pedals, the 'top' chain does all the work and no matter what tensioner you have, that's a direct link from cog to sprocket with no tensioner in between. I much prefer sprung tensioners now because of the shortest possible chainstay they allow and I think the little extra wrap on the cog some of them allow limits flex in the system too.

The BB is very offset. The problem with the AS30 cranks on a street frame is that they are entirely the wrong application. The AS30s have more than enough room for a bashring and front freewheel and that's way too much room for a single chainring setup used on a street setup. Ideally the BB bearings would be as close to the chainring as possible to minimize the side to side force on the BB axle. The offset BB is completely unnecessary unless you are forced to use the AS30 crankset. I'm gonna try to put Shimanos on it, but failing that, the Bonz splined cranks have less offset than the AS30s and will allow me to run an 18t cog. I prefer 22 - 16 ratio over 18 - 13 on a 24" bike even though the 18 - 13 is lighter. Headset is installed, front wheel built, BB is in the mail, but the rear hub hasn't even shipped yet :-(

Dear god what have I done! So I ordered one of these silly frames, but honestly thought about sending it back once I saw the bottom bracket. So disappointing. I'm now waiting for a BB that will fit, but I'm not sure I'll be able to run my beloved Shimano cranks. Early indications are 'no' sadly. Luckily I still have one of those Bonz splined cranksets lying around so I can run 18 - 13. I had one of the Crewkerz AS30 cranksets in the past and it would be awful in this application so I'm steering clear of those. Very sad to see this BB on a street bike. Hopefully the full build will be fantastic. For anyone else that follows down this treacherous path, here are some useful numbers: BB shell width - 91mm (!?!) BB shell bore - 46mm (PF30 etc) Headset - upper 44mm internal (called 'zero stack' in the US, NOT integrated) lower 56mm internal (ZS56 standard) Headtube - 125mm long Seatpost - 27.2mm Rear dropout - 135 x 12 through axle (same as Crewkerz Jealousy) Frame weight - 1.9 kg

There are definitely other worthy freehub options out there (Industry 9, Chris King, Profile etc) but Hope is by far the cheapest. Crewkerz make a splined disc, but it's 12mm through axle. Echo and Zhi make 135 fixed splined disc hubs too, but you'd have to use Echo freewheel and I'm not sure it they make a 16t. Looks like screw on or a $400 hub is in your future. Also, looks like TMS makes a trials specific 72 click single speed freehub that is 10mm bolt on and only 169 euros, but I don't know anything about it. Good luck!

Here's one of my favorites. Relaxed and awesome.

I've only ridden 9mm drops vs 15mm through on street trials bikes and I honestly couldn't feel a difference. Usually the 15mm hubs are also on tapered headset bikes and you can feel the difference between tapered and non-tapered, but on a rigid fork, 9mm vs 15 vs 20 is pretty indistinguishable. The 15mm + axles were made for suspension forks where the axle needed to be stiffened because the fork legs move independently. On a rigid fork it makes little difference because the legs are much stiffer. However, like Canardweb said, there are some very nice through axle hubs out there. You'll notice a tapered headset much more than a 15mm through axle. There might be some advantage to through axles when it comes to disc brake stiffness, but if you're running rim brakes, no difference.

You got a 20"? Thanks Trump/Boris, you ruined everything... It's probably a K1.2 hellz yeah!

There's a million vids on this, but give this one a watch. It really helps you make the right choice for your own situation.

Thanks for the info Mark. I'm seriously considering building another 24 soon so this is all good info. I've never dented a rim, heck I haven't even broken my Onza Zoot yet so I don't think I'm a bruiser. I like to think of it as weight conscious tendencies :-)

Where did you find info on Spike 35s? Spank's website hates 24" rims. How are the Inspired Team V2 24" rims? They're nearly the same weight as the Spike 33s and 1mm wider. Ali do you know anyone who actually runs Light's Recon 24" carbon rim? 38mm is wide for street (by trend anyway), but not a bad idea for the rear. Do people run the Light BMX 24" rim up front at 28mm wide? I'd buy a 35mm width carbon 24" rim in a heartbeat.

I wasn't set up for DOT bleeding so I never went that route. And, yeah, they started leaking through the piston so bye bye!

Comparing them as complete bikes, they are very evenly matched (except the Czar is a fair bit lighter). When it comes time to upgrade, the differences are greater. They both have goofy freewheel setups, but the Flow has the more traditional freewheel in the rear so when you want to upgrade it, you don't have to change your cranks. On the Czar the freewheel is up front so to go with a freehub in the rear you'll need to at least add a chainring and bashguard (which Echo makes) to the Isis cranks to make it work. If you want to upgrade the cranks it gets very tricky as there are few Isis BB options for that style of crank anymore. If you want Shimano or Sram cranks you'll have to ditch the Isis BB and find some proper spacers (I made a video on that ;-) I'm not sure why the Asian brands haven't come away from Spanish BB and Isis axles. Again, as a complete bike, they are both very similar. I'd imagine the Alias 24.1 is also pretty similar and no Isis BB and it's the same weight as the Flow (which is sad for the Flow). If you can find a Czar Neuron 24 in your price range that's the winner. Better geo, killer fork and even lighter. Trendcycles in Switzerland has a few of them, but not sure what import is like for the UK at the moment. You'll have fun on whichever you choose. Inspired and Echo/Czar aren't making any crap 24s at the moment. EDIT - Just checked Trendcycles, they're all gone :-(

Czar Ion plus is a great bike. Depending on which components it has, it's better than the Flow. Neither one blows the other away.

I had 2 of the A4s on 2 different street trials bikes, a 24 and 26 Czar Neuron. The first A4 I got felt great and was doing everything I wanted it to do so I ordered the second one. The second one never felt all that great and was always a bit too squishy for my taste. Then after a few months the first one started leaking at the caliper. Hayes warrantied it no problem (although they did want me to just send in the caliper?!? I said no to that.) The one they sent back was like the second one I purchased; a bit vague in the bite point and too squishy. I ended up selling the 24" with the A4 included and then sold the second one on ebay. Back to MT5s again and still loving them. For the prices I've seen on the A4s, they are definitely not worth it. I managed to get mine for $120 each, but I can't find that price anymore. I can reliably get MT5s for $75 so it's kind of a no brainer.