Swoofty

It's the 1020mm wheelbase. I measured it just to be sure. Today's ride was another good one. Finally dialed the brake lever angle, but I've got some nerve wracking pad knock front and rear, grrrrr.

New bike day! Well at least new frame day. Finally got my new Czar delivered and built. I'm still not crazy about black bikes, but i've decided to abuse this one first, then paint it. I tried really hard to run Sram BB30 cranks on this one, but it was turning into too big a pain to get the spacing right so I stuck some 24mm SLX on instead. So much nicer than ISIS! This one is definitely stiffer than the last; square tubes for the rear triangle and a new downtube design. Sadly it is slightly heavier than the old one, but the tensioner is nicer. First ride was great. I'll try to get a review posted once I've had some time on it.

Has anyone tried Galfer rotors for street trials? They're pretty big in the moto trials world so I thought I'd give them a try. Here in the US they are hard to come by for a decent price, but occasionally they go on sale. From their website, they have a trials specific rotor that I couldn't find anywhere so I went with one of their 203 Wave floating rotors. They look great, but they weigh exactly the same as a Magura Storm HC. I've had them on for 3 weeks now and I think they twist slightly less than the HCs and the braking is just as good. They also make disc pads for bicycles that I'd like to try, but again, rare in the US.

Did anyone actually buy a Mongoose because of him? Fantastic to watch though.

A+ there, and yeah, not shit at all. Keep it up!

Shaka Brah! Your highlights are sweet. Hope 2020 is even better!

First ride's in the bag now. Seems fine. I did a usual ride, not deliberately punishing, and it feels nice and stiff and responsive. I made sure to use a disc rotor that has an interconnected ring at the bolt holes for extra strength. I'll keep an eye on it, but so far so good and oh how I love new bearings...

That's good advice. I should do my first couple of rides on it with @Ali C so he can straighten it out for me ;-) Whaddya say Ali, wanna come to Los Angeles for a few rides? It was 72 degrees and sunny today. Cheers!

Well here goes nothing. I'll try it out this weekend.

Box Components has a new one way roller bearing freewheel on the way, the Box One Stealth Expert rear. It's only in 110mm so far, but does anyone have trials experience with one way bearings? I had a Pulstar hub back in the day with them, but I didn't ride trials. I really loved that hub and it was dead silent. Sadly it was stolen along with the Homegrown it was attached to.

Ah well done then Ali. I just checked and they aren't astronomically priced anymore either. Bummer they don't have a zero dish single speed version for us though.

Ali, what did you not like about your Industry 9 hubs? I have a chris king set from 1998 that's still rolling fine, but they don't have disc tabs and replacing them would be WAY too expensive now.

It was fun reading this 14 year old thread. My how things have changed. I still have my Eno in it's nice little box, but it's too heavy today and the retention ring is on the wrong side. I bought a Profile Elite single speed too maybe 4 years ago and I'm still just luke warm about it. It was $450 with all the titanium bits i wanted and the elite cog and they wouldn't even offer free shipping. After I built the wheel, I noticed it had a little side to side play in it; not much, but enough to notice when landing spins. I called Profile and they said, yeah it'll need a shim, but i'd have to send them the wheel (also no free shipping!) so it still has a little play :-( After riding it hard for a while, i noticed that the elite cog had some breaks in the cutouts so i switched to the regular heavier cog (the elite freewheel is proprietary to Profile, but you can order it with a standard HG pattern, lesson learned). Other than that, it's been great. 208 points of engagement is fantastic, it sounds great and I haven't had to touch the internals. I'm all Industry Nine torch hubs (rear) now, haven't tried the Hydra. For anyone on a budget I still recommend Hope too. I had one of the bad Pro4s, but all my others have been fine. Echo also now makes a disc single speed rear that I'm curious to try, but I don't need one anytime soon. 2005, when Eno was king!

It's a 15mm through axle and it'll be 26" with a 203 rotor. Yikes, yeah i know. The brake mount is what worries me the most too. I have an American Classic hub with a 203 on another bike (24" though) and it has very similar rotor tabs. Sadly my gaps to front don't exist so I think the hardest I'll be on it will come from mistakes casing into walls. It's an experiment. We'll see how it goes.

Has anyone ever used an Extralite brand hub for street trials? I got a wild hare to build up a ridiculously light front wheel so this will be the hub for it. It'll be 28h mated to a Light brand carbon rim (30mm version), 3x disc side 2x non-disc. I might even put helium in the tire ;-) I'll let you know how it goes once the rim gets here from China.

The Carnac XC or the OnOne XC look pretty hard to beat for the price and that little spoiler will no doubt help my downforce at speed. I can't do the skate style helmets bc the lack of holes just boils my head. More ventilation usually makes a helmet more expensive. Good find there! I've been using a Specialized Ambush for years now bc it's very lightweight and airy, but even on sale they're pricey. https://www.specialized.com/us/en/ambush-with-angi/p/162034

Thanks for that Andy. You definitely jump started my riding after we met. I need to do more in the stretching department. I have about a mile of a slow down hill to get to my usual riding spot so I try to stretch on the bike; calves for 30 sec and then way leaned back on the bike to stretch my back. I bought Ryan Leech's yoga for cyclist video years ago, but I've never actually watched it. I was once good about stretching on my off days, but I've gotten far less regimented about it lately. The heart rate monitor has been pretty illuminating. I raced XC MTB all through college in the late 90s and also used an HR monitor and would regularly see 210 bpm on sprint climbs; boy those days are gone! Now, because of my usual time limits on how long I can ride, I feel like I've sort of trained my body to peak for about an hour. If I rest between sections, I'll return to between 70-90 bpms. One Saturday that I was able to ride for a little over 3 hours, the HR monitor said I had burned 2400 calories! Pretty sure I had a large green tea milkshake after that ride! I used to take alpha lipoic acid after my rides to mitigate soreness and I've recently tried one of the CBD derived recovery drops that really helps with soreness, but I think adequate water before and after a ride plays a huge role in soreness too.

What is that vid with the huge gap to rail? Got a link?

I started riding trials at 35 and now I'm 44. I still have a long list of trials wishes, but I'm beginning to realize that at some point the highs will get no higher. At 39, I rode trials with Hans Rey who was 48 at the time and it was very interesting to see what I potentially had to look forward to. For all the over 40 folks on here, how's it going? What are your tips for making the most out of riding over the hill? It seems like the greatest hindrance to riding at this age is juggling family, work and life and the physical aspect is not the most limiting factor yet. Before I was 40, I had older riders tell me that after 40, I would not be able to ride 2 days in a row any longer. That's not 100% true, but I definitely understand what they meant. In a good week I can get 7 rides of at least 30 minutes plus; the weather's never really a factor here in Los Angeles. If I get one of those magical weekends when I can go for a 3+ hour ride both days, I am absolutely dead Sunday night and usually for a day or 2 after. I take multivitamins and I'm not opposed to Red Bull when I feel it'll help. Drinking enough water is a fairly constant problem. Injuries, often even small ones, will keep me from riding for weeks sometimes and then that in turn makes me ride more cautiously further slowing my progress. I've recently gotten a heart rate monitor to see where I stand and the highest rate I've recorded over the last 3 weeks is 176 beats per minute. Over a typical hour long ride I average in the low 130s. Riding pure trials raises the average versus riding street, but I'm much more comfortable riding street. I keep my pure trials at work where I can ride over my hour lunch break on some lovely rocks nearby. The street trials takes over on the weekends at home. That's one trick for maximizing riding time.

There are a number of street frames that come set up for 160 rotors and it would put less stress on many parts of the bike/wheel, but at the end of the day, the rotor is still a lever. The bigger the lever, the stronger the braking force. If you're just starting out or you're not very heavy, try the 160; you can always easily upgrade later. Once you get into rolling drop gaps, you're gonna want the 203s.

I think by simply asking the question, you'd prefer a seat. You can always run a seatpost bike with no seat, but the other way round is very difficult.

The frame looks OK, but that fork looks terrible; throws the whole look of the bike off. And yeah, that's really short even for a 24". Time (and marketing!) will tell I guess.

I forgot to check NW again. I got quite a few parts for the new build from Brian. My frame is tapered though.

I didn't hear good things about the Echo carbons either, but I can't find one anywhere so it doesn't really matter. They don't have one on their website either.

I'll have to wait for a 26" carbon disc fork ☹️