robkerly

a lot of personal preference i reckon. I've tried to teach myself to ride nearer my toes as it makes me feel more springy for static moves, less confidence in staying on the pedals though, and i found im more anal about what shoes im confortable with riding in, (stiffer sole) that when i ran more central, anything vaguely flat felt ok.

brakes are surprisingly powerful, even with a booster you will get some flex, i often come across the clamp bolts have been bent by the braking force too!

i think these come with a non disc-ready wheelset, so although the frame has mounts for a disc, the hubs dont. In this case you will need to replace the front hub or front wheel as well.

hi. i think the tr lever blade is held onto the pivot by a little grub screw. undo that and the pivot pin should slide out letting you remove the lever blade. removing the piston can be tricky if it doesnt pop out by itself. you could try to insert your bleed kit into the lever with bleed screw IN and use the fluid pressure to push it out. this will make a mess though

your zoot definitely has a 135mm 'fixed' rear hub. hope that helps

exactly the same 3 cross technique as 32 or 36 holes, unless you are going for radial spokes (no crossing at all). wheelpro is a good little website thing for measuring the spoke lengths you will need. start by lacing everything loosely, next, make it round, (remove flat spots / oval etc) again not very tight yet, then make it true side to side. checking where you want it to be with your dishing tool while you go. I have never used a tension gauge, just used my intuition but the manufacturers will probably suggest a safe working tension. making sure they are as near the same tension as possible is more important that having the exact spot on tension, as they are all sharing the tension equally. work in small increments, maybe a quarter turn at a time, so as not to over tension one half of the wheel and warp the rim. its very simple and easy if you take your time and be methodical. good luck!

if you are trying to get on the back wheel using pedal power, moving the rar wheel forward as you suggested will help. i have a zoot, as does a friend and we found moving the wheel forward even 3 or 4 mm makes a noticeable difference. if you have half the dropout free, it will really help. you will have to run a tensioner though. also you could try running the stem underneath all the stackers to drop the height. this will effectively be like running a slightly longer stem too, as its nearer the center line of the hub and forks, it may be harder to lift, but on the flipside, it may be easier because you have more leverage. hope some of that helps

if you get some that fit you properly they should be no problem. mine are pretty thick and heavy so, they need to be pretty tight to the side of my head to stay put. this does make slight sores, so i tend to tweak them back out when im wearing them normally

Hooper I will try to avoid any suspicious stains. I don't find rocks affect me that way. Normally they make me bleed

thats awesome, cheers man. really good to get an idea from someone in the know!

That's awesome, thanks Josh. Looks like a full days worth.

hi. thinking of heading to dartmoor in the next week or two, can anyone suggest where the good spots are? I feel like i have seen many videos from there in the past, but dont know precisely where and dont want to spend the whole day driving about aimlessly. The only specific place I have come up with from a video is bonehill rocks, which looks worth a visit. Any other suggestions would be really appreciated. cheers peeps

good work. any good superglue should work fine (though sometimes 5 for a quid poundshop superglue works fine) clamp them back in the vice like that when you glue them, and you should be sorted. nice spanner vice extension btw :-D

boiling is a safer way to heat superglue to remove it, without melting the pads. five or ten minutes bubbling and the pads should pull out fairly easily, dont let them boil dry though, unless you want the entire thing to melt

i bought a pair of the atomlabs from a different online shop in germany about 6 months ago. really really impressed with them, and although they were pictured in that metallic wee colour, they came as a much less offensive silvery grey

the bb yoke and bb to chainstay bit looks very similar to the older shape neon bow 20 inch. the front end is slightly differnt though. thats entirely unhelpful!

cheers niconj. you are correct

beast

i have a zee 6 pot caliper (same as saint) on older shape slx lever. 180mm rotor. when the rotor isnt bent its very very good. plenty for me and im used to on off magura rims.

@mark, not sure to be honest, only ever been up close and personal lacing 26 and 650 spank rims, but am in awe of their quality and strength.

cheers for the input guys. i think the weight difference is about 150gms per rim, which is fairly significant. spanks are definately top of my wish list, and well worth the prices, i just dont quite have the funds

anyone had experience with the atomlab g.i 24inch rims? with spanks hard or impossible to find at the moment, are they a worthy alternative? they are cheap and shiny, which is great, but only if they can take a pounding. cheers rob

yeh, its always a big question mark. i guess everything can be pushed too far.

the tubeless beadlock systems have massively improved in the last few years, pretty much eliminating burping. if you're running 25 psi on a bike and racing it for a few hours, losing a pound or two here and there quickly adds up to folding and crashing and broken bones. i think carbon is pretty good at shock absorption, or it certainly can be. they obviously made bash plates and frame protectors out of it, so if you expect them to take a beating im sure it can be designed to take it. cost, however, is definitely a big downer. currently they seem to be 6 or 7 times more expensive than their high end alloy counterparts. i imagine it will take a fair bit longer to be picked up in something as cliquey as trials.

have ridden a few varieties on 27.5 inch wheeled enduro bikes and found them incredible. the model i was riding on was just over 40mm wide, running a 2.6 inch tyre at around 20psi so plenty of width / tyre stability and toughness for constant impacts. they also make a great noise when you rim them! stiffness wise they should have the potential to be better than conventional rims. several of the carbon rimmed wheelsets come with straight lacing or 3cross without the overlap and 28 hole as opposed to the 32 on other standard wheels in the same strength / discipline. they actually aim to let the spokes have more flex to keep the wheel more supple for off camber rough cornering as otherwise they are not pliant enough. opens up the serious possibility of running tubeless tyres as well, which seem to give more spring for the same psi, and no more pinch flats!