Jere_h

Mark, I totally get what you mean with "those kinds of emails", but this wasn't exactly one of "those" and I should have probably described the case better as a whole. The thing is that they already offered a 5% discount off from the frame and forks during our conversation, without me even asking. Before this I honestly didn't even realize that there could be a chance to negotiate with a trials shop. So I saw that they're clearly open for a bit of conversation about the price. Also I was making it pretty clear that I'm really interested and not just asking. There has not been an official release of the frame on their site yet, so that added to the weird delay in price information gave me a signal that they haven't decided yet what the final price is going to be, and might very well try to take a slight advantage of the current bad stock situation of any competing product. I came to that conclusion, because they're simply asking a top tier price for a yet no-name Chinese brand forks with zero feedback available, when the Crewkerz or Clean forks can be pre-ordered already. I love Trial-bikes as a shop and been a long time customer, but I know that they're also making business and these times suck. Which means a customer needs to be a bit careful too. The answered reasoning behind their price was that everything is going to up at least 20% in price when the new models (Clean, Crewkerz etc.) are available again. The logic behind this is totally reasonable knowing the situation, but I couldn't see such a price increase yet in forks or frames, that can be either pre-ordered or are still in stock. That simply makes the Xox a not so great deal for a customer really no matter how to look at it. I don't know for sure if the shop tried to bluff in this or not, but I've seen many manufacturers/shops in other areas clearly grabbing the opportunity and increasing prices prematurely just to make some extra profit. ..So I decided to give a honest feedback by asking if they can make the price to the level that I (or anyone) would actually want to purchase those Xox forks instead of the world's best carbon forks.. With the latter you get warranty and everything... At that point I also said that I'm good with the frame price and would like to proceed on that part, but seems like this was too much. Dealing with small shops in my country I've never felt like as a customer I should be extra careful to ask questions regarding anything about an expensive product that I'm genuinely buying, generally they are very open minded. But that doesn't mean it's all good to spontaneously go and ask a stupid cheap discount for a well priced product. In the Xox case, there is a mismatch in price. And I'm typically a customer who forgets the price and goes for what feels like an interesting product. Whatever, pulled a trigger and preordered the Crewkerz. Less stress in so many ways for the next few years, a right minded manufacturer which I like to support and the lovely geometry before anything else.

That was pretty helpful. I've always had the impression that carbon is a bit more calm feeling material and there's the thing why I might like it more. I used to have sharp pain in my finger joints every year when starting a new riding season, but after switching to WAW carbon bars all the pain is gone. The bars geometry is one reason of course but I feel like the material has a huge effect as well, because it doesn't spring back so aggressively during impact. The pain was always related to rear wheel gaps and I could feel the alloy bars knocking my fingers every time I land, now it's gone. First thing I noticed with carbon bars was the somewhat soft, supportive but not harsh feeling which I really like. Wooden is a good word, and wood is a great feeling material. Obviously the WAW bars are a result of great engineering and testing during the years, so it's a mature product like WAW forks. As said with the Xox, I'm not so confident at the moment. It seems like extremely burly frame even for a carbon one, but at the same time it's trying to be the lightest at 1000g in specs, so that's a bit alarming "goal" to have in my opinion. Also their so called advertising with broken english seems a bit misleading to me. Like the internal mold thing used for this frame was something completely new in bike industry, which definitely isn't as far as I know. Most likely this thing is just manufactured very cost effectively in some of the huge carbon labs like everything else these days, with very minimal prototype batches. This is just speculation and I might be wrong though. I don't want to bash the manufacturer at the early stages, but it just seems a bit too shady atm. Also the fact that Trial-bikes (the EU retailer) was holding on weeks and over several messages to be finally able to tell me the price of the frameset, and now completely ignoring my email when I kindly asked for a discount for the forks that end up costing practically the same as WAW or Clean forks... Guess which forks I'd like to buy more as a customer sending my face towards different kinds of solid obstacles with full force. Even though I'd love to try that nice looking carbon bike, basically I'd be a prototype tester at my own expense, not really keen. At least with Crewkerz I can't go wrong that's for sure and the bike should last basically forever as I'm not a street TGS basher. Also pretty sure that the carbon forks do compensate a bit on the ride feel compared to 100% aluminum bike, so that might be a bit of an upgrade too together with the high end aluminum frame. I'm a left foot forward but as long as Carthy is getting along with the same setup I'm going to be ok with that mentally. Would be interesting to know how the left side has failed and if it has been due to overtightened bolts or so.

Compared to regular press fit like Echo, AS30 has those relatively thin cups that makes it more like a pressfit inside pressfit. That looks like a difficult design to be honest, in a trials bike at least. As far as I've seen similar thing used in MTB headsets, the alloy is somewhat on the softer/cheaper side and probably starts to live it's own life in there after a couple of rides. That said, I've never had a creaking headset in any of my pressfit mtb frames. So it will be probably up to build quality or installation method to begin with. Those cups can be hammered to tacos pretty easily so there is that too, in case if a proper tool has not been used. Clean and Crewkerz cranksets costs both the same for me, but they really look very similar technically so I don't know.. I hate why they have to put that red anodizing on everything, and WAW has at least less of it! I think I've seen the bearings and cup assembly being sold separately somewhere, without the cranks, so that might be an easy try if the current set is creaking badly.

After searching for current new bike options for weeks now, out of the last 3 I keep coming back to Crewkerz even though I've kind of started to hate the looks of it, probably due to everyone riding one. A custom paint job would help with that though, and I think the new 2022 (or 2012?) graphics are lame too (my personal opinion). But the main issue is that I might want to try something shorter than most new bikes this time (coming from mk6+ echo) and the geo of the S-M size Crewkers seems like spot on, not only because of the WB but the nice and low ish BB height too. If I calculated right it should feel almost like my mk5 echo which I really like, just a bit more stack height. I've noticed that every time I switch bikes to a longer/more radical geo, my general riding goes downhill and only backwheel control turn outs to be easier. That's not ideal really, as most of the time I'm having more issues to lift a long bike up in tight places/downward slopes/for pedalups etc, rather than keeping it on the backwheel. Also jumping small-medium stuff on a long bike usually means jumping from further away and need to actually work more for the same move. I'm 30 now and started trials 5 years ago, my confidence and flexibility is what it is. Honestly I don't know why there should be that extra 1.5cm of wheelbase for my riding, as I feel like I could do big enough stuff with a small bike too. Then there is the Joacim Nymann guy who makes me feel even more confident that a smaller bike is going to be enough for everything, but also more fun. The Jealousy frame is expensive for aluminum to be honest, like two times of the Clean x2.. Also it has the most expensive features that raises it almost to the carbon level in the final price. The Jealousy would cost me almost the same as Xox Carbon bike (both custom built). Would you say the bike is worth the hype? Is it stiffer than other alloy frames or maybe too stiff? How it compares to ride quality of carbon? (I have no idea how a carbon trials bike feels like, but on MTB it feels awesome). I think the Crewkerz would be the most bombproof on the market at least? Wouldn't be necessarily a bad thing as lack of availability of everything is getting a bit scary these times. At the same time I'd be a bit concerned about the lifespan of a carbon trials bike, does it get soft or do they tend to snap earlier? Are there any known issues with the Crewkerz AS30? Better go with the Clean crankset/freewheel instead? I've heard Carthy's bike creaking like crazy in some of the videos but no idea if that's just lack of maintenance. Thinking about the mechanics, at least I can't see anything that should cause trouble there. Overall my thoughts, 1000€ for a frame with 2015 or something design is a bit rough, but then maybe the bike just works so well.

Wow, manufacturers always making things so "easy"! If all the 135s are potentially from the same mass producer, certainly would expect some occasional qc issues regardless of the brand. Switching to "the original ISIS" cranks could be the way to go. As I can already see from google that Echo BB has longer splines which probably means that the cranks are wider too and could end up sitting too far away on a traditional ISIS axle. Also the fact that my Echo cranks have seen over 4 years of abuse now, so would be a good idea to replace anyway. Plus I'm getting a bit tired of trying to find those Echo compatible parts sometimes.

I had one TR (or SL) that was completely dry and started skipping pretty soon, found the springs and pawls getting stuck and breaking. But the latest one seems to be pretty well lubricated out of the box and has been flawless so far. Though I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't lubricate these for specific reasons, sounds weird really. Trialbikes in Spain is the official Xox dealer. But there aren't any info on their site yet so you have to email.

Most likely switching to a Xox carbon frame from my lovely Echo. As far as I know the frame is going to have ISIS BB preinstalled, so technically I could use my old Echo TR cranks + splined freewheel (if not mistaken). I've been running Echo stuff for 4 years now and can't complain much. However, seems like I need to rebuild or replace the freewheel generally once in a summer or two and not sure if this is how it should be? At the same time I'm constantly progressing and putting more and more power to the moves so that might explain it too, but again not sure. The actual question would be, are there known to be any better/more reliable freewheels than Echo TR/SL out there currently? Or something particular brand/model to avoid? I'd choose my ISIS cranks after that.

Thought I'd share some views from my country, that used to be ranked as one of the "happiest country in the world". Every day we hear how there's almost 50 seriously ill covid patients in the hospitals who need special care (in the whole country of 5,5 million people). Hence the whole healthcare system is soon failing due to lack of nurses, they say. However the nurse issue has been on the table for years and that's completely caused by the government itself by not paying them enough. They already promised to increase the healthcare capacity solely for covid patients but nothing has changed so far. As a quick comparison, there was over 200 critical patients during an influenza wave in 2016 and everything was considered normal back then. Instead they are more efficiently than ever pushing a new law that allows mandatory covid vaccination for nurses. Now everyone can guess what happens when a significant part of current nurses/healthcare staff will be fired, quit or even switch career completely. Many of the current healthcare students will quit as well, because they can't even get through the internship anymore without having to be injected. I don't say a word here about the so called vaccine, it's everyone's own decision (and should be). But it's getting pretty clear that our governments are not working for our health. The next year will be scary for sure.

100% this (if done the right way). But seems like many people are just fine without proper body maintenance or nutrition, I'm talking about any sport or thing. Always those people exists who are "not that athletic" but just naturally doing well all the time. Meanwhile, my regularly trained body will absolutely destroy itself if I don't focus 110% on stretching and maintaining muscle balance every day.... Trials has been extremely difficult for me physically and mostly I can't see others suffering the same or it just looks like they don't. About genetics I guess. One small but important thing I should have been told right at the beginning: Foot positioning, use the ball of feet to allow ankles to move. I recently replaced my shoes and noticed that the pedal marks in the soles are almost centered, explaining why especially the rear foot has been very passive and I've had poor power output plus some weird balance issues. Always wondered why comp riders have such symmetric and smooth ankle movement, there it was. New shoes helped to start correcting this issue too, but I can tell it's pretty difficult to unlearn such bad habits.

I've settled to the new Stamp 2 for over a year now and have no plans to switch, these are awesome. The issue with the old Stamps were possibly that they are completely flat instead of concave like the new ones. I'm running the size small even though my shoe size suggests for the large, but these just turned out way better as I can feel exactly where my feet are. I used to swear for Echo caged pedals before but they lose their grip so quickly that I had to look for flats again. Been happy so far, my only wish would be that the pedals (for a trials rider) should attach closer to cranks like caged pedals do. But I think this is pretty much the issue with every flat pedal. Edit: One thing I have to tell about these, that sharp edge gives a horrible shin dig when it happens. Or at least judging by the horizontal hole in my shin, it was the edge not the pins.

Isn't that the old Saint that wasn't prone to failures? But yeah looking at that chunk of aluminium and comparing it to the basic "xc" adapters (magura, shimano), no wonder they have caused issues. That looks like moto stuff, put those and the beefy MT5 calipers and you'll be looking at the frame mounts again if something breaks haha.

I actually just snapped a Magura adapter QM41 (IS rear 180) on my 26" czar and didn't even notice it before the brake started rubbing slightly. Technically the caliper remained attached by the rear bolts only without snapping completely off, which is crazy considering I even managed to gap few times without noticing anything too weird. I don't think the QM41 has enough material around the front bolt hole (snapped right there), and the design adds too much leverage after the bolt, so I don't recommend using these at least. But personally I would stick to Hope, they just look more solid design and material wise. Edit: I mean would you trust this:

Is it just me or are these comp tires actually worse in wet than say Maxxis or other soft mtb tires? Talking about Jitsie myself, feels like the compound itself just doesn't stick in wet surfaces at all compared to Minion DHF I used to run. It's weird, like the compound is super soft and wears fast but it feels rather plasticky or foamy and not tacky like Maxxis. In any other aspect, the Reverz is my favourite tire so far front and rear. Haven't tried any other comp tires though.

Cool bike, but every time when I see this thing I can't get around the fact how much copycatted the design is from Danny's Santa Cruz. Of course a simplistic carbon frame can't look too much different (keeping it good looking and strong at the same time) but I mean simple brand things like the headtube badge, seriously.. Wondering what SC thinks about that lol.. Definitely not a surprise considering the origin country, just sad how they actually make some really great stuff nowadays and not even single try to make it 100% cool even though it has potential. They even have a pretty decent logo already (a bit too Trialtechy though?)... Hurts my eyes as a grumpy overthinking designer myself but for most people it's probably allright, especially for the new younger street trials generation which this is aimed for. That said, good for the sport for sure!

A huge respect for filming stuff like that and making trials more visible, however.. When I was watching the video I was immediately pretty sure that there will be a bunch of critisism on the trials forums going on. Not because there usually is, but because of how his riding in the video looked like for me personally. I almost felt like watching Danny but without the smoothness and accuracy he has. Same kind of smile and happiness going on, the big ballsy stuff and camera angles, but mostly lacking the precision I was looking for at least this time. As a trials rider the riding part was a bit disappointing to watch to be honest, like most of the stunts almost failed a bit and there wouldn't be enough time in the production to try again and correct them, I mean even the basic ones like drops looked very harsh. I'm sure Wibmer could do better if he really tried or had a chance to try, as some of his instagram stuff has been quite impressive to watch. Maybe it's the pressure who knows. After all, I'm a complete newbie and 100% sure will never reach even quarter of the balls size that Wibmer has. Just telling my opinion as a viewer who appreciates good looking riding over anything else.

Definitely a longer reach (not a Pole level long though). Ridden two different generations of the Santa Cruz 5010 now with almost 2cm difference in reach number and the longer/newer one feels MUCH better in every possible way in every type of riding. I like to setup my bikes to match the purpose they belong to and adapt my skills to each bike separately rather than mixing the setups. At the moment I can quite comfortably switch from trials to full suspension without any awkward feeling. The old 5010 I had with shorter reach was constantly feeling too cramped to bunnyhop properly or do any trialsy rear wheel moves. With the new one I feel like there's plenty of leverage and I can apply way more strength and control to riding (just like street trials vs comp bike). Always felt like I had to hang on the bars instead of being centered on the bike and that few cm makes a huge difference. Probably could still go longer (like Pole) for DH based enduro but for trail jibs and regular trail riding this geometry feels like the sweet spot for me, being agile enough to have fun.

Sure, but it's a bit work in progress and I only have one kidney left. Will post more better pics to the bike pictures topic as soon as the bike will look more complete. I'm going to take the 105 Comas bars from my echo to this to get some more reach, also would love to have a trials front rim but I think the current one will do for now (a crappy Nukeproof 25mm wide). Probably going to coat the seat with something black, as I don't necessarily like the purple frame and white seat combo. It looks like 90's barbie stuff to me (the seat and the frame were both discounted hence the color choices). Back to the original topic however, I was afraid that the Neuron will feel very heavy and too short for riding rocks in the woods (compared to Echo), but actually it was awesome for that too. With roughly one year trials background I'm not the right person to talk about the full capabilities of this bike but for a beginner it does the job extremely well as a pure trials bike too.

Vote for the "real" trials bike if modern trials is interesting. Also probably not the cheapest one if ever possible. Because the price differences are not huge between the full entry level and much more advanced comp bikes and if a real interest takes place, the most entry level stuff will turn frustrating very quickly. I've upgraded nearly everything in my echo pure, but the frame, wheels and the drivetrain. And now I already hate how flexy the non tapered fork is, also it seems to be eating headsets quite fast. Guess I need to buy a new frame and fork then lol.. Pogos feel weird and annoying at first but learning to ride them opens up a new world of ability, which makes them fun. I'm actually switching between the echo and a full suspension enduro sometimes every second day, and it doesn't cause any problems to adapt anymore. For more old school trials and actual fun instead of huge moves, then definitely vote for the Inspired Hex or Czar neuron 26, but they are on another level of price than comp bikes though. I recently bought the Neuron frame and built it with more trialsy approach than street, and it feels awesome for the natural stuff. If my main focus wasn't on learning all the real big moves some day, I'd definitely ride only the Neuron as it's much more relaxed and fun to ride.

This is actually very interesting topic. Seems that choosing the front foot has nothing to do with better side even it's considered the "better foot". I assume that majority of people are right sided/right handed and riding right foot forward. However I'm also right sided but left foot forward clearly formed to be the natural position for me.. Weird. I feel like the actual stronger foot (definitely still the right foot for me) is better to be the one that keeps the balance ("the lazy foot", how ironic), rather than the one that kicks. It's not about power but coordination and in the end the power comes from the whole body, not just one foot. Now when learning side hops it definitely feels way more comfortable to lean to the right, I can't even imagine doing it the other way and right foot forward. I would think it's quite obvious to jump to the stronger/more comfortable side, but obviously it isn't.

Ordered that frame yesterday. I was a bit concerned about durability of the seatstay/IS mount area as it looks quite lightweight for trials abuse. Well I think I can forget my concerns. Impressive riding.

You should try cruising a front freewheeled pogo bike if possible, life with any other bike will feel much happier after that sluggish neck breaker. It an attitude thing. I truly enjoy riding and discovering new spots on my "streety rig", a 26" with 22:18 ratio (hope trials hub). It has a 40mm wide rear rim with Schwalbe Hans Dampf rubber (one of the slowest ever), and it rolls incredibly well. My friend was actually wondering how my riding looks so effortless compared to him pedaling his enduro bike all the time to keep the same speed. Probably because I give it those 3 explosive kicks and then long freewheel until I feel like it needs some more speed again. Pedaling all the time would be a horrible idea.

Now since flu cut my riding for few days I decided to collect all the best clips from my riding progress and create some sort of compilation. This is by no means a good video or anything, the purpose of these bad quality phone clips has been mostly to help self analyzing and learn about my riding. I'm strongly creative and visual person and capturing my riding has helped a lot to troubleshoot problems and develop skills and confidence. Some background: Been riding MX and quite tech moto enduro(almost trials) for couple of years in the past, still on a newbie level though. Two years ago I moved completely to bicycles due to lack of money, and now I wouldn't look back. This stuff allows so much more fun and endless creativity, more actual riding and less time consuming hassle than moto. Before starting trials I was able to wheelie my mtb using rear brake nearly as long as I want. Also stoppies and pivoting the bike around was something I practiced already years ago. So I actually got a quite good starting point, but needless to say the difficulty of trials kicked in my face pretty quickly. So where we are now.. I'm pretty stoked on the progress I've made so far. For me fear has been a major problem when trying certain stuff like drops or side hops, and I tend to overthink a lot. That was obviously a problem with moto as well. I feel like I have tons of understanding to moves and find it very easy to visualize them in my head, but fear is stopping me. I'm 26 now so it's not even "that" easy to do new scary things anymore compared to fearless kids. But things are getting better for sure with more experience, not worried about that. In the last couple of months I've especially focused on precision and smooth riding, even if it's a curb I'm jumping on to. Would definitely have the skills to do bigger drops and stuff already if I aimed to that, but I hate sketchy looking riding and want to develop a solid base before trying anything bigger, avoiding injuries as well. Absolutely impressed by the controlled smooth riding styles of guys like say Ali C, Akrigg, also numerous other more or less known + many of the modern comp riders out there. If I'm not practicing, I'm basically watching these guys all the time. Any feedback about my riding is much appreciated!

Having mt5/mt4 on both bikes and that sounds like air to me. They perform very consistently when they're bled, but any air in there and the lever sinks especially in cold weather. Unlike Shimano four pots that behave like the problem described but that's actually normal for them for some reason which is pretty incredible considering the price. I had the Zees over a year and got enough because of that and few other serious issues.

Lately I've been trying to "re-learn" my progress on sidehops and up to fronts in a proper way by letting the cranks spin. Couple of months ago I intentionally "cheated" and kept my rear brake locked so I could stay on the pedals easier, resulting in a few relatively high sidehops and sketchy up to fronts to a log. It sure helped to clear some "mind blocks" and learn the body positioning and stuff like that, but I'm not sure if it really was that useful in the end so I wouldn't recommend it for anyone. At that point I could already pedal kick comfortably and gap my bike length easily, but for some reason found it really hard to turn that movement into sidehop or up to front, without loosing my pedals and shooting myself off the bike. Now after a couple of months practicing and switching to a pogo bike I know that I was lacking a tons of important basics, and decided to improve them a lot before trying anything too fancy. Finally yesterday I succeeded to up to front a small rock in a proper way, and it actually just happened surprisingly easy after couple of days focused training. Here are the keys that worked for me: 1. Learning to jump forward on a flat and wide rock to two wheels. Actually got the basic feel of tapping as well with this. 2. Doing stoppies and thinking I was landing to a front wheel. This helped A LOT to get comfortable with the "flying phase" when the rear brake is open, letting cranks spin freely and your front pedal sink a bit -> allowing knees to drop, pushing your body against stem. However dropping the front foot too low few times caused slipping the rear pedal quite painfully. 3. Like LEON said, take off from something that helps to naturally bounce forward. In my case it was a slightly angled surface facing to the rock I was trying to jump on and it really helped.

My Pure today