TomWood

I've been riding 170mm cranks on my road bike, hard tail, and earlier full sus bikes. Last full sus came with 175s, and they always felt too long from the first ride to the last over two years. More pedal strikes, too much "throw" for lack of a better word to describe the feeling. Back on 170s on my new bike and they feel great. Rode my friends bike with 165s and had absolutely no complaints about it. I'm 6ft tall, and while my legs are a bit short for my height, I wouldn't consider myself or my legs short. Starting to see more click-baity videos on youtube about how cranks are better shorter - trending towards the 165mm. Looking at upgrading my street trials bike now and seeing that cranks are pretty consistently at 175mm on the Inspired bikes. I'm wondering if there's a reason for going for longer cranks on bikes that have smaller wheels and typically want more clearance anyway. Anyone who's been in the game for a while have any insights? If 165/170 cranks feel more comfortable, am I missing anything by not using longer cranks? Is there a reason the default has become the longest standard for these relatively small 24" bikes?

I heard of a competition a few hours from me that I'm going to try and do. Still trying to figure out my category. I know what features I can get onto and gap given a clean run-up, but I don't know what a course would actually look like. I think I'd be a sport/intermediate rider. While I might be able to do some expert level moves, I don't think I could do them one after another with akward terrain in the middle. Would anyone have footage of a competition in the sport category so I can get a rough idea of how "messy" the course might be?

Thanks for the advice. Fortunately, I was a mechanic for a few years so I am doing all my own work. That definitely helps. I've been checking for cracks around head-tube and fork. You're right that it's hard to determine how much wear and tear the bike gets. While I'm not doing moves as big as most riders here, I am definitely not as smooth as them and probably drop my bike a fair bit more. Overall it sounds like I may be a bit too scared of breaking key parts. The stuff is fairly overbuilt.

No weird setup. Avid G2 Cleansweep rotors, 6-bolt. Cracked in multiple spots around the rotor bolts. The material around that area isn't very burly, but this was still a shock to me. Wish I had taken a photo but I can't find one in my phone. The play I was referring to is in the lever itself. There appears to be a bushing around the pin that holds the lever into the lever clamp and that bushing seems to be very worn down after only a couple years allowing the lever to float all over the place.

So I broke a chain during a pedal kick a little while back. That sucked, but no real injuries. Got a new chain - stronger this time hopefully - and now I know to just replace that every now and then as the forces are pretty violent on them. I also found out that my rotors had cracked in multiple spots where the bolts are. That was scary to see so I got new rotors. I'm running a pretty entry-level setup with Avid BB5s and some FR5 levers and starting to get concerned about the play I feel in them and wondering if they're on their way out. My question is about how often I should just replace this stuff. Do the brake rotors/calipers/levers/cables need replacing every year or so? Contemplating just getting brand new levers/cables/housing but not sure about calipers. What about stem/stem bolts? Still learnign as a rider and definitely not smooth, but I'm starting to hit slightly bigger drops and gaps.

I would imagine it has a lot to do with a much shorter reach on the street bikes (which brings your shoulders forward relative to the cockpit when your hips are still "centered") combined with a tendency to want to shift weight much farther over the front end than you would on a mountain bike (for front wheel moves). This would shift your shoulders over the cockpit more and you would need to rotate the levers down to maintain a comfortable position for your wrists/hands.

This is pretty clearly an add for his sponsors.

Speaking of, I had another crash yesterday practicing up-to-fronts and bent the lever again. Bent it back and it's good to go. Eventually it's going to snap on me, but I'd glad it's held up so far. I bought a complete bike instead of building up the bike. So it's BB5s with the Avid Clean Sweep G3s in 180. I want to try a 203 rear because I think it will feel more precise. My wish-list rear brake at the moment is a Saint. I'm familiar with Shimano from my mountain bikes. I like the way the levers feels. I know how to bleed them. And they seem to have a few pad options. Would be cool to try Hopes or the higher end Magura MTs, but it's a lot of money gone if you don't like them. I've ridden trail bikes with the MT5s on them and the performance felt great. The flex in the lever wasn't my favorite though. The tire are the Kenda K-Rads. I honestly don't have anything to compare the tires to from a street trials point of view, but they seem to slip a lot when given the slightest hint of moisture. I've tried a few tires on my mountain bike and know that compounds make a huge difference. It looks like the only real options are Holy Rollers or the Danny Macs unless you go 2.1 or narrower which I'm unsure of. 24" options are frustratingly limited.

Ah yeah. BMX cranks... Don’t have any real experience with those. Glad you two could offer more useful advice.

I'm in the same beginner boat and have BB5s with FR5 levers. Seriously impressed by the stopping power of these brakes when set up correctly. They haven't slipped at all over 6 foot gaps or 4 foot drops. Tires have though. I'll want to upgrade them at some point, but it's my skill and not the brakes that are the limiting factor in my riding at this time. I've also had a few crashes or dropped bikes that I'm positive would have broken the lever if they were one of the plastic (composite?) Magura levers. I've had one of my brake levers bend pretty far already, just bent it back and it's been good to go. Very happy with my choice to go cheap for my first set up. Upgrades will come when my riding can justify it.

I'm not familiar with the Arcade crank-set specifically, but I've built up quite a few bikes. Cranks and BBs are the sloppiest excuse for a "standard" I've ever seen. The washers that come with the BB are spacers because they know that the BB and BB shell widths have a large margin of error. What I would do if I didn't get any further guidance is install the BB, then install the crank-set without any washers. Check for axial play in the cranks. If there is play, add a spacer; check for play again. Rise. Repeat till there is no play. Check again, if the crank is binding, then you've used too many or too thick of a spacer and need to reducing the spacing. Usually they get added to the non-drive side, as the drive side should remain in position for best chain line. The tube that comes with the BB is usually a sleeve just to keep any crap that falls into the frame out of the way. The crank spindle is narrower than the internal diameter of the sleeve, correct? Hopefully someone that's actually installed the Arcade crank can verify this. Just saying again that I've never see the Arcade crank in person. But washers and sleeves are pretty common on the MTB/road side of things.

Looks like an early generation BB7-Road from the mid-2000's. http://www.bikerecyclery.com/avid-bb7-road-disc-brake-caliper-w-pads-grey/ Looking for confirmation.

It's looking like another beautiful and dry weekend. Anyone interested in going to Morecambe to ride? I'd go anywhere else that's within a 90 minute drive of Betham too if someone has a spot they'd rather ride. I'd prefer to start earlier in the morning to beat the crowds if we can. I'm not on Facebook, but if anyone wants to direct someone to this post through other social media, that would be greatly appreciated.

Bit off-topic, but that chain looks a bit long.

It actually opened back up again a few weeks ago and I've been a couple times. It's pretty well built in the sense that the berms are confidence inspiring and the rollers are easy to pump. They've put pretty big spaces between the track so there aren't any available options for transfers or ways to spice it up. I'm assuming that was intentional to keep it more family friendly. Safety for the kiddos is important. All the doubles are easy to clear. So there just isn't much to actually progress on other than one triple and manual practice. Good way to kill an hour at the end of a work day though. I should go back more often. My manuals definitely need work.