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Maintenance Justice

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Everything posted by Maintenance Justice

  1. I believe it's one of the employees from Echo who runs Extention (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong!)
  2. The Extention Rise uses a 'standard' tapered head tube, in the sense the frame will technically work with any standard tapered fork. The headset bearings are fully integrated (no internal cups here), so are straight forward to replace and widely available. Now you mention it, I will measure and update the listing to include info and links to relevant bearing sizes 🙂. As for frame standards, the Rise uses a 116mm 'closed' rear drop out. It looks like a thorough axle, but it is in fact a standard M6 116mm hub. The front fork is also a standard M6 fitment with 100mm OLD, and again, closed drop-outs. The wheels fit by removing the hub bolts, and there are machined slots on the inside of the drop-outs to guide the hub into place in the frame and fork. It's a neat way of doing things, and reduces stress from having an open-ended drop out. This does, however, mean you will have to use a roller tensioner with the Extention, regardless of the hub that you fit. Lastly, at Tarty, we stock the common spares for the Rise including cranks, hubs, sprockets and bearings. If you do need a spare, we should have you covered! We have sold through the tensioners, but have a few kept to one side for emergencies. More will be landing on the next order. @Yukon Hopper as for which bike, personally I prefer the Rise. You get much more for your money (tapered fork, stiffer cranks, better pedals etc). The finish quality over all is a little nicer than the Comas, too. We purposely specified Magura MT Sport brakes on the Rise to keep the price down, but they still work great, and are really easy to set up. The BB is a standard external 24mm (Shimano Hollowtech II standard), so easy to replace should it be needed. @La Bourde Extention seem pretty keen to continue with the Rise, and they're still making a good selection of trials parts alongside their street, and newer dirt jump products. We'll be looking to re-stock the bikes and spares on the next order. Hopefully that helps answer some questions!
  3. I'd really like to see a bike that's a bit more versatile generally. Something which can run a modern drivetrain and forks, but with a more trials focussed geo (steeper head angle than the current, super slack 64° variety - I had a Genesis hard tail with a 67° head angle that felt like a real sweet spot for trail and trialsy riding) and perhaps some features geared towards trials riding, like a much lower top tube, a grip shift to save bruised thighs and standard post mounts for 200mm rotors. A hard tail would be the obvious candidate, and I believe TMS prototyped something along these lines, which is looking a bit more polished now: I think bikes like this could be a hard sell to the target market of the MTB community but, like @Ali C says, something with a back end engineered for preloading, perhaps even using some clever, compact, suspension design borrowed from slope style or 4 cross to make it more appealing to the MTB community who pretty much expect full sus these days to take anything seriously, might just scratch the N+1 itch. Especially if you market it as the bike you need to really progress some new skills. I get a lot of feedback, especially from older riders, that they want something akin to what they started off riding (converted MTB) but that actually works, and benefits from modern technology and engineering. Something that rides well at a pump track, and the local dirt jumps might just interest younger riders who could be drip fed trials riding with the influence of talented Pro riders showing what the bike is capable of beyond what they're initially going to use it for.
  4. Ben from Tarty here, A quick heads up. These two bikes were purchased, we believe, with a stolen card. The case is ongoing, but the evidence is pretty damning. I recommend avoiding these as it'll most likely be a case of 'when' not 'if' this individual has to answer to the police for fraud, and inevitably that will lead them to track the goods that he has acquired and sold. We have made a report to the Police and if the case goes against this individual, they will be following it up. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204452929352?hash=item2f9a581f48:g:hGkAAOSwupNk-L-k https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204452578785?hash=item2f9a52c5e1:g:Z2wAAOSwnVlk-GaE
  5. Finally got around to developing and scanning the few rolls of film I shot at this year's Radfest. Here are some of my favourites from the weekend. Tin Hat Tom is a particular highlight. I quite like Serghei's pre-ride stretch routine over the pipe, Tom having the best time with the leaf blower, Josh Leech always smiling, the uni-cycle beam balance (apologies, not sure who this is) and the big 'aerial' shot of the bar hop competition. For those interested, the camera used was an Olympus OM20, circa 1983, 35mm film camera with the stock Zukio f1.8 50mm fixed lens. My go to 'rough' camera that I don't mind being knocked about a bit. The film was Ilford FP4 iso125 pushed one stop (camera told it was loaded with iso200 forcing it to under expose slightly) then push developed using Ilford ID11 at 20° for 15 mins (developed as if it was an iso200 film i.e. for longer, to give better contrast). I really like this combo, it's cheap, and the push processing allows the use of a finer grain and traditionally slower film to be used in poorer light or in this case for faster moving targets. If there are any other 'vintage' (blergh - it's just photography to me) photography enthusiasts here who might be able to recommend a better OM lens, I'm all ears. The stock Zukio is great, but something faster with better quality optics would be nice. I'm resisting going to a medium format range finder because they're massive and the cost just goes bananas.
  6. The Varial seems to have morphed into this purple and yellow statement so I thought I would roll with it Cost of the material is really cheap, I think about £5 for the length here which is enough for two wheels but @AdamR28 will probably put me right on that. You still need spokes to make the 'anchors' which the rope is glue'd onto, but I guess any silver spoke (or black if you want to take the paint off) will do, so some old ones would serve to save a bit of cash. Running the Pro 4 because it's what I've got, it's purple and it works! It was the first hub to get the 116mm treatment and it's still going strong without a single hiccup in about a year now.
  7. So we’re doing this. MOD disc, rope spoke wheel set. @AdamR28has done an insane amount of R&D and multiple prototypes and we feel fairly confident that the current iteration is up the job of 19/20” trials wheels. Naturally I’ll be doing a hideous deng colour scheme. The rims are some new trials rims from Extention, basically very similar to Jitsie / Echo / Clean. They’re branching out into comp parts picking up where Echo left off so it’ll be interesting to see how they hold up. Rear hub will be the Pro 4 and front hub tbc.
  8. Insider info: Hope tell me the engagement system of the Trials S/S will be the same as the standard Pro 5 hubs - 108 with a 3 pawl offset. As far as I know, the actual hub dimensions and free hub design haven't changed, but no doubt there will be an aesthetic update. No idea on weight, will need to weigh one when they arrive, which should be early March.
  9. An update! It's been a while since I last visited the site, the busy Christmas trading period and few other things in the background have had my full attention. However, on Saturday the 18th, we were finally able to get on site to drop materials off! We did try and do this before Christmas but struggled to get materials off the building merchant's compound in the time we had so we scrapped the plan and decided to revisit this year. CHC (Cheetham Hill Construction) of Bury kindly donated some pipes and tyres for the first part of the project and even helped us load them too! A good friend of Tarty, Danny, helped us by borrowing a low loader with a Hiab to load and move the materials. We had a bit of an issue with getting onto the site, the only access is a small bridge with a 17 tonne weight limit, the wagon weighs 10 tonnes empty so we were fairly restricted in what we could bring in one hit and the access road is narrow to complicate things further. Basically the worst possible access for a site and job like this! We managed to get in without too much trouble, thankfully. With all the big, heavy, materials on site, we can now work towards getting everything in place. We decided to try and dig in a tyre to see what the ground was like to start with. We were without a digger on the day and the ground was awful, full of huge rocks about a foot down. Needless to say, we didn't achieve much but we know for sure it's diggers or nothing for getting everything in. We're needing to be fairly flexible in regard to the initial plan. We'll stick to it as closely as we can, but availability of materials, the ground itself and access are all playing a part in what is actually possible on the day. I'm sure with an army of machines and a big budget we could create something really amazing but so far, with the kind help of volunteers and free donations, I think we're doing pretty well. What's next? I'm going to be working on getting some aggregate delivered - we'll need this to form the 'path' for the skills loop and potentially place around obstacles. I'm also going to source some natural stone to make up the 'path' of the skills loop and supplement some of the bigger obstacles. The plan next time is to have all the materials, machinery and labour on site in one hit so I've got some serious organising to do. It's been a long drag to get this far but I'm much happier now the bigger obstacles are on site. It may be some weeks or even months before we manage to organise everything and everyone to finish the job, but my goal is still to have this finished for summer.
  10. Is that some weird half bash style arrangement on that XO crank? Like the look of that. Always irked me that you couldn’t really get a bash for 1 by direct mount MTB chainrings. Also I’ll never be able to afford this, ever, going off past top tier kit RRPs
  11. Dug out the 35mm camera for last Tuesdays warehouse session at Tarty. Been meaning to get back into film photography after a long break and really enjoyed the process so I’ll definitely be doing more over the summer on TNT rides.
  12. Nice work. Like the seat, kinda got a 90’s DJ vibe about it
  13. An update! I’ve submitted my plans to the Council and they’ve been approved. We arranged a meeting on site to talk through my proposals and perform an on site risk assessment which I’ve submitted and is provisionally approved. In terms of working with the Council it’s been surprisingly easy. Again having that contact through the existing pump track users has been massively helpful and the head of the local club submitted the initial plan on my behalf. I didn’t use a template for the plan, I just tried to keep it simple and the details concise whilst trying to relay the benefit the project will have for the community. I don’t think you need to worry about anything super official. It just needs to show your idea clearly and that you’ve thought about it carefully! I’ve attached some pictures of the plan if you’re interested in how it was laid out. The risk assessment was much more official! Lancashire Council had a template they use and kindly gave advice on how to fill it. As trials riders we can be a bit risk blind I think so it’s prudent to get outside advice if needed and there is much more than you might think that needs to be considered. It’s easy enough and the on site visit was really helpful in talking through what the Council wanted to see in the assessment. There has been a change of plan for access. A good friend who works in concreting is helping to deliver / put in place materials and advised the planned route for delivery wasn’t suitable. He also recommended a smaller wagon! This means we can access the site via the main entrance. Having someone with knowledge and experience of lifting heavy stuff has been invaluable. The Council aren’t much help here so independent advice is a good shout and the material supplier is used to handling much bigger loads. I didn’t realise the issue with access until it was pointed out to me so a good save there. Today I started prepping the site by moving existing obstacles to make assess for the wagon to lift the pipes in at the rear of the site. It was tough going manually digging out the tyres but I had a helping hand from Phil at Dirt Works BMX who is currently working on the pump track with a digger to move the tyres once dug out. We now have access for the wagon! I’m looking to arrange a materials drop of the main stuff very soon so exciting things will start going In shortly.
  14. Definitely! I was planning on calling the pipe cluster I’m planning ‘Mario World’… Any help is much appreciated, ultimately it might be man power that gets it done!
  15. Good to know your tag Luke! I certainly want to avoid blocking any run-ups, ideally the area around the big rocks needs to be kept clear for that reason and in certain parts of the main area. It's funny you mentioning the skills loop being part of the main features by creating gaps, landings etc - that's exactly what I had in mind too, so some input here would be useful if you already have some ideas of what to do! Everyone involved will get a much better idea of my plans once drawings are complete, and then any feedback is welcome. Whereabouts is the land drain exactly? I wasn't aware one was on the site. I know Manny is planning on doing some improvements to the pump track very soon so I want to get the materials on site asap to make use of any plant machinery again, we can even do some pre-digging by hand if need be but I'll need someone to drive the thing! Hopefully the operator will be about on the day, but if anyone can drive one legally, that would be huge and you'd get all the Haribos. I could put a seesaw in but I'm wary of anything moving as it inevitably will wear and degrade over time / be open to vandalism. The sign is straight forward enough, I'm hoping to get one done with Tarty / TNT logos as well as names of all those who helped / donated materials and this can include safety and site info. The big elephant in the room here is machinery - if anyone can help with this in any way, I'd love to hear from them!
  16. I’ve seen a few posts recently about the general state of the trials market and inevitably participation / health of the sport. In my mind one of the biggest barriers is not having somewhere ‘official’ to ride. @Chakers1998 makes the valid point that parents don’t want to take kids to sketchy car parks after hours and prefer controlled environments like skate parks or events run in a club structure that are supervised for young children. I’ve repurposed and added a fair bit at Tarty for the Get into trials mission but a goal for me is to create a solid location that’s publicly accessible to build on this. Disclaimer - Cocky (Luke) has already put in place the trials park I’m about to discuss, I’m not sure what his tag is but kudos is certainly due. So what if you want to build something for yourself? Well, seeing as that’s exactly what we are doing with TNT I thought I’d share our progress as knowing how to go about this is half the battle and if I can share our lessons maybe it will inspire other groups or individuals to achieve something similar. Location: Barrowford pump track is where the site of the existing trials park is. It’s pretty cool but quite tech. Our goal is to add more features with a big emphasis on rideability for novices and MTB - crucial for engagement. We’ll be adding in some stuff for experienced riders too! The park came about in the first place because the land was ear marked for development as a cycling space by another club, Pendle Panthers BMX. When looking for a spot finding somewhere that already has land scheduled for or currently used for cycle sport is key, it’s much easier to gain council permission. Cycle Clubs: Once you’ve found your spot find who maintains / runs it! In my experience, quality spots like pump tracks are often tied to a club. Most clubs are stoked on any form of cycling so approaching them and making your case is a good start. Clubs love participation and our sport needs it so focussing on accessibility is important. Campaigning for a TGS playground will likely get you nowhere but once you get going you can add tech in later. Nothing beats face to face. Make time to meet people and show an interest in what they do. Materials: Quarries, building sites timber yards. These businesses (I’ve recently learned) are obliged to do some kind of community contribution and getting rid of junk (to them) material is a great way to do it. The company I’m in talks with is more than happy to supply tonnes of material and even get it to site for us for free. Amazing. These companies will want to see a coherent plan so make sure the site owner is on side before approaching them and have a good idea of what you want to do. I found this company supplied materials for the pump track in the first place which helped massively in striking up a meeting. Mates: Man / Girl power! Some solid I.O.U’s to mates prepared to dig or move stuff is really helpful. We got some rocks put in at Tarty with the help of a friend licensed to drive a wagon with a big grabber arm. These guys are the best, ask them nicely! Make a plan: Ive found councils to generally be supportive, especially if you approach those involved in cycle sport. These people have often worked with clubs on the main sites like pump tracks and skate parks so engaging with clubs is really important I think. Councils need a solid plan and again, like to see accessibility. Make it very clear what you aim to do, where the material is coming from, how you’ll get it in place and who you are working with that might already know (clubs). OK - that’s where I’m up to! We’ve identified a site made much easier by a pump track already in place and some trials features there. I’ve approached and met in person the man behind the club who uses this space and through him met the original materials donor who is happy to help again. I met with her and outlined our plans and I’m working on arranging a visit to their compound to discuss materials and delivery. I’m working on a plan to submit to the council with the kind help of the head of the club (see why they’re so important?!) and from there we’ll be able to hopeful get the thumbs up and get materials to the site. The above is the start of the plan. The colours are ‘zones’ we aim to work on and each zone will have its own unique features explained in moderate detail. We’ll need to be flexible depending on material but my hope is if we outline a strong ambition it will give a clear indication to the materials donor and council what we want to achieve. As this progresses I’ll add updates and anyone who wants to do something similar I’d be happy to talk about what I’ve learned. Who says lengthy posts on TF are dead?
  17. Some solid advice there @DYAKOV I’ve be been told similar about going a ‘colour’ down to what you think you can ride. I take your point about back wheel stuff being an energy thief. One of the things I need to practice is being more efficient at getting through sections. I plan to do the nationals the 9th entering ‘Green’ - I think just getting stuck in a making lots of mistakes will be the best learning experience!
  18. So @Mark W has done an excellent job of covering the situation in frightening detail (my eyes hurt now) but to weigh in as one of the new owners of Tarty & as someone able to give a current overview of the stock situation... You're absolutely right @Sam Song - availability is a real issue at the moment. As Mark alludes, there are multiple factors in production, COVID, cost / profit etc that are stifling parts availability, however what we're finding is that a core group of brands are continuing to supply the market or are prepared to do so. The choice is admittedly less, however what we're left with are products made by companies that have a long history in the sport and are invested in it as a core part of their business, so what is still available is well suited to meet the demands of modern riders. What we're trying to do at Tarty is to bring in the brands who we can work with to form a reliable selection of product lines - this has to be more than great products from a supplier, but also a solid system of supply and business relations. It's no good bringing in a brand that disappears after 6 months, releases products ad-hoc or is generally difficult to source products from, it's a nightmare to merchandise these brands and there is very little back up for customers or us. We're reaching out to new brands and brands we've worked with in the past to try and bring the biggest selection of quality components and bikes out there under one roof, as is the original goal of Tarty. It can be a bit like herding cats at times, but the brands we have are the ones who really put the effort in to create good products and are prepared to listen to us / you in developing them. It's harder now with supply issues from Echo and the death of Onza / Monty - those brands could supply a huge range of parts but now, except for a handful of suppliers, we need to source many parts from individual suppliers. We're acutely aware of the lack of choice on many parts, it sucks, but we're doing our best to drip feed replacements or alternatives that are equal or better and crucially we can continue to supply hopefully for years to come. Behind the scenes, we are continuing to communicate with manufacturers direct to have parts made - specifically for us in some cases. Supply and manufacture is showing signs of easing in terms of stress and backlog so we're confident that things will improve in the coming months / years. Much of this is supply and demand, so the more people we can get into trials then the better for all of us! South Coast bike trial and the Bike Trial Federation with Clydesdale Colts is doing a sterling job in hosting regular competitions / club rides and we hope to do the same here with TNT over time. The best thing we can all do is try and get mates / kids to ride and we'll look to support genuine endeavours by anyone in the community who tries to facilitate better participation. Ben
  19. It’s just Shapps pandering to the lowest common denominator of Mail readers which are so low they can see the underside of the barrel. As @aener says a conservative with job insecurity rolls this out every so often to curry favour with the pastel coloured trouser party demographic. The massive elephant in the room is that, to license and register a vehicle and to insure it there needs to be an agreed standard of manufacture and function. This would inevitably write off 99% of all cycles as illegal and only fit for use on private land. It would also obliterate cheap bikes and generally shaft the industry massively. To boot the cost of administering this would be so monstrous that it would be cheaper just to run cyclists over. Basically it’ll never happen and if it ever did people will ignore it for its stupidity.
  20. Well this is the thing @marg26 - you get two shots at a section (one per lap for two laps) so I imagine is a real leveller compared to casual riding where you can do reasonably big or tech stuff after about 50 tries. My aim is to maybe focus on the things that will catch me out in a comp scenario like off camber surfaces and horrible run-ups, as from my experience it's that stuff that makes even 'easy' moves tricky. But I also want to get a feel for what to expect in terms of more dynamic moves, for example I'm going to set off into a typical blue and they come across a 30-inch side hop and that's comp over for me?! I'll be down at the UK's Radfest next month and I'll see if I can take part in the Sunday comp which will give me my first taste of what it's like and hopefully it'll be enlightening!
  21. So this gives me some confidence at least, wheel swaps are one of my stronger moves and I can do them to a decent size and on pretty horrible stuff and hold it. It's run-ups that will probably get me and off camber / uneven stuff when setting up. In my head it was a concern that if I found a 20" wheel height up to back a real challenge then most blues would be off limits for example or if I would need to do bike length gaps at more than bar height. I suppose a lot will depend on the venue and how the organisers set the course.
  22. Yea, I could be up for that - I'll be honest my computer skills are basic at best but I guess if we could get the content up there we could polish it / present it to the right standard between the two of us. Drop me an email in the TB inbox and we can continue the discussion.
  23. Somewhat hijacking @jamesb's topic on the rider skill / fitness requirements for UCI competition, it got me thinking from a novice point of view what would be good to focus on for grassroots competition. I've never done a comp, ever, so I have zero experience of what to expect. From what I understand of comps, I'd probably have a crack at a blue but I don't know exactly what sort of moves I should be achieving to make this worthwhile? For example, should I train for a certain gap to back wheel length? Will I be expected to side hop a certain height? Basically what skills / level of riding should I be focussing on for me to be able to ride 90% of a blue, or any other novice route and actually enjoy it, if not necessarily place high. It's a bit open-ended, I'm sure, but with collective experience I'm hoping to get an idea of how I should structure my limited ride time as a goal to work toward.
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