Maintenance Justice

I'm 33 and haven't been riding Trials long but have 20 years of riding experience, 10 years of that racing mountain bikes with a bit of Road chucked in there too. I used to compete in XCO mtb mainly doing national and regional races in my early to mid 20's, the training for that was pretty intense. At it's peak I was on the bike about 15 hours a week using work commuting as active recovery, hard race effort threshold sessions during the week and then base fitness rides at weekends, it was bloody hard work and I felt constantly tired but the point was my body could take it. Once I turned 30 it got noticebly harder to recover between efforts and the aches and pains hung around for longer and I eventually got bored of every ride becomming a training ride with scheduled goals, it sucks the fun out of it. On the plus side I've retained some of the fitness and best of all the mentality behind it, it's very much listening to your body but there is a fair bit of 'shut up legs' in there too where you have to push well beyond your comfort zone to eek out that last bit of power and aerobic ability. Trials has come at the right time for me looking for a change and a new challenge but learning with a 30 year old body has it's own unique problems to overcome so as per Flipps breakdown of your questions... -How often do you ride to keep your levels up? I try and ride 3 times a week, quick rides for lunch as often as I can but two big rides of 2hrs or more a week. This has been important for me, short rides don't give my tired body a chance to warm up and I never get going enough to push. Longer rides have been key to progression. Even just one 2 hour ride yeilds more progress than 3 short ones, once I'm warmed up and comfortable (takes 30mins usually) I'm happy to start pushing. -How do you manage to balance riding and life? I live with my Fiancee and have no children, we own a house and both work full time so we're in a better position that some. I'm very lucky to be able to ride at work so I take advantage of that when I can. When I was younger I used to ride when I feel like it and that's been a hard habit to kick but I've found having a pre planned session twice a week where everybody is happy works for me. I think as long as you agree it first and stick to it it doesn't cause issues and stops you riding too often too close together which ruinds old bodies! The toughest part is not being able to ride when I want or when other mates are riding but hey, this is adulting so sacrafices must be made, I've spent years messing around on bikes so at somepoint 'normal' life has to take point if that's what you want. -Has anyone else struggled with weight and it’s impact on riding? More lack of strength and power than weight. Trials is new so I haven't had years of conditioning. Stretching every day and warming up properly on a ride (no out of the car to 40 inch drops...) is what helps most in getting the most from my riding on a day to day basis. Some of the guys I ride with are easily 2-5 stone heavier than me and manage perfectly fine. I've still got that mentality from MTB training of watching what I eat but I'm not as strict as I was and enjoy food a little more but I always make a point of eating decent meals at the right times and trying to keep snacks relevant to the work I'm doing. -How do you generally keep your motivation? The drive to learn new things and be better! Again, from MTB, that mindset of 'I will be better than you' in the nicest way possible is a big driver so I have a friendly rivalry with my workmate Charlie to push each other to learn and get better. I try not to worry too much about top class riders, I don't want to accept that I 'can't do that' but I focus on more acheivable things and leave the possibilities open. -Have any of you had to come to terms with capability going down as you get older rather than up? From an MTB perspective yes, I know I'm no where near as fit as I was but I'm lucky in that I feel like I acheived most of what I wanted to in that discipline and I'm happy to be doing something new. I don't like to put limits on things, my body will do what I damn well tell it! Instead I set realistic goals and inch my way towards them. Drops are a good example. I doubt I'll be doing 15ft drops but I'd be happy at 6ft so I'll keep inching higher until I get it, as far as I'm concerned if you want to do it then you'll find a way within reason. I think you need to be realistic and be of the mindset that 'this is a really good goal for a 30 year old with my experience' rather than 'this is shit I could go bigger in my 20's' - you're not in you're youth any more, to really enjoy riding you have to let that go and focus on goals that you can acheive now, you'll find your riding more fulfilling.

I learnt a new thing! Still struggling with side hops (although it feels like they’re coming on the big bike) so I’ve been looking at different ways to get up stuff and I’ve seen a few riders do these. It was actually surprisingly easy to pick up, with a bit of practice doing pedal ups these feel like a ‘low risk’ move, pretty safe as long as your front wheel clears the lip and easy to bail from. As your lifting the bike up from the rear once the front hits the only limit is how high you can plant your front wheel (more forward momentum and weight shift to get higher) so it’s allowed me to get up stuff that would be a mega effort to side hop. Well worth a try next time you’re out if like me your struggling to get up high things.

I do wonder about lateral stiffness with these. Imagine a woven lid of a basket it’s rigidity comes from a combination of the rim and weave. In my head a build with these will be relying heavily on the rim for lateral stiffness. A noodly rim like a trials rim is like your basket lid with a shit rim, the whole structure will lack stiffness. Normal spokes interlaced do have a structural stiffness even under no tension. Wheel builders will testify, lace a hub without the rim and the ‘spoke disc’ is actually quite solid. Maybe that’s why you only really see these fabric spokes built on carbon rims. By all means someone please build a stock wheel with these, it’ll be a worthy experiment at best, hilarious YouTube fodder at worst.

I feel like I’m starting to level up a bit and the contributing factor seems to be time and commitment. I’ve been doing a fair few 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hour sessions and it’s not so much attempting big or difficult stuff that’s helping although that is a driver but it’s building muscle memory for small corrections in balance and control when manoeuvring the bike. The sort of stuff you had all day nearly everyday to practice as a teenager but now needs pre planned pencilled in slots to work on! Ive found a good balance of these longer sessions with an adequate but not too long a recovery time in between which is helping the progress stick. With this little increase in control comes a willingness to commit. Being prepared to do that drop because you know you can set up on the back wheel or having the confidence that you can power across a gap when you kick hard. Doing big (for me) or tech stuff is great for a bit of boost in confidence but putting the time in to fine tune that control is where the progress is. It’s something maybe neglected by older time restricted riders but there comes a point when you hit a ceiling of how high you can drop or hop because of the limit of that control. Work on it, it’s worth it.

Looking good! I’m guessing it was yourself I spoke to today at Tarty regarding Shigura brakes. Be good to hear how you get on, I’ve not much experience with this conversion but I’m considering it when my MT5 levers eventually pack in on the MTB

I’m proper the worst person to give MTB advice considering what I’m into as I’m sure @Adam@TartyBikes will attest to however here goes! There really isn’t much difference between 26 and 27.5 - the main one is choice of tyres, the former is outgoing the latter is on trend, that’s it. I was very late to the modern wheel party and honestly I don’t know what the fuss was all about. As Adam says the geo plays a much bigger part. Speaking of, gosh don’t modern MTB ‘sleds’ suck. Long low and slack is great for downs in a straight line but Christ they’re like a bath on wheels everywhere else. I rode a Hightower a while ago and for me that struck the perfect balance for Travel and Geo, 150 was enough to be silly yet the shorter reach of the Cruz kept it playful and it climbed great. Big travel bikes like Stereo 170s, Megatowers etc they’re just pants on anything other than uplifts. If I was in the Market for full sus I’d draw the line at 150 up front, any more is just gratuitous. The DMR Bolt looks spot on given your criteria but I’d take a look at frames from Bird cycle works and Transition Bikes for well put together mid travel builds that don’t cost the earth.

Some serious power there, super controlled

It seems that the possibilities for lines increase massively with higher drops, all the lines have some height element to them to link together locally so I’m keen to get on with it. That being said I have toned it down this week and not stressed about it, just riding and concentrating on technique rather than size. What’s helping is not proper scaring myself every ride, pushing a bit is good but it starts to become a negative association with riding if I do it too much. Also I’m 33 and not getting younger so I feel the need to progress quick whilst I’ve got some good years of riding in me haha!

I like that idea, I do feel a bit cocky in the first hour or so of riding, later on is when accidents happen but you think since you’re warmed up and have been riding for a bit that’s the time to push it. Maybe the way forward is that approach of winding it down as the session goes on to account for fatigue. I come from an XC background and the time to really push is about the same time mainly because your heart rate is up and things are up to temperature so to speak. Maybe with Trials that’s the time to think about dialling it back a little. Will try that tomorrow

I’ve been riding about 6 months now. I think you’re right in that muscle memory plays a crucial part. It’s frustrating because it feels like fear rather than lack of technique, there are so many spots that become available if I can get comfortable at that height. I’m thinking of doing drills of drops on pallets, adding height then taking it away to build confidence and learn through repetition.

OK so I’m not going to worry CLS any time soon but I’ve started doing bigger drops (4ft +) and have a bit of a mental block. Just before I drop I often freeze and fail to kick! The result is a comedy kaffel at best, sprained ankle at worst so far. I’m more than capable of hoping down below this height, in fact I’m quite casual about it but there is definitely a ‘fear’ line being crossed here. I was hoping there might be some practical advice to help get through this glass ceiling. ‘Just sending it’ isn’t going to cut it, if I could do that it wouldn’t be an issue. I wonder if anyone else has had the same, how did you get past it? Is there some drills that have worked for people? Mental exercises? cheers

I like the simplicity of one gear out the back and two ratios. I had a similar issue with a commuter, never quite the right gear. I ended up fitting a Sturmey Archer Kickback S2 hub to that which gives a 30% ratio difference and doesn’t need a shifter just a kick back of the pedals to toggle between the two! I’ll use the 32 80% of time but having the 24 in the bank opens up a lot more lines on the Trail. Suicide shifters are cool, I built a custom wheel with a 5 speed hub and s-shifter for an older customer a while ago. There are a tonne of options to gear up a non geared bike if you dig a little deeper! Yea I saw that thread, think it was a Leeson they were talking about? In theory you could do this mod to a street or stock bike with a low BB and some kind of normalish seat tube, you’re not changing the rear where the big stresses are and up front the small gear is the same. Most front mechs will work with any shifter for changing between two chainrings so if you can find somewhere to put it a suicide shifter would work. For bikes with odd shaped tubes you could look at BB mount e-type mechs. Tinkering is fun!

20 out back and 24 / 32 upfront. The 32/20 combo is about 48 gear inches which is a nice middle ground for single speed. I tried a 22 and 26 but it’s a hefty bike, too small and you can’t actually move it anywhere, too big and it’s hard work to keep it balanced so this works nicely.

Been running single speed for a while, love it, it’s great for simplicity and shitty north west winters but if I want to do some tech climbs or Trialsy stuff the gearing is never quite right. So I had the idea of using one of Shimano’s newer side swing front mechs to add an extra gear up front. They use a cable stop built into the body so you can fit them to any frame even if they’re not designed for front mechs like most modern bikes. I’ve been able to keep the single gear out back and the heavy duty chain, the front mech has enough clearance to accommodate easily without a wild chain-line from a huge cassette. Dropper lever has been put on the right. I used an older triple chain set so I could fit a bash which stops over shifting. The Trialtech tensioner copes fine with the switch between gears, I just backed off the tension a little. The KMC Z1ehx is quite happy on 10spd chainrings and as it’s narrower is happier running through a front mech with enough flex to allow a smooth shift. I purposely chose ramped chainrings (SLX M660) to facilitate a smoother shift from a bulkier chain. The whole set up works flawlessly! The weight is centred and I have a gear for Trials and nadgery climbs but can still run a high gear for miles, what more do you need??! Best of all the XTR mech was a tenner off wiggle because no one wants them anymore and I won’t be sweating over the lack of transmission parts from the dreaded COVID.

Probably best to get a new joining link in that case, if you’re buying a new chain of the same you can use the one from that and join with a tool when you fit the new one eventually. Most manufacturers recommend not reusing them. I pay very little attention to that on MTB and road within reason but for Trials better to play it safe with the higher loads on the chain

Ah fair enough! I run a split link in a Kmc Z1ehx, I know it’s not the done thing but it’s given me no trouble thus far. Definitely a good idea to have a spare chain in the bank if the worst does happen and the left over links will find their way into your ride bag for days out. Good shout on the shin pads!!

You can just add in some links from the same chain. Assuming you kept hold of the links you removed to shorten it you can just add in what you need using a chain tool and join it at the correct length. You’re unlikely to have enough adjustment in the rear wheel to take a link out and rejoin but it’s not the end of the world if you have to keep using the joining link just keep an eye on the condition of the chain (as you should anyway!) to avoid shin gouging failures

Yea so this didn’t pan out. The seller just ignored me and that was that. BUT due to the magic of the internet and old Trials riders with sheds full of stuff I managed to pick up a another Level Boss frame, a V3 this time: The plan was to build an Evolve / Get 1/2 style stock bike with similar Geo to see what riding these bikes is like and hopefully help my riding on the Mod. It’s a parts bin budget build so not period correct but will still be a decent bike at the end of it: Echo TR cranks and bash with a Comas 108 freewheel, money spent where it counts and it’s the same freewheel on the Mod so will feel familiar. The hardest part was getting forks, as you all know 26” disc forks of any kind are like Gold dust at the moment and believe me I’ve been trying for a while to get anything. In the end I was lucky enough to get a pair of DMR sidekick forks. A bit weighty but invincible and suitably period with the option to run rim brakes if I fancy it later: Rolling on a Hope xc converted to bolt through up front and a carbon HS hub on a Rockman rim out back. I think the rear tyre is one of Ali Cs old tyres so maybe that will inject some style into my riding, I can only hope! The steerer was a bit short so I ended up fitting a low stack Echo SL headset and switching to a Comas forged stem which combined gave me enough clamp space: There you have it. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, went with a BB5 up front because I’ve not run one before so I’m curious. First impressions are positive. HS on the rear with an old skool mod to the Maggie booster, suitably retro. The 130 stem actually feels good for my height and some recycled Genesis 740 MTB bars work well too. It’s a weighty hector but fun to ride, I’m looking forward to heading to some local spots to try it out!

The geo and components on a Trials bike are all designed to make these moves a lot easier. Modern MTB and Trials have drifted apart massively in design, back in the 90’s there was a bit of similarity but now MTB is really hard for Trials moves due to low BB’s, super long frames and slack head angles. Balance and basic skills are all things you can learn on any bike so keep it up but if you’re looking to start Trials properly maybe look at a 26” stock Trials bike that will feel familiar but facilitate your learning much better than the on-one.

Wheelie hops took me while too, on one of the first few goes I did loop out and went flat on my back, really knocked the wind out of me. It’s helped having some solid advice but it’s been just repetition to get it right, I put them off for ages but in the end just started grinding it out and the improvements are slowly happening so keep at it man! I’m using a free video editing app which borders stuff but that’s cool, I’m happy to have a running record even if the quality ain’t great!

Took advantage of the cold dry weather to work on my wheelie hops. This rock was a battle, slightly uphill, concave landing spot, off camber top..all that jazz made it a bugger to stick. 2hrs of attempts and I figured I need more speed and to compress before the initial front wheel lift with the weak foot. For 3 pallets worth of height I’ve not had to do that before but now it’s a must to get the momentum needed. Sometimes you’ve just got to slog it out and repeat a spot until you figure it out. I’m pleased with the end result though, this spot was my first on a trials bike and I feel like I’ve made decent progress since my first ride here.

Today was a milestone day. I finally plucked up the courage to drop from the table to the floor at the warehouse. It took some serious negotiation with the head to get it done. I’m at that stage now where size is becoming a factor in getting things done, you have to trust in the technique you know you can do but scaled up it’s a different proposal. Trials is weird in that it puts you in situations you wouldn’t normally find yourself on a ‘normal bike’ but baby steps and increasing gaps and drops gradually definitely helps re-train your brain to see where the new limit is.

Been a while since I posted I’ve been busy improving side hops, gaps and recently started trying hooks. Side hops are going to take a while I think, I’ve been forcing myself to go the ‘right way’ and my brain is finally beginning to accept it. I’ve analysed the technique so much I know exactly what I need to do but translating that into the real world is going to take some work! Ive also had my first few go’s at hooks in the back yard. Until I got more comfortable with wheelie hops I didn’t even entertain these, definitely something to learn first to get the momentum and lift to get your front wheel over the top. Once I figured out the starting distance (about the same as a wheelie hop to ledge) it was pretty straight forward to hop up and lock in. A lot more work to get the hop up faster and smoother, I only had 30 mins on these and I know the technique now so I reckon it’ll be up to back wheel next time!

Just took a punt on this £56 delivered. Scam? Cracked like a walnut at Christmas? dented to f**k? Will I get just a photo in the post or some random bike pulled out of the canal? We’ll see in the coming days (weeks?!) the plan is to build an early, mid 2000’s stock bike for a bit of fun using some period parts... TBC