spode@thinkbikes

That's mental!

I'm not sure he has any new ones! But I know he has one on the way...

I liked that.

Wierd. Dave and I are looking for this exact van! If he doesn't want to bother fixing it - we'll buy it!

Top one is - rig was built to that height Bottom one I'm perhaps at more like 37-38. But the point stands the same.

I had the same thing happen to my Urbans. Apparently there was a manufacturer fault, where they took away too much weld - which is why they are cracking.

By all means shoot me down here... but I'm starting to thinking that learning the tuck is actually counter-productive. Doing ANY sidehop, you will "tuck" to an extent. Not the extreme sideways tucks we see above, but certainly the straight up and down, well "bend" I suppose. But that's still a tuck, you're sucking your body up so there is room for the bike. I would have thought, you only need to start worrying about tucking more when you start hitting the bike on your bollocks? Surely that is an indication that you are hopping higher than you are capable of tucking? At which point you need to start pushing your body more sideways? That's 40". Once again, around 40". When I go higher than 40" (which I can't go far above..), the tuck seems to naturally happen because I made the height. Not the other way around. When Chai was teaching me how to get higher side hops he was explaining the different motions involved. One thing he suggested as an exercise was just springing upwards, with NO tuck at all. Don't even bend your legs. Basically the same motion as jumping up in the air for a header in football, but with a bike between your legs. That's your spring. You tuck at the very extent of your spring. So some of you guys have got pretty extreme tucks at heights well below 40". My inclination would be to suggest you need to work on your spring, not your tuck!

He did hurt his arm. LOL. But then this injury trumped it.

They have the technology, but they don't want to spend much...

That's not true. Sure, they aren't as soft as Maggie pads - but it's very easy to take chunks out. And as someone mentioned early - contaminate them. I'd take the pads out first, or push on something that isn't the pad - like the pad backing. Also not true. Push them in all the way, evenly. And then when you pull the lever, it will automatically adjust both pads appropriately depending on the position of your pads.

I was tapping the old Monty I had. But I found there was a much greater chance of flipping out in comparison to stock. That wasn't your brake at fault - you weren't up in enough. If you tap something right, you only really need a little brake to stop you. If you're brake was working better, you would have paused on the edge and more than likely stepped off. My advice would be get it nailed at say 27" and then come back to that wall. And IF you were tapping that, it's a tiny tap and may be causing you more problems than just back wheeling it or bunny hopping it.

On the way back from a demo in Wales yesterday we had problems. Didn't get home till 2am! We ignored a "road closed" sign and ended up at one road which was flooded with cars left all around. So I took off my shoes and socks and walked across to see how deep it was. It went up about 1foot and figured it was okay. The guy in front of us however was an idiot and drove way to fast and his car conked out. With our van and trailer we got through just fine. According to a couple that had been waiting since 11am (now 7pm) it was up to his bonnet when he attempted to go though. WHY? Why go though when it's clearly far too high?? We then carried on and ignored yet another "road closed" sign, expecting the same ordeal. However this time we were quite shocked to discover that the sloped bank to the left of the road had completely collapsed! So we turned around and took another road - BAM, flooded. Once again I walked out and this time it got up to my boxers before I even got to the middle. I could really feel the current as well. However, I did discover a water butt, which i rescued and now lives in Dave's garden. We then went to Gloucester, where I stepped in a puddle right up to my middle. I'm never going there again.

From the X-RAY above, I'd agree. But that X-ray is the wrong way around. His femur went over the top, rather than behind. A year will probably cover the healing, but then there's the rehab.... He's in hospital all weekend and then I think he's being sent home. I'm sure he'll read this thread soon. Thanks for all your replies

Hello All, For anyone who cares, one of our key demo riders, Darren "Lee" Hill was injured over the weekend. Doing something quite simple, on something at most 2 foot high, he just put his foot down wrong. His knee dislocated and according to the doctors, the worst case they have ever seen of it. This isn't HIS X-ray, but a similar one to give an idea of what happened. His Femur went straight over the top and will have snapped both his cruciate ligaments. 99.9% chance he'll need corrective surgery to reattach those, and he'll be out for at minimum a year In his honour, I have plucked a hair from my chest and placed it neatly on my window sill. How many days it stays there will be the number prayers I shall utter onto the Gods of PennyWorth.

Both Dave and I have NEVER hit a disc doing a sidehop. It'll hit the chainstay.

Would come, but we're doing a demo for the Tour De France. On the same note, remember that the roads WILL be shut going through Tonbridge. I'm not sure if the route goes through T.Wells as well.

That looks so cool! Pity it's not disc ready

Hmm, a toughie. How about this one.

Ouch.

I'm in bed with Adam on this one. Metaphorically speaking I've ridden rear discs since 1999 and never had an accident that involved my brake slipping through. I love the feel and I know I can rely on them.

lol++

Well, you know what they say. You can take Joe out of Essex, but you'll never take the Essex out of Joe Bitchin'

I agree. But Steve's been riding quite a while now and doing pretty well for himself. But he's always had pretty shit bikes My guess, he's just after something better to ride on People sponsor people for one reason, to help themselves. So if a company feels giving Steve a bike will aid them, they'll do it.

Nasal Passage.

You've got a lot of balls to pull that off. I'm not impressed at the police's reaction though.