spode@thinkbikes

No, I have plenty of leg muscle, I do a fair amount of road riding. It's that I can't ride with the stiffer gears, it just seems so cumbersome.

A bail???? I don't have many decent piccies of me. I put this one up purely because it's one of the only pics I have of me on the blue orange. It was the get up on the other side of the wall that made it tricky, not the drop itself. It's really flat as I'm just about to kick the back down.

Ice Ice Baby. I like it, but I refuse to rate it out of 10. How do you quantify it?

That explains things a little more. I want to ask who DJ is, but at the same time I don't want to upset anyone...

I've not had any problems really. Both Craig (ex mad) and Dave are running lower gearings than me and can gap bigger than I can. I tap to back wheel and not had a problem. I can pedal up it too if necessary. I just don't think you should rely on the pedal. If you are doing stuff from static, you are basically just doing two footed jump, just with a bike between your legs. Adding a stiff gear for static stuff just makes it harder work for you. Perhaps it's a riding style difference? I tried 22/19 and hated it. Everything I did I basically had to get a bigger runner up in order to do. A lot more energy behind it, a lot more puncture possibilites. And I tore the tendon in my foot in the process >_< It did have it's upsides mind you.

oooooookay.

I have a couple of 110mm stems if you want to buy one. Just PM me.

At the moment 20 at the front, 19 at the back. I'm probably going to move to 20:20 when I can afford to. I find that with the stiffer gears, it makes rolling gaps easier, but everything else becomes harder work and needs more of a run up etc.

I only wanna play with source to be honest. And what's FBM stand for anyway??

I don'tk now HOW you guys ride with such stiff gears. Seriously!

The resolution of the TFT on your laptop is fixed at 1024x768. When you try going above it, it just makes a virtual desktop. I'm afraid you're stuck at 1024 >_<

The gearing won't affect you at this height. You shouldn't be relying on the stiffness of your gear. Especially for something as low 1ft. Dave Lowe runs 20 front 21 rear - that's LOWER than a 1:1 ratio!

I wouldn't mind a couple of CS:Source games. not played ina while mind you.

I have "oversized" handle bars and my stem had to be oversized in order to compensate for them. Is that worth mentioning?

I did multimedia technology and design, at the University of Kent at Canterbury. It was done in the Electronics dept. and had some of the electronics modules. I love electronics, you can't stop me from breaking my soldering iron out and attempting to fix something that someone is throwing away (I have a 17" TFT and a 28" TV thanks to that (Y)). However, I found the electronics modules AWFUL. Looking back on it, they probably weren't as bad as I think, but I distinctly remember sitting in these lectures being bored out of my SKULL. The feeling from everyone else on the course was more than mutual.

I've had some nasty accidents because of slippery ground, so caution is definetely advised..

I think I accidently got vaseline on my grips once and it ate it away! That's one reason they don't suggest vaseline as a lubricant with condoms! Aside from that, I can't imagine it would work at all!

Is that a joke?

Well, I shouldn't/can't ride for another 4 weeks until this foot is properly healed. but it's so damned tempting! My KOT frame recently arrived and I've been just ITCHING to try it. The temptation is aided by the fact I don't have a back brake :P A couple of weeks ago the weather was fine, but I am finding even road riding a little on the dangerous side. I had my back wheel skid out going round a sharp corner the other day. It was ICE.

I think with a specialist sport such as trials, you need a specialist bike. For a while I used to use my bike for other things, but it was only until I had a dedicated trials bike that I made any progress. I now have a second bike, that started out life being built out of spare trials components, that I use for road riding and XC. I have found that to be a better way.

I've snapped 2 Hope Titanium BB's, and I'm not one for big drops either. I stick with a UN52 now. I've bent one of their titanium skewers too. I had titanium cog on the rear at one point too - I folded it straight in half (and I know of others that have done that). I just seem to have a rough time when it comes to Titanium. Doesn't mean it's bad, I just don't seem to have much luck! I mean, eventually they are all going to snap (I've snapped UN52's), but I've had years out of the things. The one I'm using at the moment must be pretty damned old.

yours looks like just the calls at Canterbury Uni.

I had my disc punched out with custom lettering, so kind of similar to what you're doing. And then it snapped. Where the capital E was, there was a really weak point. Hope replaced it on warranty and it ended up on my XC bike which has twin DH4's. And then the other day I noticed a rubbing and low and behold - it had snapped on the E again! It should still last. Last time I was riding trials on it, an inch section snapped of the disc. Then eventually the whole disc just tore off. Snapped every single arm on it!

I think it's quite sad really :P

I've always bought hope and I've always been pleased with hope. So for me, I say better to devil you know than the devil you don't. I've heard good things about the BB7, but only on here. And I hear a lot of crap being talked on here too :P So I'd want to see one for myself before I commited to buying one. I tried the Hope Trials Mono recently and I can safely say it's the best break I've ever ridden and Id I could afford to buy one, I would. As it is, it looks like I'm going to have to go for a second hand mono or an older mini.