Ali C

Glad to see you wanting to get into trials and get a dedicated bike! Firstly, yes things can be confusing with trials parts as often they can be standards specific to trials and nothing else (19" rims, front freewheels, rim brakes, snail cams etc) but as you're finding the trials community is happy to help...I'd also recommend Tartybikes for both parts and for answering questions as they have great knowledge and will bend over backwards to help. I also find them to be the best supplier of spokes and spoke length calculations. As for the frame you've bought, that's an older Onza T-pro from the mid 2000s therefore it has a lot of the older standards. I can confirm it is meant for a straight 1 1/8th fork (but can't confirm whether a tapered one would fit with a Hope "H" lower cup as that's dependant on the inner diameter of the headtube and whether it is wide enough to clear the wider taper of a fork...best just to source a 1 18th fork to be safe). I believe the rear end is 116mm to be run with snail cams. The "standard" gear ratio to be run on that bike is 18T in the front and 12T in the rear. When you say you've bought a HS33 without a lever, what are your plans? You mention you like Shimano or Formula levers so I'm not sure if you are planning to run these on the HS33 cylinders but if so I will jump in and say they're not compatible! Hs33 levers have a much bigger piston compared with disc brake levers (14mm compared with 9mm) so a disc lever will push much less fluid and be extremely spongy. You will need to run a HS33 lever or a trials specific brand instead...fortunately the trials specific ones aren't made of plastic. As for a carbon front hub, it's possible you could get away with running something super light but also bare in mind that new riders are often some of the most harsh on bike parts as they haven't found the finesse that comes with years of practice, it's likely you will be landing drops a bit heavy to begin with or even crashing/letting the bike drop etc. I've leave it up to you if that's something you want to go ahead with. The last thing I'll say just now is that you should prepare for the finished bike to feel REALLY weird! I often advise riders coming from a MTB or road background to go for a bigger wheel size as it'll feel less alien. In fact, I usually advise people to not even get a trials bike as their first bike, building up or adapting a small framed MTB or DJ bike is an excellent way to get into trials. I've been riding trials for 25 years and I can't stand riding 20" trials bikes as they just feel so odd! But that's just me and plenty of people have built 20" bikes as their first trials bike with no issues so don't let me put you off your build, it's just something to consider if the bike feels a bit too alien once it's done.

Tubeless and inserts

Some will know that I sold my MX5 (sad) to get a van…well today I picked up my new whip…a 2015 Renault Trafic. Being honest it wasn’t really my first choice of van as I thought the Transit Custom was much better looking but after dozens and dozens of comments from people on social media I ended up going for the Renault due to supposedly having better fuel efficiency and engine reliability. I also heard the Transits are extremely easy to break into which isn’t ideal if I’m potentially going to have bikes in the back. I’ve only driven it a few miles home but it seems really nice, bought from a local family owned business (guy used to race Downhill he said) and comes with a years warranty which gives some peace of mind. I also got insured with Brentacre who will cover me no matter what camper mods I end up doing for no extra cost.

I always avoid using disc brake cleaning products on my brakes…any time I’ve ever used them it’s ruined the bite. If this was me I’d get a blowtorch and burn off whatever is on the pads and then give the rotor a little blast too (not too much though, just to evaporate whatever might be on it). I’ve done this with some pretty contaminated pads and had them completely transformed. If that doesn’t work then get new pads and don’t use anything other than clean water

sold my MX5 I loved that car but not having something more practical is holding me back plus I fear with me not keeping it covered I'm just letting it rust. Sad to see it go though

Seems to be a small surge in the UK too, a few people I know had it recently too. I Hope you recover quickly! I'm still expecting to get it at some point. I was at a show yesterday literally shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of other people plus kids giving high fives and stuff...if I'm ever going to catch it it's at something like this!

Security was right, it's all a ploy and the cat is actually a cute thief!

I’ve taken a good look at the brake, I can’t see any leaks anywhere, I wonder if I just glazed the pads? Shame the A2 pads aren’t as popular aftermarket

nope your free brakes were purely down to you I can agree with your thoughts on the A2 though, I recently built a new bike with an A2 on the rear and I'm well impressed! Being totally honest I may either have a weeping seal or some other reason for fluid to have got on the pads though as after a day of comps it seems to be contaminated, I've not taken it apart to look yet but after the faultless reliability of my A4s it'll be a shame if these don't quite match up. I'm pleased they helped you out though and I'm confident they'll get anyone sorted if you find the right person...I know there's been a few people leaving/arriving at Hayes so if you don't get help it might just have landed on the wrong desk at the wrong time so stick with it and I'm sure it'll end up fine

Totally, I’m not sure what the thoughts are between Bmx racers and street guys but there was certainly a lot of hate towards street riders when that became a thing

How old is the bike/chain and what chain is it? It could be as simple as it being a relatively new chain that’s just stretching. I think people underestimate how much chains stretch especially some of the ones comp riders use (the KMC Kool chain stretches loads!). If it is just the chain it will eventually calm down and need fewer adjustments but sone chains are stiffer than others and personally I’ve found the KMC Z1eHX to be the stiffest/least stretchy chain I’ve ever used. Of course it could be something slipping but the chain could be something that a lot of people over look

From memory there was a real split in the community with half living what Danny was going and half hating it. The half that hated it would complain that he wasn’t really a trials rider and he was just doing Bmx and it was giving people the wrong impression on what trials is. I also think there was a lot of jealousy from people who wanted success but never got it. After Danny’s video I noticed a lot of riders try to recreate his approach and make their own “epic” videos (some even using the same song I think) just like people tried to copy Martyn’s Road Bike Party video. I’m part of the half that liked what he was doing. He’s a unique rider and extremely humble and kinda fell into success after putting in the work to become the rider he is. I know some other riders who’d stab you in the back trying to get the same success so it was great to see it happen to someone so organically.

I wonder how much input Fabio had/was given to the build? Some odd choices and personally I’d be pretty adamant for my signature bike to be as practical as possible. It makes me suspect he was limited with the spec choice if he did have input

I had to tighten mine three times since it was built, once the next day, another a week later and one more about a month later…since then I’ve not touched it but I have mostly been riding the fat bike these last few weeks. I did ride hard whilst filming on the Hex yesterday and it was perfect, no tension needed before or after

I fitted Danny's bashguard and it went on with no bodging needed, just rotated 180

as far as I know Danny hasn't broken his set yet if that makes you feel any better

can't comment on those but if you're going cordless then it's worth finding a brand that use the same batteries throughout it's range. I decided to get the Ryobi One+ sander for my house and they use the same battery for hundreds of tools and give the option of buying them without batteries to save money if you already have some, I've since got one of their hammer drills and a grinder and am very happy with them

I’m still on my original Hayes Dominion that I bought over a year ago (I think?) and it’s been extremely reliable with no sticking pistons, no leaks, no cracking or breaking of any kind. I’ve not had to bleed it or really touch it since I fitted out which is ideal. I’ve now got some more brakes fitted to other bikes and so far I’ve not had any issues with them either although they’ve only been on for a shorter time. As for the other brakes you mentioned. Before I got the Hayes I did get some Forumla Cura models to try but as soon as I fitted them to the bike I knew I didn’t like them simply for how sluggish the lever felt, it was like it was bled with syrup or something. Bb7s are indeed good but the main reason I didn’t like them for Street trials was the front brake being routed through the steerer made for some pretty sharp bends and it really effected how the brake felt, same with the rear but to a lesser extent when the cables got tighter when doing footjams…at least a hydraulic brake is consistent in how it feels

On new bikes it’s really important to keep the pedals tight for the first few rides. Because the crank is alloy and the pedal is steel the harder steel axle actually compresses the softer alloy slightly and can give room for the pedal to come loose. After a few rides the alloy will reach the limit of how much it compresses and everything will stay solid. We had so many issues with this we had to put huge stickers on the crack arms of any bike we sold to warn people and make sure they kept the pedals tight.

legendary!

Oh and Russel Brand not holding back

congratulations on the two years of arguing everybody!

I’ve taken a single lateral flow test since 2019, I took it because I had cold-like symptoms and seeing as the test was negative and I didn’t have any Covid symptoms I figured I just had a cold. If I had Covid and didn’t know then I’d be even more annoyed at all the fear and restrictions I typed a big paragraph just now as a response but sod it, I’m just repeating what I’ve said throughout this topic.

Never? These are pretty important variables that totally change how the results can be interpreted. Like javimic says, believe what you like, I’m not trying to convince you to change your mind but I’d like like people to understand why we might think differently and stop the aggression towards people who have decided not to get the jab.

But unless they have every variable covered how useful/accurate is it going to be? I’d guess that they’re not able to get every persons weight, vitamin D levels, general health, social behavior and viral load level, without these figures we can’t truly say what happened. Maybe someone who had a lesser effect after having a vaccine was young and had a low viral load? Maybe someone who wasn’t vaccinated and got very ill was older and had spent all winter indoors and therefore had low vitamin D levels? Maybe there’s every combination of the above (plus taking any confirmation bias out of the equation)…what I’m saying is you can quote all the trials and tests you want but we can’t get a truly 100% accurate answer unless we know all the data. Again, I’m not saying the vaccine didn’t do anything, I just think it wasn’t some miracle cure and I think the way it was marketed and the way our behavior was manipulated was VERY concerning. We quickly found out people’s willingness to turn on each other that’s for sure. I have zero regrets for not being vaccinated so far but I’m yet to get Covid and as always I’m willing to eat my hat if I have a seriously bad time when I get it.