Rich Pearson

and me. :( Rich

The silver bar is (to my knowledge) made from aluminium and the people clive uses to paint his frames only do steel stuff (I think). May have to get the spray paint out soon. :P Going to sleep now... Rich

Ahh! Got you now, its so hard to put names to faces outside of TF. Yeah its just a bulb hub which I've had for about a year and is really now just dying of death. I think a hope Pro 2 may be in order... As someone who's seen the frame in the flesh, what did you think? Good? Bad? Ugly? Rich

The pro 2 looks temping, and cheap. Anyone know anything more about it? I don't just want another bulb in a different packaging. Anyone know much about the profile stock hubs? Rich

After almost totally destroying my Hope rear hub today, I've decided I definately need a new rear hub. The ones I'm looking at are the Pofile SS Cassette, the profile 8/9speed cassette and the hope bigun'. I need something that can build a very strong wheel to take the forces of a rear disc, decent engagement and a strong freewheel. The hub I had was a hope bulb which I've had for about 10 months and has finally started dying. I know next to nothing about the above listed hubs so any advice or suggestions for other hubs greatly appreciated. Cheers Rich

Because I've ridden Leesons for a while and helped to design the frame :) Just taken it out today in bristol. almost converted Pederosa to rear discs :P Not quite... I've gone bigger and better on this frame and as for it braking, well, I wouldn't be surprised if something went wrong, thats why its called a prototype, but at the moment is riding beautifully. Now just to sort out the f**king rear hub... Rich

Its where you do a rolling gap on a flat piece of ground before a wall/rock/bench and then as the back wheel lands and the brake locks you kick again with the pedals to place the front wheel on top of said obstacle and then switch to the back wheel... The thing Neil Tunnicliffes really good at and the coust brothers came up with, ergo, 'a coust hop.' (N) I'm getting some normal hope M4 rotors for it, a bit lighter and a bit nicer. It's very hard for me to discuss how much this frame costs because its a prototype, but all I can say is if you wanted one, it would cost you more than I paid for it, which was a little over the normal price of a leeson frame. :- Its amazing when its dry now its kind of bedded in, in the wet it'll be unreal, which is why I wanted it (damn hampshire comps...) Dan, I garuantee, as soon as you see this in the flesh, you'll want one. :( Or at least you'll really really like it. :P :o Rich

I had a hope mono M4 on the front, which was good, but too many problems with bleeding and stuff which I've heard never really got ironed out in the Trial version. But now I'm on an avid mechanical with an XTR lever and 203 rotor. Much more powerful than the hope, as much modulation if a little less, and its cheaper and no hydraulics to worry about. Kind of biased I know but the avids just work and they work well and a lot of people have proved this; albeit with broken disc mounts or brake brackets which have been ripped off by the braking forces; basically if this brake was a person it'd be a psychotic masochistic sociopath :- Rich

Sweet, will bring the camera's... Rich

I see there are some mixed views on the frame, well I've been out riding for a couple of hours, so heres the lo-down: The frame itself is beautiful. I used to ride a 995mm leeson and this one has a 1030mm wheelbase, so nothing stupidly bigger, but the differnce is noticeable; front taps, coust-hops, sidehops, I've pretty much equalled or gone higher than any I'd ever done before. The disc: Is amazing. The bite when you go for a front tap isn't amazing, but I think thats down to individual technique rather than anything about the bike. Rolling gaps, coust-hops, the brake just didn't budge, yet I could manual further and smoother than I have ever been able to do with rim brakes. All in all I'm increadibly happy with it and nothing looks to be going wrong. I know people are sceptical about the mounts or frame snapping due to the disc, but I think thats one of those things where time will tell, and if the disc just keeps getting better and better as it seems to be, it'll be a gamble worth taking. NOTE: This is a prototype frame which will probably not be available to the public (doesn't seem much demand for them), if things go wrong, or if people have any input that they think will be helpful in making a better frame it will always be welcome. If you've never tried a bike with a rear disc because 'everyone knows maguras are the best,' just try one and see, you may hate it, but you may be pleasently surprised. I know I have been. (Have just read that back and I'll count the seconds before someone accuses me of advertising for leeson...). Glad people have taken the frame in a good natured way (on the whole...). Rich

An XC 717 (black) and a Rhyno lyte are in the post. (Y) I know the DH bike physics are differnt and the bar (as it seems to be now becoming known) is used for different purposes on DH bikes, but I guess we'll see. Thanks for comments :- Rich

I'd like to thank you for that vote of confidence there James :sleeping: .... (Y) :- Yeah the last one was just a normal disc mount though so it wasn't really expected to last this long. DH companies like Orange and Santa Cruz have been using something similar to this for a while and it seems to work, so we'll just have to see. Get your ginger ass to bristol tomorrow and you can have a ride... :- Rich

There are only two options with discs and leesons. One is to have a Hope C2 which has three mounting points and can go between the chain and seatstays (what Kris used to run), or theres what I've got. I had a standard ISO disc mount on my old frame, but the avid 165 I was running just ripped it in half. The bar dissipates stress to other areas of the frame (kind of like the old megamo Pro's), and when riding you seriously don't even notice its there. Rich

lol, yeah but something long winded and hardly even english always sounds better. :- Just been out for a about five seconds in the street and the disc works as well as any standard maggie, except its silent, and the only you need to do to make it work is pour water over the rotor. Will go out for a proper ride and get back to you on it. Glad you all liked it. :sleeping: Rich

...and its all mine. :- Sorry, bragging aside, a few months ago I asked clive about trying something new with double discs and we put our heads together with a few ideas drawn on the back of cigarette packets and napkins, clive went away and built a frame. This is what he made: Bolt through rear axel, avid rear disc mounted on an extra station between the seat and chainstays, with a torsional stress transition between the disc mount and the BB. 1030mm long, 385mm chainstay, 0mm BB rise, and it rides like a dream... Video will be out soon, Oh, and I'm sorry if some people think this should be in the bike pics thread but I thought this was something a little more special than the average frame, considering at the moment, its the only one in the world. (Y) All comments welcome. :sleeping: Rich

World Record 181 cms... thats the same hight as me... Props to Tim for keeping up with those guys, at the end it was just getting silly! Rich

I don't know what whiteboy's doing, but me and Alex are definately coming and maybe Ben. Dunno about tom and byrne doesn't have a bike, but we'll see. See you there. :shifty: Rich

That was f**king mental. You skidded like six feet on you arms and torso! I bet you were a bit shaky after that... Best crash I've seen in a while. :shifty: Rich

Will round up the usual suspects... :) Rich

f**king freezing... Glad you liked 'em. Rich

I may well have to be a part of this. Someone get in touch with prawn and bigman. See you there Rob. Rich