SQuiT-man

Nice trailer, I enjoyed watching it. Liked the hardcore music choice too, suited it well.

Wowww nice on Deng! I have something positive to say for you! Gu frames gotta be my next, just if this zona wasnt so solidly built, it wouldnt be so long! :D

Exactly, thats one of the reasons I disagree with raising your bars by the same amount as BB rise- you end up with pretty much the same actual reach, just with a greater angle (sorta like you would get by running really long forks). I find what works best is a bit of both, raising bars a bit, but not too much :D

Mine weighed about 340g I think, on the same scales that my monty stem weighed just under 220g to give you an idea. So a bit over half as much weight again, but I guess its true that they are probably pretty strong. Personally, It was the feel of it, not the weight that put me off :D

I wouldnt mind knowing this too, I think mine may be well on its way out-the other day i went to a skatepark, and just riding up the jump box with some speed made my BB go weird and really hard to turn at certain parts of the crank rotation, although after getting off the bike and turning the cranks loads of times, it seemed to loosen itself back off again. I wonder what happened? Cheap square tapers other than shimano, anyone?

Thats awesome, it actually works really well. Nice one :D

I personally disagree with raising your bars by the same height as your BB. I cant be bothered to explain my theories on all of this, but basically doing that would effect your gapping, etc. Think about the angles that the rear axle, the BB, and the grips/handlebars have with eachother, they would change, not neccesarily for the better.

2.3 is fine! Dont go any bigger tyre-wise, just pump it up a tiny bit more, and learn to land smoother (Y)

I got a 1040 zona zip and Im RUBBISH at pulling bikes up to backwheel, yet with zoo stem and onza carbon bars (even lower than the zoo bars), I can manual this thing piss easily. It would probably be a bit harder on the zoo though, ive got 370mm stays and the zoo has 375 I think, but that extra 5mm actually makes a surprising difference. But the answer is yes, they are definately street-able! I can do 360 rolling hops using a pedalstroke, nosehop for ages, but Im finding it very hard to squeaker, and no chance of me pulling a G-turn!

Definately have a bit of rise, IMO theres very little point having a stock frame with under 20mm BB rise, because it wont affect the ride too much (once you have got used to it), it just has some riding benefits that are there for the taking when choosing a frame- you'd be silly to totally ignore the advantage BB rise gives. As for Dan Jones' bike, yes I have rode it too, and although I am normally a mod man, I think it rides beautifully too. Go for a hifi, choose the spec wisely, and if it feels strange at first, DONT give up on it straight away! Give it a few weeks until you get toally used to it, I'm sure you'll be hooked (pun).

Didnt know thats how they worked, thats quite interesting.

They really do weigh a lot (Y)

Trials-shack closed down a couple of months ago due to limited bandwidth and lack of sufficient funding. Hows the grossman mod ride (I assume thats what you were riding)? I kinda liked how it looked like it would ride. Im trying to build a little trials park in my garden, sorta like that, its great fun to ride! So was the council fine with you building that? I take it that its situated on council-owned land? How did you persuade them, and where are you from? Cheers, Scott

If you get an ET frame, melt it down to metal, then re-form it in an entirely different shape (and possibly different metal). Its basically a long, very low 24" with a high BB that will make you want to jizz your pantyhosen. Hope that makes sense, Scott

I'd say go for it (Y) Here's mine: http://img52.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img13437rs.jpg Looks a lot nicer in real like than in the pic though, and rides even better than that! I actually found it easier to bunnyhop than any mod I have been on, purely because of the confidence it inspires. Its great for sidehops, gaps, backwheel control, great for gapping to frontwheel, even fairly good for nosehopping, with my current setup (low bars, tilted back).!

Monty cranks are great-light and strong. What mod frame are you running it on? Only asking, as if you were running an ultra-short reach bike, Id opt for short cranks (e.g. the montys at 158mm if you want low weight too), whereas if you are running a long bike with loads of cockpit room to move around in, I would personally opt for slightly longer 165mm cranks, especially if weight isnt so much of an issue. It doesnt really make much difference to be honest though- I run montys on a 1040 wheelbase zona and they are fine (Y)

Danny, you have done it again, you have amased me with your riding and made me want to get a monty 221 again! You should bring out more vids, especially of you on the new '06 221, I wanna see how your street and rail gaps cope with the change in rear brake (if ur using a disk now)

"Ohh Mr Jones, I do believe you can flyyyy" Great vid as usual andy, with some good riding. That limey looked soo nice, too.

Lol, how old are you and how long have you been riding? 50" is pretty good, well done! Keep on improving.

I got some of these bad boys, in Pink (amongst other colours), too! A mate bought me some for my birthday for a laugh. Just use them with your hope, and imagine its a King. Money saved = £100 = 100 litres of gypsy juice (7.5% strong cider), or 10 bottles of cheap whiskey = VERY drunk weekend <_<

Once you have got used to BB rise (itll take a couple of weeks of riding though), Im sure you will love it. It can help you ride bigger due to more clearance, and feels sort of like a mod (as they have a fair bit of BB rise anyway). Once you have got used to riding it for a month or so, anything else will feel sluggish and low IMO. P.s. I love the ride of the Echo Hi-Fi, with 55mm BB rise, even with low bars- it feels very much like my Zona mod, which is a great thing.

I currently work in a bike hire, if that counts. As goes "manguin2001" on here, too.

I rode stock, got fed up with it (mainly due to bending mech hangers and messing up gearing every time I bailed), but now ride mod, and WOW it is soooo much simpler. If there were some decent stocks out there with horizontal dropouts (which personally Id run singlespeed with either chain tugs, or snail cams (yes, snail cams on a stock- even if I had to drill the holes myself and make the snail cams out of sheets of metal)), I probs wouldnt be riding mod today. I know it isnt worlds-legal to run singlespeed on a stock, but hey, Im not going to be entering the worlds anytime soon, Ill be practicing, and braking mech hangers.

Thats great if you can 360 spin. My tip for learning to add that extra 180 onto however much you can spin- try to do your current best spin, but held to rear wheel! E.g. in your case, try to go a 360 spin but hold to rear wheel- if you get enough power in, then when you learn back to hold to rear wheel, the momentum you have may well be enough to get it all the way round to 540, but thats as big a spin as I have ever done (I know others have done 720s etc). If you can get over a 360, perhaps even a 540 spin dialled, then you have gained sufficient skill in gaining the spinning momentum, and should be able to try a 360 hop. Literally all it is is a spin, but with a hop.

Yeh, seriously, I remember how weird it felt at first trying to do one-finger braking, and I felt like I didnt have enough strength in one finger, but you soon get used to it and it is much better ;)