poopipe

if you have big feet, get big pedals I'd be more worried about how long cranks that cheap will last underneath somebody of your size. but anyway. im 6ft and a bit and love the feel of a shortish mod so it wont be too small for you

if you got a wheel and the forks you could make them into a unicycle and ride that while saving up for the rest of the bike...

ierm, i think im right on sayingthis... the standard t-pro stem has a very silly 28.6mm clamp whereas the echo has a very sensible (31.8 mm ?) clamp. i imagine you've got the same stem/bar combo on the t-bird so you'll have to get new bars if you get a new stem. oh, and if you're set on a new stem, the onza t-master is half the price of the echo and the same shape - apparently.

Its a genuine phobia that is - Mottephobia - fear of moths Lepidopterophobia - fear of things that are like butterflies I had a mate who was utterly terrified of butterflies. he used to squeal like a little girl and run round in circles with them chasing him. you probably wont find that as funny as i do :) - personally, Im scared of knocking a wall over and getting kicked off a decent riding spot for ever.

being mugged is shit - hasn't happened to me since i was a lot younger ( by a yardie with a big knife, we didn't have chavs in those days you see) he took all my money and drugs and scared cack out of me. So, to minimise the damage ..... Get your bike/expensive stuff insured, dont carry all your important shit in your wallet and if somebody waves a knife at you, do exactly what you're told. With any luck you'll be in a position to go down the police station, report the crime and have it ignored without visiting the hospital on the way. There's no point ranting on about how hard you'd hit the b*****d afterwards cos if it were true you'd have done it in the first place. Besides the ridiculous reasonable force laws in this country mean you'd probably end up being prosecuted for it.

theres not much point in switching cranks til you break those ones if you ask me. you won't notice any difference unless they're a different length. i'd go for some brake boosters - they make your brakes work better (and probably extend the life of your frame too). i like the cheap 4 bolt echo ones, theyre about 20quids from tarty. forks is a good suggestion, you'll save a pound or 2 in weight on the front which will definitely help. oo - get some skull shaped valve caps, chrome ones if possible EDIT :: Alex. .. for FFW use a standard freewheel on the cranks, you need to clean it out properly and threadlock the lockring on to stop it coming undone. most mod riders run 18-12 gearing. I used to run 22-17 but switching to 18-12 made everything much nicer, its a fair bit faster but only takes 5 minutes to get used to.

i think i've got veggies - ive got 661 shin/knee combo things anyway they get a bit hot but they've stopped everything my pedals can throw at me so far and they've stopped me getting pebbles lodged in my kneecaps on several occasions. They didnt cost much - i think i got them in halfords but cant quite remember. in all, pretty good shinpads

5 pallets is about 2 and a half foot right? pretty damn good going for 4 months riding imo Like everyone else says - learning to tap will help. Obviously tapping can get you up higher but it also clears up all those little doubts about exactly how far from the wall you want to be when you give it the big kick. I got a lot more confident with backwheeling after learning to tap, it gave me the balls to add a bag load more power to my kicks - which gets you more height.

er - dont zona just make the zip at the moment? if you read all the other 'should i get a GU' posts you'll see it comes down to 2 things. 1 : do you want to spend £300 or £200 on a frame? 2 : do you want a bike as long as the zona? the zona is long - long like a python. People who have them love them. there are 2 lengths of GU - both are shorter than the zona. I think the general concensus is that a shorter bike is better for a beginner because it's easier to get on the back wheel whereas a longer frame gives you more leverage for the big moves but is harder to get on the backwheel. think about what you ride now, decide whether it's too long or too short or just right and then buy a frame that suits your decision best.

I'll confess to not wearing a lid if i'm just popping down the shop for some fags but - like he says - you look like a twat bouncing around on your back wheel helmet or not - epecially on a mod. better a twat than a cripple i say.

i just got some 17quid TSG gloves from the bmx shop to replace my spanky UFO mx gloves (which stretched and are now baggy mx gloves) , they seem pretty good so far although they arent nearly as warm as the UFOs . make sure they're nice and snug or you get blisters...

You can probably get the house insurance extended to cover the bike if its not at home - as long as its locked up etc. .theres a £1000 limit on my policy if i do that but my bike's not worth that so its fine .

yup - i do 2 miles to work most days on my mod and its only unpleasant if ive been drinking the night before. its pretty safe where i lock it up so im not too worried about some scumbag half-inching it - otherwise i'd go down the bikeshop and get me a 60quid shitbike for the journey. regarding which mod to get.. save up the extra for a t-pro . Ive not had a t-bird but my old dabomb was pretty much the same deal, the t-pro is a much better bike in terms of feel and spec.

oo - yours are bigger than mine. Then again i saw a video of you bunnyhopping 4 foot to backwheel a couple of days ago so its no real surprise. Any tips for mid-air tapping or is it just pedal and hope ?

its a lovely looking spec but why the hell havent you invested in some decent graphics hardware ? drop one of the hard drives, stick a pair of 6800 ultras in there and double your memory - then you've got a beast

its easy and fun - once you've got over the fear part. i learnt them on walls about 2&half to 3 feet high, its low enough that you'll stand a good chance of getting up if you miss the tap but high enough that the bike has to be properly lifted to actually hit it. Its definitely safest if you tap just as the bike is about to leave / leaving the ground - full on midair taps have a tendency to tip me over the front atm but i reckon thats just a matter of practice. i find taps are better than bunnyhops in some situations cos you dont need much forward speed to get you up a big wall. i also find it easier to get to back wheel from a tap than from the standard backwheel method - i guess cos the bike goes higher

like everyone else says.. creepy crawlers - they work on everything except wet skate ramps and after several months street riding theyve still got lovely big nobbles on.

practice practice practice.. im crap at hopping but i got a couple of tips recently that helped a lot. 1. bendy legs are good - you should find you can balance for quite a while without hopping by moving your body around on the bike. compressing on landing will reduce the shock through the bike and prevent it from pulling you where it wants to go rather than where you want to go. 2. lazy is good - only hop when you need to adjust your balance rather than hopping for the sake of it. little, relaxed hops are better than big hops cos you can control the forces when you land better 3. use the pedals to move the bike about - if you tend to move backwards while hopping , doing tiny little pedalkicks will keep you in the right place. 4. when you're in the air, release the back brake and level the pedals out - this puts you in the right body position for the next hop.

nearest testicle? both of mine tend to be pretty much the same distance from the stem

Interesting T-F inches aren't a solid number though. they get bigger the longer you've been riding. You need another step in the equation. lets see.... 26/20 X (height / years riding ) - riders weight where .... height is in T-F inches years riding is in real years (T-F years vary wildly in length) weight is in real kilograms - we really need a maths graduate to think this out properly, i got confused at A-level and went to art college instead

...which makes it more fun mods are good because.... they have stupidly fat back tyres and tiny wheels you can fit them in the back of a punto they don't have gears (gears are for girls) i've got one they look a bit like a stick drawing of a cow on wheels ( is it just me that thinks that? ) - i like cows people will steal the stock first if you park it next to one :D .

where does it say im supposed to think before i post :( i reckon i could do it for 140-150 making use of my pile of bits but point well made unproven ... - why do you think im encouraging other people to buy them? (Y)

i find it amazing you even get a choice. im still at the yay! i made it without sliding off again stage. im finding to front then both getes me the most height- you can kinda hoik the back up that way

it makes no difference at all as long as you dont slap your bottom bracket into stuff... a bashplate clearly protects your bike more than a bashring - mostly because its bigger. As far as i understand it you arent allowed to go to bash in UCI trials comps which explains the rash of bashplate free frames. If you dont ride comps and have a tendency to slip off the corner of walls when pedalling up them i'd say a bashplate was a necessity that said , the gu is looking rather tasty, i might buy one of them when im sure they dont break

what are you riding now? whats wrong with it? too short? too long? too heavy? if you already have a python you'll probably like the new python. if you have a monty then you'll probably like the short GU, if you have a t-pro then the 1030 WB GU would probably feel much the same. if you havent got a trials bike yet why are you buying a £300 quid frame to start on? (forget that bit if you're dead rich)