Inspired Dave

15 mins of riding for me indoors by time I got there! haha Damn good 1st go, looking forward to the next one already :D. Ogwen, wow! One of the best days riding I have ever had. Great rocks, great scenary, sweet meeting new people and having a natter. If any of you can go to Ogwen, do it, it's a trials-riders heaven!! Cheers to the monkey that's spunkey for all his top efforts at the indoor and with the ranger in the car park! haha Awesome meeting everyone :D. Hope to see you all (and more) on the next ride! PS. Any ideas who should win the t-shirts for indoor riding? I wasn't there to witness even a tenth of it! :D

Reet then chaps and chapesses, as you may or may not know, Adam and I will be attending this here shin-dig. I'll be riding either a shiny funny looking Onza thing or a Rex with a green rear Hope hub, so if you see me, come and say 'Hi'. If I look bemused, it's probably because you're talking to Damon (we're sharing bikes you see). Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway. Came up with a bit of a plan.....We're gonna be giving a free Tarty Bikes T-shirt to the worst/best (depends how you look at it) stack of the night and also the best move pulled by an un-sponsored rider (sorry Gilles, no free tee for you! :S). The events must be witnessed by myself and/or Adam for them to qualify. However, if you have video evidence of one we missed, we may well whip out a tee for the best ones captured on camera that we didnt actually see in person. See you all there! :)

Personally, from giving both sets of cranks a good fingering, I'd have to say I'd go for the Tensiles. The quality of the Tensiles and their finish is far superior to that of the Zoo cranks. Tensiles also have the fact going for them that they have been very widely used to date, showing they are definitely strong and stiff cranks. The Zoo cranks however are relatively new and little used. I doubt the Zoo cranks are bad to use, and they look damn nice, but the Tensiles have a couple too many positives for the Zoos to knock them off the top of my list :S. Weight wise there isn't a massive amount to choose between them, with a set of Tensile arms coming in at 488g and the Zoo arms at 507g. Dont forget the half-price crash replacement for the Tensiles (2 years they're covered for). Tensiles are also better priced at £109 with bash and stainless chainring and bolts, even if you want to buy the full kit to sell the bash on. Did I mention steel pedal thread inserts? hehe

Eyelets and a fiver cheaper would (and actually has) swing me the way of the Onza (Y). I'm a sucker for eyelets, I like the strongest wheelbuild I can get from a wheel, so lack of eyelets doesnt help my cause.

IMO, for all-round performance, Maxxis are still in a tyre league of their own! Ok, they wear a bit faster than most other tyres about, but ask any serious riders who are un-biased (/un-sponsored) which tyres they prefer, I bet the majority say Maxxis. As for tubes, well, Maxxis again have done me proud for 26", and if their 20" 2.35" tubes are anything like the 26" ones, they do the job admirably!

PZ31 stem does indeed come in 100mm, or 70mm for that matter! Good stem for the cash, had a couple to try different lengths, been running my current one for quite a while now and it's been faultless! (N)

IMO the Python CLS edition is an awesome 'big moves' bike. You instantly feel like you can sidehop much higher and gap further. Your backwheel control will aslo improve, the longer front end and relatively short rear end means it's extremely stable on the rear wheel. Due to the length fo the bike, it's probably not quite as 'flicky' or 'chuckable' as an echo team, but each has it's own merits. Compared to any stock I'd say you could sidehop to backwheel or two wheels much better on a CLS. Equally, you will feel more at ease and controlled when on the backwheel of a CLS than near enough any stock bike out there! For big moves and control, I don't think many (if any) stocks get close to the Python CLS.

Hey guys, Bit of research needs to be done (Y). This is for 20" only riders please. If you could have any front brake, what would it be? I dont really need to know which model Hope you'd choose if you were after a disc brake, just whether it'd be a front V, HS33 or disc brake in general. Thanks for your help, hopefully an accurate poll will benefit you guys in the near future! Ta, Dave.

Awesome vid! First time I've seen you on rocks, and slimey ones at that!! Damn sweet riding, looking forward to the next for sure!! Looks like that brake n tyres are doing you well! haha Be down for a ride at your slimey-rocks asap!

Maxxis Slow Reezay (grippiest of the Maxxis tyres) or Super Tacky anything as long as it's dual-ply :ermm: AMAZING pinch protection and grip, and all lighter than Michelin Comp 24, well, unless you get a 2.7 maxxis :unsure:

For pure grip I'd go for Maxxis Creepy Crawlers every time!

From Riding Danny Smith's bike, I can say that the Onza Carbon risers are a good mix between street and 'natural' technique-y stuff. When he was riding his woodstock, he had them kinda swept back, as risers are normally (like on dirt/jump bikes). They felt great for bunnyhops and 180's etc. I'm running the same bars now, and with them tilted forwards a bit they're awesome for more 'compy' sorta trials. They can be x-up'd nicely when swpet back as Danny had his, but they are a little more awkward to x-up when tilted forwards.