guineasmithpig

gravy. just that i've seen it soooooooooo many times before. think i probs done it meself before! get to the last process of a project and think 'CRAP!!! thats never gonna work now!' haha keep us posted smithy

u'll need to ream the pawl seatings out to be smooth enough. don't think straight milling cutters will be up to the task. i'm guessing hope grind theres out. also (and thise will surely help loads) machine out the slots BEFORE you turn that end down to size. trying to mill onto the sides of a pre cut cylinder will be useless as the cutter will flex and you'll be miles out. doing this in the CNC miller will be much better. infact, do the whole seating section with CNC, as you'll never get the accuracy manually! and then turn that end to size. then blitz the seats out with a dremel to remove and flash and polish the seats out.

that second drawing looks MUCH better! you need to have at least 2 pawls engaing at once (especially in trials) as force applied, lets say, at 90 deg to the pawl will just push the driveshell into the axle/sideload the bearings by pivotting around the engaged pawl. i think i once measured up and reckoned u could fit another pawl between each of the 3 pawls in a standard XC driveshell, meaning 2 pairs of 3 pawls. double the engagement with the usual hope reliability (most the time). this may also save you some time and expense. also, if you are making the shells from scratch, have a look at integrating leaf springs instead of compression springs as i think these would be much more reliable than the standard hope ones. they seem to get squashed or bent a lot in my experience well, now that i've given you all my ideas (which i have neither the time nor resources to impliment) i hope (geddit?) you get somethin sorted. just don't expect it to work the first second or 15th time! the tolerances required to match the pawls up to hopes precision machined ratchet rings will almost certainly require the same calibre of tooling as they use! or some serious CNC or manual skills. but again, best o luck! smithy PS. it'll be far from perfect. just a hunch!

If it works properly effectively, how much power 'should' you get from a v-brake if it gripped as well as a disc brake?

are you running cassette or freewheel? its just that a lot of freewheels run excentrically (not around a central point). so if you follow one tooth of the outer sprocket, it'll move outwards as it is at the furthest point backwards of the bike, lengthening the distance from the front of the chainring to the back of the rear sprocket, causing the cahin to be tighter. if you spin your wheel, you may see the rear sprocket moving up and down, which will tell you its running excentrically. if your running a cassette, not a clue! haha. unless your having the same trouples with your driver (poorly formed or something). smithy

i've got Oxford's cheapest track pump. Black plastic with yellow trim, cost £12 i think, and that has been in use for nearly 6 years now! hehe. and i once bought a blackburn mini pump for about £35 and the seals packed up on it after 2 weeks (when it had never been taken out on the bike) and the shop refused to replace it! well, as said above, u can't really go wrong with Topeak if you wanna spend your £30 quid. I can recommend the Oxford ones too though as me and my cousin use the same (base model) ones and have had em about the same amount of time and they've been great! smithy

at the end o the night, you look like a fag with your cock in a guys ass. don't see how bikes have anythin to do with sexual persuassion meself. if all of a sudden there was a revolution in the gay community and the all started wearin black, would 'stealth' bikes be gay too? and anyway, loads o normal guys wear pink stuff nowadays. menswear shops are full o the stuff. ah well, got me black beautys at the moment. just need to select the right shade o pink for em now...

that pink levelboss was mine (sold about a month ago) and i rode it in that colour for maybe 2 years. some guy asked me if the novelty had worn off, and i'm like 'what novelty?'. i didn't choose the colour to be cool, i just thought it would look good and a bit individual, even if it were a bit gay in some peoples eyes! anyways, the guy who bought it thought it was mega.... for a bout 3 days at least, then stripped it. pretty bummed meself, but hey, takes a special kind o gay.... i mean guy, to pull off pink alrite. i fancy sprayin one o me other bikes pink, but i got a full on stealth squadron at the mo. xc bike, jump bike and bmx, all 3 all black. they look slick, but i find the whole stealth thing a bit borin. to be continued..... smithy

try doin the same on an 8ft gap from phone box to bollard. now THAT hurt!!! glad you came off unscathed man smithy

i remember someone totalling a wheel off that drop a few years back. after travellin a few hours to get there, then about 15mins riding, he dropped it and smashed his rear wheel to pieces. was a legend though, because he spent the rest of the day carryin his bike around with him on the same topic, i did the st pauls fountain gap down that day. was pretty stoked i made it! i wondered if anyone still had viddy clips of that, as i've lost mine someone filming sent me. i was on a yellow giant team trials at the time. so if u got any clips, let me know and i'll get a transfer sorted smithy

yeah, i remember the first prototypes being shown on biketrial.com. and then remember em all snapping within 2 weeks of purchase! hehe. perhaps the worst product launch i've ever seen! i've just quit trials. i'm know where near as good as i used to be, and get really frustrated when i'm out riding. have made a switch to street/dirt on both 26in and bmx, see how that goes. its hard seeing all the young guns comin through within about 4 months of riding, because o the calibre of riders and parts for inspiration, it gives a huge boost to new talent. i remember stuff me n ma cousin used to do as a general progression of riding up and off stuff, and then seeing it in a magazine or video about 6 months later! oh, and the newbies video viewing list for homework this week is: Dirt (RIP JMC) Chainspotting Revolution Evolve Contact and a really old MBUK freebie with Steve Pete on the front riding for MBUK/GT (crap, thats even before the were sponsored by specialized!) all available on video cassette (remember those?) from your local car boot sale smithy

yeah, way back when i started ridin (bout 8 years ago) hans rey was already well established in trials, having used a dinky 14in Zasker frame and a GT (rebranded?) mod. and don't forget ashton and hawyesy's bikes were just small mountain bike frames ( Beast of the East and ATX890?) until they brought out they're signature frames. Monty and megamo were definitely out before them, and i think onza were next, then B1/Vario Tibo frames. Lets not forget crescent and brisa. They were pretty early on, early 90's? Also, what was it that Tibbault Marrieux was riding in the Evolve i think it was? OO OO OO, and Ian Coopers Raleigh Ti frame! did they ever produce that? neways, for all the noobs, ZOO, Koxx and so on have only been around a few years. fookin eck, i had my sidekick as my 3rd trials frame when it first came out! koxx weren't even around then, and they are oldest of the new breed! u shud o seen us oldies ridin 6lb slalom frames with front sus and v brakes way back when! you young uns have had SOOOOOOOOOOO easy! oh but the memories............................................. smithy

Have had a hope xc rear for nearly 3 years now. it's never skipped during a move, and the first ratchet ring lost its first tooth after 20months hard use. infact, the only thing i had troubles with was the axle. broke 2 within 2 years (which i ain't complainin about!) but decided to make a solid steel replacement with bolts in the ends. utterly bombproof now! can't say anythin bout kings, but i know people who have destroyed hopes beyond economical repair within 3 months. then others (like me) who have the same one for years without any reason to complain. smithy

Sorry mods, stolen bike area appears to be closed to new replies. Move it if you can/need to 2004 Kona Cindercone - 17.5in frame, smoke grey Marzocchi MZ Race forks - black Mainly Deore groupset, with XT mech and silver (alivio?) cranks, shimano logo on arms shimano cable discs with avid fr1 levers Mavic X117 (i think) rims on black shimano hubs, tioga terra firma tyres Shimano spd pedals has silver bottle cage and pump bracket on downtube, and specialozed saddle bag small paint chips on top and downtube, also pinched cable on toptube where someone tried stealing it before! is in v good condition, looks a little dusty at time of theft. was stolen from Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane campus at Headington Hill on Friday 3rd February between 9am and 1.30pm. cut through a Kryptonite cable lock to take the bike, and lock was not left at the scene. if anyone has information of the whereabouts of this bike please contact me on 07879 224466. i'm a poor student type and can't afford to replace it, and am EXTREMELY pi**ed off about someone taking my bike which i worked hard to pay for. may have to sell my trials bike to replace it as i don't really ride it much these days.

'do little wiggle, a wiggle an' a giggle' muppet

i'd go for polycarbonate or somethin personally. be a piece o cake to make, cheaper, and u don't have all the complications and chance of failure you have with c-f. is it the same stuff E-13 use for their devices? can't be bad if its used for bulletproof windows! as for c-f, do you have to cut it under compression or somthin, to stop it frayin and cracking as bad? i wasn't allowed to use it at college, because its too much hassle, n nasty stuff on the hands!

cheers for the heads up porter! i'm in need of new pads, n wanna get some after xmas. sounds like one of the best options at the mo. but by far the best part of the review was: LMFAO!!!! as opposed to what? just salt? porter u plonker smithy

i'm thinkin o buildin ma little giant bike up again. was ace for loads o street type riding, but still good trials geometry. hopefully gain more in fun lines than i lose in height of touches and length of gaps (not that they're ne good neways!) i love ridin, just fed up o not bein as good as i was bout 2 years ago. rode street on my bodged dirt/street X-ile and had a blast! even though the stuff i did wasn't amazing, it felt so good doing something original, rather than the same old lines around oxford once a week on a cold miserable thursday evening. wudn't miss it for the world though! as has been said before, its started bein more about gettin out with a coupleo mates and see who can laugh the hardest! smithy

still my fave. though i got a couple o good uns. thanks to ben for the excellent shot! shame there weren't more of the following events! :P

my gf's sister is one o them that talks in her sleep all the time. has me in stitches. guess i shud sleep with me gf more instead :lol: smiff

sweet vid! i'm seriously tempted to build ma giant up again. try goin all street stylee trials again :) nice work with the vid. get a feature length one done now! smithy

oo, sorry, i was thinkin o just ones like thesefree running helicoil yeah, the round ones don't present anythin other than the same thread on the outside, just wider. but diamond sections are availble with much taller outside thread, making them awesomely strong anchor points. best ones for aluminium and such, if u want a stronger link than the standard bolt allows smithy

but the thread on the outside of the helicoil has a lot deeper pitch than that of the metric thread sat inside it. hence why they are used in soft materials to anchor bolts properly

plus, surely using a longer adaptor induces more leverage? as the bigman said, get post pount fittings, and helicoils for the threads if ur worried about it tearing them out. would like to see the positioning of the caliper mount, as i'm strugglin to think o somewhere that would allow use of a disc without damaging to frame, apart from one idea, which would be pretty burely, but quite expensive. but keepin that to myself for now :) smithy