nmt_oli

My mate has set up a website thats a database of petrol stations and thier prices. Just need members of the public to add to it. Is being updated slowly and is still in testing really, but hes hoping to get it on a proper domain soon. have a look, maybe useful! Petrol Watch

yeah got my bike here, 2 of them! just went on a 14 mile xc ride with the soton mtb club, now shattered! Sameer, im in connaught on wessex lane. msn: mostlyharmless42@msn.com

have you got old or new v8's? if there the old style (sqaureish edges, not slightly rounded) then you need the star screw type, but if you have the newer (been doin then since at least 2002) v8's then you need the grub screw type. Oli

yes i have to pay it back, but not until im earning a certian amount, and its interest free, so for now its free money! even if i just put it all in a hihg interest account and make a profit on it. narrow bars- il pm you in a mo joelio- dont worry, im not great! even though ive been riding on and off for ages im still fairly beginerish. and which train station are you near? central? good to knwo htere are some people around.

That is very good riding considreing its only been a month, ive been riding on and off for ages, and i wouldnt say i was better than you, prob about the same, except i can't manual! :S Oli

Tic, Will work if i need the money. im plannign to have weekends off at least till christmas! actually get some riding in. Until then, il rely on the student loan hmmm, free money :S Se you soon freddo. Oli

yay! one riding buddy :S anyone else in soton?

Any one live in soton or staying at the uni that i can ride with? need some riding buddies :S Oli

From the looks of it, that brake is a C2 with a caliper half for fitting to non disk mouted frame. uprgrade to the old pro lever is probably the best bet, C2s are surprisingly powerful as they are, unless it will be on a tiny disk. could get ebc red pads as well, they will boost power. an open lever wouldnt work, as the pistons in the open/closed brakes are different. tey have different returning systems if i remeber correctly. An open lever would work, but not very reliably or consistently i believe. Oli

you will need to do similar priduct comparisons yes? so dont worry about there being other products, as long as yours is different you will be fine. trials specific, you dont need good heat disapation as they wont be dragged for long periods of time- what you need is modulation, bite and wieght saving- concentrate on these. companies have made trials rotors before, search google, search here find out what there like. be proactive, you sound like your not doing a lot! if you want a good grade you need to work at at, trust me, i got an A at a level and it was a lot of work. since you asked, i made a radio control hovercraft- now that IS a lot of work :angry: i could have done a disk rotor, especially on prodesktop CAD then get it machined is a week! lol. as someone else said, just take the wheel or the rotor, not hard to do! but you do need to measure for yourself.

Or, get/borrow a proper bleed kit and you dont even need to take the brake off the bike! :) *wind TPA all the way out. *fill syringe with fluid of choice, remove bolt form slave cylinder, attach syringe. *remove bolt from lever, attach tube and place end of tube in a bottle/container. *squeeze syringe to push fluid all through system, until you see diff colour/ clearer fluid, for a rear brake this is most of a syringe (half to 3 quaters). *remove bleedtube, squeze syringe slightly while putting bolt in lever to prevent air getting in. *remove syringe, top up in the little hole, then replace bolt. *wipe away spilages, ride!

sounds like youve got the brake- so start measuring! im sure your school/college will have some decent vernier calipers, mine did. those two measurements will take seconds to measure, and then you wont have to worry about us getting it wrong. No doubt people on here will no, and will post- but always better to check yourself. the rotor bolt pattern is standard, but thickness of rotor varies from brake to brake, but only marginally. Disk rotors are stainless as far as i know (please correct me if im wrong) as otherwise they would rust very quickly. Prodesktop will be good, especially if your school/colledge has a milling machine big enough to produce the disk. making by hand would be hard, and you could end up wiht a dangerous rotor- although its likely to be a "prototype" your making for the project yes? not the real thing. Is there a purpose for this, as in my DT coursework we had to justify making something, it had to fulfill some need. Is it a trials specific part? or designed for better heat dissapation? lighter? also research into stress failures in materials. This is a safety part of a bike here- and is under a lot of stress, your design needs to take this into account. notice other desings of rotors, notice the lack of sharp corners in cutout sections, this is because sharp corners lead to stress risers and cracks. I think i gave you more than you bargaind for there! but any more help/advise- just PM me, but im not going to do you project for you :) Just thought i beter get you on the right track.

Old hope brakes eg enduro 4's and c2's hope recomended the opposite to the picture shown above 'fins' at the top point to the back of the bike, but newer brakes (old mini, and all monos) should have there disks installed the other way with the 'fins' at the top of the wheel poinitng to the front of the bike. I have a c2, enduro 4, and a mini, and have had an M4 and a mono mini so have seen all variation of the hope user manual over time! Hope the clears things up. Enduro 4's with the lightning rotors are the best looking rotors ever! real shame hope stopped making them (someone cracked one at a lightning point).

They do just come apart, all that holds then on is a spacer/seal with an oring in the casstte shell. It makes it very easy to service, but very anoying if your tryign to get a stiff cassette off as you often end up pulling on the cassette and find the whole freehub shell comes out and you pawls and spring go everywhere! :D Still very good hubs with great customer service though.

they will fix it no problem, very helpful are the hope guys. the only thing you will prob have to pay for is the new pawls/springs - about £5. I got a 2nd hand hub that just wasnt quite right, the spacig a couple of mm off, turned out to be the wrong spacer inside the hub shell. sent it of to hope explaining, and came back 2 days later fixed- no charge :D

22:15 a little hard for my liking! am changing to 22:16 when i can be bothered! :D

As long as your new cassette has the same number of gears as the old one, very little set up will be required, probably just a tweak in cable tension. You will probably want to take a few links out of the chain though, as it will no longer need to be so long. the shimano road range goes Sora<Tiagra<105<Dura Ace i think in terms of quality, comparable with Deore<LX<XT<XTR. (someone correct me if im wrong) so just go for the best you can afford. i cant remeber if mine is a tiagra or 105 on my comuting bike, but it is rebuildable- very useful for cleaning.

ive got an amazing budget option that so far is working real well and has yet to finish bedding in! only cost me £70 in total. Chain reaction sell a Deore hydro brake, REAR but with RIGHT hand lever, 160mm. i then shortened the cable and moutned the caliper on the front with a coulpe of shims and a 185mm hope mini disk! :P (this works as the same caliper is 20mm disk size different on front and back, the extra 5 is taken up by a 2.5mm shim.) The deore brake was £50 and the rotor was £20.

that really brightened up my day! what a class song :)

That mechanic one was brilliant! :)

Hope, Chris king or profile is the only way to go i think! Hopes are very reliable, ive never had a problem with any of my 5 hope hubs! (i have various bikes) and the XC hub, that used to be a trials favorite was never even desinged for trials as its name suggests, it just happend to be best as it was strongest. it has a stronger freehub than the bulb as it has less engagement points. However, hope have recently develped a new hub the pro II, AND they've developed a trials specific version with 48 engagement points, replaceable free hub section and loads of new features. i dont think it will be long before it is released, and i reckon it would be a very very nice hub to ride. Profiles also have a very good reputation, origonating from race bmx they are very light, but also very strong as the street bmx scene has proved. they have 4 pawls instead of 3 like the old hopes (the new hope has 4 i believe) and 48 engagements, again very solid and very reliable. i think it is very close between the new hope and the profile, they are so similar on the spec sheet. The king is the daddy of hubs, but not nessesarily the best for trials as its freehub system, although very well engineered can ocasionly slip under extreme presure like that that trials puts on it, they also need a fair bit of mainenance to keep them performing at there best, requireing special oil ect. If your good at regular maintenance, then no problem, but if you like fit and forget- get a hope or profile, they go on and on and on with so little maintenance its scary! The price is also a major factor, with the hope and the profile at the £100- £150 mark and the king at £250+. Hope that rather long detailed ramble helps your decision! :)

Brilliant! you should start selligng them on ebay! you could make a killing.

The hope hub will take an 8 speed cassette, as long as it is a cassette and not a freewheel (unlikely as its 8 speed, so should be fine). If you want a disk mount on the wheel get a hope XC instead of a mono, they are identical apart from disk mount. To remove a cassette you need a Cassette tool (what an inventive name! (Y) ) and a Chainwhip (kinky :)" ) The chian whip holds the cassette stoping it from rotating, the the other tool fits into the lockring so you can undo it with a big spanner. have a good look around at tools, they vary in price and qaulity. And spokes are important actually! they hold the hub to the rim! useless whel with out them :D on a serious note, its worth getting decent ones, i recomend DT swiss Comp or Super comp thats what i use. make sure you get the right length too.

I use my index / fisrt finger for braking. always have, always will. If you use your middle finger you risk sqaushing your index finger if your brake levers travel that far! I think my gear ratio is a bit high atm, 22:15 will try 16 or 17 for a bit when i can be bothered to get my wheel off, lol. :)" keep finding myself kicking the bike out from under me causee its geared to high! my back hurt for weeks after that!