Greetings

Born or Neon? Not sure if they still make them.

Long cranks on a mod feel a bit like pedaling in a pair of wellingtons. It's a matter of preference but short cranks suit small bikes much better IMO. To give you some idea, I've been running short cranks (158-160) and a light gear ratio (17:16) on a 26" bike for ages, know of a few very powerful riders who use 160 cranks on 26" bikes with an 18:16 ratio to great results. If you have a lot of strength, a short crank will turn that into more power because the movement will be quicker. With longer cranks, you can make up for strength with speed. Another thing is stability. If you pedal quickly on short cranks, you're going to maintain balance much easier especially if you're short. I guess that doesn't apply nowadays when trials is pretty much static. But any rolling moves will feel more comfortable on short cranks than they will on long ones. Also, match the length to how tall you are. I'm slightly under 180cm, have short legs and never got on with long (170 or over) cranks. Come to think of it, all the riders mentioned above are short too. So perhaps their choice of short cranks is not so much a matter of excessive strength, as it is of being vertically impaired. This doesn't apply to mods where the gear ratio is pretty much fixed but on a side note, I spent a lot of time playing around with various ratios and crank lengths and found that this gives you endless possibilities in fine tuning the bike to your strengths and weaknesses. You can go from relying on your drivetrain (heavy ratio and long cranks) to relying entirely on body movement via medium length cranks and a 1:1 ratio, or anything in between. You can generate power through fast light movement or through short powerful bursts. The alternative is to just man up, go to the gym and ride more But I'd still recommend that anyone who has the opportunity and feels stiff on the bike to ride a 1:1 ratio (or 18:14 on a mod) for a month or two. You find that kicking the pedal does absolutely nothing, it's all about the body movement and speed.

No, wait for it to set. The thinner will dissolve the resin. The jar cap is just there to make rubbing the rag in easier.

If it "seems to work" it's not working. Resin is infinitely better than tar, the brake should feel like a fresh grind just with waaaay more bite and hold and none of the rough "texture" of tar. It will remain that way even with a soaking wet rim. Melt the resin into a jar cap, dip a rag generously in nitro thinner and rub it into the resin, then onto rotating wheel. Seems like a kerfuffle but it's worth it. Lasts a few hours, only takes a few minutes to reapply. You might also want to start off with a clean rim so get it wet, drag the brake, wash off and repeat a few times until no dirt is accumulating on the surface. Apply the resin to a dry rim.

Or keep flushing the brake with water and dragging it, that should work unless you have a layer of toffee on your rotor and pads I'd keep anything other than water away for the brake unless it's absolutely necessary.

Great rider but as said the video just looks like a marketing exercise, not something shot for riders to watch. I think comparing his riding to Aurelien is a big injustice to Aurel. He's the only 26" elite rider with bags of style who has managed to bring the beauty of oldschool trials to modern sections. On top of that he always looks like he's having fun on the bike rather than merely trying to nail something hard. 26" comp riding just looks so harsh these days. That can't be said for the majority of 20" riders, most of them are a joy to watch. That's coming from someone who would rather quit trials than own a mod

Cheers Sam. Any particular reason why you wish your old relationship ended better? After all, it doesn't really change things now does it? Spent the night with a girl I've been sort of going out with for the past few months. We've been seeing each other for 10 years now, usually to discuss important life events and offer support to each other. She was the first person to take me in after the breakup last year. She makes me feel happy and that's comforting but it was also a very disturbing experience in itself. It's so strange after all those years being with someone who feels totally different. Need to stay positive and handle things one at a time, keep an open mind, not judge or compare.

The ex and I decided to part ways. We broke up 4 months ago but decided to give it another shot. We both found our new relationship lacking in emotion. We spent the last few hours together thanking for what we had and remembering the good times.

But also very progressive, as were all the Echo/Czar/GU/Adamant frames from 2006. People hated them and now most trials bikes have that geometry Perhaps it took longer for people to realize what kind of stem was needed to make it all work.

Hard to choose because there were so many but two stood out - a bike built on the first Echo SL frame and a custom Triton. Both had a great geometry but the latter rode very differently being titanium. The frame felt alive, hard to describe in words. I sold it years ago and have occasionally been trying to buy it back but the current owner who's had it for almost a decade won't budge unless he gets a pile of money for it. That said, I've been riding a Cannibal V3 for a few years now and it's easily one of the best. Absolutely love it. There's one I've always wanted (probably not a good idea if you hate high BB's) and it's the shorter Vinco:

Don't. The geometry is fairly unique if you like that sort of thing but I've seen more of those snap over here than any other carbon bars combined.

Box pictures aside, that was a fantastic read! Cheers for the help

For those who have used bike boxes, what's the condition of the box once you reach your destination? Wondering what the likelihood of damage to the box itself is making it difficult to re-use on the trip home. Did a brief check and the boxes I use to ship bikes in should do fine for 2 bikes if 1 set of wheels is de-laced. The weight limit appears to be around 30kg depending on the airline, the bikes are around 17kg leaving a nice 13kg for the packaging, yay! Mark and Tony, did you bump into any difficulties when transferring from the airport to your hotel? Most taxis are going to be good for normal luggage but add a 105x70x30 box to that and things could become awkward? For future reference, it seems a good precaution would be to pack the box in a waterproof layer, in the unlikely event that the box gets caught outside during the rain that will stop it from disintegrating.

My friend and me are thinking about going riding to China this year and we're wondering how to take bikes with us. Has anyone traveled intercontinental with their bikes before and could shed some light on roughly how much this costs and what the best option to take 2 bikes with us would be? Bike cases seem to be a the obvious solution but how likely are we to fit 2 bikes into one? There are no direct flights to where we'd like to go (Guangzhou) so presumably one gets charged separately per flight for the bikes rather than for the entire trip?

How effective is this? Congratulations on getting engaged!

Have you considered a spoke tensioner instead? So simple and so effective.

I can only comment on the tread of the DHF which is very very good. Even the 70a has a lot of grip as a result despite the rubber being a hard compound.

The sideways stiffness is not brilliant to say the least, front/back is good. They are not going to take a battering too well but if your riding is average and you're light then you should get quite a lot of use out of them before they fold. If you want a rigid and durable front end then you're going to have to chose from the "heavy" CF forks like Crewkerz. 100g weight difference is not as noticable on alloy forks as it is on carbon ones. After all, 100g of carbon is a lot of material.

Just excited with a new idea so need to post I came across this video yesterday and was amazed at how that car handled (especially round the 3:20 mark). I have such a car neatly maturing and rotting away in the garage and I don't know what to do with it. At the same time I would love to continue with motorsport but I choose not to be able to afford to run the M3 anymore, once it's been rebuilt. It's just an idea but perhaps the Daihatsu could be turned into a gokart type of hillclimb/tarmac rally car making it a cheap but rather extreme racer, undoubtedly much more fun to drive than the M. One thing at a time but watch this space... I've contacted the owner of the car below, fingers crossed he'll want to talk about it...

If you're not too concerned about weight, the TT splitter is going to be way easier to fit. Not being an equilateral triangle is also an advantage since you can manage the hose better if you install the splitter upside down.

Have you tried Bovril on spaghetti? Boiled unsalted noodles, preferably thin, drained and mixed with ample amounts of Bovril, and to finish things off some breadcrumbs fried in butter.

I always let the toast cool to room temp, then apply a moderately thick layer of butter and a thin layer of Marmite. Been browsing the net and apparently many have it on hot toast?

Yeah, call it fame or something else, it's mostly about getting reactions. Raw footage seems to be what people like these days. We are bombarded with so much content that our attention spans shorten to something like 8 seconds when browsing. This is why quality doesn't matter anymore, I wouldn't attribute it to vlogs

Be anal about sticking to the recipe and you're in for a treat

That frame has been around for around 4-5 years. And yes, it rides differently but not being a mod rider I cannot comment on the specifics More comfortable definitely describes it though.