duane

Hi, I need to replace my headset due to it getting rusty and then seizing up. I managed to keep it going for a while by using WD40 after each ride to drive out the sweat and any water that might have got in there, but now its to rough to live with. Its an Echo headset, has anyone else had a problem with this headset, if not I am happy to get another one suspect I might have driven water into it while hosing the bike down after a typically sweaty (40 Degrees) ride. Thanks Duane.

Hi, I had a magnesium alloy XC bike about 15 years ago. It was an injection moulded kirk revolution, part of the marketing proudly claimed that it was made from a "cubic meter of sea water". There was also a kirk revolution road bike that was used in the tour de france, you could buy the low end mountain bike in halfords. It was even featured on Tomorrows World where they drove a landrover back and forth over the frame to showcase the strength of it. As this was 15 years ago and an injection moulded alloy frame rather than a tubular welded frame, I am sure the technology has improved. The reason that we are not all riding around on kirk bikes is because they all broke. Most of the fittings were aluminium or steel bonded into the magnesium alloy, mine broke at the rear drop out, a more common fault was for the rear brake posts to snap out of the frame - a bit of a problem brakes snapping clean off your frame just as you dive into a corner. It looked cool while it was in one peice, kind of like girders. Just found pictures on this web site - http://www.kirk-bicycles.co.uk/Images/Kirk...X-Review-1b.jpg Duane.

Hi, I had exactly the same feeling on my bike. I run a single sprocket and spacers on a normal freehub, I found that the feeling of delay was due to my cassette lockring having worked loose, allowing a tiny bit of play in the rear sprocket which was amplified to around half an inch at the cranks. Try and move your rear sproket with your hands, any play at all will feel much bigger through your cranks (bigger levers), if its like mine was all you need to do is tighten up the lockring and it will go away forever. Duane.

Hi, I had trouble bleeding mine, but Adam suggested that as a final step I screw a length of hose into the lever bleed hole and then pull the lever to squeeze out any air trapped in the body. It worked so well, I went a little further and screwed the TPA all the way in, then pulled the lever to the bar, loads of air bubbles travelled up the length of hose, then I topped up the hose with enough oil to let the lever back out, then i carried on topping up the hose as i needed to while backing out the TPA. Brake works great now, it was horrible before i did this. Hope it helps Duane.

Andy asked a question about Future Floor Polish so I thought I might as well add in a response here along with everything else I ever knew about spray paint, Futures near the end so I hope you like reading - [Just viewed the post and none of my text diagrams work, will have to live with that for now.] Spay paint is made up of many different compounds that do different jobs between the paint leaving the can and you getting a nice shiney new paint job. To name a few of these - There is the propellant that gets the paint out off the can, The solvent that keeps the paint liquid inside the can and for a short while after it hits your frame, The coalescing agent that allows all the individual liquid paint droplets that left the can to merge into a single shiny paint surface when they hit your frame. Finally there’s the pigment which gives your paint the colour There are loads of others too, but these are the biggest contributors to the appearance of your finish. Over time all of these chemicals separate in the can, so the first thing you need to do is get them all back together again. Anyone who does a lot of spraying will tell you that you will get a better finish if before shaking the can to mix all of these chemicals and before each coat, you first warm the can in a bucket of warm water. I am not telling you to do this. The side of the can will tell you not to do this. Find someone else on the internet that is telling you to do this then do it and blame them if it blows up ;-) Should you ignore my advise against warming the can, it will do two things, firstly all the chemicals will be more active at the slightly higher temperature so that they will mix more easily and secondly the pressure inside the can will be raised. These two factors together give you a much better finish as a result of the paint being a more uniform mixture which is sprayed more finely and quickly due to the higher pressure. But like I said don't do it. Before spraying you must thoroughly mix the paint by shaking the can for a few minutes. Its always a good idea to test spray something just before you start on your frame, try and test spray at the same distance and speed as you intend to spray the frame. With practice you can watch the finish forming as your spraying, you can then move the can closer or further away as you go to get the wet or dry coat that you are aiming for. Whether you are spraying a wet or dry coat, the main thing that you want to avoid is an 'orange peel' finish. The name orange peel comes from a pitted finish that looks like the surface of orange peel. This is normally due to the paint not being well mixed, being at too low a temperature to flow or being sprayed at too low a pressure. If you get orange peel, its best to start again, rather than try and cover it will more coats of paint. The surface of an orange peel finish is similar to a good dry coat, but at a much larger scale Orange peel __ __ / \ / \ / \___/ \___ A good dry coat /\/\/\/\/\/\ The difference is that the irregular surface of an orange peel finish is easily visible and the visible peaks and troughs are too big to be filled by a decent wet coat. The fact that your first coat has resulted in an orange peel finish guarantees that the condition of the paint will not give you a good wet coat should you decide to go ahead an try one. You will just be putting c5ap paint on c5ap paint resulting in even more c5ap paint to get off before you can start again. With a good dry coat, the surface irregularities are too small to see and are easily filled by a good wet coat. A good dry coat should appear level, but have a matt finish - maybe having the appearing of very fine grit if its the first very dry coat and you just want to seal all your masking. After a first dry coat you should be aiming for matt layers of colour rather than the excessively dry coat which may be used as a base and to seal masking. When you spray your final wet coat over the dry coat at a microscopic level you get the following. __________ /\/\/\/\/\ Environmental factors like the temperature and humidity have an effect on how your wet coat will appear. In an ideal world the weather will be perfect for your brand of paint and this is where then story ends. However if the weather is very hot, your paint will be drying before it reaches your frame and every coat will look like a dry coat, stop spraying, the paint is not magically going to changes its behaviour just because you want it to and more paint always equals more problems. Unfortunately the same finish can result if the temperature is too cold, this time its because all of the chemicals are less active at the lower temperature so the paint won't be so well dissolved and the coalescing agent can't do its job. In either case the result is the same and you have a number of options to rescue your finish - 1) Use successively finer grades of wet and dry paper to cut the surface peaks back to a level gloss finish 2) Use a polishing compound (t-cut or similar) to cut the surface peaks back 3) Use Future floor polish to fill the troughs in 1) and 2) we are cutting back this /\/\/\/\/\ to this ________ in 3) we are living with /\/\/\/\/\/\/\ but getting a gloss appearance through Futures ability to do this __________ /\/\/\/\/\/\ Technically the best highest gloss finish is either 1) or 2) finished by 3), however you sometimes loose a little bit of colour depth. Approach 3) seems to result in a nice gloss with a richer colour and less effort. I think that the loss of colour depth in 1 and 2 finished by 3 is because a high gloss surface reflects lots of light before it gets down to the paint layer which is also high gloss and reflects a lot of the light, so in effect you get two layers of light reflected before your colour layer, where as in 3) only one layer of light is reflected before the colour layer. That might not be strictly technically correct, but it sums up the effect. Future is also a hardwearing clear finish that will protect you colour coats whichever route you go. The name is misleading, its not a polish, just a very high gloss clear acrylic lacquer. In the UK Future is sold as Johnsons Klear, have a look in the kitchen, you might already have some, although the fresher it is, the better it works. You can get it in the floor cleaner sections of most supermarkets. Future can be applied with either an air brush or a paint brush. Lastly some generic tips which might save someone some time - 1) If you are masking anything, use a dry coat to seal the masking. 2) I only use primer if the original surface is a vastly different colour to the finish I want or if there is filler etc that would show through the colour coats - but test your paint first, you might not be able to get away with this. 3) If your not using primer make sure you get a couple of good dry coats down to build your colour and bind the paint to the surface. 4) If you are using more than one colour even if they are from the same manufacturer, test them for compatibility, that’s both chemical compatibility and appearance, dark colours always show through light colours. Also when Halfords make Vauxhall red their main concern is that it matches Vauxhalls colour not whether it is chemically compatible with Halfords Ford Mexico Orange. 5) If you want to put your name or anything else on your bike, find someone with a PC Vinyl cutter, its a machine that takes a graphics file and cuts a vinyl mask which you can then use to put custom graphics on your frame. 6) If at any stage you get an orange peel finish stop - remember more c5ap paint just equals more c5ap paint. 7) Test your spray every time before you use it, even the time of day makes a difference to how the paint behave. if you have done everything else right, but the finish isn't what you expect, it could be down to the weather, just be glad your did the test and try a dryer, colder, warmer etc day or even a different time of day. 8) If your wet coat goes on nicely but dulls as it dries, this is down to the weather and can be rescued using a polishing compound, very fine wet and dry paper or future as described earlier. 9) If you use the liquid floor polish as a gloss coat, try and make sure you let it dry in a dust free environment dust trapped in a gloss coats looks much worse than dust in a colour coat which is bad enough. 10) if you do insist on warming your spray cans, find someone else who recommends it and follow their advice as to sensible temperatures. An exploding aerosol full of flammable and highly toxic chemicals is a very bad thing. Remember I told you not to do it. 11) Wear a mask when your spray, coating the inside of your lungs with paint will not do your endurance or life expectancy any good. Ill say it again Future is sold as Johnsons Klear in the UK, That’s all that I can thing of for now Good spraying Duane.

Hi, I am currently using an old set of RPM cranks on my base, however the left crank has rounded and rapidly comes loose no matter how much I tighten it. I have had a look on CRC, and another set of RPMs seems like the only budget option, can anyone suggest something else I should look at ? I am happy to live with either one or two chainrings, and while I have complete trust in the Middleburns on my control, the exchange rate from my money to yours is so bad - worst in 26 years - that they are no longer an option. I am currently running square taper if that makes any difference, Thanks Duane.

Swansea - 'The city of theives' I had a good few years there about 12 years ago, didn't ride trials at the time just cross country for which there are miles of quality bridleways etc towards the gower. I saw a post recently from someone organising a trials demo in Singleton park which is right next to the uni so there must be a few riders there already. Like Tommy D Says - get some big locks, also find yourself a copy of the film 'Twin Town' no bikes but all the best spots in Swansea including Baron's Nightclub. Duane.

Your after being accepted for a mechanical engineering course so I would leave the description of trials to one line, then talk about mechnical things. The description you have is fine as the opening one liner, however I would say that I compete in trials rather than refer to it as a hobby, hobbies are fads that can change quickly whereas being a competitor implies a level of discipline and dedication. After the one liner I would concentrate on mechanical aspects of trials rather than bike techniques. Your lecturer might think that kids jumping around on bikes are vandals, but if you can show some knowledge of and interest in materials, mechanics and anything else he might be teaching then you have a much better chance. This is rough, but its packed with keywords "Trials is a form of mountain biking where competitors have to negotiate man made and natural courses designed around obstacles which require a wide range of techniques to successfully overcome. As trials has become an increasingly specialised sport, so the bikes have evolved to take advantage of new materials and construction techniques, as an example the most recent frames have hydro formed aluminium main tubes. Recently the geometery of trials bikes has changed away from the familiar mountain bike geometery in an attempt to maximise the transfer of rider input into the specific techniques required to negotiate a trials course. Traditional mountain bike frames are based on the safety frame or diamond frame which provides a strong and light mechanical design along with a safe and stable ergonmically comfortable riding position. As trials competitions are generally composed of sections lasting 3 minutes or less and rarley include any section which can be pedaled through, ergonmics are less of a consideration freeing designers and framebuilders to concentrate on gaining the maximum response from the available rider input." You could add something about how the recent evolution of trials frames has given you a good understanding of how even the most optimised designs are ultimatley a compromise between competing factors such as strength, weight, cost, durability and how as a design is optimised for one application, its suitability for other even similar applications is reduced. (i.e. high BB frames) And then finish with something like - I beleive that my experience in competing during a time of rapid material and design change in mountain bike trials has given me a good background in materials and thier application and in the competing factors which are a reality of every mechanical design. You should then be ready to talk about any of the key words about which even the most half assed interviewer will ask you, Its 40 degrees outside which should be enough to explain why i wrote this, Duane.

Hi, Can't help with whether or not you can paint directly on anodizing, but for spray painting in general one coat of masking is fine you should then aim for at least one 'dry coat' and finish with at least one 'wet coat'. For masking you can use automotive masking tape or model making tape, but should avoid the type used by decorators as its fine for emulsion paints but the harsher chemical make up of a spray paint may bleed through it. A dry coat is where you spray from a distance so that the paint is almost dry by the time it reaches the surface to be painted. What happens is that the drying paint forms a rough surface which later layers of paint will form a better bond with, it also provides a much better seal around your masking, if you spray the first coat too wet, it will wick its way into any flaws you have in your masking. A dry coat should look as if it has a dull rough finish, you build up your colour coats on top of this, once you get close to the colour depth that you want, you can spay one or more wet coats, for the wet coats you spray closer so that the paint is still well disolved as it hits the surface. Wet coats are a real art, and the name is a little misleading. You want to spray closer to the surface, but not spray too heavily - i.e. not too much paint in one area. The idea is that the paint should hit the surface while it is still wet, this allows all the individual paint droplets to recombine on the surface and give you a glass smooth finish which looks wet and glossy even when its dry. Its important to note that wet coat refers to the look of the finish rather than "spray shit loads in a really thick wet coat" - that will look crap and probably run or bubble. The big secret is future floor polish - you can get this in most super markets, its sold as floor polish, but is actually a really thin, high gloss clear acrylic paint that will give your finish a high gloss hard wearing seal. Future is so good, it can even turn a fairly crappy rough paint job into a high gloss finish. If you have an airbrush spray it on otherwise brush it on, the formula is so good your brush strokes will even flatten out and it costs a pound for a life times supply from Sainsburys. If you use google to look up spray and 'orange peel' you will find everything you ever wanted to know about spray paint and more, The last thing to say is check all your sprays and future are compatible on a test peice first - so sprays can attack each other. Hope that helps Duane.

Hi, With Base forks mine has 0mm drop which is an enormous 10mm different from a XTP2, Limey 2 etc. The Base has steep angles which give it a short flickable wheelbase while still having a long reach from bb to headset comparable with more fashionable frames. The Base is great on two wheels, really sharp handling and easy to bunnyhop and spin. Being 5 foot 7 I also find the short wheelbase easier to manage when riding natural on two wheels. I have recenlty bought a Short Echo Control which for comparison I find is easier to kick onto the backwheel, probably due to much lighter parts on the front end. I have a longer lower stem on the Echo so struggle to bunnyhop and spin compared to the more upright setup I have on the base. Realistically though a lot of how my two bikes handle is down to the stem and bars which are short and upright (Streety) on the Base and long and low on the Echo (Back Wheel Stability). In short, the base is fun anywhere, all you need is a curb or even a flat parking lot and you can spin, hop and ride along just enjoying really sharp direction changes from the short steeply angled frame. Add a seat and (whisper - gears ) and you can find all the riding you want. Someone better than me needs to make a video on a Base and bring these frames back into fashion. Duane.

Saw this on the BBC " And thousands could be seen swarming though Hyde Park to the People's Village where fans tried their hands at the world marble championships, cycling assault courses, static speed trials or had their picture taken with a Madame Tussauds waxworks version of multiple Tour winner Lance Armstrong. " here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6280786.stm I hope the 'assault course' got more attention than the marbles ? Anyone see it ? Duane.

My BT Bars are insanley light and they haven't broken yet.... Duane.

"Patsy Kensit has the answer when Trials Forum Doesn't." Hi, I am not going backwards any more and its all down to Patsy Kensit. About half way through Tricks and Stunts she says 'Remember to always keep pushing forwards on the pedals while backhopping' or something like that. I had already noticed from videoing myself that I was going backwards due to the bike realigning itself a little further back under me with each hop rather than me physically hopping back and pulling the bike with me. A little forward pressure an the pedals to put the bike back down where it came from and its all sorted, no pedal kicks or booning required. Thanks Patsy!

My preference is that for natural a light or worn grind is a good option on the front, but for street a smoother rim with more modulation is the better option. Anyway I have a plan to get something inbetween the two using a wire wheel attachment for a drill. I have one that looks something like this http://www.toolspot.co.uk/product/4-flat-w...wheel-for-drill I have had it for ages without getting around to using it, but my thinking is that it should score the surface enough to be an improvement over a smooth rim without being as grabby as a full grind. Duane.

I am having to ride in 40+ degrees for the next 4 months, it might even get to 50. So here is what I do Get a camelback, they are really well insulated keeping your drink colder for much longer than a couple of bottles in a rucksack. Half fill your camelback blader and put it in the freezer overnight, top it up with cold water before your ride and you get ice cold water all day long. If you fill your camelback and freeze it, the insulation keeps it frozen so you end up with nothing to drink. Mix a powdered sports drink into your camelback water, I like Gatorade, but any of them are better than nothing. Put at least one rideable gear back on your bike, riding around gives you instant access to a cool breeze and new cooler riding spots. Get laughed at by your mates and buy some nike 'dri-fit' clothing, its designed for runners, but is amazing at keeping you cool, most other high end sports manufacturers have something similar, but everyone I know who has tried 'dri-fit' for any sport ends up raving about it. Location makes a big difference too, anywhere near water will usual offer a cool breeze whereas concrete can reflect the heat right back at you, use your riding gear to find a cooler spot. For timing, any breeze usual drops away around sunset, the humidity will also increase, the best time is the hour or so before sunset when the midday sun has passed, but the breeze is still blowing. The effects of exercising in the heat can make you really irritable, so when you go to bit of the heads of your nearest and dearest, stop and ask yourself whether its just the effects of the heat - don't underestimate this effect. As has already been said its also a good time to get out your BMX Enjoy the summer Duane.

Come on some one must be able to help, even yes no will do - Here is what I will do if noone says otherwise 1) Zip tie the pads to close the slave cyclinders. 2) screw the TPA All the way out 3) plug the syringe into the bleed port of the lever 4) plug a section of hose into the bleed port of the right hand slave cyclinder 5) Syringe new oil in through 3) until no air bubbles detected in 4) If this is roughly right, do i need to do anything else like 6) Orientate the system in a particular direction to float the air to the top, i.e. 4 above 3 ? 7) Do I need to pump any of the levers at any time, i.e. pull the lever to purge any air out of the master cyclinder into the pipes where it can more easily be pumped along and out ? Go on, someone help me get riding tonight, Duane.

Hi, I have some Echo CNC Rim brakes, but have never used hydraulic brakes before, and as these are the only echo brakes in the country I have to rely on you good people for help. So at the moment I have 1) The brakes, with a hose which is way too long 2) A mildly unresponsive lever that moves about half an inch before there is any movement at the pads 3) A magura 'disc brake' bleed kit with a bottle of Royal Blood and syringes etc I am guessing that after trimming the hose I will need to bleed the brakes with 3) which should also sort out 2) above. I have searched the forum and have only found topics related to magura, most of which recommend a bath bleed with water, as these are brand new brakes I would prefer not to do this, so where do I start ? Thanks for any help Duane.

I am killing time waiting for the temperature to drop below 40 Degrees so I can go out for a ride, in the meantime,I put up a picture of my red base here http://www.trials-forum.co.uk/forum/index....st&id=13739 Its probably a bad example, the bars are high and swept back in the picture, great for bunny hops, but hopless for anything else. At the moment I have the bars swept forward and have replaced the seat with a cut off peice of seat post capped with liquid metal. The only problem I have with this bike is that the V-brakes catch my ankles when I spin, I guess that effects a lot of frames and could be solved by using narrower rims, different v-brakes or maguras. Duane.

Works well enough, have tilted the bars further forward since the picture for riding natural. Hoping to get an Echo Control soon and build the base up as a street bike with the bars returned to the swept back position, a couple of gears and lighter wheels and tyres.

Hi I am in Newport which is near enough for a couple of days but will be leaving on Sunday, is there practice or something I can come and have a look at on the saturday ? Also is there a sport level course to have a go at ? Finally is there a link where I can find all this for myself ? Thanks for your help Duane.

Hi, Stupid Question, but where are the british championships ? Is anyone likely to be riding in or near porthcawl on Saturday ? Duane.

For price and geometry you won't beat the base (big bias as I have one), I know that at least one of the current model year has snapped recently as per the previous thread. However if you search the forums you will find a few instances of just about every frame snapping, its the nature of south east asia mass production that a few duds get produced every now and then and this will effect every large manufacturer of aluminium frames without exception. At the moment I am really excited about getting an echo control for natural and specing the base as a street bike, with swept back bars and horror of horror maybe a couple of gears, Duane.

Good topic, with good answers, but can some one shed some more light on BB rise, I know that everyone seems to agree that anything over +30 limits a bike to certain styles, but what is the benefit of +20mm (Control 07) over 0mm (pitbull 07) if any ? Thanks Duane.

Hi, My main problem is sand and dust rather than oil and grease. I have used a high pressure hose to clean my rims with good effect. Getting rid of the fine grit that sits in your grind marks makes a big difference to brake performance and should help a grind last longer too. Duane.

Hi, I might have been missing the point here somewhere. When you are on the back wheel is there a balance point at which you can hop in place or is it more a case of continual correction hops backwards and (booning ?) forwards that just looks like hopping in place at the balance point ? Thanks for you help Duane.