Mark W

Modern mods are completely different. BB heights are usually around 80mm (so almost double the height of your Monty), have chainstay lengths about 20mm shorter, what will most likely be a steeper head angle and a different wheelbase. They won't feel like your Monty used to. A 20" bike would be better for the 'proper' trials moves, but they're very focussed now so you won't really get much other streety stuff done on one. The Inspireds are a bit bigger, heavier and have more neutral geometry so you won't get the same outright height and scale, but if you're starting reasonably from scratch again (but with the benefit of your experience before) it shouldn't really be too bad if you're mixing in streetier stuff too. If you're thinking of playing around at a skatepark an Inspired is a much, much better idea than a modern mod!

There is a certain quantity of cheese in this, but you can't really f**k with the scale of the riding at points in this:

Getting a vehicle to transport yourself and your bike distances up to and including going to different countries isn't quite 'over thinking' As everyone has said, that's not far, and it's a lot less hassle than then having to have two bikes with you for the time you're actually supposed to be out there having fun. Not really wanting to get into the whole "I rode further than ____" dick-waving contest, but most places I've lived have been a minimum of 2 miles to get to spots, and it's not that hard to deal with. If you're arriving late, leave earlier. It's that simple.

Cool idea, executed well:

It's not on there, but it's not a million miles from here.

It's down SE London from memory - we ended up near Canada Water Tube/Surrey Quays Decathlon if you wanted to try and street view your way to victory. It's in/around that area, as are a bunch of other super good spots. The last spot we got to was just up by "Rotherhithe Street Bascule Bridge". I tried finding the maps Ian and I were sharing/working on to get the route prepped but Maps is a pain in the arse to use now. I did find another random London spot map that I made in 2015 - some stuff is gone now (mainly E&C based), but it may be of use to some people: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wLtaj5tF8qmerKQplI-H36cyef0&usp=sharing I can't really remember what's pinned but they're all spots I've ridden in the past. Not an exhaustive list but might give people some ideas of where to go.

He still rides - when I was at TartyBikes we'd send orders to him from time to time. Always a nice surprise to see that name pop up! To be fair, up to bash was still reasonably frowned upon back then, although I guess people stopped doing it because it feels horrific?

It's no coincidence Flipp and BMXers tend to run slicker tyres though - most 19" rear tyres are pretty sluggish so they make manuals a bit trickier. The geo on most mods doesn't help either, but they are doable.

Chopping and changing bikes all the time is always going to limit how well you ride any of them. If you're always changing setup/parts/bike you're never really going to get settled on one, and from my experience - and from watching other riders - until you get properly settled on a bike things are generally going to be harder. Once you know how your bike's going to react to things, and you're totally used to it, you'll be able to exploit it much more and push yourself more on it. That's why I'm always surprised with how much certain riders change frames, forks, bars and other significant parts (yet always seem to say that whatever the second-to-last frame they had at any one point was 'the best bike they've ever ridden'). In terms of size of moves and stuff, that's all relative anyway. Yes, a comp style bike will allow you to go bigger than you could on a non-compy bike, but as you're aware there's a big trade-off with that. It's also worth bearing in mind that there are some riders on non-compy bikes who are doing some big trialsy moves nowadays, so it's not like you can't do some reasonable sized stuff on them - although as before it's all relative. Looking more specifically at your Flow vs. the Hex - the Flow's got longer stays (from memory), a lower BB and is a touch longer overall. It's generally going to feel reasonably cumbersome because of that. Although I don't like 26", when I rode Ali's Hex it was noticeably more agile than I expected it to be, and certainly more than any of the 'proper' 26" trials bikes I've owned. It seems you're probably a little more trials-orientated than street so that would probably be the way to go, especially judging from how much Ali's jazzing off the size of moves he can do on his Hex compared to his Arcade. Worth bearing in mind who you're riding with to an extent though - if you're only really riding with one type of rider you may end up getting a bit frustrated if you're on the 'wrong' bike, although that will depend on the spots you go to. You might just need to force that particular issue a bit more to keep everyone happy

Hearing experiences from people from places other than London going to London is always comedy There's loads to ride, and a load of different sections of London to ride that are as far away from the main tourist traps as you want. I doubt that people would make the trip down there for it as it's pretty far away for most people, but there's undoubtedly a lot of stuff to ride there. The main problem seems to be that trials riders don't have all that much imagination when it comes to spots, hence most rides in Leeds, Sheffield and so on pretty much focussing on the same 3 spots in each place. Seems similar with London rides, where it's usually "Meet at Southbank" or similar. There are some amazing spots further North that I've had the chance to ride courtesy of Joel, for example, that won't have been in any videos before. Similarly, thanks to Ian's Street View research we rode a bunch of new spots for the Phoenix Jam. This is the video from the jam a few years back, and this is barely scratching the surface of what's there - that said, almost all of these spots were chilled out and we didn't have hassle at any of them that I can really remember.

Hadn't listened to The Dollop before but checked that one out. Remember reading up a bit about Blackwater years ago, but there was a lot more in that episode. Wild...

Under 2 hours isn't "a fair jaunt"

Only thing to bear in mind with Blackpool (BPL for you, Ben ;)) and Cleveleys is that in the summer they're a bit of a nightmare in terms of the amount of people there. Moon Rocks can get a bit rammed, and you get endless people complaining on the front in Cleveleys. Not the end of the world, but worth bearing in mind. Parking would probably also be a bit more hassle. Ben - Manchester's got some really fun stuff to ride. It takes a bit of finding unless you've got a guide/done your homework, but Cap and I used to have some really fun rides after work there. Feels like there's a lot of untapped potential there too. Seen some DVDs from the BMX scene there that have some really good looking spots that I haven't been to yet.

Seems a few of the ones that broke broke because they were being used loose, or being used with shit adaptors that were the part that broke first. For what it's worth, all the post mount calipers I've used from Hope, Shimano and Magura have had shims under them without causing them to snap. For example, you can't use a Hope Trial Zone post mount caliper with a Hope 160mm IS frame/fork to Post Mount adaptor without shims because the caliper hits the adaptor otherwise. If the shims weren't great, or weren't equal sizes, then that could lead to some bad stuff going down. Similarly if they'd worked loose then that wouldn't help either.

Trials is probably the most inclusive sport I know of/have been a part of for getting people into it, so I don't think that's really part of it. I can't remember who it was who started that Bristol ride event thing, but I don't remember him using TF much so I don't think him not posting about it here was a "screw those guys" things, more that he uses FB to speak to other riders mainly. In terms of finding groups on FB, not sure where you were looking but it could be that there aren't any set up where you are (assuming Manchester from your location thing here?)? If it is Manchester, I don't think there's much of a scene there as far as I know. The only person I really know who rides there regularly is Karl, but that was about it really? You could always be the one to set one up as a speculative thing for the future, so anyone else on there who happens to look for one can find yours, and you can make connections that way. I did a similar thing for Cardiff when I lived here last time as it worked well for spurring people on in Bristol and I thought it might help for Cardiff. There were a bunch of younger riders who were riding really frequently but noone really knew about it, so it was handy for gathering everyone up from time to time to meet up. That's also partially why this was set up too. In its infancy obviously, but might be useful for the future. Who knows...

As Jamie says, big rides now are typically organised elsewhere. The format of a forum is being left behind a bit just because it is a more dated way of communicating. In terms of how social media and stuff are affecting groups of riders, meeting up with people and things like that it kind of seems like whatever people were doing before, it's just augmenting that. People who seemingly wanted to ostracise themselves are now ostracised more, little groups who kept themselves to themselves are able to keep themselves to themselves more in closed groups online, people who like to meet up with different groups can get amongst it with different groups on FB and so on. The closed groups vs. open groups is something I've noticed more, especially as I'm part of groups for a city that has a totally private one and a totally open one. In terms of rides, @Barbara Logan-Price is kind of wrong in a way as it just depends how they're set up. For example, a ride happening tomorrow: That reach is not too shabby. Something else to note as well is that it's not like groups on FB or whatever are a totally new phenomenon - we had similar things for rides back in the day, but you'd have mental group chats on MSN Messenger and chat clients like that, or just having peoples phone numbers and texting them. That was even harder to deal with as it wasn't as easy to find other people then... In terms of video output, in almost every way it's better than it's ever been. There's more of it from a wider range of riders/styles, so you can generally follow the people you like and get some clips here and there fairly often. If you look at top riders in whichever style you prefer, they're more accessible than they've ever been, and you get to see more from them than you've ever been able to see. There is the quality vs. quantity thing, but that was the same back in the day too. Longer videos still come out from time to time and although I'd like to see more of them, it wasn't like there was always loads of them flying out anyway. People have rose tinted glasses for pretty much all aspects of trials from the early-to-mid-00's, but it's better in almost every respect now. Bikes ride better, the majority of parts last longer, availability of parts is amazing now, it's easier to get tutorials/hints/tips, it's easier to keep in touch with your favourite riders, there's more comp coverage, etc.

The Flow is a properly beaming fluro yellow gloss finish, whereas this is a much more subtle (relatively speaking...) satin finish darker yellow. They look a lot different in person. Fabio's still on the team - not sure what's up with the team page though... EDIT: As if by magic: http://inspiredbicycles.com/fabio_wibmer_r9.php

#gotthegrip and so on. Nice video though dude, good vibe, nice filming, sweet lines - as Flipp said, that drop to manny was both really good and completely heinous in equal measure.

A while back when I was up in Glasgow, Danny happened to have one built up (it was the repaired version of the broken one they mentioned in that article) and it wasn't suuuuuper light - the main thing was the forks though as they are noticeably lighter. The Skye forks aren't exactly heavy, but the carbons are a reasonable amount less. When you popped the front end up it came up super easy! </namedrop> </framedrop>

sort ur algorithm out m8

I'd assume it's sprung, and the holes are locator holes for the spring so you can adjust the tension - similar to the way V-Brake springs/mounts work.

TrialInside has gone too - both of them appear to just use Facebook now.

That explains a lot - cheers for the info Craig Good to see Echo are improving things here and there. Splined drivetrain, tapered head tubes, press-fit bearings, etc. - they're doing a good job to be fair. Value for money is nuts.

HC1 has a different lever profile, and is a different length. It's a bunch stiffer too. It seemed to allow you to have the lever set a tiny bit further in without getting the weird spongey/lack of power feel you get when you wind the reach in too far. The HC3 blade has totally independent reach adjustment so you can set the end of the blade wherever you want it without affecting the brake performance (which is also independently adjusted).