Mark W

Yoda speaks the truth But yeah, I guess King spares are preeeetty pricey spares-wise too so if your reasonably expensive hub dies, it's going to reasonably expensive to get it running again. With how good high engagement freewheels are now and the nicer weight distribution of FFW systems it just makes sense to go down that route.

Nah, they're not. BMX forks always look slightly bent back just 'cos of the angle they're at. They've got tapered legs too which taper more at the back than the front so they look kinda weird...

It's the Echo Urban 24" frame

TR cams are the shit. Me 'n' Ads 'n' Stan use them and they're awesome! Not as noticeably notched, but work really well and are made of steel so they won't deform or anything. Quality product.

It's not too bad having them outside - if you get a good, notched cam it should stay put anyway, but if not if you put them on so you spin the cam clockwise to tension your chain then when you tighten your wheel if it does move it'll just tighten your chain a bit...

You can run them on the outside, although Stan told me that you can fit one on the drive side inside the frame, apparently...

If you're going on a weekend, vast majority of side streets in Southwark are free. If you find the massive London ride thread, search for parking and you'll find a map I made.

The advantage of the shorter stays and higher BB would be that it doesn't just feel like a stock. The whole point is that it's a mixture of stock and mod characteristics, so if it was just stock geo with smaller wheels you wouldn't really get that. If your 24 felt 'like a 26' when you put a stock frame on it, that's not necessarily a good thing IMO. Oh, and Revolver wouldn't be the first to get one in any case

I wouldn't necessarily focus on the geo too much simply because no-one really knows what's 'right' for this kind of bike as they've not really been done before. It rides differently to every other bike I've tried, but in a pretty good way.

What Anal said. We generally just try and give honest advice, and we can't really be much more honest than pointing out that we could all run whatever hub/freewheel setup we want to, but we all run SL freewheels. They're absolutely amazing! I wasn't 100% at first 'cos I wasn't really that impressed by the 108.9s, but Ali's has been running for 10 months or so with no hassle at all. I haven't seen his skip once yet, and neither has mine. I can't really stress enough how good they are.

No idea about grinds, sorry! But yeah, went out today

There are plenty of ways you could save weight on it, but the whole point is that it's built for a price point, so we can't make all our bikes superlight. You have to cut corners somewhere, but hopefully having a slightly heavier tyre that's still nice and grippy and durable isn't a bad corner to cut...

If the top tube was fractionally higher or the seat tube angle was steepened, it'd solve that problem pretty easily with relatively little negative impact on the frame's performance. Seating always seems to be something manufacturers kinda overlook, as though it's more of an afterthought rather than using it as a proper area of a frame that needs to be thought out.

Cool, time to clear a few things up! Firstly, the geo stated on our site was measured - as it says - with Urbans. With the Because forks on it tweaks the geometry about a bit, which is probably why Because's stated geometry differs from our's. Equally, our's was measured without actually having a wheel in, so their's is probably different in that they sound like they measured it from where a wheel is when you run a certain ratio, hence it sounding longer than our's. Regarding the compromises it makes, it actually feels very mod-like with this setup in terms of agility. It's not a particularly long frame, so with that stem and those bars it's really flicky and nimble. It's also pretty light so you can just throw it around like a mod, albeit something more like a longer mod rather than a 1000-1010mm WB mod. Agility wise I'd definitely say it was more mod (i.e. good) rather than stock (i.e. bad), but for actual 'proper' moves it feels like it's more like a stock (i.e. good) than a mod (i.e. not so good). Obviously it's a compromise, but it seems like they've done it in the best way. We all thought it felt pretty compy, in that you could move the bike around in tighter spaces really well, but it didn't feel cramped or anything. With gearing, it seems like it's currently pretty reasonable, although I usually prefer a harder gear ratio than standard so I'd probably drop down to a 14t rear sprocket. You could always go for 170mm cranks with 18:15 though if you were particularly worried about it, although a new sprocket's cheaper than new cranks. Oh, and since someone asked, it's 135mm spaced.

They were free and they work really well - not really much not to like about them... It's awesome. Had a 25t, moved up to 28t, now back down to 25t - they've all been fine. Really nice and solid, plus it's meant I snap a lot less chains 'cos my chainline is spot on now whereas normally it'd be a fair way off. Bueno.

It'd indirectly own your house 'cos you'd probably have to mortgage it to be able to afford one if they did make it

Calling screenshots 'pictures' too - debatable Some cool stuff in there though.

If I had horizontal dropouts now, I'd be able to get decent chain tension really easily. I have vertical dropouts, and therefore I can't. You do the maths

Horizontal dropouts rule! I really wish my Echo had them - just slightly tweaking a snail cam (or using the built-in grub screw on the Czar!) is a load easier than the faff of getting a tensioner sorted so it's lined up nicely, got the right tension, isn't going to flick up and batter your chainstays, isn't going to move, etc. - it's the main thing I think could do with being changed on the Fourplay just because of how nice horizontal dropouts are. The Czar doesn't really appear to have got any design flaws as such, it seems to have been designed pretty well. Pretty solid and pretty stiff. The build we've got here feels so solid, with the Kiniption tyres it rolls and feels like a BMX. More streety feeling than any Inspired we've built.

Edited the topic title for you so you didn't miss a golden opportunity. In related news, get a pair of balls - that's nothing

Yeah, we counter-acted that by boshing ye olde Tarty Forged stem on there - it's the longest stem we generally spec (or recommend) on any of our 24" bikes, so it gives it a trialsy stance even if the reach isn't super long. You've also got to bear in mind that Inspireds aren't particularly short either reach-wise. Coming from a mod and BMX background, Inspireds do feel more on the longer trials side of things, rather than a shorter/BMX feel.

He said he really liked the look of it, and the riding position of it, yesterday - he's off ill today being a gaybo so he can't try it 'til he's in work next. But yeah, he'll probably not be keen. Maybe if it had V's...

Gone for the Try-All Reinforced then?

+30mm. [/straight face] Nah, it's hard to say - it's probably around that, if not a touch more. It's odd though 'cos it sits on the back wheel like a mod, it feels like the motion of it gapping is like a mod but it goes like a stock (it feels like it's less effort lifting the front when you gap, but when you gap it goes further than you do on a mod, if that makes sense?), and rolling around it feels like you're on a nimble stock bike. Thinking about it it's kinda similar feeling stance wise to the Fans frame, so I guess +35 to +40 would be a pretty good indication. It's a +70mm BB so I guess it'd be around there.

From the limited "in the office" and "Riding it to the shutters" test, yes