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  • New Topics

  • Posts

    • https://www.facebook.com/share/v/MkBZrxnCszmhY3QV/?mibextid=qi2Omg   Trials video competition , film and edit over two weeks and then submit your video for judging , follow Facebook link to a video with more info 
    • Understood. A much more hands-on way of figuring out your bike's cockpit situation is to hop on Amazon and buy the cheapest adjustable stem you can find that's about 90mm long (add it to your bike toolbox). A stock comp bike's stem is usually well over 100mm and puts you out over the front axle. Figuring out the angle that will feel right is the hard part. The actual length and bar height you'd prefer will present themselves once you figure out what makes it easy to pivot up front without losing your steerability on two wheels. For example in the absence of an inclinometer, I drastically underestimated my head tube angle with a 100mm shock up front. But I knew I needed to move the cockpit a bar width out and down to get it where it would feel right. So I went to the local shop and found the one I needed to achieve that using side-by-side visual comparison. It ended up being a 100mm 6deg rise. So I was really glad I didn't order the 75mm 12deg rise. And it now feels glorious. Front-wheel pivots take no effort and it somehow got way easier to get on the back wheel without feeling floppy when it's up there. I have yet to take it to the skate park to see how it feels carving and jumping but it's definitely easier to bunny hop, manual, and time my moves. I got the math half right and eyeballed it the rest of the way. That basically moved the point where my bars mount to the stem about halfway between the top of the steer tube and the front axle out from where it was, and it pretty much matches the angle of my top tube making a straight line from the rear axle to where the bars sit. So it makes sense that it feels more balanced in general. Your bike might only need a 55mm stem with a 17deg rise to achieve the same thing. Just don't go below the angle of the top tube into the negative because that will make it horrible for getting on the back wheel. (Leverage) Being an old guy with a bad back, it felt pretty awful going up a picnic table which is something I've done so many times I could probably do it in my sleep. But if it hurts like hell when I'm not crashing, it's not fun. Now it feels like it's supposed to. Like I'm just using the bike to launch up it without much effort and it doesn't hurt. I know that a lot of riders will chalk this up to a preference but with proper setup, it takes the literal growing pains out of doing new moves. The more times you can practice a move without getting an overuse injury the less likely it is you'll ever get one. I'm not sure if guns are popular where you live but the idea is sort of like zeroing a rifle sight. You can learn to administer the skill of marksmanship much better if the riffle is zero'd to itself, not the person using it. Most of the time skilled archers aren't paying attention to the bow or the arrow. They're spotting the target and they can adjust to any bow and arrow combination you hand them (over here we call that Kentucky windage 🤣). Bikes are built from the ground up, skills are administered from the top down. If the platform is solid you'll have a much easier time figuring out what you're doing wrong as opposed to what the bike is doing for you. Zero the bike to itself. Then it won't feel sketchy and you won't be so worried about crashing in general. Your brain will thank you for it. Slow is smooth, and smooth, is fast. As for the gears. Yeah I miss those on a single-speed setup, but being able to huck the bike when you have to bail and not readjust a derailleur or bend back a hanger takes a lot of stress out of the game when you're going all out or just starting. Though things have come a long way since rigging road bike parts to stay in place and thumb shifters (which I still love, but can be a huge pain in the ass). For reference on the street rig, I believe the inspired bikes come with a 22 up front and a 14 in the rear. So 8 teeth difference. Back in the day I used to run my middle chain ring which was like a 27 and 3rd or 4th gear in the back, which was either 8 or 10 teeth difference depending on whether I was trying to roll through a section or do more static maneuvering. I rode all of "slick rock trail" in Moab in the 10-tooth different configuration. Going downhill I didn't need to pedal and going up I felt it was easier to carry my weight up then dig into it to keep me moving, and because trials any little ledgy thing was just another way for me to carry the momentum or steal some from the terrain. Incidentally, I end up running third gear in the rear on really techy climbs, doing trialsy things, and wheelies on the E-bike as well. Right now I'm running a 19 up front and a 9 tooth in the rear on the street set up and it gives me just enough ugga dugga to get dropped in at the skate park as long as I chose my line right. Limitation is scientifically proven to increase creativity. It just means you'll have to make the skate part work for you and it forces you to develop a flow in your riding. I'm not super into dirt jumps anyway so I don't miss that part of it, and it's mostly still doable if the jumps are well-built. There's a formula for figuring out gear inches but that's more complicated and getting in the ballpark and figuring it out by feel will probably work out better for you. I like all the bike geek stuff nowadays cause I'm old and everyone needs a hobby. FYI, if you have a cassette hub on the rear of your dirt jumper you should be able to fit two different gears with a chain tensioner from Tarty bikes and then you can maintain that usability for getting to the skate park. There's also the tried and true skate board method for getting from place to place. Or as I refer to it, the high-speed strato dab. 😂 I'm not the kind of person that does social media, but I feel like there's a YouTube video in here somewhere. Thank you for forcing me to think about something like a new guy. I forget what thats like some time and I think it may have stolen some joy along the way.  
    • No, I think I started to reply to your comment relating to Trump the cunt but then reread your comment and reinterpreted it as who could stand for the Democrats instead of Biden!
    • Fair enough, misinterpreted the comment. Honestly if Biden wins I think Harris will take over at some point in the 4 years.
    • Yes, rolling road so rotating wheels/correct aero for ground effect. The overhead balance that this setup attaches to is on a 'slew ring' so we can yaw the whole assembly in the tunnel to replicate sidewind conditions and yaw angles for aircraft etc. The road itself has a mechanism that can allow it to yaw relative to the tunnel (from the days when we used to work with Penske and they needed to work on oval racing stuff) but it hasn't been done for years and our current boundary layer suction box, side panels etc. don't allow for it.
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