scazz

The hard truth is: some people are just plain inept at certain things. There are a few people who are not disabled, but will never be able to wheelie, let along back hop. HOWEVER, perseverance and patients and dedicating time to riding for a year will (in the majority of people) produce competent riders even if they aren't awsome. Watch videos, and video yourself! When I was learning to backhop, I thought I looked pretty damn pro! Videoed myself and looked at videos of pros and thought: well - his knees are bent a lot more, his arms move earlier than mine. 1/2 an hour later and the difference was unbelievable! Scazz

What diet changes or is it person specific? I'm on double dose on Zirtek, eye drops and nasal spay and sunglasses 24/7 and still feeling like crap all the time. Less or more chocolate (please more ). I've just emptied the fridge of cranberry juice and will be buying more tomorrow. Scazz

Hi guys My back wheel wobbles side to side (not forks or bent rear hanger) at the hub. I've worn out a bearing in it. I have a 2005 T-bird. My questions: Why has this happened? How can I stop it happening? Can I replace the bearing or do I need a new hub? If I can replace the bearing, how do I do it, or should I take it to a bike shop? If I need a new hub, what do you recommend? (I'm pretty pants and quite heavy + reasonably strong so weight isn't such a problem) Cheers guys Scazz

Standing 180 front flip to backwards nose manual of a rail between two buldings, 540 out? With a blindfolf One handed And one footed In a superman costume And holding a boomb box I think that about covers it?

heh! Classic I like static spins, and esp. 180 endos to a 360 drop. Not "the best trick ever", but I like to watch them... can't do 'em mind, but like watching other do them. Scazz

Yeah, pretty cool. Reminds me of the Douglas Adam's chapter on invisibility from Hitchhiker's Guide I can't remember the ins and outs of it, but pretty much some-one invented a device that meant providing you weren't expecting to see it, you wouldn't. I.E. If you painted a mountain pink, and put a device on it, you wouldn't see the mountain unless you were expecting to. Someone with a good memory patch me in please? It will kill me for the next week trying to remember what it was called Scazz

Cheers guys I'm going with the V8s due to popular opinion... ebay for a tenner Also, thanks for the info on tightening pedals - never new you should or even had to. Going back out riding -- see how far I get with a gaffa tape pedal Scazz

What? You link to trials-forum.co.uk is not at the *top* of the list? Sacrilegious of the highest order! Adam trials is right: the pic on the first page needs to be sized down, and the template has sha* itself when viewed by firefox. Try and scab some add-free hosting if you can - loads and loads of adds already, without a sponsor's adds. As a side note, I just watched the first vid; really nice control, though pretty small gaps for someone with your level of back wheel control. I liked that rail ride you did, very nice. How long have you been riding? To conclude: the site looks like a conversation with someone who's just got MSN and is enjoying posting emoticons at every available opportunity. Most of what their saying is worth reading, but black background and naff titles and templates? Whilst a lot of the content is good, it DEFINITLY looks like a first site. Cheers Scazz

Hi guys Purchased a 2005 onza T-bird maybe 3-4 days ago. Here is the sate of the pedal: Now, am I just a heavy, heavy rider or do t-bird pedals usually go this way after a a bit? What do you guys recomend as a replacement pedal? Cheers Scazz

AH, NEWB Funnily enough, the links do give information about how long it should take and how fast they progressed: Wow! That *does* answer the question - both parts as well! Golly gosh, I'm amazed! To be quite honest, when there are websites that have the information he was looking for, why does he (or she) need someone to tell them personally. And as for: Firstly: post's? No, thats not how you use a " ' " Secondly: did you read the links I posted? Nope, no you didn't. How brilliantly hypocritical! --------------------------- Where I had trouble was: the bike moved backwards and I stay where I was, so after each hop my weight was shifted over the front end. Once I got that down (which took maybe 4 or 5 hours) I could do 3 or 4 consistently, but 10 or 11 out of freak luck. It was the same as the track stand: when I started the rocking track stand, I could stay up for 3 seconds usually, and 10 seconds once ever 20 tries. It was just a matter of building up consistency which your body learns over time (muscle memory). EDIT: added quote from trailsride credit

A quote from a post I made today... not hard to use the search button. <rant> Also, the question sucks; no details on how you've been trying it, how far you've got or maybe a video showing us what you've been trying. The "how do I" questions have been done to death -- use the damned search button </rant> Hope the above helps. All the sites above have either an explanation or a video on back hopping.

It's only a real problem when you start announcing "I bet I could make that gap" with other people around. I enjoy thinking about hopping around on my bike, but it appears other people don't share my enthusiasm for obstacle evaluation. Bus ride conversation normally follows something like: *10 second silence* me: "Ahh, I could prolly bunny hop that bad boy" guy next to me: "Shut the hell up" *20 second silence" me: "Dude, thats a nice gap" guy next to me: "Nobody cares" *20 second silence" me: "I was on my bike yesterday and I -" *guy next to me takes a swing at my head* Topic changes until the next 10 seconds of silence, and then repeats.

Trials is a relatively new sport, and yes - I think it will develop *a lot* further. Trials hasn't really utilized technology because (IMO) because its a street, natural sport. Gravity is a limiting factor, but look at skate boarding - They have people jumping out of helicopters to generate speed into ramps. We haven't seen anything like that in trials yet. (Or I haven't yet ). As with most extreme sports, the money will be in entertaining n00bs with *giant* stunt moves rather than precision and skill, so the majority will be swung to hitting 20 ft gaps and making 30 ft drops. Trials will, (again IMO) not go as far this way as other sports thanks to BMX. People who want to see nutters go high and make big jumps will move the BMX not trials and you'll always have the Puritans, focusing on balance in trials. As for mental task or physical endeavour, you can't give one a majority. You need huge physical prowess and intense concentration and self belief when you hanging on a bash guard 10 ft from concrete. I don't think you'll see many riders at pro level with one but not the other Cheers Scazz

My favourite turorial sites: (I'm sure there are more good ones, but these are the ones I've found useful) http://www.trashzen.com/ Standard, seems to be everyone's fav. http://www.trialsride.com/ I like it - its my fav. Nice pics, good walk through and movies http://www.koxx.fr/index.php?lg=fr_FR&sec=...DB428a7ae83bc36 ^^ These are the koxx training movies. There are links to 10 of them, but there are actually 11 movies. Just change 10.wmv to 11.wmv in the url Its quite good - no talking as it's Japanise, but I like it - nice variations of everything to get you more consistant and comfortable doing the moves. IMO, someone should post a stickey with tutorial sites until they are created here. Scazz EDIT: http://propatcher.tripod.com/format/how.html?EZGoal.com A text based guide - you said you wanted someone to post a guide - this talks you through most moves if you prefer it. http://www.trials-online.com/trials-techniques.php Another good site with alot of videos and text based guides if propatcher isn't for you

My bike rack is the same. However, I can just about rest it on the rack, I and have a couple of bungie cords I secure it there with. I don't use it for long journeys but its never been a problem for me. If you don't want to buy a new rack, thats a 1/2 arsed solution for a fiver and safer than tying it to the roof Scazz

The debate seems to be: mess around on you bike (buy ridged forks, a bash ring and change the gearing) OR buy a new bike. For a start, MTBs are *not* made for trials. I've been messing around on: my saracen X-ile and my old man's MTB. The saracen X-ile is broken: cranks, back wheel, forks and chain ring. My old man's bike is slowly heading towards retirement. Yes, you could replace the forks, the wheels, hubs, tires, gears, frame and add a bash ring... you might as well buy a second hand t-pro off ebay for that money. I went to my local bike shop, (action bikes ***) and showed them my bike, asking how I could trials it up. The conclusion after much discussion: "You could put 500 pounds into this bike, but you'd be burning 250 - you can polish a turd, but at the end of the day a shiny turd is still a sh*t". My advice: buy a T-bird off ebay for about 150, spend the summer on that. If you like trials, sell the bike for 100 and buy something shiny and awesome, if you don't: sell the bike for 100 and you've only lose 50 quid, and found out weather you like trials. Just my opinion, but I think its the most risk free. Scazz

Check out trialsride.com - walk throughs with photos and vids. They have a nice slowed down vid of someone double pedal kicking onto a 3 ft high rock. Extreme sport's tips and tricks (if you live in the UK) has an episode where they cover pedal kicking/hopping -- keep checking, its on every now and again, they repeat often. Cheers Scazz

I was messing around at home, hopping off a small wall, only 5 or so foot. Anyway, 1st time I tried it my crappy shifters decided to change gear as I was pedal kicking; I went down and took a crank to the head. After fixing my bloody head, and kicking the crap out of the bike (it was *totally* not my fault, all the bike!) I tried it again. I bailed out early, so I tried it again (bailed out). 2 days of me braking before the drop and I decide to pedal as fast as I can, not looking at the drop until it was too late of bail out. I did the drop fine and rode away with a stupid grin. Moral of the story: you've got to avoid thinking about "what if" until your in the move (I'm not suggesting this is a good idea for 15 ft gaps, but for small drops and getting past confidence barriers it can help). Once your over the edge, your brain stops thinking about "Why am I here?" and about "How can I get out of here without a strecher?" There is also a good article on www.trailsride.com entitled "The mental battle" - It was a good read. Cheers Scazz

If you have sky, extreem sports does a "Tips and tricks" show - they did an episode on pedal kicking. If you flick onto that every time its on, they repeat quite often. Also, trialsride.com have quite a good tutorial second - walk throughs with pictures and vids which is nice. Cheers Sam EDIT: Also, check the topic about foot position on the pedals

Cheers for the quick responses - thanks a lot. Just to let you know, I'm going with a second hand onza for 140 and spending 350 on a mountain/jump bike, again second hand on the grounds that I can still cycle up hills, and if I decide that a 20" bike rocks hard, then I can see the MTB without loosing much cash and buy a nicer trials bike. Thanks again for all the replies Scazz

Hi guys I've been doing the old dirt scene, last year. Purchased a *very* crappy jump-style bike, and went dirt jumping at local jumps, before they were bulldozed. Summer again, and I'm getting back into riding now the jumps are being rebuilt, however I've started messing around with trials and am loving it. I've broken (completely) my crappy bike and need a new one. What are the advantages of getting a trials specific bike, over getting a nice new jump bike and trying to ride trials on it without a saddle? Bare in mind, I'm not assume - can kinda back-hop 3 or 4 times, and bunny hop about a ft 1/2, but not much else yet and I live in the country side with lots of d/h trails stuff, so a jump bike with 26" wheels and gears was the obvious choice. If I was to buy a trials specific bike, how much would that help my trials riding (I'm enjoying it more than dirt, but it kind of limits my options and if I can get away with bouncing around on a dirt bike, I would)? What about buying a nice heavy dirt jump and keeping some spare 20" wheels and light weight forks? Budget is around 500 (could go more, but don't really want to). Cheers Scazz