Tommy d

I haven't used a fixed tensioner so I can't compare, but if you wanted a (cheaper) sprung tensioner, try a Surly Singleator? Mine lasted about a year and a half, included being landed on several times, and outlived a few mech hangers. Eventually I had to change the spring, now its fine again. About £30.

The main thing I want to see in a video is something that will inspire me to ride. That doesn't mean an 8 foot gap, despite the fact that I can't do that. It means something interesting, unusual moves or lines. Also I like to see people ride really smoothly with control. It annoys me when there are large parts of the video of stuff not involving riding. Sometimes these are things which have some meaning or relevance to the people who made the video, and their friends, but not to anybody else. Ummm, if the sound track finishes before the end of the video or vice versa that's a bit annoying. Just edit it to the right length! p.s. If it has manualling in it I will probably be seduced, regardless of anything else in the video...

I think I'm sorted now cheers guys

I can relate... At school in like year 9 or 10 we all used to play football like every lunch time. In the 6th form it kinda stopped. Then one afternoon in year 13 were remeniscing and we all went out for a game. We all got out of breath ultra quickly, and by the end of lunch we all had some lovely blisters, que pathetic limping for the rest of the week.

So, update time! It's looking good, they are letting me have the Specialized P2 instead of the Saracen, and with the £100 in price difference I can choose some parts to upgrade. I think. It's a bit confusing because my parents are phoning them from home (I'm at uni) as it's their home insurance, so I'm getting all the information relayed to me from them The minor complication here is that the extra parts still have to come from our friends at Wheelies The main thing I want to upgrade (although it might be considered a downgrade) is from gears to singlespeed. I'm a bit mystified by the dropouts on the frame, which I kind of need to understand in order to make it singlespeed. It is described as: 6mm offset horizontal drop out for 26" wheel w/ replaceable der hanger adapter on the Specialized website. What does this mean? Some way of combining both horizontal and vertical dropouts? I haven't seen that before so could somebody explain it to me? Do I need a chain tensioner that fits to a mech hanger e.g. Surly Singleator etc or do I need chain tugs, mod bike stylee? Either way I'll ask for a singlespeed spacer kit so I can have just the one sprocket of my choosing but I need to find out about the tensioner. Also, I'll have some money left over, so I need to think of some other parts to upgrade. Suggestions please? Does anybody know anything about the tyres? Front = Specialized Rhythm, 26x2.3", 60TPI, wire bead Rear = Specialized Compound, 26x2.2", 60TPI, wire bead I can't find a description of those tyres on the Specialized site. I need tyres that will be good off road, in mud basically. Are those suitable? Thanks for everyone's help.

I thought that was quite good. Kind of reminded me of me, but with a bit more skill.

So, the plot thickens... i.e. Wheelies are of ill repute to say the least. In this particular case though, I'm not too offended by their offer. I'm more willing to just choose one so that it all happens fairly quickly (ideally). This is because: my stolen bike came off ebay for £200 over the summer and I only upgraded about £70 on it, it was 'well used' although working alright. I don't have a great knowledge of what parts are best for jump/DH riding so there's no point in me insisting on exactly the same spec that got nicked. It probably wasn't that awesome anyway. Here's what I had, roughly priced up: Frame Saracen X-ile £100 Forks Marzocchi Dirt Jumper 3 2005 £200 Headset Cane Creek / generic £25 Bottom Bracket Generic ISIS £20 Cranks Truvativ Hussefelt ISIS £40 Front Wheel Planet-X LMF disc £50 Back Wheel Alex DX32 on Mission hub £60 Stem 24seven £25 Handlebars DMR Wing Bars Cro-mo £22 Grips DMR £7 Back Brake Tektro V, Avid lever £25 Front Brake Shimano cable disc brake, generic lever £25 Tyres Maxxis Minion DH 2.35" Dual Ply £44 Casette DMR Singlespeed spacer kit £16 Tensioner Surly Singleator or similar £10 Chain KMC Zed £10 Pedals Azonic fusion £25 Skewers Generic allen key £8 Inner Tubes Front - Generic, Rear - Nokian DH £12 Seat Wethepeople BMX seat £18 Total value new = £742 Thats what we sent to the insurance people. All 3 (or 4) of the bikes here look like they are up to that standard or something like it so I can't really complain? From people's recommendations here I'm thinking of going for the P2, but still open to suggestions. EDIT: or the Amplitude. mmmm. hard choice. Thanks for all your advice so far. EDIT: piccy of stolen bike:

Ah ha, didn't spot that when I was browsing. Looks good indeed. Now my choice is more complicated... Thanks anyway. Any more info for me people?

A friend I ride mentioned it to me a few times when we were just starting up a couple of years ago but I couldn't be bothered to get involved cos I thought it would probably suck up all my time and I was happy as I was. Then I started looking on it from time to time just to download the videos. Over the summer I joined properly, cos it looked good, and cos I was going to uni and needed a means to meet other riders. Here I am!

My dirt jump (slash downhill) bike got stolen. Bad After a wee worry about whether or not it was covered, the insurance company are paying up. Good They are buying me a new bike, which has to come from this one particular company, but (I think) I get to choose between a few different ones. I want to be able to tell my dad which one tomorrow morning so it would be appreciated if I could get some advice tonight (Tuesday). Lets go... Number 1 - INSTINCT http://www.wheelies.co.uk/bikesNew/bikeDet...upplier=SARACEN This is the bike that the company actually offered. It's possible I might have to have this one but I think I get to choose. Number 2 - AMPLITUDE http://www.wheelies.co.uk/bikesNew/bikeDet...upplier=SARACEN Same price, a few differences. Number 3 - P2 http://www.wheelies.co.uk/bikesNew/bikeDet...ier=SPECIALIZED £100 cheaper so I'm not maxing out on value, but it still looks quite good to me. So onto my questions: Are the forks all the same? They're all DJ3s but they're described slightly differently... does it make any difference? The cro-mo frames on the Amplitude (2) and the P2 (3) look better to me, but will that actually matter? Strength comparisons? Cranks: I want a bashguard/rock guard thing that goes all the way round, mainly to stop trousers getting caught in cogs. Does the Instinct (1) in fact have one? It says it does but the picture doesn't seem to. I'm guessing the partial one on the Amplitude (2) rotates with the cranks? Forgive my ignorance, I havent had one of those before. And are any of these cranks particularly bad or would any of them serve me well? I'm guessing the hydraulic brakes on the Instinct (1) are the best? Anyone care to educate me about any of these brakes? I don't know anything about any of these wheels so again educate me! Any good or bad ones there? I know Maxxis tyes come highly recommended, but the tyres on the P2 don't look very knobbly to me, and I do tend to need that when it's muddy... Ditto all the other parts basically, like bars, stem, pedals etc. Anything I should know, or are they all equivalent. I want singlespeed, but I can happily take off the gears and fit a tensioner myself so that won't be a problem. EDIT: situation has changed, as described in about 15 posts time. EDIT: I think it's all sorted. I'm sure I'll be back asking for more help if that changes... thanks for everyone's advice

That was brilliant! Really stylish and inventive, and all looked very controlled. Nice squirrels.

I think that kind of thing happens quite a bit, like if you're riding in town a security guard comes out of whatever building and says 'I'M SORRY YOU CAN'T RIDE HERE just come back after 5.30 alright?' It just helps generally if you dont start riding right in busy places in the day time or whatever, half the time security/the police won't even mind you riding but they have to say something because it's their job. Do it a bit more subtly and do yourself and them a favour.

F-Stop Junkie, thankyou for your big long post. EDIT: I hope that didn't sound bad...

Personally I would go for new ones, they will last you so long that it's worthwhile to spend the extra. As for square taper vs ISIS, read this thread: http://www.trials-forum.co.uk/forum/index....60&hl=taper

It's called Anthem Part Two, from Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

That was pretty good. It seemed like there were bits where the same tricks were repeated in exactly the same place? Perhaps didn't need to be a 6 minute vid... Good riding though.

Hi, hoping I can come out if I get enough work done tonight and in the morning. Fancy giving me your number, so I can give you a ring and see where you are when I'm done working (probably early afternoon)?

Whatever the temperature I'm knackered after 4 hours riding! The cold fingers bother me more although I do wear gloves in winter. I don't find that the rest of my body struggles to keep warm, more like it's a relief from sweating out in the summer.

I usually check my cranks bolts and headset are tight when i go out, mainly because both those things have given me trouble in the past. Oil the chain occasionally as has been said, and then as long as the tyres are hard and the brakes work I just ride. For the chain I use 3-in-1 oil, seems fine. If you ride in the rain you might want to oil it aftewards. Now I have a question: I ran out of my old grease, which was slimy translucent yellow stuff. Now I have a tube of stuff that calls itself Lithium Grease. Is this any different i.e. alright to use? I only ask cos it's thick white stuff instead of translucent yellow stuff and it doesn't say much on the tube.

Singlespeed has two drawbacks that I can think of, that you can't get anywhere fast, and you can't enter most competitions. Maybe not all though, I'm not an exprt on that. I still think it's worth it though, it's lighter, simpler, harder to break etc. Probably cheaper too if you're building from scratch.

That was great! Lots of really quality riding in there, and some places I'd really like to go.

Hey not bad at all. If I had to complain I would say perhaps a bit too many clips of you just getting up stuff, but there were some good moves and lines in there.

It's Everloving by Moby. And milk chocolate digestives are most definately where it's at. T'is not my place to speculate the future of CLS, but the sad ending / enigmatic mystery / publicity stunt / cruel trick on idolising fans / destructive chocolate biscuit eating binge / WHATEVER IT IS got my attention sufficiently to download the vid (in 10 minutes on university broadband I might add ) where I would normally not have bothered to download CLS... so it worked anyway Craig! The video wasn't bad, I didn't get so bored with the repetitive (if amazingly big) riding as I often do, probably because I spent 10 minutes reading all the hysteria first. I did like 1'03". But am I the only person who found the video looked like it was squashed in sideways? I'm playing it in media player cos it won't open in realplayer, quicktime, or winamp... (EDIT: or is he really that tall and thin )

Well done for reposting it, I hadn't seen it before! Liked it. Not that I'm saying everyone should repost stuff all the time... that would be annoying... only when it's stuff that I haven't seen

Good stuff. I wish I could actually ride skatepark...