aener

Sadly have to contradict. I was using mine for general hardtailing and have killed two driveshells in approximately 9 months. They refuse to replace them due to "spares not being available", but then bare-faced sell them to the public. The second died quicker than the first. Stumped up for a Pro 2 Evo in the end. Buy cheap, buy thrice

The UK has an overwhelming population density compared to Finland (279 people per square kilometer vs 18!) so a huge number of people living in the UK will find it quite hard to access "nice forest and rocks". It can definitely be done, and there are some great spots available, but you must have your own transport and time to get there. In some places I've lived, the nearest natural spot with enough to be a good ride was over an hour away in the car. I think a lot of it is cultural, too. Likely in part because of the population thing, a lot of people here don't view being away from lots of people as a good thing. I've known some riders who are more scared to try something out in the woods because if they get hurt in town it's very easy to get help. Riding also has a social dimension for a lot of people who didn't grow up riding alone, too. I think it feels very similar to if you went on a ride and forgot your helmet. If you forgot your helmet, you can still ride and have fun, but it doesn't feel right to try difficult things in case it goes wrong. For some, there's a sense of security and even "rightness" to riding with other people versus riding alone, if you didn't grow up riding alone. I've always found riding with a couple of other people will make me willing to try things I wouldn't try if riding alone. We were also fortunate enough to have a ridiculously rich riding scene in the 2000s, but a lot of the riders were quite young (so can't drive) so they rode whatever they could near home. When they made videos of it, other people wanted to do it so would CHOOSE to ride in towns because they had this or that landmark they wanted to visit. And then when you've grown up on it, it's just what you're used to. I personally enjoyed both, but I usually had more fun on street just because of the style of riding I grew in to. Street and rocks are very different, so it's not surprising you find it scary if you never do it. It's a lot like anything else - if it's scary to do something, do it 100 times and then you'll usually be much less scared of it. That isn't always the case, but very often it is. Edit: Here's a thing that might be a shock for your perspective. A large number of the people that ride here NEVER ride alone. It can get to a weekend and they want to ride, but if none of their friends are available to ride with, they just don't. Not everyone is like that, of course, but quite a lot are.

I think I can take a guess, but just to confirm, which companies are these? That f**king stinks.

Just FYI, plenty of people have used both of these, historically. They're a bit heavier, is the only concrete reason not to. Other than that they're just not fashionable, and a huge percentage of the people riding these kinds of bikes seem to be very concerned with having the culturally accepted parts, rather than what works for them/is cost effective. If you're looking at DJ rims though, just be careful when ordering to get the right spoke hole count. A lot of them come in 32 and 36 hole, so just double check. Definitely not speaking from experience 🙄

Really? I find them far nicer than hydraulics. Did you loosen the spring tension at the caliper? I have one on the front of my Cannibal and both on my 456 - regular pads on the 456 though. Organic chucked me over the bars on tech decents one too many times

Avid BB5 with organic pads, SP51 cable outer and an FR5 lever with an SLX RT66 or Storm HC rotor.

No.

That's the most disappointingly accurate summary of trials I've seen in a while

I suggest you just try to not worry about it too much. Your body's instincts are very strong. If you start to tip off the back, you will instinctively want to step off. If you progress with just a little caution then your reactions will learn how to save you from that type of crash, and each time you save yourself the habit will get better. Of course, sometimes there's nothing you can do and you do just land straight on your bum. It doesn't happen often, but it can. Sometimes you can just walk it off, but other times it will hurt a lot. Even if it hurts a lot, your tailbone is VERY strong. Whilst it can break, I've never heard of it happening on a trials bike. Are you particularly worried because your rear brake is not very good? That would be a good reason to replace it. But if the brake is good for you, just keep practicing and don't try to get too adventurous too fast and you will be fine I'll wager everyone on this forum has had a crash like this at some point - some of them light and some of them heavy. It happens, and it hurts, but 99% you will not break your tailbone. Enjoy!

Hope are about the strongest I've come across. There might be chunkier, but the Hopes are chunky enough and well thought out enough that they're fine. They're CNCed from billet. A lot of the others are cast, which means the material is less dense and porous. More dense, more consistent, and not having sharp corners right where all the stress is going through like some others make them pretty damned good. If it settles your mind at all, I broke a Shimano one, a SRAM one and the one that comes specifically with Avid brakes. Then got a Hope and haven't broken one in 18 months. About a year of that was on the rear of a 26" too.

I've not come across other people using them, but I really can't rate the Maxxis Aggressor highly enough. Really nice grip, very forgiving in terms of fold, feels less squirmy than others because of the tread pattern, and basically never pinches even if you're a rough, fat load like me. I got the Exo one, just for pinch protection, and it's great for an all-rounder.

Is it because when the pressure increases, the tape bulges out into the holes, meaning the edges pull inwards? Proper fix would be wider rim tape, if so. You absolutely can just replace the rim tape entirely with sellotape. It works absolutely fine as long as you do enough layers, and it can be exactly the width you need it to be. It's a cozy way of saving 50g for about £1, too (Assuming you did both wheels.) Granted, the holes in your rims are bigger so you might want an extra couple of layers, but I used to run 5 layers and it was fine running 60psi in a 20" wheel using the old Trialtech Square Hole rims. Just make sure the layer touching the rim is upside down, otherwise all manner of shit will get stuck to your wheels and undo your precious weight-saving

It's a little too noisy for the non-foldy! Christ, I hate loud hubs, but unless you take out a mortgage a hub that engages well will almost certainly be loud. Just a sad fact of life, for now. I might experiment with packing some grease in it down the line. The engagements feel so solid that I probably wouldn't rule it out for trials, even. (I definitely would rule it out because it's an aluminium driveshell, but specifically the engagements... They're really positive.)

I went for the HASSNS in the end. I got a stem by them once and it was real nice, so gave them a chance. Essentially a Hope copy, but it's got 3 teeth per pawl so totals 120ep, which is actually more than I wanted but rather that way than the other. Genuinely a decent hub. Got them on Aliexpress at £26 for the pair including skewers and post from China to England