that NBR dude

Well I made an agreement a few months back, that I would keep the Coustellier St Blaize for 1 year, so in true Andy fashion, heres my new frame...haha The Coust' was far too long for me, 1100, which is crazy considering the longest bike I've ever owned is 1065. It really didnt suit my riding and I didnt feel comfortable on it. So got offered this little beauty. Its steel, its short, is heavy, and god damn I love it!! Takes me back to a simpler time... Pashley 26gHz Toxin Forks (will be changed soon) Thompson Stem Easton EA50 2.5" risers Hope XCs D521 and an Echo (too wide so will be changing it) Bikehut 185 disk (amazing, just ignore the bikehut bit) Magura HS33 Echo cranks with trialtech bash

Nice!! Reminds me of the old Echo ES frames. I used to love them. Its good to see a bike with a seat, that isn't a mile long and drilled beyond recognition.

Ahh yea, my dad had a Spitfire! Awesome cars, handled really well and sounded so nice. One thing I would say is hunt round for insurance first, as companies tend to charge a lot / wont insure at all for young people on classic cars. My sister had trouble until she was 22, no one would insure her on a 1961 Triumph Herald.

God damn Ticcy, thats a touch on the nice side!! Im actually incredibly jelous of that, and kinda makes my Marin look like a halfords bike... Wales soon

Ian said he was going to call it Trials UK magazine, I mearly thought that some info on motoTRIALS would be a nice addition as well. But hey, lets drop it all and move on with life oh and my comment regarding 24"s was to Chris, not you Mark, incase there was some misinterpretation

Ok, fine so mototrials was a stupid idea. I thought it might be nice to see it featured slightly, but ok I'll give up on that. Just expressing a suggestion, you dont need to get all arsey about it

I think a problem would be though, is having enough content to create issue after issue. MBUK has been going for 20 years, because it covers so many aspects of "mountainbiking" so theres always new products, reviews, places to ride, people to interview. I cant see the same with just a pure undiluted "trials" magazine, but again, who is going to class what is undiluted "trials". Everyones view on trials is different. Are you going to say no reviews of 24" because they aren't "trials" and we dont want to dilute the content of the magazine?

I think thats taking it a touch too far though don't you? Mototrials is the father of our sport. A small section about it would be nice for the poeple who apreciate it, as its still related to the topic in hand.

There are some advantages to producing a "hard copy" as opposed to a "soft copy" such as a website/e-zine ect. I like to buy magazines, as it gives me something to do at points when Im not near a PC, such as on my lunch break, or sat in the car waiting to pick someone up ect ect. Having a magazine with me is a great way of passing the time, reading up on articles, interviews, looking at photos ect. A magaizine doesnt depend on internet speeds, or other limitations, you just turn a page and you have more content. I know people say you get things for free on here, but in terms of reviews ect, I would far rather read it in a magazine, written and punctuated properly, with thorough test structures backed up facts and proper photos, not just some kid saying "its crap because it broke when i fell off doing something I clearly wasnt going to make". If I looked for a review of Try-all rims for example, on trials-forum, I'd have to sieve through about 12million posts of complete garbage, before I find any substantiated facts. Whenever I look at an MBUK, I always go to HipHop first, dispite knowing that what Im about to read, I probably know or have heard anyway. Its hard to explain but theres something nice about having a magazine, even if what you're reading may be out of date. As for what I'd like to see, most people have said the generals such as interviews with home grown riders that no ones heard of, reviews of products, places to ride. I'd also like to see, even just a small section, on mototrials. I know they have MTN (or whatever that newspapers called) but the actual amount of trials included in that newspaper is awful. Even just a quick run down positions in the indoor and outdoor champs ect. I know of lot of poeple on there are really into it, and it may be a nice addition for people who dont know much about the sport. Anyway nice one Ian for giving this ago. Many have tried, most have failed, but I really hope you do well out of this, and get the enjoyment and pleasure out of it. You dont have to do it, so big thanks for having a go! Andy

Ahh damn, Im away on a work visit Sunday, otherwise I would have come along

WOOO big up to the NBR mention haha!! Makes me feel important

Theres no denying the HD one has a crisper edge to it, (and this may be down to my computer, my company doesnt like to splash out) but the SD video seems far more fluid comapred to the HD one. The HD one had a very slight jump between each frame, only about 10ms, but enough to make it look like it was exported in 20fps. And again, I didnt enjoy the first video any more, just because it was HD. Sat in front of my TV watching a Hollywood movie, an entirely different experience, but watching a trials or a bmx video on my pc, in a 320x240 window on a website, to fill my time.....?

Nick Manning ran a saint for a while, and I think he got on fiarly well with it. The internals work in a similar way to the Hopes, not like the Shimano freehub bodies of old. From what I remember his hub lasted ages, and the only reason he got rid of it was the original saint hubs had to have the saint rear mech as well to work, although I think he found a solution/bodge. If you got the money to try it out, give one a go, they seemed really storng, however if you're desperate for a hub or short on cash I would say you are probably best off with a hope purely for the tried and tested confidence you get with it. Very few people ran/run saints, so its a bit of a gamble really.

The bike looks really nice, and good to see the weight saving done properly, not just some drunk with a dremel. Not sure on the front tyre, looks like you forgot to put a tyre on all together... However if it performs, fair enough. Saves cutting the knobbles off I suppose..

For the money you are looking at spending on a so called "cheap HD" camera, you could have bought a proper high quality manual DV camera. I had the same dilema a couple of years back when HD was just coming out, but the difference between, for example a £1000 DV camera and a £1000 HD camera, isnt actually all that great and you will get so much more usability from the DV camera. For online videos hosted on some god-awful 320x240 website, I cant see why you would bother with HD. You arent going to notice it, and in my personal oppinion, even on full screen downloadable videos, I cant say I would enjoy a video any less, just because it wasn't in HD. Look back just a few weeks, when there was a 7 minute video of Benito Ross, that was over 1GB! 1GB for 7 minutes. Most peoples responce to that was "Im not downloading 1gb for 7 minutes" and I completely agree. It wasnt all that amazing quality, and it wasnt any better of a video because its HD. Before you pay out on something that may not be beneficial to you, can I suggest booking in an appointment at Creative Video Productions. They will give you as long as you need, bring out virtually any camera on the market, for you to sit and play with and offer the best advice available anywhere. Its something I would suggest anyone buying a camera should do. I cant sit here and tell you NOT to buy HD, because of my own oppinions on it. You need to play with one, and see if it really is beneficial to YOUR needs. Look at non HD cameras as well, such the Canon XL2, the Panasonic DVX100 or the Sony VX2100. These cameras offer far more usability (in the same way as an SLR over a standard compact) over a standard HD camera. Food for thought there, but I really would suggest going to CVP for a chat. Their website is http://www.creativevideo.co.uk and they are such a brilliant group of guys. Jonny Jones and myself swear by the place, and its where I buy all my camera parts.

Whoa, steady there Steve!! I shall be there, just gotta remember to pick Rich up on saturday

I'll have an ask around some of the DJers in Bournemouth and Poole, see if I can find anything.

Sam Pilgrims is the 2nd picture, furthest to the left.

I used to have the Triton titanium 20". Its difficult to say really, its hard to pick good and bad points about using Ti as a material. Yes, it was lighter, but I dont think I could say that I noticed the difference in weight when riding it. By the time it was built up, it didnt exactly seem "amazingly light" or anything, but could have possibly been down to the parts that I used. As Mark said, Ti does flex a fair bit. I had to run 2 boosters to stop the rear end flexing, and even hopping on the rear wheel or preloading, you could feel a slight flex. It wasnt anything major, like it was made out of play-doh, and in some cases, gave you that extra little bit of spring, but it never really insipred you with confidence. The upside to it, was the material was reasonably thick and durable, and very hard to dent. I dont think I managed to put any considerable dents in mine, as opposed to my XTP that was made of tin foil and dented when I clamped it into my bikerack The main problem with using Ti was the cost issue. Its very very expensive to get hold of, and also quite hard to find people with the skills to weld it. Its not the same as alu and needs special requirements to weld which again, is expensive to set up. There have been several attempts but I think all failed due to the price of the frames. Triton tried to keep costings down, but even they were well over £700 for the frame, but compared to Koxxs range of frames, doesnt seem quite as rediculous

Looks awesome Moggles!! I reckon it does need the stickers, Dan J's looks really nice with the stickers. Good choice of green too, kinda Kawasaki Green

He did indeed. There used to be a Raleigh rep in Ferndown, cant remember his name now, but he sold me one of Ians frames. He had it in the shop window as a display piece, and I fell in love with it and had to buy it. Had photos of it but I have no idea where they are now. No one dare ask me what happened to it.....

Ian Cooper??? Blimey Guv'na!! I even had one of his Titanium frames. Be good to see him back into things, getting all the old skool'ness back in town. Not seen him for a very long time.

Ouch, nice one Rich. How long has it been like that for?? Looks pretty bad regardless. BEAST!!

Piece of history right there!! I remeber watching this round Matt Howards place, and thinking "wow, I wanna be that good" Love this vid, and Evolve, brings back so many memories

Sums it up really then. Its like classic cars, sure theres faster and better cars out there, but people still drive them. Same with classic bikes. That really is an absolute steal at that price, shame I missed it, would blatantly be bidding on that one