DYAKOV

Loved the video dude! Not a single black and white clip or fish eye lens and still made me feel a bit EMOtional… Great riding as always!

There’s something about the shape of this bike which I really dislike and I can’t tell what… Those thin forks remind me of standard steel commuter bike forks except these are straight. And the way the seat stays are so thin as well and where they mount onto the seat tube… I can almost see a sprung seat and rear mud guard being part of the deal - is it just me?

Quick Facebook marketplace search shows these, I’m sure there will be others. Any of them compatible?

Just another thought, you can find a higher wall/bench where you can put your front wheel on, so the bike is stable on 2 wheels but almost in a vertical position, so then it’ll take a lot less effort and just a light tilt backwards to get it on back wheel. Lean backwards slightly and try to narrow down that balance point. In any case, if you feel like looping out you stand taller on the bike and it will fall back forwards with the front wheel back on the wall, try not to let it loop out. I suppose that would be similar if you were to learn a hand stand against a wall. And to answer your question - the correction hop is done so you can “default” yourself back to that balance point that’s stuck in your brain. So you start doing them when you’ve already reached that point, not too soon, not too late.

Hey buddy, I would suggest you break the whole backhop movement in 2 parts: 1) Get yourself close to a curb with maybe 20-25cm/10” space between the curb and your front wheel, the distance would depend on the height of the curb but you can see what’s appropriate just so you’re close enough and your front wheel won’t catch the curb on the way up. As you’re in a comfortable track stand/rocking position with your good foot forward turn the pedals quarter of a turn backwards and then press on the pedals with your good foot forward while pulling on the handlebars to help lift your front wheel and place it on top of the curb. You’ve done that many times before while riding your commuter bike but the idea is to do it while the bike is not moving, so your brain can remember exactly how much of pedal stroke is needed to lift the front wheel. Practice that until you’re feeling very comfortable with lifting the front wheel from a still position, you can also gradually increase the height of the curb to a low bench or something. 2) Second part of the move would be the back hop itself. For this part I’d say don’t even bother using your pedals. As you’re in a comfortable trackstand/rocking position lock the rear brake and lean your whole body low and backwards until the bike lifts up on back wheel. Imagine there is something stuck in the ground and you’re trying to yank it out - throw your ass low, pressure on feet, pull with stretched arms (this is what you’ll be doing for bunny hops as well). You’ll be able to lift the bike on a back wheel but you need to be ready to loop out and jump off the pedals. The whole time your rear brake should be locked. The more you do it, the more your brain will be able to process the move and the feeling of where the balance point is. When you reach that balance point you start hopping. Now that you’ve mastered both moves you can bring them together - good comfortable trackstand/rocking position > quarter pedal stroke to help you lift the front wheel > pressure on your feet, ass low and arms stretched > hopping on back wheel. Everything will be very exaggerated at first and will look bad but the more you do it, the more you will fine tune and learn what the minimum amount of pedal stroke/body movement is needed to get there. Hope that helps, also other riders feel free to correct me if I’m giving any bad tips? Cheers, Nas

I don’t think it’s much to do with the style of riding… Back to my point from the last comment I made - it’s just not an accessible sport, purely from a financial point of view but also in terms of “marketing” and promoting the sport. Trials organisers have a responsibility to share in that matter. Trials has evolved into an almost fully comp/natural riding sport up in the mountains and away from people. If you bring trials back to the streets like the tgs era was and what the shindig guys were doing last year with their regular street rides/vlogs, then you make bikes cheaper to buy, I’m sure that would attract lots of new people into the sport. Watch Charlie Rolls’ London video, plenty of hooks and moves to front in an urban setting - looks pretty cool to me! If you think about it, street trials is definitely more popular than pure trials. Why is that? I don’t think that the top pure trials riders are any less skilled or less exciting to watch than Danny Macaskill, each in their own discipline. It’s just that one rides in the city and the others jump over twigs up in the mountains.

I don’t think that there has ever been a great amount of interest in trials anyway… but I agree with you that big brands need support, it’s what makes them “big”. And being big means that they can persevere through economic crises whereas smaller brands just seize existing. So, if there weren’t big brands like crewkerz, jitsie, clean in the past few years, I think that trials would slowly die off by the time the last of the old stock second hand bikes in use snapped and there were no replacements on the market. In those terms the big brands are keeping it alive but I feel like the price point doesn’t let the sport grow. Imagine a world where you could either buy a Ferrari or not have a car at all, that’s the situation we’re in. Big brands need to optimise and find ways to make their products more accessible because it’s only people who are already into trials that are happy to spend the money. Quite frankly, if I had no clue about trials and my kid came home one day and said “Dad, can I have £2.5k for a bike?” I’d tell him to get lost…

We should thank Brexit for this… I mean, you’re right in saying that there isn’t as decent variety as there was say 10 years ago but off the top of my head the main brands currently are: Crewkerz, Clean, Ozonys, Comas, Breeth, Maestro, Jitsie, TMS + Campmajo in Spain and I’m sure that there will be other local niche brands in China that we don’t even know about e.g. Lykke (briefly)… It’s just that us in the UK are only getting crewkerz, jitsie and clean in stock. The last few bikes/frames I’ve bought have mostly been shipped from Europe: Clean X2 frame from Hungary, Comas full bike from Sweden I think, Maestro frame from Germany, Clean X1 full bike from France…. If you know you want it, you need to be prepared to spend the money, otherwise there are plenty of jitsies on the second hand market here in the UK.

And yeah, the rim tape doesn’t seem too narrow but it isn’t wide enough either. I suppose it’s to do with the profile of the rim, would work much better on a flatter profile… anyway, thanks for the tip! Nas

Cheers dude, already done that on my 20” bike, think I’ll probs go down that route on the 26” as well..

Just thought maybe I can use sellotape over the rim tape and stick it to the side walls of the rim (essentially making it a wee bit wider)… I’ll update the thread if it works. Feel like an absolute dummy haha

So I’m having the following scenario which is driving me crazy… Took a rim tape off a spare front wheel and I want to use on a new build. Both rims are the same (hashtagg), both tyres are the same (Monty pro race) in fact I’m even using the same tyre I had on the old wheel, the rim tape was brand new, used for a few rides, so isn’t stretched and overall in a good shape. I’ve had at least 50 attempts pumping that tyre (planning to invest in a bigger pump too!) and the rim tape keeps moving, so at places you can see the edge through the rim holes. I’ve noticed it stays in place until the tyre has an alright amount of air in (not hard enough to ride) and only moves by the time I’ve fully inflated it. I don’t really want to super glue the rim tape, also it’s a standard width for a front wheel (not sure if trialtech or tarty own) but I can’t think of ways to keep it in place. Once I manage to position it where it should be I’m planning to pump the wheel and leave it for a day or two so the rim tape moulds around the spoke nipples as well as the rim holes which will then keep it in place but I haven’t gotten that far…. Anybody had the same nightmare before?

Could it have been a COSTAESTE video? Hmmm…

Hi all, I can’t seem to find an old video I’ve seen ages and ages ago. It was something on the lines of “Monty Days 2006” or “Monty in Barcelona”… essentially a massive group ride with close to 100 people in it all riding Monty 221ti/pr (you know the shape), so it must have been 2004-2006 era... In the beginning they all lined up for a group photo (urban environment) then the scenery changed to rocks and natural riding. Or any other Monty videos worth watching excluding Gerardo Garcia and Marco Grosenick (I’ve seen them all). Cheers, Nas

Ah there it is - trialtech 120x17 is the stem you want! Last time I checked on online shops I could only find the 130x25 geo but I was sure that there was a shorter one… might be an older model which is now discontinued or last stock here and there but you should be able to get one second hand. Think that’ll work well on your bike, also you might want to upgrade to jitsie or trialtech high rise bars to give you some leverage over the front.