rupintart

The way around that is you buy the rim in the US and have them ship it to him (or order from him directly and get the coating done, he's a dealer for a couple brands.) That would be the cheapest route since there would only be one international shipment and that would be getting the rim to you. You guys do realize that the UK to US exchange rate is nearly 2:1, so everything is cheap as hell for your guys. $145 usd is like 70 gbp, so if there's a large batch it'll end up being a lot less in your money.

I'm not sure I would agree with that. Judging by the builds of some of people bikes around here I would say it's very reasonable. What's another $100 usd when somebody's building a $3000 bike? Like pointed out, this is a much better investment than people spending it on Ti magura fittings that do literally nothing and save grams that aren't even remotely noticeable.

I would say so. I mean, it's admirable in a sense that Gilles afterwards specifically went and practiced kickers because he knew that was a weakness and now over came it. But what's comical is that he had to practice kickers whereas Kenny and several other riders who ride other disciplines didn't have any problems with them. But come on, really you practiced how to ride little ramps? Children and little kids who ride for fun know how to use a curb for kickers. It would be completely embarrassing if I were in his position is all I'm saying, and I'm sure it was given how unprofessional he acted during those times.

ok. Kenny is FAR BETTER at not being a complete douche bag to the little kids that idolize him during a comp. Kenny's also better at riding street, other disciplines, and he also has TONS more style. It's funny that Gilles had to PRACTICE kickers. Kenny didn't practice and complete kicked his ass. Shows he's naturally more adaptive and not a one trick pony (only rides trials and trials obstacles.) As far as the triple triangle...Kenny gave him what he deserves for being ignorant. Gilles is a complete ass to most people, it's good to see he got a little asshole attitude back.

http://postimage.org/image/z0opbeuod/'> and http://postimage.org/image/7w6ap3nnr/'>

Yeah, Dave (the guy without a shirt) that's actually his "shitty" bike. He has another Sky that he uses for shows and the circus. Nigel, the guy in the yellow shirt with the rim coating also has a Sky mod and another Sky (or clous (can't remember) on the way.

I dunno how you guys break chains. I've had a K710 on my bike for almost a year on 16/14 gearing which is supposedly notorious for killing chains in an inordinately short amount of time. I think Andy T had a chain that was something stupid like 7 years old on his trials bike iirc.

To be clear, I'm not trying to push this product on anybody even if it seems that way from my tone. I'm just an advocate for people giving something a fair shot and not bashing it without experiencing it firsthand. I also want the trials community to know that there's a new product available that actually works and isn't some gimmick, which doesn't happen often. I took a pretty big risk on this myself since my current rim (the same model) has only been ground twice when I took the plunge to get a new rim coated and was perfectly fine. I however like my bike to be as low maintenance as possible while still keeping performance as a priority. This coating did that for me. I also like having the peace of mind of having a completely fresh sidewall. I don't bash rims until they're at the point where the sidewalls are thin and it seems like any gap over 3 feet will dent them or flat-spot them. So durability has never been an issue for me. So I realize how many of you this coating would not be a good idea for your to do, regardless of price. But for those of you who don't bash rear rims or have a comp rig, then this coating is damn good. FWIW, I got grease on my rear rim and simple green took everything right off. My very first ride was in the rain/mist so I know it works in the wet. It works and doesn't absolutely destroy pads. On a side note, there was another member of OTN that was looking into this very same thing (fwiw, he has several materials engineering degrees and experimented with knurling processes as well) and did not do it because the coater wanted $75 per rim and he had to have a huge batch and inventory and more or less dump a ton of money on something that he may not have been able to sell at the volumes he was required to have done. That's what kept him from doing it years ago. Nbkohring found a coater that didn't require a massive inventory and would work with him on pricing depending on batch size. He's not making hardly anything on each rim for those of you wondering if the reason the price is high because of profits. It's definitely not the case.

Grinding does take away quite a bit of material, just because it's dust when swept up doesn't mean much. In a matter of months time, the sidewall is at half if not more than half it's original thickness if you do harsh grinds. Just because it happened at a rate you didn't notice it (i.e. a lot at one time) doesn't mean it's not happening. Nearly every buckled rim is a rim that has seen multiple harsh grinds and it happened on a big move or botched landing. The sidewalls are thin(ner) and the aluminum has seen it's share of fatigue life from tension, truing, and abuse. And as far as the trials community behind everybody else, we're way behind. It took us YEARS just to get to carbon bars and lets not even talk about bottom brackets. ISIS is over 10 years old and we're actually spending MORE on bottom brackets than the rest of the MTB community. Hell, we even missed the whole outboard bearing BB thing which is light years better than isis. Not broke don't fix it? That's the weakest excuse for being complacent and or not wanting to accept that there are better options out there. Just because it isn't broke, that doesn't mean things can't be improved upon. By that measure we should have never left v-brakes or steel frames. As for the price, let me be clear that my price was because my rim was pretty much done ON IT'S OWN AND THE PRICE GOES DOWN THE MORE RIMS HE DOES IN A BATCH. There's a couple people in the US placing orders and theirs will be cheaper than mine because he's doing a batch. It's very possible to get the price down to 40 quid because of UK-US exchange rates and the batch size he does. As for the wearing down, there is no plastic in it. It's all metal and the material is actually stronger than the rim. It's bonded through very high heat akin to plasma coating something. It's a mixture of carbide and other minerals. Our urethane pads won't wear it down especially since there's no dragging done like rolling down a hill or stopping at speed where heat also becomes a factor. We have no heat build-up in our brakes. And even if it wears out, you can still use the rim by grinding it if you really want to get the most out of the rim. This coating is equivalent to a harsh grind. This is more for comp or demo riders who want consistent braking and/or a person who does harsh grinds every time. If you can get by on a light grind or anything less than a harsh grind and make your rims last, good for you.In that regard, this coating may not be the best option for you if you don't want to spend the money or don't need the harsh surface. As you can see from the video above, the coating holds ridiculously well. It's been pretty consistent across all pad compounds with the most noticeable differences being up front where the brake is feathered more. It still works out really well, but the pad characteristics and/or life are more apparent on the front than on the rear since the rear is mostly being locked up. It really isn't anything about being too good to be true, it's about progression of our sport and the products being available to those who want it. A titanium bb sounds too good to be true too but the premium price steers some people away while other people don't mind it. This is no different. This product was available in the past (plazmatic) and wasn't as good (but still better than a grind with the right pads.) It didn't have the flexing agent in it like this one has and the actual surface wasn't as good not to mentiuon reletively speaking, this coating isn't as expensive as the plazmatic coating was.

The material is bonded to the rim via very high heat so it's more or less part of the rim now. I can see that it would make people stand-off-ish to it because it's an added expense, but like you just pointed out you would have to replace 2 more rims AND you would be grinding ever couple of weeks. Meanwhile I'm still using one rim and never had to touch an angle grinder and still have better wet performance than you would AND spent the same amount of money over all (less money than you if you account for the time it takes to grind and/or pay to build your wheels.) If you don't care for the expense, say so. Don't bag on a product that you (not you specifically, generally speaking) have no experience with especially since very experienced riders are having great success with. If it's too rich for your blood, that's fine....many things are beyond many people's budget and it's to be expected that not everybody would want/afford it. This is simply an alternative to those that are can afford and/or are willing to explore other options. It's part of the reason the trials community is so far behind the rest of the cycling community, people are quicker to hate on new things rather than experiment or actually improve on things. That $145 price is on the high end if not topped out because the guy coating prefers large batches, so the price drops the more rims he has. That $145 price is the top of the scale if your rim were the only one in a batch (like mine practically was). Plazmatic didn't fail at it, nobody bought it because people were too cheap to spend $150 on it 10 years ago. The plazmatic rims that were coated, most of them are still kicking around fyi. And considering inflation, it being cheaper now (and improved upon) says it's a viable option now. Most of the reason people buckle rims is because the sidewalls are half the thickness they originally were from grinding over the weeks and/or months. Grinding significantly reduces the vertical and lateral strength and almost exponentially reduces the lifespan of the rim from increases in the stress/fatigue per volume of material. It's simple physics. If something isn't as thick as another, it's not as strong with the same forces applied. Never mind the fatigue factor of aluminum of being under stress and tension constantly. As far as contamination, since the material is bonded to the rim, you don't have to worry about solvents deteriorating the adhesion, so Simple Green or any household cleaner will do the trick.

Works as good as a harsh grind and works the same when wet. The only con to this coating is it costs money to get done. It's better than a grind in every way in that you don't have to do it anymore, it doesn't wear, good for the life of the rim since it's bonded to the rim, you don't weaken your rim from grinding (flatspots, easier to knock out of true, etc), works just as well wet as it does dry, consistent. Anybody who's ridden the plazmatic coating back in the day knew how it performed, this is an improved version. FWIW, there's a past and/or current world champion using it as I type this, but contractually (sponsorship) can't publicly outright say they're running it. He's on his second set and he's ridden them on video if you pay close enough attention. That's all I can say about that.

I filmed. I have a bum knee that I'm in the process of strengthening People in the vid: Nigel Kohring - yellow shirt Dave Campbell - shirtless Chris Studi - Blue shirt Mikey Rosenberg - White

Not sure how interested you UK folk would be in getting a rim coated from the US but I figured I'd post my impressions on here too. No more grinding, no more weakened rims from grinding cause you have a full sidewall. Works just as good in wet too. I'm glad I did it. I'm so stoked to never have to grind my damn wheel again. If you want low maintenance, this is the route to go for sure. As far as pricing goes, Nigel gets a better price the bigger the batch is. My batch was a small batch of 4 rims, so my pricing was on the higher end of the scale but it's still worth doing if you never have to grind again. IMO, it pays for itself after like 2 or 3 grinds for having no hassle, let alone not weakening your rim every time you have to grind. I have nearly 20 hours on them now and the pad life isn't any worse than with a harsh grind. Below is a short vid for those of you curious as to how it sounds and works. http://youtu.be/zcC6FhYPA_c There's more on the forum below if you're wondering if it's like the plazmatic coating of the past, etc. http://www.observedtrials.net/vb/f3/nbkohrings-coated-rim-48907/

Vid of one of the days this past weekend of our group ride stateside in Atlanta, Ga.

Niiiiice!

I remember the curb contest; it was awesome. Oddly, I was thinking of suggesting such a contest again a couple days ago while I was riding a parking block for over an hour near my house. I must have looked crazy since I had a helmet on and wasn't doing anything higher than 3 inches. It was a good time though! I'm in.

This. I think NWD was the last video where it actually had good riding with the cinematography that people like about this film. It had varied terrain, varied riding, and different riders in it. Life Cycles and the other films mentioned seem to be all about fancy cameras, zip lines, and massive mountains and sand that nobody can ride. It's kinda like watching Red bull Rampage....but it's not a competition, it's just them riding, which sucks, cause that's stuff that nobody can or will ever relate to; it's just too massive and dramatized.

I bought this vid when it came out. i personally think as a riding video, it sucked. Riding videos are supposed to get somebody itching to ride. This video fails horribly at that. It's like an film student who rides and was told to make a really artsy riding video. It f**king KILLS at that. It's in a league of it's own in that regard. It's a video that's good for admiring cinematography and the scenery. It's a good video to be playing in a bike shop or in a television/electronics store (i.e. what a store manager that rides would have playing) where you can watch it for amazing shots and really exploiting a TVs picture. But as a riding video. It sucks. Less scenery, more riding.

There weren't 3 either. This is a tailwhip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ-_WiEZTBA Again, there were none in that video.

There wasn't one tailwhip in that vid. There wasn't one tailwhip in that vid.

sick

holy shit...where did all that come from??? rad

Dave gets no love? Dave is probably the best rider in the US if not NA. His technique is so dialed and on point. When we were at WWC for the SE US meet, he was riding for 8ish hours already and at the end of the day he was STILL able to sidehop up chest-high rocks back to back to back with flawless technique.

I thought the same thing. Guy is a monster on the bike. That said, I didn't like it. He just muscles everything and doesn't seem like there's much control there (i.e Damon, Neil, CLS, etc all have massive riding AND are smooth). Don't get me wrong, he's a beast, but eh...

Just thought I'd share this. I don't know why, but this video doesn't show just how massive some of these spots are.