stirlingpowers

I enjoyed watching that, really good battle.

> 7 weeks So it's the sitting, not the biking? Other than that, I can only advise to actively relax on the bike and get more range. Makes movements more fluid and impacts soft.

When I still rode single speed, I just cleaned the factory-lubricated chain with a dry cloth, and ran it mostly dry.

I appreciate the Shin Dig work for the sport very much, watched several of their world cup streams already. Regarding popularity and sponsor moneys, Trials can not leave its niche without regular-looking MTBs, riders pedaling normally in the sections, doing bunny hops and rolling gaps.

That helps, a lot. THANK YOU! So your effective stack should be slightly above 710 mm. With this abomination https://www.ergotec.de/en/products/vorbauten/sub/ahead-vorbau/produkt/high-charisma-31-8.html, I have 720 mm, but I can lower to 710. Feels a lot better than the 680 I previously had.

I feel every centimeter in effective stack, a lot. Once you can back hop somewhat, have a go on a modern comp bike, those with the really flat long handlebar stem combos. It's astonishing what you can do on the backwheel on them. I once struggled going over ten small wooden posts set up in a circle. I switched to a friend's comp bike, immediately nailed it, and with ease. On the other hand, these bikes are painful to bunnyhop, at least if you don't want to land on the front wheel somewhere high up. It's a combination of reach & stack, of course, but stack is certainly doing its part in the different feel.

All true, but I want to decide on the stem for a given frame and fork. It feels too low for me now, but I don't know much about street riding, I'd rather learn with the tried & tested geometry. If you measure, could you tell me whether it's the Hex of https://youtu.be/watch?v=JouWWKuBNbw? That would help nailing down the stack to a centimeter.

Sidehop preload: Does your bottom move slightly to the obstacle side while you crouch for preload? Can you drop down to touch the rear tire with your bottom, hold it for a moment, and go up again, without struggling for balance? Bunnyhop preload: Bend your arms and knees, go forward over the bars a bit to preload your shoulders, then push the handlebars down by straightening your arms and yourself back with your shoulder muscles. You should feel some pressure against the handlebars and your shoulder muscles working. Simultaneously lower your bottom a bit over the rear tire, to preload for the main jump towards the bars. In your mind, you want to make a 6 to 8 or 9 o'clock quarter circle with your front wheel, and a 12 to 2 or 3 circle with your bottom. Try to not straighten your limbs fully, and try to keep your body flexible, don't stiff up, just feel a bit of "spring tensioning" during preloading. Bending the knees more before going backwards softens the movement, you need less momentum from the arms, and you can better correct lateral imbalance with your knees while going back.

Second that. 20 Euro pallets are a very good investment for learning.

I got me the Shimano XT Trekking variant levers BL-T8100, they are modern and don't have the Servowave, so no wandering bite point. I have not much experience with disc brakes, only ran some Hopes a decade ago, but they feel OK for me, immediately got some stoppie success. I tried a Servowave XT MT7 Shigura in a shop, Trekking XT has way less flex.

Effective stack = vertical distance hands to feet, or in other words: bar end height - BB height I get values of 680 to 750 mm filling in the manufacturers' missing values, but that's a bit vague. https://madscientistmtb.com/bike-geometry-compare/ says approximately 735 mm for a Hex Team. Unfortunately, I can't get my hands on a bike where I live. Thanks in advance, and I will post several cat pictures as compensation.

I'd like to try that combo of 20" + 180? mm stem + high rise bars. Should give a nice hang-in feeling for manuals. Up-to-fronts might require lifting the handlebar right up to the chin, though. That rodent in the pic surely would be happy about a little patch of grass plate in there, BTW. Anyways, Jitsie comp bikes seem to be the best in value for money nowadays.

Here you go: https://www.seriousconnection.com/fourche-waw-carbone-ultimate-26-disc-c2x30808481 These carbon disc forks are rarely used because of the wheel torsional flex from the brake torque: Light carbon forks are bought by comp riders, and comp riders need very rigid bikes, so they don't ride disc on 26 bikes.

4. You can try to "stumble backwards" at first: When you loose balance backwards, you can compensate by hopping the rear end of the bike backwards a bit, mostly by bending your knees. From that "stumbling", you can try to move to an upwards jump, keeping the bike a bit more in place and in balance. Soon you will notice that the pedals will move backwards with each hop, making further hops impossible after a few hops. Therefore, you learn to open the brake a bit. Thereby, you can compensate your jumping motion by moving the pedals a bit forward. When you can do that, try to do little forward jumps, by pedaling a bit more. Don't jump off edges unless you can control the move quite easily on flat. 5. Neck roughly above handlebars, bend your arms to lower the upper body towards the handlebars, then straighten your arms relatively fast and with force and push the front end of the bike forward and upward in a rather circular motion (at least in your mind). Your body should move backwards, relative to the bike. Knees are bend a bit the whole time, you can bend a bit more while pushing the bike through, it helps with the jump: You need to find the right amount of force and motion, so that you can comfortably counter the rolling motion by jumping upwards "towards the handlebars", when the front wheel is high enough in the air. A bit of the jumping comes from the arms using the handlebar, but most is in the hips going towards the handlebar and the legs pushing against the pedals. Beware of losing pedal contact. 6. Yes. Just use 5 with less force and compensate by pedaling, but not with very much pedaling force. Focus on the jump, not the pedal kick. A gap jump from a standstill is an advanced move, worth years of training. You need to have a stable backwheel hop for this. It should feel a bit like a jump without a bike. Therefore, you turn your bike sideways a bit, so that your feet are placed more naturally side by side on the edge of the gap. Most importantly, don't kick the pedals actively, this is a common mistake. The pedal move just compensates for the jumping movement, a bit more than that, but not much. No hard kicking is necessary for me to gap 8 feet, and I don't think the pros do that when they gap 11 feet.

This little gem should have its own thread.