spode@thinkbikes

As in you pedal your front wheel on to the wall?

:blink: Why do you guys use water in your maguras? What's wrong with oil? Is there a benefit? Surely it's spongier and reacts more to temperature shifts?

I don't remember any cracks. Just pain! I think Si and I are getting to the bottom of this :S Looks like I'm going to have to take more time of riding than I would have hoped for :blink:

I've snapped a few too. The hope titanium's were worst. It's trials! Everything breaks eventually!

Talked to Si. Did some diagnosis over photos and webcam. Turns out it's a torn tendon and it probably should have gone in a cast. Meh. ****ing NHS.

I vageuly recall doing a similar thing 5 or 6 years ago and it kept returning. I didn't do it quite as badly as this mind you.

Well, I've been riding for 7 years I think. My shins are more scar tissue than they are skin :blink: If I don't come home bleeding from a ride, it wasn't a good ride! I've actually had rides were things didn't seem to be happening. then I fall off, cut myself. The adrenalin boost of hurting myself is enough to kick my riding back in to shape!

Physio has been in touch with me just now. Looks like riding wasn't such a good idea, he's going to talk me through some stuff. Damn NHS!

That's not a bad idea. I might have to remember that. Zip tie should hold the lever on nicely.

I went out on my "normal" bike today to cycle to the post office to pick up a parcel. And it felt fine, even for tricks. So I jumped on my trials bike and a SUPERB ride this evening. The doctor told me that I'd probably find riding easier than walking and she was right! YAY YAY YAY!!!! Now I just have to wait for my new frame to arrive. Got me a KOT MS2 :blink:

I really should get some pictures of what is holding my bottom bracket in. Imagine something like this: ...-------- ...|****| ...|****| ...|****| ../*****\ ..|*......*| ..|*......*| ..\*****/ ...|****| ...|****| ...|****| ...-------- So that hole in the middle the axle goes through. then where the circle ends, it bends at 90 degrees. So there are two of those, one for each side of the BB. Then rivited to each peice is a kind of nut and bolt type mechanism. then the two pieces meet from each side of the bottom bracket and bolts together. It does a really good job (the araldite job I did came loose :S). It's made from aircraft grade aluminium and constructed very well by my friend Dave works in an airfield. It's taken a severe beating so far without any problems and there is absoluetely no play in it! Certainly saved me from forking out for a new frame :P

I just thought I'd post my latest injury. I was doing a gap hop from a wooden rail (you know the ones shaped like ^ at the top). And my backwheel was too far back, i.e on the downslope. I went to kick off and it just shot me up in the air and I fell in to the gap from a fair amount of height, STRAIGHT on to the side of my right foot. After about 20 minutes of writhing agony and several people walking and driving by me lying on the ground, I managed to just about get home. I went to A&E the next day. Really impressed with the way they dealt with me. Took an X-RAY as they thought I'd cracked it. Turns out I was very very lucky and it is all soft tissue damage (tendons, ligaments flesh etc). It's still incredibly painful though and I couldn't walk on it for 2 days. Annoyingly, they said the best thing for it is to just put up with the pain and walk on it, otherwise it'll cease up! Needless to say I've gotten very good at holding back the tears :P They've told me 6 weeks until it's healed. But I'm a fast healer so I'm hoping to be riding in another week. Annoying up and down movement isn't too bad, but side to side is EXCRUCIATING. Which means anything that involves turning on a bike is really painful (oh yeah, I've tried already :P) So I did this 3 or 4 days ago I think. First picture is either on the day I did it, or the next morning. It already had a fair amount of ice on it. Now this one was taken this morning. It's hard to see thanks to Mr Flash, but it's currently turning my whole foot a lovely shade of green/black. I'm not sure if you can see the impact on the very right hand side (that bone that runs down there). It's quite wierd how my foot was swollen NOWHERE to do with the actual injury! Apparantly feet have a habit of doing that. It's still very puffy and makes me look like a fat man :lol: And while I was downloading them from my camera, I found this picture. This was doing a 180 gap hop from a brick thin wall to a brick thin wall. I missed and caught my leg on the pedal and tyre. Pretty huh? The red marks are where I do a lot of spinny things and my leg seems to have build up a tough area of skin to deal with the impact :S Almost my whole leg went green. WOO!

I'd sure like to hear them! Everyone is harping on about longer wheel bases. My frame is on it's way out and I need a replacement. Choosing one is a painful experience!

Just make sure it goes in the For Sale / Wanted section. You'd probably fetch a pretty decent price!

Well, I've never seen any CLS so this bought it to my attention. He's pretty good. All a bit samey, but lots of nice stuff. He's got some balls!

What's a floating disc all about?

Sounds like a plan :(

I think the obsession with bigger gaps and higher backwheeling is quite a base raw instinct. But I think it does ruin trials a little. I'm more impressed by other aspects of trials and that's the way I like to ride. I ride in a considerably looser gear than most people and that limits not only the run up you can take, but the size of gaps and back wheeling you can do.

Valid points. You can also read FAT32 using a boot disk which can make rescue and recovery a little easier. NTFS is a lot harder to do so. Linux struggles with NTFS writing too.

A DVD image file is probably an ISO. With the right software you CAN play these, but traditionally you are supposed to burn them to a DVD. I think the reason you have two partitions is because of a FAT32 limitation of partition size (I can't remember what it is off the top of my head, but that seems a logical reason). I would copy anything essential from C to D, then convert C. And then do vica versa. There isn't any real reason for FAT32 now.

When people talk about skipping, do you mean silently - you go to pedal and it's not there. Or do you mean a loud "CLANK" when you go to pedal and it skips to the next?

Meh, I'm on a post frenzy. I'm trying to avoid testing graphics cards :) BTW - your gear ratio script seems a little confusing. Have you got a post somewhere explaining it? Or just the formulas so I can work it out manually?

Why do you think they are better than the kings? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just intrigued. Is it a price thing?

The equidistant thing isn't a huge problem. Unless I'm mistaken it doesn't work in quite the same way because of the piston design. As soon as the one closer to the disc hits force, the other starts moving more. They both don't move the same distance, they both move enough to hit the disc. However, it is worth making sure you have the right washers in so that the pads aren't rubbing the discs. I would do the following for an all over service. (I've got a Mini/M4/DH4/Enduro, I don't know if things have changed with the mono system). My god, I was bored this morning - say hello to my huuuge essay! Bleeding The Brakes 1 - Remove the pads. 2 - Remove the disc. 3 - Go to halfords and buy some Dot 5.1 oil and a clutch/disc bleeding kit. The are traditionally for motorbikes, but the tubing is the right size - just remove the ball bearing that's on the end of the tube. This should cost about £8 for both and you'll get LOTS of bleeds out of the oil. 4 - Push the pistons in so they are flush with the calliper. 5 - Put the tubing on the bleed nipple and get yourself a spanner for undoing this (I think it's an 8 or 10mm) 6 - Making sure your lever is parrallel with the floor (i.e flat), un do the reservoir cap. 7 - If it is fairly empty, top it up with your new oil. (tip: with halfords oil, don't remove the foil, just pierce a small hole) 8 - Undo the bleed nipple. Now pull the lever. If the pistons move, you haven't undone the bleed nipple enough. Then while the lever is pulled in, close the bleed nipple. Then let go of the lever and the vacuum will pull oil through the system. 9 - Keep repeating step 8 until the oil is running clean and no air bubbles are coming through. While repeating, periodically top up the reservoir. DO NOT let it get too shallow or it will pull air through the system. If the pistons have moved, you screwed up the routine (like pulling the lever with the nipple closed). So push the pistons back in to place before carrying on. If you screw it up enough, the piston will actually fall out. But don't worry, just put it back in place, clean up the oil and carry on. 10 - Once content that's it's bled properly, top up the reservoir and then put the cap back on. 11 - CLEAN UP. If you get oil on your pads or disc, you are gonna have a hell of a time sorting it out. So make sure you remove all oil with tissue, including near the pistons as the oil might get on the pads. 12 - Follow the disc and pad cleaning section of this guide, and then put your disc and pads back in. Line it up as centrally as you can using the washers. 13 - Keep pulling the lever and it will eventually self adjust and the pads will be in place. 14 - Fine tune the adjustment by moving washers. If it's not rubbing, it's probably not worth moving it. Cleaning Pads And Disc In almost all cases, just a basin of warm water and a sponge/scourer is all that is needed. However, if you are unlucky enough to get contaminated by oil, or even finger grease (yes, don't touch the disc if you can help it!!), then you'll need to take more drastic action. If you have plenty of money, just buy a new disc and pads. The downside to this is you have to spend a while bedding your disc in as well as your pads. However, if one is contaminated, they BOTH will be. So just replacing your pads for instance is just going to end back where you were. I'm not 100% sure what does it, but I found the following does the trick. I use a brillo pad and clean the disc as much as I can. I then BAKE the disc pads in the oven at it's highest temperature for a few hours. I usually pop the disc in there as well to help burn off any excess oil. The surface of the pads should discolour a little with the oil. I then take a file and just remove a little off the surface of the pads for luck. I have also tried a blow-torch to the disc and boiling the pads. So if you're still out of luck, you can try that too. The way to tell if oil is the problem, is if you get a horrible squeeling and the brake isn't locking on. If the performance isn't quite there, but it's making normal friction noises, that probably means you just have to bed it in. I also found disc cleaner helped remove the final remenants, during the bedding in process. Bedding In Bedding in is very important for a trials bike. You'll need a bottle of water and some kitchen roll. Ride around holding the brake in question on so that it is rubbing as hard as it can without actually locking on (it's hard work!). Keep doing this and then stop. Pour some water on it. It should make steam as it hits the disc. If it didn't, you didn't ride for long enough, or with the lever on hard enough. Take a piece of kitchen roll and just hold it on the disc and spin the wheel. This should wipe any crap off the disc. This isn't entirely necessary, but I always come out with a black piece of kitchen roll, so I figure it's getting rid of something. Then repeat the whole rubbing, water, rubbing, water until it starts to work better. If this isn't getting anywhere, buy some disc cleaner. I found this helps a lot and removes any leftover crap that is still on the disc. Coping With a Bent Disc Bent discs are incredibly common. Even if you don't hit it, they have a habit of warping. After all, you are putting a lot of stress on them. Generally speaking, unless the bend is quite bad, just put up with the minor rubbing. However, using a wrench you can very easily remove bends. Spin your wheel slowly until you can feel the point of friction (and hopefully see it). Make note of which arm of the disc is bent and then turn the wheel so you can get access to it. Using a CLEAN wrench, tighten it on the area that is near the bent arm. Then just gently pull/push it in the direction you need it moved. Don't be too forceful. Then take off the wrench and see if it's still rubbing. If it is, just repeat. Better to slowly get there than bend the disc completely out of shape. Constant bending/rebending can't be good for it. I hope this helps, but please don't flame me if by following these instructions you screw it up!

Actually, you CAN convert FAT32 to NTFS. But you can't convert back (well you might be able to, but I'm talking with traditional tools). http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm - nice and easy This is fairly safe, but I would highly recommend backing up anyway. Anything this invasive on your file system is always a concern. I've done it before without worry mind you. Does your computer have more than one partition? If so, just copy your essentials on to the 2nd partition as a back up.