The Ugly American

For deeply personal reasons I'd rather not get into... I take these kinds of incidents very personally. For the sake of the family and friends of those who can't be bothered, I hope you're right. Condolences to the victims and family members of the Leicester Square incident today, and the families who have to relive their pain just days after the funerals of the children from Southport.

Picked up a polished Mk2 with a load of mismatched parts slapped on. While going through the process of planning the build up, I eventually realized that a lot of the things that were standard cross country bikes parts in the 90's are now considered gravel bike components. And Planet X now only sells road and adventure bikes. So it seemed appropriate to make fun of that a bit. I'm stoked with how it turned out, and that I get to confuse a few of the roadie types the next time I visit a couple of my local shops. 😂 Frame: Planet X Zebdi Mk2. Fork: Whyte brothers "rock solid" 445mm carbon Cockpit: Headset- Echo Stem- Clean 125mm 25deg Bars- Monty ProRace carbon Saddle- Title JS1 cro-mo leather Seatpost- Zero offset Carbon from Amazon Grips- Bar Tape Brakes: Front- Magura MT4, 180mm Rotor Rear- Magura HS33, Jitsie Pads Drive Train: Crank set- FSA Gravity grid, Tarty Bikes Rock ring, 28 tooth 64mm Shimano chain ring, KmC x10 chain Cassette- Microshift 10spd 11-28 Derailer- Shimano ZEE DH Shifter- Shimano ZEE 10spd (D.C.D style chain tensioner) Absolutely zero chain noises. Where was this set up in 1999? 😂 Wheelset: Front- Clean rim, stans notubes Neo hub, 28 spoke (15mm through axle 100mm spacing w/ 9mm adapter) Rear- Clean rim, Koozer XM490 hub, 32 spoke (12mm through axle 142mm spacing w/ 9mm adapter) Tires- Rene HERSE Humptulips Ridge 26x2.3 Endurance casing Ali express Tanke brand oil slick bar ends, valve caps, skewer's and seat post clamp. I dub this steed, the Gravel Trials. Enjoy. 🥸

It be like that sometimes. 😂

And how did it go?

Should have told them it was a dog training set up... 😂

That's wild... I've laced a lot of rims and I've only ever seen a gap like that after I've banged the crap out of them. Although it's been a while since I've touched a single wall rim. Here's hoping it doesn't buckle under 220lbs of fat old guy. 😂

Well... I got the rear hub in the mail today so I laced up the back wheel. Before I bother fitting this brake set up to this rim... have either of you ever had problems with Clean rims? I can see daylight through the seem. It's not confidence-inspiring.

I find it extremely difficult to force myself to film. I could ride and feel comfortable in a thong, but as soon as a camera gets pointed at me...

I have XT v-brakes as a backup, and I always had great experiences with regular old Koolstops with those. I thought something looked off about these new mounts, this is the first time I've ever run Magura's with the adapter. When this frame was made I was just using regular cross-country frames and stuck with v-brakes. I remember always wanting a Planet-X, but never being able to get one. By the time I started buying actual trials bikes, they didn't have seats anymore and BBs were over plus 30. I found some asymmetrical adapters and pieces on eBay but because "retro" they want as much as I paid for the brake for em. I'd rather machine 5mm off the ones I have and call it a day. I hate modifying brand-new parts but that's what happens when you try and set up a frame older than Charlie Rolls with brakes from 2024.

I'm retrofitting a retro bike with some newer style parts because finding certain standards like 32 hole 40mm rim brake compatible rims seems nearly impossible these days (for example), and I'd like to be able to just re-order parts as needed without the scavenger hunt. I hit up Tarty for some clean rims on sale and nearly got hung up with the offset spokes on the disc caliper. I got away with that by a couple of millimeters on a non-trials fork. But this old planet ex- isn't keen on allowing a 47mm rim in between these HS33's without some modifications. The good news is I'm getting an extra set of pads out of every set of pads because I'll need to cut half of those off and just re-glue them when I wear through the first part. The mod I'm hesitant to do though I'm certain it will be fine, is shorting the pad guide posts on the pistons by about 4mm on each side. Has anyone else ever done this? And did you ever had an issue with it if you ended up swapping the brake to a different frame afterward? I've also considered modifying another brake booster I have to see if I can go about it that way, but I have to put the v-brake adapter mounts at a pretty extreme angle to go about it that way, putting the hoses in jeopardy from heel strikes, and they'll still barely clear doing it. Any advice would be great. Thank you.

Bonus points for the Dick Dale surf rock. Old-school cool. 😎👍

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... And two years ago there were still a few more vendors. I just tried ordering parts from Bikecici last night only to find out that for some reason... they'll sell parts to anyone but Americans. Maybe I could mobilize some "fast and furious" type weapons pipeline for smuggling trials parts into the country. For now, I have to hope I can work something out through Tarty Bikes to get hold of a stem that's not completely ridiculous or made for a comfort bike. 😖🤬😢

"Come on man! You know. The thing." 46th President of the United States of America... 😶

That sounds fun. I can't wait to watch all the videos. I'm not even interested in prizes. This just gives me an excuse to find all the spots in San Antonio since I just moved here. Gonna have to bribe a BMX kid to give up the goods.

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I'd just like to say that I'm loving that rock ring. The whole bike is rad, but my eye's for what ever reason zoomed straight into the toothless chain ring. That looks sick. 🤣

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