Ali C

who have you been watching? I can only think of Ryan Leach who uses gears and he's not as good as most singlespeed comp guys

the Spyrogira has horizontal dropouts and it singlespeed, there are no gears and no mechs to break, but this does mean your stuck in a fairly easy gear. If you want gears then the more expensive Onzas and Phase bikes have them. I am 5ft 10 and really dislike 20" bikes, I find them totally unsatisfying to ride. if you are wanting to get up stuff, the bigger 26" wheels means your higher to start with and makes objects look smaller and easier to get up. As for spinning the frame around (footjam tailwhip) then it doesn't matter if the brake is on the front or back of the fork, you can either run a longer cable (like you would have to do for the rear brake anyway) or put the cable down the steerer tube so its not effected by the frame spinning around.

UCI trials is connected with british cycling (they pick the team for the world Champs and have the entry forms for the world cups). but it would be nice if they gave us a little more support, like flights and hotels for the World Champs (like they do for DH,4X and XC) and it would be nice not to have to pay for the UK team kit too.

what time will you guys be there?

I don't know this as a fact, but I believe production has started and they will be sent to us as soon as they are done.

well ok, he's not a compulsive liar...but he is French! I just thought their chains had stretched and they were too busy riding to adjust them, but I guess you have heard it from the frog's mouth

he's a compulsive liar though!

who told you that? I had always though they were lazy slackers who didn't tighten their chains

sounds like smashed freehub bearings to me, hope should fix it for you

tar would be a quick fix, but I would strongly advise not to use it long term. What pads has the bike got? Is the grind sharp? If they are just standard pads, its worth upgrading to some good ones like croco or rock pads (or TNNs when they are out if you want the best). If the gring feels a bit smooth, then I would grind it again to get it nice and sharp.

If you were interested, postage prices from tartybikes to US for a bike is around £90-£120 depending on the size of the box. As was mentioned, I would recommend a 20" to either a young/shorter person or to someone who is from a bmx background and a 26" bike to adults and people used to MTBs. If you are just looking into a cheap bike, something from the onza 26" range is a good option. I actually quite like the Spyrogira, its a nice frame, simple (but good) brakes, no mechs and dirt cheap at £300

its 100% the chain jumping over the rear cog. If you have an old mech or something you can bolt that on quickly and see if the skipping stops.

what tensioner do you have? If its a single wheeled tensioner pushing down then there's probably not enough chain wrap around the rear cog which is allowing the chain to ride up and over it. The best thing to sort it would be a dual wheel tensioner or to modify yours so it pushes up.

might be there on my xc bike, otherwise I'll walk

11mm would be the long one

they are proto tyres. They deffo don't grip like Kenda tyres anyway!

It will be fine with those spacers

Wish I was going, but I only came out of cast on monday and I still struggle to walk let alone enter a comp! Have fun guys!

what nick said, but its also easier on a slight slope too and the faster you go, the better!

Yeah, Phase bikes are pretty good, you get a decent frame and some good quality parts too.

noooo, go 26", if you are doing it for a laugh and training, the bigger bike will benefit you more back on the motorbike. Whats your budget? At the bottom end there is the Onza Spyrogyra which are actually pretty sweet, they are around £300. At around £800 there is the Atoms Premier, for around £1000 you can get the Yaabaa 1299 and upwards your getting into super light comp bikes.

isn't the 7.0 a high bb? or was that the 8.0?

the good thing about them is the geo can adapt to pretty much any riding just by altering the setup. I had mine as a bmx (short bar and stem, slick tyres with lots of psi and a stiffer gear) and it coped very well. Now I have it with a lighter gear, knobbly tyres and a longer stem and its great for trials stuff. You can turn it into exactly what you want mainly by changing the bar and stem.

looks very close to an onza hitman Not a fan, bent tubes should be banned!

Yeah, the vets are amazed she looks so good, they say she is as fit as a 12-13 year old