Ali C

good work! solid barspin and video I don't pinch my seat when I try them but I do pinch my cranks, my main issue is my throwing hand, I have trouble getting it to a good position to catch the bars again, I've come as close as it's physically possible to land them without actually landing them just because my hand doesn't grab the bar (my brakeless video where I tried barspins were not my best efforts) I don't seem to have much issues with my feet...throwing the bars later so you and the bike are falling seems to keep the feet under control.

Yeah, can't imagine doing 19 shows per week!! Glad you're getting on well with them, I'm surprised they didn't jazz up the bike at all but I guess there did seem to be an industrial theme going on. I can believe the pay is good from what I've heard from my flatmate who is designing a couple of Cirque shows at the moment...they've got massive budgets!

Looks incredible! One of the nicest Ashtons I've seen

Joe's make car type tubeless valves if you are allergic to presta. I thiiiink it should still work with wider trials rims. The main thing that would make me lose air is folding the tyre, I run narrow rims so folding a tyre is pretty easy at low pressure. I think with a wider rim it should be fine. Basically if you fold your tyre now with normal riding, you might struggle with tubeless but if you rarely fold your tyres from the rim you'll be fine. I run my tape to just before the beads.

Glad it went well You may find the tyre deflates at first, this could be because the tyres are not meant for tubeless and are porous until the sealant full seals them. If this happens then I'd recommend giving the wheel a spin and a shake to make sure the sealant is evenly spread and then leave the wheel resting flat on each side for half an hour...this worked perfectly on my MTB. Also I don't think cut outs are vital in the foam, I left my second foam strip solid and it still works fine.

Finally getting a website sorted, I bought a .com domain last year so I go on godaddy to confirm it's mine and move to the next step...easier said than done! I have an email receipt confirming my .com domain but the link doesn't work. I log onto godaddy and check my account only to find I've no domains registered (I bought a few). I check my expired domains to make sure and that's empty too! I tried to phone their customer support but that line doesn't work. I then went to 123reg who say they can transfer domains to them for free, I go through the process and they end up charging me £12! I then waited for my confirmation email I was promised but got nothing, not even in my spam. So now I'm stuck, I own the domain I want but I can't get access or even contact the company to shout at anyone! So frustrating!

The clicking will be the spokes unwinding and "clicking" into place. The spokes will slightly twist when tightening/loosening, flexing the wheel at the end of the build eases the tension for a moment and lets the nipple twist back to position. It can be hard to fully do this if it's a stiff wheel so don't worry about it too much. You can always re-check the tension if they've made a LOT of noise. Actually just re-read what you said. The clicking could be the spokes...Ti is more elastic than steel so there could be some movement between them causing the noise. some oil on the contacting spokes would tell if this was true. Not too sure about the tighter spokes when tensioned, perhaps the rim profile is acting like a cantilever...the tyre could be pushing on the rim beads pushing them outwards causing the centre of the rim to be pulled up? Would make sense in my head if it's a single walled rim. I wouldn't get too anal about spoke tension, you're probably right to keep it under the rims load but it'd probably be ok. I've never checked a rims max loading weight and I always get the spokes as tight as I can and I've not had any issues (mainly Spank rims though which are pretty tough! I perhaps wouldn't go as tight on lighter weight stuff) Half ti spokes doesn't seem like a great idea...ti spokes are notoriously weak and have more stretch than steel spokes possibly making the wheel go out of tru easier...just speculation though. Either way Ti spokes don't save all that much really, not enough to make the risk of snapping one higher as well as the costs.

yeah, high bars makes for easier hops, not higher hops.

it's a 2004 onwards Echo pure, I had one and it was one of my favourite bikes I ever had! I'd haggle a bit on the price due to the age but it should ride pretty well for the price, just budget in for any future replacements as older parts will have some degree of fatigue

most MTB riders use one finger and from what I've seen most rider run the shifters between the grip and the brake lever, I know I do.

Perfectly normal, it's really hard to machine threads exactly perpendicular to the axle (for cheap anyway) and that wobble isn't actually the freewheel, just the slightly off centre threads on the cranks...nothing to worry about

heavier than when he had the Spanks on To be fair though we weighed the full wheel with tubeless tyre setup against his old full wheel with tube. His old wheel was 20g lighter but the carbon wheel has more tyre tread and plain gauge spokes rather than double butted on his old wheel. the rims I guess are around the same weight as the Spank Race 33 but are wider, non of us have broken a spank wheel yet but judging by Danny's 27.5" version of these carbon rims they should be super strong too!

loving the frame proportions! Did you go with 385mm chainstays? That's the same length as the Hex was.

your shoes do look excessively flexy. I'm not a huge fan of super flexy soles, I think they can feel good on the pedal but I get the fear if I have to jump off the bike. On the flip side, too stiff and it takes away the feel from the pedals and I don't feel connected to the bike properly. Can't say I'm a fan of any of the looks of those shoes you've posted but I used to ride Ribos with the same sole pattern as your first example...never again! Nowhere near the grip offered by other sole types (mainly the hard compound). If you go with something that has a stealth style rubber sole then the pattern doesn't matter so much and you'll be amazed by the level of grip not just on the pedals but if you ever need to take a dab on rocks too. I'm obviously gonna recommend Five Tens, the Danny Mac models are actually the nicest I've used for trials, not too stiff, not too flexible and amazing grip (plus they look like normal shoes too)

Arm pump was the single biggest problem I had in comps! I still get it now if I enter one or ride DH. I found no difference in brake lever positioning but having them pull closer to the bar helped slightly as did thinner grips. Another thing that can help is an elastic band around the lever and bar to make it easier to pull. There was one thing that got rid of my arm pump overnight though...a rear V-brake! You can adjust the spring so it's even easier to pull than a magura with water plus a V-brake has better backwards holding power too which is the direction brakes nearly always slip, this means you don't need to actually pull the brake as hard which is obviously good for arm pump.

I find it's still possible to hop ONTO things with bars forwards, but a lot harder to hop OVER things. Tilting them back tucks the elbows in a little more naturally allowing your upper body to relax. Often (not always) bars forwards can stiffen up the riding and force a more elbows out position but it's all personal preference.

I'm just reminded of the last Southpark series. To me it seems like May is in Mr Garrison's position...winning the polls but not wanting the actual job so May is now trying to make herself look as bad as possible to try and make people vote for the competition. As with Southpark, it seems the public will vote for her anyway despite all the lies, corruption, pocket lining, friend helping, NHS destroying, clueless brexit negotiating, disability benefit cutting, arms selling, data stealing and more. I like Jeremy Corbyn, he actually seems to want to help the country rather than his rich pals. People say he's not a leader, why not? I'd never even heard of May until she was our leader and she seems to be doing a pretty shit job, she's essentially our Donald Trump/Mr Garrison.

What did he say?

really really good!!

tempted! It does clash with Tartydays though

I did enter a comp on my hex and it coped pretty well but the short wheelbase does have it's limitations on bigger comp moves

digging it, however I'm not into that curve in the downtube, I like how it still looks more like a bike now Had a similar idea to do a seated comp style frame myself at some point

Pfffft, upright is still forwards It's all about the backwards sweep!

That is quite a lot of drug use yeah!!

that line was cool, Adam Wilson did something on that rock back in 2002ish, nice to see it's still providing the style 15 years later click me