Ali C

I' having a hard time deciding where to go camera wise for vlogging. I've just been using my gopro so far and it's been pretty good, I like I can point it at my face and I know it'll get me in shot, I also have lots of spares, they do good time lapse and don't take up much space. The down sides are that it doesn't have great low light quality, it's a fixed fish eye lens so I can't zoom or do any artistic stuff, the batterys don't last long and the small size lacks any image stabilisation. I bought myself a Canon G7X after seeing how popular they are with vloggers but after a couple of days use I'm not that impressed. The focus is fairly slow and makes audible clicking noises. It only shoots in 30 or 60fps which clash with lighting and make them flicker. The zoom is really slow and not actually that useful, having replaceable lenses would be handy, it also doesn't really do time lapse which is really shit oh and the battery life is probably worse than the gopro AND there's no mic input. I'm unsure what to do, I got the Canon second hand so I think I could sell it for pretty much what I got it for. I do like the ease of my gopro but I want more freedom with framing. I see Ribcage do a conversion that allows any lens to be used on a gopro, this could be what I'm after but at nearly £300 for just the kit (which you then have to fit by taking apart the Gopro) is a bit much, especially without the lens prices added. The other problem is that motorised lenses won't work so any focusing would have to be manual, not so bad if I got a fixed (slighty less extreme) fisheye for any selfie style shots and then swapped to a zoom type for other uses, still not great in low light though. I also like the look of the Sony A5100, a compact camera with interchangeable lenses like a dlsr, slightly expensive and no image stabilisation (fixable with the correct lens) and no mic input, but it can do time lapse (with a downloaded app to the camera), shoots in 24,25 and 29fps, can get lenses to suite my needs, has a decent battery life, great low light performance and super quick focusing. Any opinions? I'm still very novice when it comes to jargon or what lenses work so help is always handy. I'm going to sell a bike so I may have a bit of money to use but still less than £1000

I didn't ride it as I can't ride anything at the moment (well, maybe my fixie...gently), I'll be on it as soon as I can ride again....I did my ankle in pretty badly (torn ligaments)

really cool Ben, your riding is massive yet so smooth, great video!

smooth as anything, quiet bikes rock! He's riding so well for a non-trials frame too. What hub is he using out of interest? Never known any quiet hubs cope with trials before.

Back when I first started riding Tyke trial (or the Yorkshire Tykes as it was known then) was my first introduction to trials after seeing an article in a magazine. This was before the internet really kicked off and years before any social media came about, going to comps and magazines were the only way to really see what was going on in the trials world or to socialise. I think trials comps were really handy but these days people can see what's going on as soon as somethings happened, they don't need to wait till the next month to chat with friends like we did. Kids have fewer reasons to want to go to comps these days. Results in comps don't have as much meaning and people don't want to travel to rocky fields. Barbara did such a great job with all the event work she did even when she had no reason to be there (Chris stopped riding years ago) so it's no surprise she's retiring, it'd be cool if people could take over but it seems that without some drastic changes in locations/rules comp trials is just begining to be old news, trials has evolved alongside social media and taken it on as the new meeting place.

good stuff guys! BTW, up to front either way is cool, just whatever the line dictates really

I prefer non internet Ross

oooohh burn! Actually yeah, I'm editing one now from Belladrum and I've ideas planned for other episodes too although ideas are easy, making them happen can be a different matter.

they're just a bit fat to fit full pads and wide rims really, not had any issue with actual build quality

on further study of the slow mo it looks like I thought the front end was dropping so I tried to put the left foot down in front of the pedal, then the bike reacted differently to how I was expecting and instead of going over the bars I was now going over the back and in trying to move my foot it caught on the pedal and made me miss the edge....pretty unlucky but I'm very lucky to get away with just bruises.

yeah that sucked! Combination of the lower bb taking me by surprise and I think my foot stuck to the pedal slightly too. Ended up with a pretty bruised elbow, a dead leg from hitting my hip, a sore ankle again, slight lower back pain and the sorest neck muscles I've ever had! Fortunately Jane did loads of massage work and got me stretching and icing and now I'm back riding again and dropping 11ft in this weekends shows. I wanted to try the Fourplay as the grass is always greener, plus after so long on the same bike it's cool to see how other bikes ride so you can get an idea on what different geo does to the ride.

Can't stop falling off my bike!! I never knew quite how much you get used to how something feels, my new bike feels 95% the same as my Arcade but that 5% has really been messing with me....mainly the lower bb I think, it rides close enough to my Arcade to make me confident but then my back wheel won't be exactly where I think it is and WHAM! I eat shit. Not fun.

doing Yoga mid gap is not recommended. Thanks for the well wishes though, it's only a small cut, if it wasn't for the rain I'd be out riding now!

that one with the 20" wheels is lovely, so nice to see skinny tubes on a mod and with nice details, I think the short chainstays make the proportions of the frame really pleasing to the eye. I would still love to see it with a seat but it's not my signature frame so I I'll just deal with it

couple of reasons, like Mark said it means I can be a basher and bend the rotors a little more before they rub, the weight saving is small but cool but the other reason is simply that Magura wanted one of us (Drop and Roll guys) to try them out to see if they were strong enough. I didn't mind trying and it turns out they are pretty strong!

I'm on MT6 which is almost the same brake and they're great. If you find the stock pads a little lacking then try some sintered and that'll help bring the power up.

I do think the skinny tubes have it over chunky ones looks wise, I'd say this is the best looking frame of the Alloy options though. More pics:

It still requires the same leverage ratio, the two pot pistons are smaller so end up roughly having the same total as the larger pistons in the one pot caliper

the MT7 and MT6 use the same lever just with a different coloured sticker

I think I maybe got unlucky

never seen the appeal of Pokemon, I think I was too old for the cartoons so always brushed it aside as a kids thing. The fact everyone is now on their phones in groups makes me not want to be a part of it at all, I never seem to grab on to popular things like this and TV shows

So after years riding the same bike I decided to try a new frame. Inspired just brought out the new 2016/17 Fourplay with updated geo and features that I wanted to try. If you want to see more then check out my Vlog for a bit of a bike check and some more reasons why I wanted to try it. Vlog episode right here

I found my Ultimate arms went notchy within a couple of months which then made setting up the pads to hit at the same time impossible, I tried to replace them but found it very hard and ended up breaking the arms. I'm a huge fan of shimano arms (narrow so easier to set pads up on wider rims) with an SD7 lever (the speed dial adjustment is really handy)

I REALLY want to go but it clashes with a demo that I could really do with getting the money from plus it's a 9 hour drive, I barely kept my sanity on the drive home after Tartydays last year!

Such a beast!! Best rider out there in my opinion.