Gavin

if its for a stock bike, and your willing to spend a reasonable amount of money i suggest you use a hope mono hub. when i started to ride i used loads of hubs and broke them all (mainly cheap shimano ones). hope are really reliable hubs, they are sealed aswell so you dont have to worry about your cones constantly comming loose! engagement is pretty good too! Rim wise i think mavic d521's are brilliant, lightweight, strong, double walled and hold a grind really well. but they are quite narrow as rims go now. i'm using a onza ronnie rim currently and have been for about 2months and i cant fault it. hope that helps matey (no pun intended)

yeah i can understand where your comming from about why bother with gears, YMSA competitions allow people to enter if you dont have gears. i thought those carbon fibre sprockets looked ace but a abit pricey! was it whitehurst designs that made them??

anyone up for a ride in notts today (sunday 25th september)? me and J will be there along with a few from long eaton. normally a mint ride, we'll be at slab square around 12ish to half past (Y)

you need to take out more chain links in order to pull the rear mech up to a horizontal posisition, locking out your mech would help as well. to do this you need to take it off of the gear hanger, undo the "C - Clip" with a flat head screw driver (it just pops off) then take out the internals (consists of a spring basically). now tighten the whole lot back up onto your rear mech untill it cant move. if you cant get it tight tou may need to place a washer on the rear mech bolt. hope that helps :)

yeah i did an embarrasing gear hanger snap on a curb at lightnig speed. learning how to bunnyhop across gaps on a long bike. ended up kneeing the curb rather hard too! - that and and i found the rear maggie piston seals on my spare bike (giant trials team) are stuck!

i'm pretty sure u could harden the metal again by heating it up untill its glowing then dipping it in cold water, but i wouldnt like to mess about with it myself. have you considered one of those massive sun rims? their huge, rather strong, and they come in a lime green colour! cant remember the name of them though. i'll edit tis post when i find out :sleeping:

i think they are beautiful frames mate, had a look at one in supercylces, they dont weigh alot at all - the wheelbase is like 1100 though. that might cause a problem if your not used to a long bike. i think that would be my next choice of frame, the only downside is that danny buttler rides it :sleeping: (joke hes a mint rider)

i hear the try-all ones are made of a metal that doesn't hold a grind very well, i use an onza ronnie rim on my stock bike and i cant fault it (yet).

so is the DVD any good? - i love ryan leeches riding style, so smooth and aggressive at the same time. has everyone seen manifesto? that is truly amazing! (Y)

Yeah a D521 will run on a pitbull, with a pad bodge, its quite fidley but cheaper than a new rim. i ran a bodge on my t-rex for about 6months. my brake worked fine (Y). i used four screws to hold old pad backings onto full brake pads. make sure the screws are countersunk though else ur pads dont fully recline. and keep checking them as they have a tendency to come loose - unless you use glue aswell!