Ashley Smith

you can braze ti

i'll be there, along with Mr Holdsworth, should be good, although i havn't been able to ride my bike for weeks. looking forward to this trial

Elmdom metals are the supplier of t45 tubing, quite cheap aswell, plus it doesnt require heat treatment after welding/ brazing ash

my favourite by far, plain and simple, not too over the top and looks the nuts

Monothane

they should make some, easy to do aswell, i used a load of parts from my prototypes to make a mod hub for matt rushton, unfortunately he moved to stock before i managed to finish it. basically i used a standard hope pro 2 shell( 8/9 speed bodied one) with a 6 speed ratchet body, to give the narrow width of a mod, axle needed modifying slightly but was'nt that hard to do, end caps also required facing to get the correct mod spacing, maybe there is a market for a pro 2 mod? who knows, would be good to see a batch of them made ash

quite nice although i can't see how its any different to the previous kot frames, my mate had one and it snapped,

aluminium bolts are rubbish, i wouldnt waste my time with them, ash

i shall also be joining, Mr Holdsworth will also be making an appearance. should be good to ride this new venue. ash

my wheelbase is around 1080mm and the bb rise is +20mm, not a million miles away from the new geometry.................................. the geometry aint that different at all. so how will it ride so much better? in fact i can probably ssay it will almost certainly ride the same, not like it matters much anyway ash

the geometry on the 2008 231 has the same chainstay length as the ones ive had hudson, the only factor being that the new one allows the use of snial cams with 5mm of wheelbase adjustment, the range is from 385mm to 390mm, at an optimum for chain tension it would ideally be set at around 387mm depending upon size of sprocket and chain wear etc the old 231 has a chainstay length quoted of 390mm mine measure 386mm so not much difference eh hudson? not so much of a step for chainstay length? i dont know why people have a problem with the length, my bike rides perfectly well with the longish stays, but then again im no where near good enough to be able to tell the difference in 5mm of length on the stays., not much else on the geo has chnaged really either, mainly aesthetics looks great and i hope to get one my view.......... ash

thats an 06 shell on the picture, no "power bulge" as there now known on the 07's they'l replace it for an 07 shell for you

you can only have them sleeved, no chance of having a helicoil for there matey, contact argos cycles for sleeving the frame, there your best bet, it will be around £50 to £70 though ash

what a cracking day! and best of all i got to ride addingham again, it was'nt until today i relised what we have all been missing with this venue closed. the weather didn't really bother me too much. the sections seemed nice and long and seemed to have been made a little trickier, which i think is a good thing as its more challenging and makes me put more effort in, good to see more new faces and also some older faces, danny smith seemed to glide through most of the master (yellow) route sections despite being off for two years, would be good to see him at more events. top event really and i think it might have helped with trying to get the venue for more tykes events, the lord mayor of silsden gave quite a good speach and seemed very impressed with what actually goes on. The major point i would like to mention was the fact that he mentioend about the wide spread age group of riders, from around 6 right up to john peacock and neil raven (30's?), its brilliant to see the mix and at least we seemed to have convinced some one who has a little authority and say about the venue who may be able to put forward our case with us as he was impressed with what we actually do on our bikes. would be brilliant if we say got 14 days use next year and used say 4 for trials and the rest as practice and training days, the venue is best around in my oppinion, thanks to all for running a brilliant event! ash

no? just a problem that was'nt caught early enough, similarly to the shells. ash

i worked closely with the cheif designer at hope (owen hardisty) when testing and developping the pro 2 range, and after initial problems with the small end bearings in the freehub body itself ash

that bearing problem has been adressed at hope, those small bearings in the freehub just arn't up to the job, there was talk of a roller bearing being introduced in its place, as they can take more load. ash

my monty 231 ti with monty 231 ti forks has a wheelbase of 1085 ash

i'm also interested in how to put the thread onto these cranks, i use these cranks on the xc bike, really light and stiff Ash

have you noticed any significant advantages over just having a standard braided cross over? ash

nice pictures matt, the one of me manuelling looks pretty good, would be good if we could use the slr, might have to look into buying one. shame i wont be riding for a bit now with the bad shoulder............... ho[pefully be on full order for the round at addingham soon. ash

Just wondering what is titianium grade 9, i only thought there was 6al4v and 3al2.5v that was commonly used for bicycle frame manufacture. looking around the bottom bracket area it looks like it could do with some gussets as it will more than likely flex when you put torque through the cranks. looks a nice frame, although i bet the price is astronomical due to material choice and limited numbers being produced. the weight of 1.3kg suggets that tube choice has been of quite a thin wall, this will probably sacrafice some of the rigidity and strength within the frame, the mech hanger will more than likely cope with the stress of trials use and will be able to be bent back quite easily. looks like a top frame, price tag will be interesting......................... ash

hope ***! fit and forget! ash

seconded, looks different from either the new matt black deng is using and the 'overused' silver/scotchbrite finish. will be good to see what the final production version looks like ash