Mark W

Holy smokes. We might actually have a completion date... We have to give a months notice on our rental place that has to apparently run from the 25th of a month (which is a sloppy bag of dicks in and of itself), and completion is looking like being the 25th - it means we have to pay a full months rent here while also paying for a mortgage and stuff but it is what it is really. Moving house is a needlessly expensive process so it's just more imaginary money going onto the big imaginary bonfire. The plus side is it does give us plenty of time to do the small bits of decorating we want to do and choose a day/some days to do the actual moving part of it without having to do it all in a mad rush.

If you go for the RockMan, please change that half-link chain immediately. To be fair you should probably do that on the Zoo too, but half-link chains are not ideal on a trials bike. The bar/stem on the RockMan also looks pretty random. It's fairly short and low for a frame with that geo. Out of the two, I'd probably go for the Zoo just because it seems decent overall, but is also a good amount cheaper. Second hand bikes quite often turn into moneypits as you find bits and pieces on them that could do with being changed, so having an extra $500 would be useful. The Zoo bikes are decent as well in fairness. The only 'problem' with them is that they use a somewhat proprietary BB setup, so you'd have to get either the Echo or Trialtech Spanish BB for it if you need a new BB at any point. That's not the end of the world, but it does mean further down the road spares might be trickier to get hold of.

The HTs are a bit flatter and broader than the DMRs. I think they're a little thinner too. I'm quite fussy about pedal shapes (I like a little concave) and they work really well for me. The pedal axles should be fine on those realistically, it'll just be a thick bit of steel. With the thickness of the pedal, they can get a decent diameter axle in there too so they won't be using a little skinny one.

Composite pedals can be plenty good enough. If you go super cheap on them they probably won't be great, but pedals like the HT Nanos are nice. I've used them on all my bikes for the past 4-5 years or so and they've been reasonably faultless. One developed a little play, but tightening up the nuts worked fine. I killed it by hitting it into a rock really hard, pretty fast on my mountain bike. It upset something in there, possibly a bent axle or something... they were a good few years old at that point though, and I don't think many pedals would have dealt well with it. The new DMR composite pedals (with the metal pins) seem decent too, although I do kind of prefer the platform shape/size of the HTs. For metal options, Hope F20s didn't feel great to me when I had them, the Crank Brothers pedals have felt like they had minimal grip on every bike I've tried them on, Inspired Team pedals are strong and grippy but don't have the biggest platform, and the new-style DMR V12s are in a similar position to the Inspireds. The bigger DMR pedals may be worth a look though.

Think you may be reading a little too much into that there... Anyway, he's posted a clip from Brendan Fairclough showing him ride legs akimbo into it. Doesn't look like a huge amount of fun, although still hard to work out how it actually hit him that hard. Worth sticking around to the end of the clip for the "He got a pole in the dick" report... https://www.instagram.com/p/CQA8T1NCh9A/ Seemed a decent race in the end, glad Brosnan got it done. It'll be interesting seeing how everyone's riding on a slightly more consistent track.

I did indeed, yeah. Actually rode pretty well to be fair, mainly because the reach suited me much better being a little taller.

The GoPro clips in this do a good job of showing how heinous that course is. Even the 'easy' bits look nails! The little section about 6:58 in looks death if you mess that up... Think it'll be like the Worlds where it's just a case of whoever manages to piece together a half decent run. The last woods looks absolutely brutal, and somewhat of a lottery. Supposed to have showers over the next few days so I can't see it getting any better. Should make for interesting viewing...

Any of you nerds going to be watching? Just read an article about a French rider who got hit in the balls so hard by a course pole it split the sack. From seeing practise clips that course is hard enough, let alone having your balls flapping around to boot. Any predictions on winners?

Didn't need one before, don't need one now. That drop-stay proto frame on the other hand...

That was the Fourplay from the original one in 2007-ish through to the change in frame design in 2011. They made the chainstays shorter and lowered the BB, as well as tweaking the front reach measurement. It was just to make it a bit more contemporary, for want of a better word. I think the original Fourplay was almost a translation of the geometry of the 26" street-orientated trials bikes people were riding at the time, with the 2011 and onward versions taking what they learned from that to then improve it for a 24" wheel. I really didn't get on with the first 2011 Fourplay I had for the reasons I mentioned above. I think us riding in different ways may make more of a difference on that though - if you're pedalling into a lot of stuff it doesn't make as much difference, but if you're not pedalling into things it does as I think the underlying 'feel'/'handling' of the bike is more noticeable then. Using the manny 180 reference I made above, doing them on the 2011 Fourplay before I modded the geo wasn't great. As before, it just felt like my feet were too low through the bike, and it was really hard to get it to turn and do what I wanted it to do. It's hard to explain, but when you could feel the balance point and the way you had to carve it, it felt like the lower BB was stopping that from happening as it basically just wanted to go in a straight line more. If I'd been cranking the 180 it wouldn't really have been a problem as the carve and pop parts are so different to non-cranked ones. That was around the time I was transitioning from pedalling into spins and hops up stuff into bunnyhopping everything so I guess that may have highlighted it more, but it's also something I notice whenever I've had a go on a Fourplay or Skye. That geo works for some people, but definitely not for me. Changing bar and stem for a lower BB doesn't really do much to change the underlying characteristic of the bike as such, in much the same way that a higher bar/stem on a high BB bike doesn't stop it from feeling like a high BB bike - it just mitigates the change in body position a little. It's not really the body position on the bike that's the problem for me with low BBs, and if anything dropping bar height would have made it even worse. It's definitely not the defining characteristic of a bike though, so I do fully agree with you on that bit. Much like how people used to judge bikes solely on WB, it all needs to be taken into consideration. Correct Original Fourplay - CS: 385mm, BB: +35mm 2011 Fourplay - CS: 380mm, BB: +20mm 2012 Fourplay - CS: 375mm, BB: +25mm

They are, but then again they're ridden backwards compared to the bikes of old. Back in the day nobody on a 20" really did anything on front wheel, but now most of the moves he does are based on going to front in some form so the change in geo, parts and body position does make sense. To someone used to old/mid school mods it does feel horrendous though Felt like a really capable tool, just not a tool I'm able to use well.

Ridden his actual bike, can confirm I could not ride it like him.

The original Fourplay was +35mm... I prefer a slightly higher BB, the +25mm on the Arcade was as low as I wanted to go. Any lower just feels too 'stable' somehow. I prefer a bike with a bit of inherent instability because that way when you harness that it makes the bike more agile, rather than having a really stable bike that you have to wrestle more. When I first went to the 'new' Fourplay after the original Mk1, I hated it at first because the big drop in BB height made it feel hard to do a lot of things on. Things like manual 180s in particular - it felt like my feet were so low/into the bike that it was hard to get the carve and preload on the go. It's always seemed to me that the 'you need a really low BB for street' came from the way everyone used to use old MTB frames for street bikes, rather than it necessarily being the best for the intended purpose.

You've got a bit more leeway with a 20" bike, so something cable pull like the BB5 or BB7 would be fine, or something like the MT4s or Hope Tech 3 Trial Zones. They'll all have plenty of power, and should all have some upgrade pad options like the Trialtech or Jitsie pads to help bring a bit more performance if you need it. I've used BB7s on a mod before and didn't really have any complaints, although they do take a bit more maintenance to keep them in the sweet spot than hydraulic brakes do. It's not like they're hard to work on though, so it isn't much of a disqualifying feature. EDIT: Forgot to say, but seem to remember that there aren't any IS to PM 160mm adaptors that'll work for the MT5 or MT7 brakes.

Sounds like we may be exchanging contracts and stuff in the next week or two. I'll believe it when I see it, but it seems like we're getting somewhat closer to completion now...

Think that's the one he snapped in Cardiff? If so, he just bent it doing a hook and it snapped. It wasn't even through a crash or anything. In fairness, it is what they're designed to do there, but it would put me off using that particular lever I think.

The only thing I'd say with that is that it'll take some getting used to. Because it's more of a progressive increase in power as you move the lever through the stroke rather than linear, you do need to re-learn how the brake adds power in a way. It's obviously fairly subtle in the sense that you don't necessarily consciously think about exactly how much force you're applying, but something to consider if that is something you're concerned about. It's part of the reason that people used to say that Shimano's brakes were 'too powerful' for mountain biking as they thought they went from a bit of power to allofthepower really quickly. I'd also say I'm not sure that the Shimano levers are easier to bleed as such. Although most aspects of the Magura levers are turd, the ability to do a really quick top-up bleed with just a simple syringe and some mineral oil is handy.

British Cycling don't have a 'Team' of riders in the way that it appears you think they do. They are a governing body, not a direct sponsor. They provide funding for different disciplines and can fund riders kit, travel expenses and so on, but to my knowledge they wouldn't just pay a rider a wage for being on their team. Being selected for their team just means that you've been selected to represent the country at an international event. In the case of those BMXers, it's representing GB at the UCI Worlds. It's the same as how they have to put forward the riders who would race the DH Worlds, Track at the Olympics, etc. I expect that broadening the appeal of the Olympics was probably part of the decision to include BMX, skateboarding and surfing, but that will have also factored into the decision to add things like karate and baseball too. It's all about money at the end of the day, hence the IOC being one of the most litigious groups out there in terms of protecting their IP.

Yeah, Bulb have been good for us but the constant price increases mean that we could probably get a better deal elsewhere. If/when we move to a new place we'll probably be making a change, but we'll see...

They could be the cheapest by a mile but I'd never sign up with those f**kers ever again. The amount of faff we had in the first place Nic and I rented together with British Gas - snakes on a plane. We changed to Bulb almost immediately so I think we used British Gas for a couple of days, but they just couldn't wrap their heads around the meter readings we submitted when we changed. The first person who took them down took them down wrong (really wrong), and they refused to accept what the real readings were. This went on for 6-7 months or so at which point they gave us a final bill, which involved them having to refund us some from the other "final bills" they'd wanted us to pay. Months later we then got another "final bill" through for more. Jokers.

In the nicest possible way, f**k off m8888 Your riding still stands up now, and looking at the media you put out, you produced a hell of a lot more quality content than most sponsored riders do now. The production value and actual content of it was always right up there. Not just getting by putting 5sec clips up on Reels with some f**king heinous 'music'. Reels really has made me second guess a lot of riders I thought were pretty interesting/cool people...

I don't think Hope really have any interest in what people in the Trials world run. According to them, they're already shipping out around 30% more product overall than they used to and "demand [grew] by well over 100%" over the last year so I think they're happy to just keep chopping out products that, on the whole, seem to work fine. In fairness to them, aside from not listening to feedback their customer service is good. They're similar to Magura. To many riders there are obvious flaws with Magura's lever, but they believe they're fine so they're not addressing them. A reasonable number of them have gone out on Czar bikes from TartyBikes. I don't believe they've had any issues reported back to them. To be fair, it shouldn't be hard to make a 72-click rear hub that works. They've got significant experience making high engagement freewheels that were fairly reliable, so applying that to a rear hub with fewer engagement points really shouldn't be problematic. That's simplifying it a bit, but basically they make durable hubs already, they've made freehubs before to some degree of success, and they know how to make a reliable freewheel, so putting together a medium (I wouldn't say 72 is 'high', but it's not exactly 'low') engagement point freehub should be within their capability.

So, few months after we got our offer accepted, still basically not much real progress. I posted in here before about how the seller was sour about the fact we waited for our mortgage to be approved before booking in our survey, as that was an "unnecessary delay" and was going to slow down their purchase of their new property, which at that point they'd apparently had their searches returned on (this was at the tail end of March). Having had the survey, an issue with the roof was flagged so we were trying to get a roofer in to look at it. We contacted a load of roofers and then generic builders, but everyone was so busy that they either didn't reply, or did reply to basically tell us to do one. This was all within a few days of the survey report being sent to us. The seller contacted us via the estate agent to essentially give us an ultimatum, saying they wanted a resolution by the end of that week. We eventually got a roofer to check it out, and fortunately found that there wasn't really anything that needed doing immediately so we informed the sellers via the estate agents and our solicitors we were happy to go ahead. There were a few outstanding things from the initial info that the sellers should have provided that our solicitors were waiting for (and had been since early April), as well as some other info/evidence required as a result of the survey. Our solicitors emailed theirs on the 3rd May. They were then pushing for replies throughout May (we know this as we were copied in on the emails). Throughout this time, the estate agents kept hassling our solicitors asking them what the status was and wanting to know about progress, despite being told repeatedly that it was the seller's solicitor that wasn't replying. We finally got an email from the seller's solicitor yesterday saying they "hadn't received the original email", which is bullshit as we have a copy of it that shows the time/date they were sent it. They've also received multiple pushes for an answer throughout the month, so even if they'd somehow not received the email (again: bullshit), you'd have thought that the several prompts they received would have caused them to ask for more info or a resend earlier than now. Our solicitor resent them the email and passed on the info that we aren't super happy about them dragging things out. Their solicitor then replied to say that "it would appear that your clients are unaware that my clients have a related purchase which needs to tie in with this sale". f**king cheeky bastards. It's almost like the person who should have been informing everyone of what was going on hasn't been informing everyone of what's going on. They went on to say that the original purchase they were going for had fallen through, and that they're currently waiting for results on searches for a new property. The timeline they provided for when this has all been happening means that either the sellers were lying originally when they were complaining about how long things were taking, the solicitors are lying now, or a combination of the above. What we do know for sure is that when the sellers were giving us an ultimatum for the roof they had nothing ready to go their end, and continue to have nothing ready to go now. It's pretty clear that their solicitor wilfully hasn't been replying just to buy them some time. To recap: f**king cheeky bastards.

They were announced as being on the British Cycling Team, but only in the sense that they're competing in the UCI Worlds with a view to them then competing at the Olympics. BC's primary focus is creating pathways to Olympic medals, so it's just a continuation of that.

Mazepin ineptitude update: 20mins into FP1, he's blocked the shit out of Verstappen and hit Latifi.