Mark W

May be worth bearing in mind what the mortgage market is like at the moment, and the position of people who are likely to be buying a flat. If it's going to attract more first time buyers, it could be that they're struggling to find a suitable mortgage that will allow them to get close to the amount you're listing it for. I keep seeing on the news that there are more mortgages becoming available, and that is true, but they're not going to be suitable or available for most (in our experience). We're looking to move, but the rates/mortgages we're getting are dogshit compared to what we were looking at after our first mortgage advisor meeting in Feb 2020. We've had to fairly drastically lower what we were looking to spend purely because the monthly payments would be too much for us. That's despite both of us still being in work, no drop in incmoe, not having any changes since the last meeting we had, being able to put in a 10% deposit, etc. To try and get a mortgage that gives us monthly repayments that are workable we're having to step up to doing a 15% deposit which is going to take us a bit of time to sort out. That's just us, but I imagine there are going to be quite a few people in the same boat, especially with the restrictions being put in by mortgage companies for anyone on furlough.

It doesn't really make a noticeable difference. Unless your chain is ancient and stretched out massively, it shouldn't cause any issues at all. Fixed dropouts (either through axle or vertical dropout) with a sprung tensioner have a slight benefit if you're using screw-on cranks and hubs as the sprung part of the chain tension system can take up the variable level of tension you get courtesy of the screw-on parts of the drivetrain. Most FFW setups will have a bit of 'bob' thanks to the threads being machined on the cranks not perfectly concentrically with the axle. I'm more of a fan of the simple design of horizontal dropouts, although part of that comes down to the way that my hub works with my frame. On my Arcade, when I need to take the rear wheel out I can loosen the non-drive axle bolt then take the drive side axle bolt out fully. With that bolt out fully, I can shift the wheel forward to remove the chain, then take the wheel out. It means not having to adjust my chain tugs so my wheel goes back in the same place every time (I have to take both wheels off to fit my Arcade in my car, so essentially every ride I have to do this...). If you had a conventional trials setup with snail cams I can imagine it being more of a faff.

It would probably more be competing with the Flow or Flow Plus, and with Inspired being the better known brand I think they might struggle more with that realistically. The dream would have been for it to be a bit cheaper, but in fairness the Onza Zoot was around £549 from memory, so bearing in mind the price rises for parts across the board (just from 2020 to 2021 prices have risen 5-15% for a lot of brands) since the Zoot was out the 24.1 is comparatively priced despite having a much better frame to start off with. I haven't heard of any either - they're just tough frames. It does mean they're not light, but I think there's a growing number of riders who value strength and durability over knowing that their frame is Xg lighter than a different frame.

Not with those dropouts... I seem to remember it was related to Charge bikes in a way. Charge were under the same umbrella as Chris' other sponsors and do steel frames, so it would have been fairly straight-forward for them to have had something made.

Believe Leo and Clement are running 18t splined sprocket front setups, so that's probably the case. That said they're using the Crewkerz AS30 cranksets so there's not a huge amount of scope to do much else really. These compatibility issues are always the case with these frames, really. The frames themselves aren't super expensive, but when you factor in all the proprietary stuff it winds up getting closer to the complete bike cost than most people really want it to be. It's probably the way it's going for the future though - Crewkerz are doing their own sizings, Clean are doing theirs, Jitsie are doing their random not-tapered tapered head tube and unique front hub spacing... It seems there's some marginal gains (if that) being made at the expense of choice for customers...

Part of the problem with the Giant is that the chainstays are really long - that's not ideal for making it easy to manual. They're around 405mm on the Giant, whereas something like a Hex (or most comp frames these days) is 380mm. A few mm makes a big difference to how a bike rides, so you can imagine that a 25mm difference in chainstay length will be noticeable. The main thing with this is that the initial lift on the manual will be harder, but it should mean it's fairly stable once you find the balance point. For manuals, there's no real 'best' way of doing them - if you look closely at videos of all the top riders, they all have different styles. If you're doing them particularly slow, doing them without the rear brake will be best though seeing as you won't have speed available to you to scrub off. It also looks and sounds a bit better too

I think they went into administration, were taken over by another company and are now focusing on more mainstream bikes. If you head to their Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/bicicletasmonty/) they're still active, and pumping out some truly awful looking BMX, 'city' and mountain bikes. I assume that trials wasn't making as much money for them so they've effectively binned it off. They announced a little while ago they weren't going to be stocking spares for trials the same way they had before, and primarily focusing on supplying complete bikes and tyres, but even that seems to have dwindled.

I've got the Hydra hub. It feels absolutely instant. There is the principle of them using the flex while it engages, but that's only to get the full compliment of pawls engaging. The ratchet is so fine and there are so many well defined pawls that to go from one to the others being engaged there's almost no perceptible movement. It's an amazing hub! Christian certainly talks a good game... I'm not sure I'd really agree with that assessment of sprung vs. 'other' tensioner systems though. From riders who've gone from an Arcade to the Fourplay or Hex, the difference in 'feel' is noticeable. The Arcade (horizontal dropouts with chain tugs) drive train feels super responsive, whereas the sprung tensioner bikes tend to not feel quite as immediate. Similarly, the Echo frames which had their integrated chain tugs seemed to hold up fine and offer really great feeling engagement, freewheel/crank/sprocket concentricity permitting. That concentricity issue is what I would use as a selling point for a sprung tensioner, not really to do with it 'saving' your bearings. Sorry if this appears to be confrontational or anything, I'm not intending it that way

Ah, cool - I thought they didn't look quite like the Haro ones you'd shown me before. Glad you've found something suitable either way In a way, I'm glad that line I referenced took a while, haha. If that had been a casual one-timer there would have been more follow-up questions...

Flipp, we need to talk about that line at 5:00. How in the f**k. Great riding from both of you, and a really cool concept for a video. Jamie - I've only really seen random IG clips from you, so seeing a more complete video was cool! Can see how much your bike control as well as the size of your riding has been progressing. Really cool to see. Flipp - rad as ever. Really enjoyed the 'taps' section in particular. I'd tried some of that stuff (spent f**king ages trying to get the moto bonk/tap to over on some walls back in my Bristol days) but never really got far with it, think that's why it was all the more impressive. Think it's the type of thing that doesn't really look as hard as it is, unless you've tried it. Not that it's exactly a surprise, but your bike control is nuts... EDIT: Forgot to say, shout-out to those tyres for the grip they were giving you on some wet/slippy take-offs and landings (got away with it at 6:17). The little tyres that could.

Likewise! Went straight from a Dicta to an ENO and felt like I could suddenly gap about a foot further. Exactly that The reason that most cheap freewheels don't have many engagement points is purely a cost limitation. To get higher engagement, you need more pawls that are much better machined, and more intricately machined ratchets (and better quality springs too). That all bumps costs up significantly, but also improves durability for the most part thanks to the more consistent, reliable engagement and better supported outer shell. That's why most cheap freewheels die fairly quickly for trials use. If you compare the pawls from a Tensile 60-click freewheel (top) to something like those from the Crewkerz (middle) or ENO freewheels (bottom), you can see even at that kind of level there's quite a difference: On the Tensile one, I got to test an early prototype of the Tensile 96 click freewheel that had the same pawls as the 60 click one just a change from the 20-tooth ratchet to a 32-tooth. It skipped frequently no matter what I did, and it turned out it was down to the tip of the pawl needing to be changed to get into the finer ratchet profile. They ultimately changed the pawls between the two models of freewheel and that solved it. That's why the Tensile pawl above can have a much more rounded tip compared to the squared off tips of the others, simply due to the more precise tips required to engage in the finer toothed ratchets. The inside of the Echo SL freewheel shows how much more precise they need to be:

You could increase it by a meaningful amount without affecting the strength of performance of the wheel as a whole. In some ways, the shorter spokes you'd need to increase the ratchet size would be beneficial. You've also got more width for the ratchet area you can play with to dissipate the load, and also more options for what you do with it. The axle size isn't fixed either, especially. Even within their own designs, Hope have altered the outer diameter of the Pro 2 Evo axle from 15mm to 17mm for the Pro 4. By contrast, there's basically nothing freewheel manufacturers can do, especially as a lot of them are based around a platform that allows the option to drop down to a 16t outer shell (there isn't really any trials freewheel on the market that is specifically designed to be 18t only, and to use all the available space). The inner diameter of the freewheel is fixed, and the outer is too, so there isn't any room for change. With a freehub, you have a lot more flexibility. High engagement freewheels will generally 'suffer' from having more drag. A lot of it is just down to the strength of the springs, the number of pawls and the ratchets themselves. Front freewheel systems are inherently more draggy too. There's not really any way around it unfortunately.

Not quite in the same way that you're referring to it, but even the same strain affects people differently. Sweet anecdotal evidence time - a couple we know both contracted it. The guy in the relationship was being treated for stage 4 cancer, and was having some hardcore chemo so had no immune system. He and his partner were both supposed to be shielding because of that, but they didn't really 'believe' in it, so... yeah. His partner was relatively healthy. Over 50 (as is he), but no underlying health conditions. When they both got it he was relatively unaffected by it just having some headaches and some fatigue, but she got into a much worse state and nearly had to be admitted to hospital. Interestingly, he was using a prescribed mouthwash 3 times a day due to the ulcers and sores he was getting in his mouth from his chemo. The study about some forms of mouthwash being able to kill the virus came out around that time too.

Just to clarify a few things - when you're saying "hub freewheels", are you referring to a freehub like a Hope, or using a freewheel on a fixed rear hub? If you mean a freehub, they will generally be a little stronger. The biggest weak point of a freewheel is the outer shell, something which isn't the case with a freehub. The constraints on design for a freewheel mean that they can only make that outer shell a certain size and thickness, whereas for the ratchet built into a hub there isn't the same issue. If you're talking about a freewheel on a fixed hub, the freewheels themselves are the same as those used up front so there's no real difference in that sense. The splined vs. screw-on thing doesn't make much difference. All that will really change is a company will spec either a splined or a screw-on fitment for it. The rest of freewheel core doesn't fundamentally change. Your choice of splined or screw-on will be dictated more by the cranks you get - if you have screw-on cranks, you'll need a screw-on freewheel. If you've got Echo splined cranks, you'll need an Echo splined freewheel. If you've got something like the Clean or Crewkerz splined cranks, you'll need one of their HG-spline type splined freewheels. If you've got the Trialtech Sport Lite Splined cranks, you'll need the Trialtech Splined freewheel. For engagement points, theoretically the more you have the weaker the design will tend to be as you'll have to have a progressively finer toothed ratchet, but as far as most freewheels on the market got they're all quite close to each other so there isn't a huge change there. There are some shit freehubs out there with higher engagement points where the compromises the companies have made to get that increased number of engagement points have reduced reliability, but there are still strong, high engagement point hubs out there. In terms of strength of freewheels, the 135-click freewheels you see on the market now (e.g. Jitsie, Comas) are all the same. The 108-click freewheels are all going to be basically the same model too. Things are a lot better as far as freewheels go now than they used to be 5-10 years ago, so choosing one is safer in that sense. They used to be much more hit and miss, whereas now, to be fair, they tend to be much more reliable. You'll still get stories of people breaking any of the ones that are out there, but that's inevitable with any part. If it was me and I had the budget, I'd go for one of the sealed bearing 135-click freewheels as they seem to be holding up well for people, and you get a bit more outer shell stability which should help long term.

I've got a Supadrive on my MTB and it is absolute dogshit. I believe that hub will use the same engagement system - I wouldn't want to use it for trials. The main issue I've got is freehub bearings on my MTB, but it skips repeatedly every ride too (this is across 4-5 different freehub bodies that I've used, with fresh pawls/springs on each). Whenever I'm putting a lot of power down on a climb, I half expect to eat shit immediately. I wouldn't want that in the back of my mind going for a gap, as an example.

Ali isn't, but Danny MacAskill, Duncan Shaw, John Langlois, Ben Travis and a few other riders are. Seem to be holding up for all of them really well. They are super expensive though. There aren't any splined freewheels that are compatible with any of the currently-available splined fixed hubs so that's a non-starter. I don't think using a screw-on freewheel is the end of the world though. They're pretty easy to remove if you need to - bolt the tool to the hub/freewheel, put that in a vice, grab the wheel then just turn it off. Even easier if you actually use a decent amount of some decent grease too. About those catalogue hubs: no thanks. I've got what I believe is a Novatec rear hub on my MTB and when it's not munching through bearings it's skipping away. With Luke's track record for breaking Hopes, I don't think a generic catalogue hub either from a dirt/MTB brand or with a trials logo on it (if they've even bothered branding them) is necessarily the way to go.

Cheers dude! Appreciate it

Congratulations My Dad also got married this year, and it worked out well for them too for similar reasons. Was even more restricted for them at the time - was literally the officials, two witnesses and themselves. Business. Time.

https://art19.com/shows/sway/episodes/6bb039fb-ac81-478a-9482-e90f55d0c58a That might be worth a listen. It's an interview with the people who founded BioNTech where they go into some depth (albeit not a huge amount...) about creating it, the development of it, how that development is still on-going, etc... That's not really how a vaccine for something as widespread as this works though. My understanding of it is that the aim is to use it to achieve herd immunity (but without going the Dominic Cummings way of just letting everyone die), and that doesn't work if you only give it to the most vulnerable people. You need to hit that threshold %age, and that won't cut it. Couple of other things to bear in mind is that a big part of the problem with this virus is that it's people who aren't necessarily affected by it - to the extent they may be asymptomatic - who do a good job of unwittingly spreading it to people who may be, and the other part is that you never know who may have an adverse reaction to it. "Long covid" f**ks up quite a few younger people too - even healthy, fit younger people. There are riders in my local area who had it in the first wave back in April who are still struggling with lung function now. With regards to not getting it again, my brother in law got the virus early on, then got it again 2-3 weeks ago which they believe was the newer strain that's much more contagious than the previous version. That's also why the "Just let the most vulnerable people get the vaccine" thing falls down as you're increasing the chances the virus has of mutating and then prolonging things further. He wasn't hugely affected by it apart from feeling (and sounding) like shit for a week, but having seen the amount of people who aren't in an 'at risk' category who have had long term effects from it, and knowing I've got a bit of asthma myself, it's not something I'd particularly want to f**k with.

Something else to consider with that is the slight dislocate feature you have with the Tech 3 blade. It means if you crash, there's that bit of 'give' to stop damaging the brake. The Trial Zone doesn't really have that. I've seen a few riders use them for street and end up breaking the lever due to the lever getting pushed or pulled the wrong way in the event of a crash. Typically it's just a case of replacing the pushrod and/or brass barrel, but it's at least a ride ruiner whereas the Tech 3 would generally be fine.

If you rim out a lot, I'd go for the Spanks. It seems the Inspired sidewalls are slightly more susceptible to denting for some, so if you have a history of that kind of thing on other rims then the Spanks would be the better choice. If you run tubeless and have an insert in I doubt it'd be a problem, but I'm guessing from your weight weenie tendencies that won't be happening

TartyBikes have the Spike Race 33 rims in stock, but they are pretty tricky to come by. My understanding of it is that as a normal production item the Spike Race 33s are discontinued, but if a big enough order is placed for them they're willing to do a limited run of them. I don't think they're making the Spike 35s or Stiffys any more at all, so the Race 33s are probably the easiest option. I used to love the Stiffys just due to how wide they were/are, but after going down to the Spike 35s and now the Race 33s I'm fine with them really. I probably run a little more pressure than I used to, but I've noticed the reduction in weight more than I have any marginal difference in tyre profile/performance.

Can't go wrong with Spank rims and Conti tyres. They also have the bonus of working well together as a tubeless setup

There isn't really much point engaging with most of that if the inevitable response is either going to be "publicly...", or just some random conjecture. Couple of things though. "Nixon got stabbed in the back remember?" How? He even got pardoned. The closest he really got to being stabbed in the back was by himself, by requesting to have a recording system installed so there'd be a record of all his conversations. They even scrubbed what would have been some of the most incriminating parts, after first refusing to hand the tapes over at all. "Even the beeb quote buzzfeed on the 'the papers' program now - that always gives me a chortle and a facepalm when they do that." Buzzfeed News is a separate part of the business to the clickbait/listicles side of their business. It seems they only really used the Buzzfeed name because it already had a lot of reach/visibility. They hired a lot of highly regarded journalists and funded them pretty well to be able to do bigger stories and do more long-term investigative journalism. They've broken some big stories and have won awards for their work: "During its relatively short tenure, it has won the George Polk Award, The Sidney Award, National Magazine Award and National Press Foundation award, as well as being a finalist for Pulitzer Prizes."

Yep. Would have taken just a complete GoPro run to be fair, thought we were going to get one when they showed a couple of jumps in a row but then it went back to what felt like the same 3 shots they'd used for the rest of it. Agreed about the drone shots too. Think drone pilots think you have to have those swinging, 'dynamic' shots to make it look 'cool', but it's just annoying to watch for the most part. Same deal with one of Fabio's videos a while back where he was filmed by someone with a drone, and I genuinely couldn't watch it because it started triggering a weird motion sickness feeling. Hopefully they'll have a 'proper' run video of it up at some point.