Mark W

With that sort of depth of talent, maybe it'd be worth considering Pro and Amateur sorta sections next year? So you have alternate demos where you get the "big name" riders like Hermance, etc., riding one demo, then the up-and-coming riders doing the next one? It might not be as showy as the Pro demo, but a lot of people would like it just because it shows people that you don't have to be on "The Team" to make it as a trials rider, and draw attention away from getting sponsored to first and foremost riding for enjoyment?

We said that last year though, then Monty dominated some of the World's rounds, although that was using Benito Ros... So yeah, Cesar Canas, Dani Comas and Koxx will be laughing. That'd be such a bitchin' team.

Why not put that in the "Music from videos" sticky in the Sites, Vids and Pics forum? :rolleyes: Seeing as people will be going there to answer/ask questions like that.

First thing - lovin' the avatar (Y) Made me proper lol in the middle of an art lesson. Second thing - fair point. It seemed like it was only Hermance, Belaey, Reis and Co. who were actually willing to ride when I was there. Chris Akkers and Ed Tongue seemed to sit around, and I think Danny Holroyd had gone off with Adam Burns after he snapped his BB doing the big drop*. It would be cool though to have people properly up for riding the course even when Clive hasn't just gone "Mr. ____ ________" though, like the foreign riders were doing. It just puts across a better image of trials in general when everyone's bright eyed, bushy tailled and riding aboots the place as opposed to sitting around. Boon seemed to be ripping about the place too later on in the day when I was there, so that was good to see - even though I didn't know he was Boon/Berridge then. The rules 'n' regulations do suck, and it does seem pretty counter-productive in some ways (like there used to be a BB height limit :rolleyes:), but I guess it's just the comp arm of things that are like that. At least with street/natural when you're messing about you can do what you want, really. The stuff the American's started using with all that "negative line" crap last year/two years ago was a bit excessive too, in hindsight. *This is 2003, btw.

Have you seen the level of riding Ashton and Hawyes are at in the Halfords DVD/video jobbie? Those 180 gaps to 180 out, etc., rule. They're still coming up with new stuff all the time, whilst most people on here seem to jump on whatever bandwagon's around at the time (notice the *massive* influx of those front wheel majiggers going on now). They definitely should be riding, especially seeing as they're the best known trials riders in Britain. I've never really found Danny Butler to have a "unique riding style"? In all the videos I've seen of him and seeing him ride at comps, it just seems like he's a sorta copy of Gilles, but not as good? There doesn't seem to be anything that signifies that it's *his* style, almost. I mean, Vincent Hermance, Gilles Coust, Benito Ros, etc. all have their own styles which are really easy to spot if you see them riding, but Danny Butler just does stuff, with no real showing of his... I don't know... personality, almost? It'd be cool to see Rafal Kurmorowski (however the Hell it's spelt... I bet even he doesn't know :rolleyes:) ride there, but would we ever need him, Marco Hosel and Carlos Diaz there? Rafal's pretty individual, but I just think having 3 riders with similar styles like that might be overkill? The good thing about the Bike Show trials course is that you DO get a wide variety of styles. Even though you might not like Akrigg's riding, or Danny Holroyd's riding, it's still well worth watching. You can pick ideas up from everywhere for riding, so why not sit back and watch them? Sorry for sounding like a 'tard, but what are "BLPs" and why should we watch out for them?

Seeing as the Koxx Levelboss mod frames cost 'em $60 per frame at most from Pulo and they sell them for just under £400, it's not like it's gonna be a mission. Add on to that all the profits from not doing much R&D stuff with their, ahem, copied parts from Koxx and Try-All and they've surely got quite a bit of cash?

I don't even remember reading the second one? Just "I do three, I ride it til I've finished." Word up, Mr. Frenchie.

I see your problem. Bit shit, really. I'm guessing Echo snail cams it is, whenever someone gets some in...

Jeez, it's pretty shonky that the companies aren't helping out their own riders? :rolleyes:\ Considering a lot of riders here like using Curtis/Leeson style frames which aren't a million miles away from Norco's trials frames, I'm surprised they're not trying to bolster their image? Meh, their call. Mark.

Shit me! I thought more did :) Weird that that hasn't caught on yet...

Fair enough, it was just a bit weird that I held the mouse pointer over the topic title in the board index and it came up with the first 100 characters (or so) of the post, and it had the trials-shack.co.uk link in there. Weirded me out :)\

Div seems to speaketh the truth. D521 rims (or D721's as they are now? Or EX721 or whatever Mavic messed it about to) used to be the rim of choice, but with the advent of 4-bolt mount frames it meant people had to use wider rims 'cos the pads couldn't reach the rims with much force (if you get me...). However, they also give a better tyre profile, which means better grip most of the time, hence the world's riders running them. They seem to be made of a shit metal though which doesn't deal with grinds too well, although the fact the majority are eyeletted means that they have enough strength around the spoke holes now. Mark.

Yeah, Boon = Berridge.

If they're 10mm axle chain tugs, I don't see why you'd have to grind them though? The Echo's still got 10mm deep chain-tugs, so unless you had a 14mm tug and had to grind it down, I don't get it?

I'd just like to second Chris R. for doing the commentary. Last year there was an issue with dates (was it when he swanned off to India?), but this year it'd be cool if he could make it. His commentary seemed really good in 2003, and seeing as he's a trials rider too he's got some good knowledge of it all. I think the best part about the last Show I went to (the '03 one) was just the riders jamming. There wasn't much from the U.K. riders apart from Ian Drummond trying to sidehop to pedal up some pallets or something like that when I was watching, but Nelson Reis, Kenny Belaey (I think) and Vincent Hermance were all going a bit nuts on the logs and so on. It's just cool seeing the top riders playing around having fun, seeing as they're going to push themselves then too, but you can also see some of their personality shine through, which is always a good thing. Either way, sound rider line-up this year. Good luck with it. Mark.

This was random. Was looking on this site for some technique help, and someone called Motorhead Mark or summat's posted up a link to trials-shack :) Weirdsville!

14mm axle chain-tugs probably wouldn't be a good idea simply because a) the end plate, if it's a T-shape, won't fit in, and b) because if they've got the sorta thin bit behind where the axle slots in to help guide it the tug through the axles, it'll be too wide so it won't sit in your drop-outs like the 10mm ones do. Seriously, ANY of the 10mm axle chain tensioners from ANY of the shops listed will work. ANY of them. Just buy whatever set you like the look of most and throw them on. Simple as that. At the moment I've got one like the 4jeri one on the right (nice big thread on that on, takes a 13mm bolt), and an Onza turd one on the left (pissy little 10mm bolt for it though :)). But yeah, any tug from up there should do it. A load of chain tugs used to have huge bits around where the axle went in so you could run a peg, but they're all pretty diddy these days so you should have enough movement from the tug to keep the chain tight. Mark.

'bout 35 front and rear. That's running a rear Luna 2.5 and a front Max Daddy 1.85. Just feels nice. Any softer and it just folds and squidges about unpredictably when I'm riding natural/anything at an angle as opposed to straight edges.

Yeah Ad, I noticed that too? He'd be talking for about 15 seconds, a line like "we rode natural for practise and urban for pleasure", talk for another 15 seconds then "Music: Outface" would come up and wa-hey, we're riding again...

Hey Toby, I think JT! was saying that just 'cos ACS Claw's take a bit of work keeping them tight all the time, because the motion of the cranks spinning loosens the lock-ring plate. Speaking of Claws - I was amazed at the difference in lateral strength between my Claw and my Eno. The Claw's all loosey goosey, but the Eno's just firm. No sideways play at all. Top qual :)

Was that whilst riding trials, or whilst riding to places? I've heard of problems with people just tooling about, but not generally when riding properly?

It's even more than that, isn't it? At the last Olympics they speed-trapped the sprinters throughout the course of the 100m race, and they got up past 30mph at one point, but they slow down at about 30-ish metres to a sort of 'cruising speed' after the initial burst at the start. Either way, it's insane how fast they go. If you stand there, then measure out 10m then think "They cover that on average in less than a second", it hits home pretty well. I always think of the average as 3.5mph for any sort of practical purpose, and it seems to be about right? Even though with girls it seems to drop to about 1mph whenever they get into any group larger than 2 people :)\

Hey all, Got my new Eno (:)), and it's way nice. Haven't yet managed to get it on my bike though, 'cos I don't got no tools, and also 'cos I've stripped the extractor threads on my cranks. Marvellous. Anyway, I noticed that the freewheel's quite stiff. It spins smoothly and so on, it's just that it takes a lot of force to do so - does it bed in past this point and become a bit freer? Do you actually notice it when riding? Is there anything I should watch out for (there's no lock-ring issues with with the Claws though, I suppose)? Thanks, Mark.

While the music wasn't exactly great, it wasn't terrible. The earlier riding when he was riding the sorta proper early Koxx (must've been 2000 or so?) wasn't so good, but as soon as it got to Vincent 2004 it was good. That gap from the rock to the tree trunk to the other rock was cool - there were just loads of little things like that that make you think "Hmm, I wonder if..." The commentary by Vincent was pretty interesting. Not deep, philosophical stuff about life or whatever, but it was still cool to read/hear. The translations were sketchy, but it wasn't too hard to work out. Either way, I thought it was really good. There was some good stuff there, and it was just a good video, really. It didn't feel like 40 minutes long. Mark.

What material are the Soyo's made of? Do they need to be applied in any special way or not?