Transition Time. Mod To Stock...

[Sponge]

yeh i thought he did as well......

I really dont like high bb stocks to be honest....anything from +10 to +30 is just peachy for me.....id just go and try some other peoples bikes out

Yep, I did indeed I just wondered about Adamants... meh, just a late thought.

I'm very very very much into the mod flicky style, and not really traditionally a stock type rider where I use smooth rolling techniques. I'm a lot more static. It's an influence from mod and uni riding, but it's damn practical anyways. Good backwheel control and comfort, as well as comfortable sidehops and gaps are paramount. Tapping and rolling stuff is all secondary, so that kinda puts high BB ahead of low BB for me.

As a general question for a 26" newbie... I'm probably getting a King classic rear wheel, but it's got a QR axle... how have people found these hold up generally? any troubles? and say if I got a decent QR like Hope, do they EVER slip at all? One reason for moving away from mod was I was sick of the rear wheel being shifted out of centre. If a Hope QR can do a decent job of keeping a trials bike's rear end firm and slip-free, then I'm happy

and how about tensioners? this is a very ambigious area for me, I don't know much about it. I'm after something cheap and reliable that'll do the job fine. I've looked at 74 Kingz and the Onza/Viz singlespeed tensioners, are there any other similarly cheap or simple ones out there?

Cheers

[psycholist]

if I got a decent QR like Hope, do they EVER slip at all? One reason for moving away from mod was I was sick of the rear wheel being shifted out of centre. If a Hope QR can do a decent job of keeping a trials bike's rear end firm and slip-free, then I'm happy

I wouldn't trust a Hope QR to keep the wheels on an XC bike to be honest - an exposed cam surface makes them very sensitive to damage from the odd crash (And contamination), so as they wear, the force you'll need to close them can end up quite high, while at the same time, the clamping force they provide can be dangerously low. If you want a QR go for a Shimano as the enclosed cam design they use stays smooth forever... Otherwise try the anti-theft bolt through style skewers. Get ones that take a 5mm allen key though, the ones that take 4mm allen keys tend to round really easily.

Edited April 29, 2008 by psycholist

[Sponge]

Cool, thanks

I'm just still not completely sure about what you meant about the 'cams' though? Also there are quite a few models of Shimano QRs, are there any specific ones I should consider? Also regarding the anti-theft ones what good brands are there?

[forteh]

Another no-vote for hope skewers, may well be ok in a rear vertical dropout but with a front disk it just cannot hold it.

Ive got a stock deore skewer holding my king disgotech hub on without any problems

I tried some of the bolt through 'security' things, the allen heads are made form a soft form of cheese though so good luck ever trying to tighten them up properly, they also need an odd bastardised size allen key (between 4 and 5mm).

Any tensioner will do but best if you have a sprung one, in my experience the ones you just bolt up are less than useless

Edited April 29, 2008 by forteh

[psycholist]

Pretty much anything from Shimano will be fine. They get lighter as you go up the range (And you get more depressed when you take chunks out of them in crashes if you go for more expensive ones). As for anti-theft skewers, I think Outland (Raleigh's component brand) do them. The cam is the mechanism that puts tension on the skewer as you close the handle. They're visible and exposed on Hope (And a lot of other skewers), but on Shimano ones they're hidden inside the end of the skewer, so less affected by dirt and crash damage.

[Sponge]

Oh cool, thanks for clearing that up

and, would a 160mm Avid BB5 be far too weak for a stock front end? I'm not necessarily after hardcore on-off locking like a craazy 203mm Hope Mono trial, but would it be OK for most stuff? I'm not into stuff like tap-to-front moves or similar, but yeah would it be enough to hold my weight on a heavy endo at least, say?

[psycholist]

From what I've read elsewhere 180mm is pretty much the minimum for a front disk on a 26" bike. If you look at the ratio between wheel diameter and disk diameter, a 160mm disk on a 20" wheel will have the same leverage as a 208mm disk on a 26" wheel. I run Maguras though, so I've no specific experience on disks for trials (My XC bikes are all disk braked though).

I used an average front brake for years on my trials bike (Kool stops on a grind), but went with trials specific brake blocks and a grind on the front for my new bike. The difference having all that power available to the front brake makes is unbelievable - the extra confidence on front wheel moves has allowed me to commit to bigger (Though not actually big) stuff and do it all clean. I thought my front braking was fine as it was until I upgraded it though.

Only downside is that both brakes are noisy as hell, so I can't drag them down hills without deafening everyone around me... This (And that I haven't landed on the front dropouts in quite a while) is pushing me towards fitting a disk up front...

If you're getting a cable disk, fit a really good cable, doesn't matter how good the lever and caliper are if the cable is grindy and sticky...

[Matthew_Gibson]

I wouldnt like to use 160mm on a stock. 185 on a stock is good though. 203 is even better. My brake hasnt been any trouble. slow me down going down hills and locks up on front wheel moves, not MUCH modulation though! its all in the set up though. if you need an adaptor and a disc fire me a PM and ill sort you one out!!!

[Ash-Kennard]

Did you even read the first post ?

anyway - out of the three (?) I read of the coust would be my choice - I think the hifi and the old adamants were generally shite to ride.

[Davetrials]

gu

thats the only good high bb bike. the rest are awful, and im the man to speek to, ive had most of them