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Even More Updated Echo 24"


Mark W

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I agree that a lot of young riders have poor brake technique. I have a 24" with a standard Magura, Plaz pads, no booster, a 3 year old grind so worn beyond smooth, no tar and a fairly shoddily setup brake really, and I'm a fat f**ker, yet I have no problems with my back brake holding.

I remember being amazed when I heard that Rowan ran black pads on his Magura and was still doing mental stuff.

Oh, and cheers Luke!

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I remember going out on rides to practice starting moves wrong foot forward, and trying everything my 'bad way'. True, it was harder, and my daily inch count was significantly lower, but it made me a better rider. I always laugh when I see threads such as 'which way do you sidehop?' as if it's just a case of ticking 'sidehop' off the list of 'moves I can do'. And besides, when I was learning hang 5s on my old flatland bike I ended up having to remove the front brake cable so that I could completely ignore it, preventing me from instinctively snatching it.

(On the subject of brakes, I agree - people are becoming too dependent on ultra-responsive brakes. What happened to a strong left hand and a well set-up Magura?)

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It's also pretty cool seeing what you can actually do. Rowan's brakeless video was pretty eye-opening (e.g. wheelswap on a post to gap to front to WTF?), Akkers has done some cool stuff too, and seeing Ali do ridiculous stuff everywhere's cool on a more immediate level. Interesting seeing all the different styles too, but again, it's what it teaches you. Going back onto bikes with brakes is kinda cool 'cos you just realise you don't really need to use the brakes for everything, and you don't need to have amazingly good brakes for everything because you sort of end up just using pedal pressure to do stuff anyway. It teaches you so much about wheel placement too - riding natural on them is nuts because to control your speed you have to use what's around, so you've got to try and do little wodges and stuff everywhere. You have to try and be super accurate but of course don't have brakes to help you, so it's more about your body position and movement. It really does help your riding, and it's an amazing feeling when you get a tech line brakeless.

I really do agree with that, after watching Rowan i decided to go brakeless for a bit. It was certainly a new challenge and when i went back to brakes i was so much smoother, less set-up and recovery hops. Infact, ive decided to go back to brakeless for a while- its so fun! Oh, and the Echo looks awesome- so stealth.

Edited by TrialsMan Dan
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The one thing I do admire about brakelessness (apart from taking on the challenge and having the balls) is the fact that people who ride without brakes are putting themselves in a much higher difficulty league even though members of the public and onlookers can't usually tell or appreciate how much harder it is than regular trials riding. It shows that they're doing it for reasons other than showing off being different.

But yeah apart from that, it's shit.

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Looks swish. makes me want a 24 that little more now.

And on the subject of brakeless, ive done it briefly before christmas, I found it was challenging yet fun and then when i put the brakes back on i felt more able than before.

I've just taken the brakes back off again due to massive failure in both front and back brakes, and i really want to go have a proper session. plus i think the bike looks cleaner brakeless.

P.S. Mark I've used your tensioner idea, works a treat needed a few mods for use with a cassette hub but it works beautifully. Cheers :D

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Reminds me of a bmx, funnily enough.

Smart though.

Remind you of a certain BMX in particular, maybe? :-

hawk1.jpg

Echo1.jpg

Rode some rocks yesterday on it and feel a lot more comfortable - I've been tweaking the setup over the past few days, just tyre pressures and bar angles and it's somehow made my bike feel absolutely amazing. It's so good. Re-laced the non-disc side so it's 3x on the front too so that'll hopefully make it a bit more stable landing spins. Used to get a weird 'booyooo' sorta spoke noise before, and it felt a bit flexy. Not ideal...

Oooh oooh oooh, and I got some black Echo TR platforms yesterday - best pedals I've ever used! I've never been particularly impressed by a set of pedals before, but these are amazing. Had to take two pins out per side to get it to feel alright 'cos before they were too grippy, but now they're spot on.

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Ali and I ride every day after work and on the weekends, so my bike's going into and out of my car twice a day at the very least. It just gets battered :P

Pedals are... a good question. They're on our site, but I can't remember how much...

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For financial and laziness reasons I'm going to stick with the 18:13/175 setup. Seems to be alright for the most part, so meh, I'll stay!

Rowan - may have a spare TR 13t sprocket kicking around if you fancy it? It's on an old wheel at the mo, but if I can get the b*****d off you're welcome to it. By the way - Ali and I are hitting Bristol in the Easter holiday weekend if you're going to be around?

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For financial and laziness reasons I'm going to stick with the 18:13/175 setup. Seems to be alright for the most part, so meh, I'll stay!

Rowan - may have a spare TR 13t sprocket kicking around if you fancy it? It's on an old wheel at the mo, but if I can get the b*****d off you're welcome to it. By the way - Ali and I are hitting Bristol in the Easter holiday weekend if you're going to be around?

when is easter ? There is a chance I may be in Florence but if not I should be around ...

Is TR screw on ? as Im a ProIIer al the way ... :)

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