Tioz Posted May 16, 2011 Report Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) To clear some things up here. The Phase bike range are basic, this reflected in the price. The 1.2 is an excellent buy and a great frame to ride, search for my videos as well as the rest of the guys on the MAD team. These frames are fully capable of doing the basics to the advanced trials riding. The spec is fine for beginners, but for those improving you will want to upgrade parts. The simplest upgrade is to replace the rear wheel, the rim is fine to re-use as it is a Alex DX32. As the supplied hub is a standard Shimano hub with 16 engagements, your cheapest upgrade is to buy a Hope Pro 2 trials hub, either replace the whole wheel or get the Hope hub built on to the DX32 rim. By upgrading to the Hope hub you can keep the supplied cranks, though it is advisable to upgrade the chain as well, especially if fitting a single speed kit. FFW (Front Freewheel) will not run on this bike with out you replacing the cranks for screw on cranks and a screw on rear hub. But unless you have a bit of money, I wouldn't recommend this. By having a free wheel on the cranks, the weight is evenly distributed across the whole bike, rather than most the weight being at the rear. Hope this helps. One more question..does a freewheel with more clicks help when bouncing on the rear wheel? I find my cranks come up too high and eventually turn backwards when I hop and I lose balance.. Also: if one were to change his chain how would he know what measure his sprocket takes? 1/8", 1/16" or 1/32"? Also (again): better to get a fixed hub with an external freewheel or a hub with a freewheel built in? (price wise the first solution in greatly better) Edited May 16, 2011 by Tioz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Manning Posted May 16, 2011 Report Share Posted May 16, 2011 One more question..does a freewheel with more clicks help when bouncing on the rear wheel? I find my cranks come up too high and eventually turn backwards when I hop and I lose balance.. Also: if one were to change his chain how would he know what measure his sprocket takes? 1/8", 1/16" or 1/32"? Also (again): better to get a fixed hub with an external freewheel or a hub with a freewheel built in? (price wise the first solution in greatly better) The amount of engagements in a freewheel or freehub makes no difference to when you are hopping on the back wheel. Having more engagements helps when gapping and other moves, but in all honesty, all you need to do is find the engagement when on the back wheel to know it's there when you want to kick and you'll have no problems until you starting needing more height and distance. Chains: 1/8 = BMX/singlespeed with no mech, works with certain tensioners. These chains are wide 1/32 = Mountain bikes/ all bikes with gears. These chains are slim. There is no benefit of the 1/8 chain over the 1/32 as companies such as KMC make chains in both sizes that can take the same amount of stress before breaking. The phase runs a 1/32 chain as it comes fitted with gears. Freewheels vs freehubs. Freewheels are what come on your average bmx and are fitted to the rear hub. For trials there are plenty if freewheels to choose from that are suitable for trials riding. Fir the phase you will have to replace the rear hub with a threaded hub. You can either run the freewheel on the hub, or you can fit a screw on sprocket and replace the cranks for threaded cranks and fit the freewheel to the cranks. Freehub is what is inside a hubs freehub body, such as Hope hubs, Shimano and Chris king. The cheapest and most reliable freehub type rear hub is the Hope Pro 2 trials hub. You can run this with the cranks on the phase. A recommendation for the time being would be to lock the rear mech out in the desired positioned to tension the chain and run it single speed. However doing this means you have to run a 1/32 chain unless you modify the rear mech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurlyBox Posted May 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2011 alright ive decided im not gonna singlespeed it till later when i understand more about the bike and learn to ride it properly. thanks for everyone's advice, if i do decide to singlespeed il have another read over when i understand more and i can sort out what i need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max-t Posted May 16, 2011 Report Share Posted May 16, 2011 Good luck with the bike and wear a helmet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tioz Posted May 17, 2011 Report Share Posted May 17, 2011 (edited) The amount of engagements in a freewheel or freehub makes no difference to when you are hopping on the back wheel. Having more engagements helps when gapping and other moves, but in all honesty, all you need to do is find the engagement when on the back wheel to know it's there when you want to kick and you'll have no problems until you starting needing more height and distance. Chains: 1/8 = BMX/singlespeed with no mech, works with certain tensioners. These chains are wide 1/32 = Mountain bikes/ all bikes with gears. These chains are slim. There is no benefit of the 1/8 chain over the 1/32 as companies such as KMC make chains in both sizes that can take the same amount of stress before breaking. The phase runs a 1/32 chain as it comes fitted with gears. Freewheels vs freehubs. Freewheels are what come on your average bmx and are fitted to the rear hub. For trials there are plenty if freewheels to choose from that are suitable for trials riding. Fir the phase you will have to replace the rear hub with a threaded hub. You can either run the freewheel on the hub, or you can fit a screw on sprocket and replace the cranks for threaded cranks and fit the freewheel to the cranks. Freehub is what is inside a hubs freehub body, such as Hope hubs, Shimano and Chris king. The cheapest and most reliable freehub type rear hub is the Hope Pro 2 trials hub. You can run this with the cranks on the phase. A recommendation for the time being would be to lock the rear mech out in the desired positioned to tension the chain and run it single speed. However doing this means you have to run a 1/32 chain unless you modify the rear mech. M.A.D. props mate At the moment I'm going single as my gears are wrecked and keep jumping I'll keep per standard freewheel for now..further on I might think of changing the whole wheel but there's a lot to learn before that So I'm getting 1/8" chain and this http://www.tartybike.../c48p10179.html tensioner plus single speed kit and 18T sprocket Let you know how it goes Edited May 17, 2011 by Tioz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurlyBox Posted May 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2011 well guess what turned up today... a MAD Phase 1.2! i love it and how light it is! the front end is far lighter than my mate's Onza Ice so im quite happy with that. ive had a little go and i can say i cant do anything on it yet. not even trackstand but il get there soon enough i hope. also for all those who said winstanleys was a bad place to order from my parents ordered it thursady night and it got here monday so i might be lucky or maybe theyve changed i dunno but im very happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ogre Posted May 17, 2011 Report Share Posted May 17, 2011 with regards to improving the rear wheel, replace the rear hub with a fixed, threaded one and then get a a very good value trials specific freewheel some new spokes to fit your old rim and new hub. maybe first some better brake pads these are very good and cheaper that others. interestingly that set up is cheaper and technically outperforms the pro2 that everyone suggests. I have a pro2 i love it long time, there excellent hubs, and worthwhile buying if your sure that you want to ride trials for a while and are serious about it. i think you'll want to use an 18t (count the teeth on your front sprocket cause i'm not sure what the crank comes with. is it's 22 you'll run 22:18 which has a 1:1.222 ratio, very similar to the popular 18:15 which has a 1.2 ratio. mini essay over; i wish i studied trials at uni... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tioz Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 with regards to improving the rear wheel, replace the rear hub with a fixed, threaded one and then get a a very good value trials specific freewheel some new spokes to fit your old rim and new hub. maybe first some better brake pads these are very good and cheaper that others. interestingly that set up is cheaper and technically outperforms the pro2 that everyone suggests. I have a pro2 i love it long time, there excellent hubs, and worthwhile buying if your sure that you want to ride trials for a while and are serious about it. i think you'll want to use an 18t (count the teeth on your front sprocket cause i'm not sure what the crank comes with. is it's 22 you'll run 22:18 which has a 1:1.222 ratio, very similar to the popular 18:15 which has a 1.2 ratio. mini essay over; i wish i studied trials at uni... I was thinking the same thing..that fixed hub plus freewheel is much, much cheaper that the pro2 hub and is much easier to service Wouldn't the rockman 72 clicks be better than that freewheel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howvard Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 (edited) hi mate dont know if you have got the bike yet but im selling my MAD 1.3 with echo stem echo cranks single speeded onza bars and avid levers if your interested for about 100 - 150 ?? pm if your interested Edited May 18, 2011 by howvard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tioz Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 hi mate dont know if you have got the bike yet but im selling my MAD 1.3 with echo stem echo cranks single speeded onza bars and avid levers if your interested for about 100 - 150 ?? pm if your interested lol I would have grabbed that last week..I just got a phase 1.3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurlyBox Posted May 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 hi mate dont know if you have got the bike yet but im selling my MAD 1.3 with echo stem echo cranks single speeded onza bars and avid levers if your interested for about 100 - 150 ?? pm if your interested i got a MAD Phase 1.2 yesterday, sorry. i gotta say though i love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howvard Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 lol I would have grabbed that last week..I just got a phase 1.3 damn thats so annoying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tioz Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 damn thats so annoying for me too because it's got better specs than mine..oh well sure you'll sell it soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurlyBox Posted May 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 hmm... ive been trying to ride now for probably 2hrs max and all ive been trying is to trackstand and bunny hop and both im failing at but ive noticed when i was looking at my bike that 3 teeth on the sprocket seem to have been warn down already and it cant possibly be from riding can it? the chain has fallen off once and when i first got the bike the thing that attaches the deraillieur was badly bent and so i had to straighten that out so that the chain would go round with clipping one edge of the guide where the chain goes on to the derailleur and so that when i changed to a high gear it didnt go into the spokes but i hadnt really ridden it up when i realised that because i didnt wanna damage anything. any suggestions of what might be causing it? im gonna ring winstanleys later to see what they will do about it. also its not as easy as deciding to go and straight away upgrade the sprocket because of how the sprocket is screwed in to an extra bit coming off the crank (and im not on about the thread around the bit that fits on to the bb). and i havent got the money to go and start replacing bits especially so unnecessarily after 2 days of having the bike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tioz Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 (edited) hmm... ive been trying to ride now for probably 2hrs max and all ive been trying is to trackstand and bunny hop and both im failing at but ive noticed when i was looking at my bike that 3 teeth on the sprocket seem to have been warn down already and it cant possibly be from riding can it? the chain has fallen off once and when i first got the bike the thing that attaches the deraillieur was badly bent and so i had to straighten that out so that the chain would go round with clipping one edge of the guide where the chain goes on to the derailleur and so that when i changed to a high gear it didnt go into the spokes but i hadnt really ridden it up when i realised that because i didnt wanna damage anything. any suggestions of what might be causing it? im gonna ring winstanleys later to see what they will do about it. also its not as easy as deciding to go and straight away upgrade the sprocket because of how the sprocket is screwed in to an extra bit coming off the crank (and im not on about the thread around the bit that fits on to the bb). and i havent got the money to go and start replacing bits especially so unnecessarily after 2 days of having the bike. My gears are shite too..they keep jumping and the chain keeps falling..it just started on it's own two days ago.. I'd say that single speed is a priority now It feels like a wate of money to me too..but I can't ride like this Edited May 19, 2011 by Tioz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurlyBox Posted May 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 My gears are shite too..they keep jumping and the chain keeps falling..it just started on it's own two days ago.. I'd say that single speed is a priority now It feels like a wate of money to me too..but I can't ride like this gears and trials bikes arent supposed to go together really because on the stress it has to go under but still they sell em like it. i wish they had an option when you buy em to have them with gears or without because it would save the hassle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tioz Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 gears and trials bikes arent supposed to go together really because on the stress it has to go under but still they sell em like it. i wish they had an option when you buy em to have them with gears or without because it would save the hassle. Yes, it's really stupid It's not like having gears will help you commute either..they're all too short for that anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurlyBox Posted May 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Yes, it's really stupid It's not like having gears will help you commute either..they're all too short for that anyway exactly. i come up with loads of good ideas that might actually work but arent used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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