New member!

[Famouspork]

HI everybody!

I am new to this forum but I remember 20 years ago being part of a forum that probably has disappeared since. I am a mountain biker and have been riding MTb and BMX since the 80's.

I have to say trials have always inspired me and impressed me greatly. Only this year have I been able to take the time and motivation to really practice moves like the backwheel hop. I was so proud to hop 4 times within a few hours of practice I now know I could go further into it and learn techniques I never thought I would be able to do . Yes I am 42 and not extremely in shape, but I hold my own and will do MTB races in 2021.

I just wanted to introduce myself and let you know that I am going to use a full suspension 29er bike. If you have any advice, please let me know.

Is there a way to build a trials bike with my old GT BMX?

I think I would just need very, very strong brakes and a new smaller crank but any advise is welcome.

Thanks and ride on!

 

J

[bikeperson45]

I'd take the 29er over the BMX for trials to be honest, you can practise things like trackstands, pivots, two wheel hops and rolling up things easily enough. I'd recommend taking a look at https://trashzen.com/ and Ryan Leech's Mastering the Art of Trials videos on youtube to get going, and then if you're still a fan look into getting something more trialsy. 

[Heiko]

Hi J(?), 

So, if nobody else answers your post, i'll try with my first post here.

I can countersign everything stated from your side: reaching 41 years, I started in last april buying a 26" mtb for the first time after 17 years riding and competiting on the roadbike. Generally, not too bad in shape, but due to a complete different need of muscles and "fast power" for riding trials, shape especially of upper body has improved a lot til now.

Overall it was the best decision ever to start riding trials. 

Since then i watched nearly every video from AliC, Duncan Shaw and a lot of others. Really fantastic tutorials besides of the basic trashzen stuff. 

So with improving skills on the rearwheel, the need for a real trial bike was there. So since October a used Monty kamel 220 double disc helps me to progress much faster than my heavy low BB MTB allowed me to. Ok, looks a bit strange with a 1.9m guy riding it...

So my advise is to buy a more trial specific bike than a bmx or usual mtb, if you want to improve quickly.

Actually i'm working on frontwheel hops. But also Sidehops need some training to get it done smooth and stable. 25 inch are the limit actually.

The only thing i'm a little bit proud of is my improvement in bunnyhop-to-backwheel. Never ever expected to hop up 30 inch to the backwheel when starting last year and had problems to get up onto a kerb. But once you get familiar with the combination of pulling and jumping off as fast as possible, it works nearly on its own.

Other thing which helped me was a change from a high backsweep/upsweep trial bar,  to a jitsyhigh rise street bar with no upsweep, which feels much more natural to me and enables to get mire force onto the bar.

Have a nice weekend everybody...

Heiko

...and here two videos from the last days and a compilation since okctober from my own video analysis.

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Heiko

[Heiko]

...and just to add what i forgot: 

You are right. Extreme powerful brakes are the key. Especially for beginners it is important, cause it gives you much more confidence when you know you can trust them. 

I have Magura MT5 on the back. Bites extemely good even with quite low force on the finger. 

Ride on!