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Hello Newbie Help


sooper

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hi my name is ben im 15 and just want to start getting into trials im looking at buying the ta26 bike and was wondering what you guys think of this for a first bike and what i want to do with it (mainly street riding) i was wondering however how high the bike is with 24" wheels and what size the actual frame is and if would be sutiable for someone of my size 6ft 3 any help would be great thanks

Ben

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Well as far as a streety frame goes it is definately a good one (Y) . It has a low bottom bracket and short chainstays which help make it easier to flick the front end up and they seem to take a bit of a beating, mines lasted from me starting riding properly till now which is around 18 months. And i'm 6'5" so i feel i can give you a good review to use ;) .

The bike itself feels nice to ride and the geometry makes for a responsive and flickable bike that is happy to do the more streety moves like manuals and 180's etc. while at the same time its still able to be ridden for actual trials riding like gapping, sidehops and front taps :D . It helped me improve in all aspects of my riding a lot better than my rubbish old frame i had before it and at no point have i felt the frame has ever held me back.... until recently. Now with me being a bigger rider and now that i've advanced in trials it is starting to feel a bit too short for me. I find i can gap my other friends bikes with a lot less effort than my own, so a longer frame at around a 1080+ wheelbase is something that i think i'm going to need to further and ease my progression. However with the longer bikes it is harder to do the more streety side of trials, but again not impossible. I can comfortably bunnyhop a t-rex or coustellier frame with a 1085'ish wheelbase after a couple of minutes of riding the bike so that might be an avenue you might want to explore as well.

I am curious as to why you would like to put 24" wheels into it, and am taking this opportunity to highlight the fact that with 24" wheels you will either need brake mount adaptors for the vee brake lugs or to run a rear disc brake. This is something you are most likely to be aware of but what you may not know is that the disc mount on the TA26 is wimpy to say the least, the actual mount is quite thin and seems to be something thats been put on there for lighter riding rather than trials and with no kind of support beam between the chainstay and seatstay it would be very likely to break along the seatstay as the forces of trials riding are very abrupt on the brake and with no support i'm unsure as to whether the frame would cope with it :( .

Whilst i'm highlighting areas of weakness the frame also seems to suffer from a tendancy to crack around the seatstay/seatube welding on the right hand side and there have been several riders who have found this to be a problem. However at 16 stone i'm not exactly light and the frame shows no sign of cracking yet so as with a lot of other people it should hold out on you for well over the warranty time and more than likely until you become bored of it.

So for a first bike i would recommend it. It is fun, relatively cheap at £169.99 and is likely to last you a while... it also sounds to be right up your street as you say you have a bmxing background. Now another thing you may be unaware of is that trials bikes are generally measured by the wheelbase (from axle to axle) unlike the bmx toptube size so i currently dont know how long the toptube is but as i stated earlier it has a 1040 wheelbase and as for how high it is with 24" wheels i really don't know what you mean.... how high where? The bars? The seat? The axles? The bottom bracket? It has an 11" seat tube if that helps :ermm: and the bars sit at around 40-41 inches off the floor with my 26" wheels so take an inch off and thats how high they'll be with 24"s, though this will vary with whatever stem/bar setup you choose to use on it.

Anything else just ask ;)

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Well as far as a streety frame goes it is definately a good one (Y) . It has a low bottom bracket and short chainstays which help make it easier to flick the front end up and they seem to take a bit of a beating, mines lasted from me starting riding properly till now which is around 18 months. And i'm 6'5" so i feel i can give you a good review to use ;) .

The bike itself feels nice to ride and the geometry makes for a responsive and flickable bike that is happy to do the more streety moves like manuals and 180's etc. while at the same time its still able to be ridden for actual trials riding like gapping, sidehops and front taps :D . It helped me improve in all aspects of my riding a lot better than my rubbish old frame i had before it and at no point have i felt the frame has ever held me back.... until recently. Now with me being a bigger rider and now that i've advanced in trials it is starting to feel a bit too short for me. I find i can gap my other friends bikes with a lot less effort than my own, so a longer frame at around a 1080+ wheelbase is something that i think i'm going to need to further and ease my progression. However with the longer bikes it is harder to do the more streety side of trials, but again not impossible. I can comfortably bunnyhop a t-rex or coustellier frame with a 1085'ish wheelbase after a couple of minutes of riding the bike so that might be an avenue you might want to explore as well.

I am curious as to why you would like to put 24" wheels into it, and am taking this opportunity to highlight the fact that with 24" wheels you will either need brake mount adaptors for the vee brake lugs or to run a rear disc brake. This is something you are most likely to be aware of but what you may not know is that the disc mount on the TA26 is wimpy to say the least, the actual mount is quite thin and seems to be something thats been put on there for lighter riding rather than trials and with no kind of support beam between the chainstay and seatstay it would be very likely to break along the seatstay as the forces of trials riding are very abrupt on the brake and with no support i'm unsure as to whether the frame would cope with it :( .

Whilst i'm highlighting areas of weakness the frame also seems to suffer from a tendancy to crack around the seatstay/seatube welding on the right hand side and there have been several riders who have found this to be a problem. However at 16 stone i'm not exactly light and the frame shows no sign of cracking yet so as with a lot of other people it should hold out on you for well over the warranty time and more than likely until you become bored of it.

So for a first bike i would recommend it. It is fun, relatively cheap at £169.99 and is likely to last you a while... it also sounds to be right up your street as you say you have a bmxing background. Now another thing you may be unaware of is that trials bikes are generally measured by the wheelbase (from axle to axle) unlike the bmx toptube size so i currently dont know how long the toptube is but as i stated earlier it has a 1040 wheelbase and as for how high it is with 24" wheels i really don't know what you mean.... how high where? The bars? The seat? The axles? The bottom bracket? It has an 11" seat tube if that helps :ermm: and the bars sit at around 40-41 inches off the floor with my 26" wheels so take an inch off and thats how high they'll be with 24"s, though this will vary with whatever stem/bar setup you choose to use on it.

Anything else just ask ;)

Thanks very much that has helped me alot :) i will defo buy this bike :)

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FSA headsets are pretty decent, the pigs are tough and i've been running an orbit XL II on my trials bike for the past 18 months so again it should be fine for you.

Unsure about the forks, they're pretty budget suspension ones aren't they? You might be better off with some rigid forks to help keep the weight of the front end down and to allow you to throw the bike about a bit easier. However, i say might because you could be one of the people that will prefer suspension forks... which can be used for trials (ryan leech for example, uses suspension forks with ease) though i think you might want to check on ebay for some second hand rock shox forks, they will be fairly light and will almost definately be more durable and hard wearing than the rst's would be.

I take it you got a 2003 TA26 then, with you saying its blue and brand new.

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I think you should get rigid forks, they make the bike lighter and easier to ride,

and the frame is designed for rigid forks.

As for wheels a hope mono/ xc rear hub will be best, on perhaps a mavic d521 rim.

front wheel depends on wether you plan to use disk or magura brakes.

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As for wheels a hope mono/ xc rear hub will be best, on perhaps a mavic d521 rim.

front wheel depends on wether you plan to use disk or magura brakes.

this is the same wheel set up i ride. perfect wheels for urban riding or natural.if you buy the xc hubs you still have the choice to ride discs or not where as if you buy mono hubs they have no mountings. get the rims in anodised version if you can, this helps brake power but wears off after a while so get the rear rim grinded for better brake bite. also get the rear hub with the titanium freehub, lighter and stronger.

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Well as far as a streety frame goes it is definately a good one (Y) . It has a low bottom bracket and short chainstays which help make it easier to flick the front end up and they seem to take a bit of a beating, mines lasted from me starting riding properly till now which is around 18 months. And i'm 6'5" so i feel i can give you a good review to use ;) .

The bike itself feels nice to ride and the geometry makes for a responsive and flickable bike that is happy to do the more streety moves like manuals and 180's etc. while at the same time its still able to be ridden for actual trials riding like gapping, sidehops and front taps :D . It helped me improve in all aspects of my riding a lot better than my rubbish old frame i had before it and at no point have i felt the frame has ever held me back.... until recently. Now with me being a bigger rider and now that i've advanced in trials it is starting to feel a bit too short for me. I find i can gap my other friends bikes with a lot less effort than my own, so a longer frame at around a 1080+ wheelbase is something that i think i'm going to need to further and ease my progression. However with the longer bikes it is harder to do the more streety side of trials, but again not impossible. I can comfortably bunnyhop a t-rex or coustellier frame with a 1085'ish wheelbase after a couple of minutes of riding the bike so that might be an avenue you might want to explore as well.

I am curious as to why you would like to put 24" wheels into it, and am taking this opportunity to highlight the fact that with 24" wheels you will either need brake mount adaptors for the vee brake lugs or to run a rear disc brake. This is something you are most likely to be aware of but what you may not know is that the disc mount on the TA26 is wimpy to say the least, the actual mount is quite thin and seems to be something thats been put on there for lighter riding rather than trials and with no kind of support beam between the chainstay and seatstay it would be very likely to break along the seatstay as the forces of trials riding are very abrupt on the brake and with no support i'm unsure as to whether the frame would cope with it :( .

Whilst i'm highlighting areas of weakness the frame also seems to suffer from a tendancy to crack around the seatstay/seatube welding on the right hand side and there have been several riders who have found this to be a problem. However at 16 stone i'm not exactly light and the frame shows no sign of cracking yet so as with a lot of other people it should hold out on you for well over the warranty time and more than likely until you become bored of it.

So for a first bike i would recommend it. It is fun, relatively cheap at £169.99 and is likely to last you a while... it also sounds to be right up your street as you say you have a bmxing background. Now another thing you may be unaware of is that trials bikes are generally measured by the wheelbase (from axle to axle) unlike the bmx toptube size so i currently dont know how long the toptube is but as i stated earlier it has a 1040 wheelbase and as for how high it is with 24" wheels i really don't know what you mean.... how high where? The bars? The seat? The axles? The bottom bracket? It has an 11" seat tube if that helps :ermm: and the bars sit at around 40-41 inches off the floor with my 26" wheels so take an inch off and thats how high they'll be with 24"s, though this will vary with whatever stem/bar setup you choose to use on it.

Anything else just ask ;)

oh my god!! that must of taken soo soo soo long to compose!!

very spicific and helpfull!!

good post lol

ryan..

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