The Shiny New All-Purpose MTB Thread

quote:

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Originally posted by Matthew Robinson:
You can't bunny hop speed bumps on a road bike. Or ride down stairs.

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There are none of either on my commute.

Alex, bunk off work one day next week come for a ride in Brighton. You can't own a Cove and not be a bike god. You can try out the two new trails I've built .

"I can't bunny hop speed bumps on my Cove"

They are the perfect way to learn as a) they are much more forgiving than curbs and b) there are lots of them on a typical London ride.

Instructions:

-- Cranks horizontal, weight over the bars, elbows bent and keens bent with your toes pointing slightly down. Sort of like a sprinter crouching in the blocks.

-- Push down down on tbe bars and pedals compress the suspension and tyres and then explode upwards by straightening your arms and jumping up at the same time.

-- Lift the rear end up with your feet by pushing back and up: it best to imagine a sort of rearward scooping motion. At first you need to do this really deliberately and in an exaggerated fashion but fairly soon you jut sort of unweight the pedals and as you jump the bike comes with you.

-- You can do it over speed bumps and use the front edge of the bump to help you get airborne. This makes it dead easy to learn the timing involved (which is the hard bit).

-- To go higher than six inches or so you need BMX style two stage hops. Learning this is left as an exercise for the reader (Or you can ask Mekon).

Mekon said "come for a ride in Brighton"

I now have a driving license again and so can get out of London again. At least once my bike is fixed.

"You can't own a Cove and not be a bike god"

I am a Bike God as long as I use Mick Parry's defintion of Greek Gods

Matthew

Motor Torpedo Boat, nuffink less !

quote:

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Originally posted by alexgerrard:
I may strip it of it's decals as a result.

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Those in the know would still know what it was...

I saw rather a pimpy MTB last night. A chap I know came over to my house to swap an inline Thompson Elite seatpost I had for a similar size layback one. His main MTB is a Blur but he turned up on a titanium framed Yeti Arc(?) which on closer inspection appeared to be liberally covered with pimpy bits - Fox Terralogic forks, Chris King this, Thompson that, carbon the other etc. Very, very nice indeed (about from all the SRAM XO bits which I don't personally like). Its the only MTB I've actually touched which felt significantly lighter than my own lightweight bike (which weighs about 23lb or so) and I expect it must have cost an absolute fortune to build.

"One slightly annoying thing about the Cove is the attention it gets. I popped into Evans"

I'm more worried by the attention is gets from moody looking groups of lads near my flat.

Coves are not "pimpy", they are cool. Which is very different.

Matthew

Steve,

You're showing your age - it's "pimpin'" - even I know that. Don't have a clue what hucking is though, although it might be something done after too many pints; a combination of hurl an (up-)chucking. Over to you, Matthew.

Dan

Hucking just means jumping off things. These people are hucking:

quote:

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Originally posted by Matthew Robinson:
Instructions:

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Thanks for those.

I followed the bunny hop instructions on tonights ride and actually managed to hop clean over a speed bump thing at the entrance to one of the Pentlands car parks. It was only about 2 inches high and 6 inches across but we've all got to start somewhere!

Anyway, here's a gratuitous Epic picture taken earlier this evening:

quote:

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Originally posted by Dan M:
Steve,

You're showing your age - it's "pimpin'"

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I'm feeling my age at the moment - given I just got my Caravan Club membership through...

Congratulations.

(We'll skip over the clipped-in = cheating question)

Matthew

quote:

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Originally posted by Matthew Robinson:
Congratulations.

(We'll skip over the clipped-in = cheating question)

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Does that make it easier then? Good...

I have my new BMX bike and after a tedious three hours wrestling with the back brake I have basically given up trying to get it work remotely effectively. It's got one of those STT ogry things (which I think is now set ok) and a fairly beefy U-brake and although it basically grips the wheel with the brake blocks it provides a minisculoe anmoutn of actual stopping power. (Help! Mekon?)

I did however go for a ride and a chastening experience it was too. Mekon's comment that riding BMX is like doing weights at the gym is dead on and it is seriously hard work.

It's also hard in the sense of bloody difficult with the whole contraption seeming absurdly small and being constantly on the point of flinging you off. It's very strange to be riding a bike and having to concentrate on something as basic as keeping your balance.

RaceFace (or rather Silverfish their distributor) say my cranks are not under warranty as I have been jumping (!). They did however do me a deal on a crankset for £40 (less of a deal when you realise that its a discontinued model so its not like they could sell it).

Prob. won't be done till Monday -- so looks like a weekend of torture on a deadly brakeless BMX.

Matthew

I've never seen an old man on a BMX so I'm looking forward to the next batch of video footage...

Matthew, the u-brake should be able to lock the wheel, but they only offer canti stopping power at best. the only upgrade is to switch to chrome rims. I ended up running Peregrine 48's for a bit.

How is the fit? The short wheelbase will be hectic for a while. Might be an idea to stay off the MTB for a bit.

Mekon,

It's definitetly not right not only is there is no way you can lock the wheel but they barely slow you down at all. I think there is too much slack in the cables but short of doing a few months excercise to develop "mechanics hands" I can't see how I can get the thing shorter and still get the cable into the caliper.

Or maybe its the detangler thing which appears to be an evil combination of pre-crossed threaded barrel adjusters and finger cutting wires.

I think the fit is ok -- I quite like my MTBs small so the crampedness is not that much of a problem. The feeling of being perched on a tiny thing with a mind of its own is more of a culture shock.

Matthew

quote:

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Originally posted by Matthew Robinson:

RaceFace (or rather Silverfish their distributor) say my cranks are not under warranty as I have been jumping (!).

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Huh?! That's just pathetic. Surely they cant claim that with a straight face -- 'we warranty our components just for trips to cafes where you dont go over too many speed-bumps'. Actually, you could, in all good conscience say you have not been jumping, and send the video as proof

Dan

"Surely they cant claim that with a straight face"

They claim its damaged becuase it's been stressed while loose. I said well I wasn't the one who tightened it up (it was the bike shop). The bike shop said we always use a torque wrench and tighten to the correct settings. They said "we don't warranty for dirt jumping", etc. etc.

I gave up. I just want my bike back as quickly as possible which means paying £40.

"whenever I see anyone trying to go anywhere, they look like they are pedalling like mad and going about 10mph"

Before stopping for rest 500 yards later.

Getting to places is not their strength though.

Matthew

Here it is:



And, whislt I'm at it, here are some shots of my local jump spot. With my Cove hanging around to give you some idea of scale.

This is the big double:



You can see a berm at the back which, if you jump the double, you hit within about 8ft at a fair old lick which makes the whole thing quite scary.

After the berm you hace this:



There's a second jump after that half behind the tree.

Matthew

psssst, Matthew, I think someones knicked both of your seatpost binder bolts.

I was in the newsagent yesterday picking up some magazines to read on our holiday flight (or more likely at Gatwick while we are waiting for the flight).

I found a couple for my wife and was looking for a lads magazine for seagull junior when I noticed that the top shelf held not the usual ahem gentleman's magazines but mountain bike magazines!

After seeing Alex's x-rays perhaps mountain biking should be consigned to the top shelf...

Dan -- I have exceptionally short legs following a freak accident during a summer job in a cheese factory that required shin reconstruction surgery.

Matthew

And, after a rather tense conversation with the man at the bike shop, it will be fixed with an XT Hollowtech II crankset and external BB rather than the made from cheese RaceFace crock of shite.

We are going to "work something out" regarding price but frankly I just want my bike back and a crank that can cope with my 18" Leap of Death style. I shall of course have to buy a new set of pedals to avoid a red DMRs and silver cranks fashion faux pas.

The patched up RaceFace is nephew bound. This will stop him being jealous when the other Nephew inherits a barely used BMX.

Matthew

it will be fixed with an XT Hollowtech II crankset and external BB

and so it begins...

I must admit, there's no way in hell I'd take on that double, especially on the little bike. Methinks I'll stick to x-country.

cheers

Dan

quote:

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Originally posted by alexgerrard:
Me neither. No way Josephine. Not in a million years. Not without the surrounding area being covered in one of those air filled cushion thingies that you see stuntmen falling into.

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I'm with you chaps. I've tried jumping the occasional small double in the free-ride area in Glentress and while I've not yet actually crashed I've had plenty of very near misses. My last attempt wasn't even intentional - I'd jumped long (for me anyway) on the preceding single and wasn't able to slow down or speed up before hitting the double, which meant me landing on the upslope of the 2nd jump. I used all 100mm of travel on my forks and ended up careering through a bush with my feet off the pedals before getting it back together again and back on track.