To illustrate the point I will refer to a slightly different sport. I attended a 2 day cycle event recently, a mix of on and off road. Most of the bikes in the top group had 27 gears (3 x 9). More than 50% of this top group had trouble with damaged or jammed gear change mechanisms, One retired and several were left stuck in a single gear or with only a few gears available. Despite the great number of gears (initially available) all riders still had to push or carry the bikes up the steeper off road hills. Had all the bikes been single speed, fixed gear they would have been far more reliable and cheaper with no overall detriment to the enjoyment of the event.
How recently?
Mountain Bikers riding in a 'top group' having been using first 2x10 and now mostly 1x11 gear set ups for years. I think Shimano's last 3x9 XTR set-up was about 2009. I had 3x9 XTR on both my bikes for 4 or 5 years, so must have done a few thousand miles without any of the problems you mention.
Anyone who has ever ridden a single speed for any distance on a hilly route will know it is a far from enjoyable experience!
Wonder if they will use this distribution network?
Doug Lampkin will be the UK Importer & Distributor. I'm sure he doesn't need our advice, but I rather suspect he'll prioritise established trials dealers over Mothercare for his retailers...
Very sad to read of Browns and Casales injuries. If browns injury is correctly reported he is likely to be out for 3 months or more, then there is the time after that to try to rebuild his confidence. Fujigas missed much of last year and even Bou was not exempt from injury.
I feel the increased risk of injury is the inevitable consequence of ever lighter bikes, grippier tyres and more extreme sections. There is a trial on youtube (Germany I think) which shows riders riding across what looks like a concrete dam with a gap in it. No great skill required to ride across it but the penalty for wobbling off would be severe.
Clerks of the course need to reduce the severity of sections and reduce the number which are steep rock hopping on dry grippy rocks. More loose soil, slippery rivers and mud needed.
An increase in bike weight and reduction in tyre grip is unfortunately too much to hope for.
I'd rather have a light bike land on me than a heavy one.
I suggest that if the BTC is 'British' then it should represent all the geographical character of this country in its abundant variety.
I completely agree. As has been discussed in other forum topics the WTC could benefit from such variety too.
James Dabil won with 49 marks lost, with tenth place at 101 marks lost.
On a Saturday the Hook Woods sections were described as "tight & technical". Dabill won on 22, tenth place lost 94. The point being that in more flowing sections the differential between WTC level riders and the best National riders is reduced, leading to a more open trial.
It was too hard! Watching the best Brits and one Spaniard scrabbling across gripless cambers for a succession of fives was not a great spectacle. All trials should have shades of difficulty in the sections.
I don't agree. I was there and found it refreshing to see some open sections not just tight turns & big steps. In the Championship class only two sections weren't cleaned. No section was fived by every rider on every lap.
Looking at the pictures it looks good, and apperently not to difficult for a national event if you familiar with the ground*.
The ground seems to be likewise the one we have here, a lot of sand with steep up's and downs and roots inbetween.
I think that many riders are not so familiar with the ground, it's all about not to loose traction and the right track.
At the last event with likewise ground I was riding together with two guys from abroad one from Austria and the other from Finland, they were too not familiar with the ground and had some concerns. On a ground like this clutch is rarely necessary also hopping around won't have the same good effects, just smooth riding with some speed in a higher gear.
I agree it was good to see two young riders Dan Peace & Jack Price in the top 10. Interesting too, to see how Casales struggled with the different sections and conditions. In contrast see how the Southern guys who understand better how to ride these conditions fared: Sam Haslam & Sam Connor in 3rd & 4th.
All that being said, I was talking with Steve Saunders at the top of section 6, he was a bit miffed as the section had been stiffened up by the club since he had set it out last week.
Toni does a sort of double loading of his suspension for a big hit. None of the other riders do that and I wondered why. They would have obviously noticed Toni doing that and tried to copy the technique but it must not have worked or they'd be doing it in competition. The only obvious thing might be Toni is going deeper into the elastomer bumper but the majority of that energy would just be absorbed by the rebound damping.
Well Dan, you've seen Toni Bou's technique now too, does that mean that you'll be replicating it in your next competition?
Maybe what he does is not easy to achieve, which is why no-one else does.
This can't have been a great advert for out sport can it?
How many people at Barcelona would have watched the X-Trial, watched the indoor enduro & thought "trials looks like fun; throwing a bike and my body at a welded metal box before falling off, I think I'll take that up!"?
Their sales downturned in the face of competition from the likes of Fantic, development was limited (Bulto painted their bikes blue and Ossa built the Gripper), Spanish labour laws wouldn't allow the slimming of the workforce, that only had one outcome. As previously posted, Mont would have gone under too if Honda hadn't got involved to get a foothold in the Spanish moped market. The list of casualties in the trials game is long and ongoing, SWM/Gori, Fantic as well. Is it passion for the sport taking pride over finances? Why have the Japs only ever really dipped their toes in now and again? Something has to be wrong with the sport somewhere down the line?
So here is where I'm struggling. Your earlier posts suggest a restriction of development, yet here you acknowledge that restricted development contributed to the demise of the first wave of Spanish manufacturers.
I just cannot see how restricting development will help this time around, as others on here have posted, it may encourage more of us to hold on to our bikes for longer and thus put Gas Gas and others in a worse situation as sales decline.
Lets not forget the old story of how the UK Ossa, Bultaco and Montesa importers EACH sold 1000 bikes a year in the mid 70s. Anybody have any idea how many bikes a year Shirty, Birks and everybody else sell, put together nowadays?
Remind us what happened next to Ossa, Bultaco & Montesa...
Even if in the name of weight saving it is unreliable or inherently weakly constructed?
We can make bikes as light as you want with the technology that's available nowadays. The only limit is how many people can afford it. And most trials chaps don't have pockets all that deep....?
Light weight does not have to mean unreliable. I don't want an unreliable bike, I want a lightweight one that is reliable & performs well. As you say, the technology to achieve this is readily available.
FIM introduced an increased minimum weight limit a couple of years back, it was not popular with many. Dadof2's suggestion to further increase this minimum weight does not get my support.
The FIM should announce dates on which exotic materials will be banned and increase the minimum weight limit by say 1 kg a year util it reaches 77 kg. To fit an expensive titanium exhaust to shave off a fraction of a kg and then have to cut costs elsewhere to compensate only results in things like poor quality bearings and unreliable ignition components being used.
In your opinion.
I have a different opinion. I'd gladly pay more money to have a lighter bike. Legislating against progress is plain daft.
I apologise in advance for posting what would be more appropriate in a general or GG section but some of the comments cannot go unchallenged.
What I have written is fact not bollocks.
I cannot predict when a Pro gearbox will fail and that is why it would be foolish to enter a wager.
What would be obvious if a statistical study were carried out is that a Pro gearbox is more likely to fail than any other current trials bike (perhaps except Ossa).
Frequency of failure. I have not mentioned frequency (as in over a period of time). In the case of the riders I mentioned who have had 3 (possibly more) Pro gearbox failures both had a couple of failures in about 2004 / 2007, they then gave up on GG for several years. One tried a Pro again in about 2011 / 2012 and its gearbox failed. The other tried a Pro again late 2013 and its gearbox had to be rebuilt recently.
I also point out that of all the Pro gearbox failures I have known only 2 have occurred during a trial and in both cases the bikes could be ridden back to the start field.
I am quite happy to accept that ND and Balidlocks have been more fortunate with their gearboxes but I expect they will in return accept what I say is accurate.
I also point out that I am not commercially involved with any manufacturer and have no reason to make spurious posts. I am pretty certain if anyone looks at my post history they will realise I criticise any marque where I feel criticism is due. People will always have different opinions, as the recent posts on Penrith WTC ticket prices show but what does degrade the forum is when people make untrue assertions, misquote other posters or resort to personal attacks.
When two riders are equal at the end of X-Trial qualification, they ride one section to have a "Run-off". I think when we have these 'failure to agree' dialogues in our forum, we should call them a "Dad Off"
From what I see Dibs and Dougie are cut from the same tree.
They are from the same County, but there are a fair few trees in that County, so I wouldn't be quite so sure.
Dabill did not consistently break into the world top 5 on a proven bike (maybe he did for the one year Fajardo spent on Ossa?). If he equals his previous results, i.e. sixth in the world, on a new bike I think the whole team will have done well, if he does better than that then they will have achieved something noteworthy.
Not having a slant there but i wouldn't have said a thing if i was second guessing .
No slant felt or intended here. I'm merely seeking to understand how things work.
My understanding is that the effect of the 'levers' is to move the bottom shock mount rearward as the shock compresses, thus reducing the leverage ratio applied to it and making the suspension harder to compress and thus 'stiffen up'. I've not studied the kinematics of this, it is just an educated guess based on what I would expect to happen.
Given the scale of the trials bike market I do wonder if having all these capacities is a good thing, can all these models be properly and fully developed then improved again for the following year?
Eddie , i think he means the technology is the same not the action of the units. As in it directly transfers the impact from one point to another with no cushion inbetween as thats what the levers do , smooth out the action.
It's a crude but simply effective method of providing a mono shock set up.
Please don't take that as " I told you so" comment it's not ment to be .
Ted.
The 'levers' are not there to smooth out the action, arguably they would do the reverse by adding friction. Their purpose is to change the leverage ratio applied to the shock to control the rate at which the suspension rate increases.
The Rev3 shock achieves the same with internal valving.
Can't Jordi wear a hat? And these glasses,he looks like my father in law and I'm 52 .though I would be willing to trade some hair for some of his talent!
Nice finished frame unlike a few other makes,that are welded together by a hung over apprentice with one hand.
CAD drawing welds will always look good.
Let's wait & see photos of a manufactured frame, or the bike in the flesh.
Manufacturers award! Well done
bit gimmicky?
every manufacturer would follow this.
Ssdt 2015 Chat
in SSDT Chat
Posted · Edited by neils on wheels
How recently?
Mountain Bikers riding in a 'top group' having been using first 2x10 and now mostly 1x11 gear set ups for years. I think Shimano's last 3x9 XTR set-up was about 2009. I had 3x9 XTR on both my bikes for 4 or 5 years, so must have done a few thousand miles without any of the problems you mention.
Anyone who has ever ridden a single speed for any distance on a hilly route will know it is a far from enjoyable experience!