# Building a Jump/Pump/Street Trials bike



## l'oiseau (May 5, 2015)

Been looking into doing something like this as a play bike to ride anything from jumps and pump tracks to urban parks to some minor trials stuff - hopping up and off stuff...

A rigid DJ looks like it might fit the bill but I'm thinking a custom build because a lot of the ones I see don't have a good brake setup that would be ideal for the trials type stuff.

I looked into Inspired bikes and that's probably way over my head or where I want to go with a bike like this.

My recs right now are:

24/26" - whatever has he best tire selections and best frame choices
rigid - fork and frame could be separate items
fairly light - no more than 25lbs, want something that will loft easy
single speed - gears are a pain and not essential for this kind of riding
nice geo - nice for me is more toward older 26in MTBs. I never felt comfortable on BMX bikes.
brakes? - here's where I've seen a lot of stuff and I think F/R disc wold be OK, but a lot of more trials oriented bikes use rim brakes for less wind up. Don't know if I'd notice it much on a smaller wheeled bike but I do on my 29er MTBs.

Wouldn't be looking to spend a ton, but I don't know a lot about these bikes so doing a lot of research. Any advice is helpful - Thanks!


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## norton05 (Sep 20, 2005)

I ride urban trials and DJ a lot so I'll try to help. From your description, any decent steel 4x/jump bike from the past 5 yrs or so will get the job done. Geometry, materials, etc have been dialed for a while so most bikes of that type are pretty similar. IMHO steel is the only choice for an urban or DJ bike.

No matter what you get it will be a pretty big change from your 29er. In general 24 will feel more like a BMX, 26 more like an MTB, if you did not like riding a BMX bike I would stay with 26. Availability is not a problem- tons in both sizes.

Single speed=yep. 
Rigid is great, so is suspension, get whatever you like. 

Brakes are not that important. Plenty of folks ride brakeless. If you can lock the wheel, your brakes are probably good enough. Get whatever disc brake you like, just be ready to replace a lot of bent rotors at first. The real question is- brake on front or not? Usually, trials means get a front brake, DJ/urban you skip it. It's up to you.

RE: trials, you can do some basic trials stuff on a normal DJ bike but it's limited. It's just too different a riding style. Build your DJ bike to be better at trials and now it sucks at everything else, plus it still won't be a very good trials bike. So basically this is your excuse to get one of each kind of bike


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