This week we got a very exciting delivery, in the shape of a 24″ wheeled, blue Inspired Fourplay street trials WEAPON.
Hot off the production line!
This is the wee trialey ridden by everyones favourite street trials rider, Daniel Macaskill! Danny put his share of input into the design of this frame, and it shows because its a total blast to ride. The bike has been designed to enable riders to evolve their riding by combining bmx style tricks with trials manouvers. If you want to read more about Danny and the Fourplay frame, or watch his sweet videos they are all over the internet but http://www.inspiredbicycles.com/ is a good place to start.
We made a few photos to show you a few of this aluminium alloy framed machines features.
This bike was impeccably packed.
Its always good to see when manufactures take alot of care with packing their products. The Fourplay was one of the best packed cartons I have ever seen!
Super stiff bb area.
The bottom bracket area has been machined in one piece, to maximise stiffness, strength and tyre clearance. It looks really clean and should be super strong.
Trialtech chainset.
The cranks supplied with the team build are black 175mm long forged Trialtech numbers. They attach to a cartridge bearing bottom bracket using the sturdy ISIS interface. The 23t sprocket is protected by a 7075 Inspired bashguard. Although the chainset had been fitted, strangely the bottom bracket shell had not been faced. When the bike is built it will come faced and reamed, ensuring the bearings sit square and so maximising bearing life.
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HS33 mounts
The frame has been designed for use with the trials bike standard; powerful Magura hydraulic rim brakes.
Headtube area.
The headtube area looks very well designed and strong. As the picture clearly shows the headtube is wider than a fully grown mans head. (ed: actually its standard inch an’ an eighth.) The top tube features an open ended gusset for stress dissipation, whilst the downtube has a long gusset welded on. The headtube is externally ring reinforced and the tubing flares to 6mm thick at either end. Sturdy.. Inspired have used a fairly long headtube in an effort to try and create an acceptable handlebar height without using up the worlds supply of stem spacers. The build kit came with the venerable and easily rebuildable hope headset. Although the cups had been pressed into the frame it had not been faced, which seems a shame (although not a surprise as few manufacturers make this effort). We will get onto that soon enough though.
Dropout area (mech hanger not pictured).
Note the dropout angle. These droputs are designed to cope better with the forces that a bike destined to spend much of its life on the backwheel receives, than a true vertical dropout would. Although our build kit comes as a single speed, the guides for a rear mech cable are present if you would prefer that option.
Trialtech chain tensioner.
This build is going to be singlespeed, and on a trials bike the most reliable way of achieving chain tension is with a spring loaded system. This avoids the rear wheel moving when landing repeatedly on the back end, that can happen with track ends. The component is sturdily built in keeping with the rest of the build, but has been hollowed out at appropriate places to save the all important grams!
Inspired fork detail.
The fourplay forks have been designed to work in harmony with the Fourplay frame. Painted gloss white, they glisten beautifully, which belies their sturdy aluminium construction. As the photo shows they have been machined to save weight where it is unnecessary, but the fork is beefy! The 6mm thick steerer tube has been CNC’ed from one piece of alumium, and tapers to a thicker wall at the bottom, at the crown race where forks are liable to snap after repeateded hooking and landing. The fork legs themselves are large diameter and should resist twisting and bending nicely.
Hollow preload cap.
If you want to learn barspin/tailwhip/decade style tricks, this little gadget will alow you to run your front brake cable through the fork steerer tube. When combined with a long rear brake cable, you can throw dem hot b’s without pulling the hoses out of your caliper. Bonus. Spanner flats allow headset adjustment even when the cable is routed down through the steerer tube.
Nice looking wheelset!
I love these hubs! Bolt on Hope Pro II trials hubs are well sealed, easily rebuildable and come with a short steel freehub body. They build into well balanced, strong zero dish wheels with even spoke tension. The pick-up is really quick and if Ben could get over the clicky noise I am sure he would have one on his bike. I am very excited to see such a nice hub specced on this build. The rear hub ids matched to a front Hope Pro II, again, a highly reliable bit of kit. The Hope hubs are laced to drilled Inspired Team rims with double butted Sapim spokes. The steel 17t Trialtech sprocket is flippable to get the best chainline possible.
Really nice looking pedals.
These pedals look really nice. They have a fairly thin (16mm) CNC concave aluminium body so they should not flip over too easily when you are cranking. Hopefully they should last quite well too. On the chromoly steel axle sits a selection of sealed cartidge bearings and DU bushes. Threaded- in grub screws with allen key ends offer the best grip of any pin style due to their massively reduced contact area. The exposed threads help with grip too.
Dinky pivotal saddle.
Dinky pivotal post.
The saddle is a nice minimal slim design, that would not look out of place on a bmx either. The pivotal system is a great design for applications where fore and aft saddle adjustment is not really necessary. The massive splined system designed by and for bmxers offers easy adjustment and high levels of strength for such low weight. Seatpost diameter is common as muck 27.2mm, and only a fist long (i.e. designed to be run slammed).
Inspired Loc-on grippers.
Its good to see that Inspired have not neglected to remember the small details on this build. Loc-on style grips do make life so much easier if you want to ride in the wet as well. Good choice!
Hot rubber!
Wee Trialey wears a pair of models own Kenda K-rad 2.35″ shoes. They should be pretty zoomy. Yay!
Dmaxxx bell. (tree flair compatible)
The Macaskill edition bell has been constructed using the finest materials known to humin kind. The bell itself is a hand painted painted black number carefully formed from hi-ten. The ergonomically shaped lever is ridged for better purchase in the cruddy conditions of Scotland and runs on a mild steel coiled spring. The clamping unit is beautifully crafted from polycarbonated thermoplastic interwoven with a cornucopia of indigenously sycophantic hydrocarbons. Ring Ring.
Dmaxx signature reflector.
Im not even gonna bother.
More specific details (frame geometry, weights, designers perspectives) of the Fourplay can be found here. http://www.inspiredbicycles.com/products.php?product=1&product_page=1
Have you not bought one yet?
