New Trailstar 2

[deprivedofsleep]

Never really frequented this forum since I don't own any old bikes, but a found a few posts here about Trailstars while I was Googling for info on mine so thought I'd post it up.

I wanted another cheap playbike after selling my STP a few years ago, this came up on Yebay and impulse bidded. A day later it's all mine! My first steel bike, love the sound of the top tube ping!

Was an ex-display model, but from the looks of it its never rolled out of the shop.

May pick up some of the cheap Chainreaction M486 brakes if the price drops again and geared chain-tug at some stage, maybe a set of Pikes if I can find some for a good price.

 

[reanimation]

Hey welcome, That's a beauty, simplicity!
Looks quite small is that a 16"?
Nice colour too, potentially a blank canvas, nice find.
How does it compare to an STP, I very nearly bought an STP a few times, even test rode a cheap one at the shop.

 

[deprivedofsleep]

Hey welcome, That's a beauty, simplicity!
Looks quite small is that a 16"?
Nice colour too, potentially a blank canvas, nice find.
How does it compare to an STP, I very nearly bought an STP a few times, even test rode a cheap one at the shop.

Thanks, yes it's a 16", compact but I'm 5'10 with short legs so reckon it will work for me. It's very nice in the flesh, the satin finish really suits it.

I'm yet to ride it (haven't even fitted pedals yet) so can't compare it to anything so far...

...but my STP was great fun, a relatively slack (for a jump bike) head angle and short stays made it great at tearing through singletrack or stopping off to bugger about on drop offs or the pump track. I'm also told by people much better than me that it was very good over dirt jumps.

Where it fell short was that it was just a touch too small (no pun intended) even with a 400mm post and those short box section rear stays were Monday-morning harsh over any real distance. But those were only minor points and I regretted selling it almost immediately.

If the Trailstar rides with the same hooligan character, but steel comfort and a little more room from the extra inch, I'll be most pleased.

 

[reanimation]

That all makes sense. You may have seen mine but doesnt feel as small as it looks, Just looked smaller than mine but the only 14's were Sidekicks I think. first impressions are good you'll love it.
I didnt know TS2's came in horizontal dropouts, I guess they would have done though.

 

[deprivedofsleep]

Ah yes, I didn't recognize your name immediately but I've got your Twin Trailstars thread bookmarked as a source of info!

The only concrete thing I've found so far is that Trailstars seems to have come in all manner of combinations over the years.
Mine is the BMX shell + horizontal drop-outs version. I'm loving the clean single-speed looks but part of me is wondering if I'm going to wish I'd had the vert dropout version if I choose to run gears later on as I don't fancy the prospect of trying to setup a rear mech with chain tugs.

Your red frame looks ace though. I know most people on here prefer the older frames, but I've got a fetish for anything that's new-old-stock. It's like finding buried treasure!