Lykke Carbon Trials Bike review (Part 1)

Review Lykke it or not, Part 1.
Trials bikes are a strange breed 1/2 bmx 1/4 mountain bike and 1/4 left-over parts from long deceased CX and track bikes. Let me digress and explain further, there are 3 kinds of trials bikes for 2 kinds of riding makes sense, why wouldn't there be. The little wheeled ones with 20' wheels are called "mods" as their roots lie in highly "modified" bmx bikes with similar little sized wheels. The mods are highly evolved from the old BMX days in that they carry very powerful disk brakes or Hydraulic rim brakes for precise bike handling no seat whatsoever and very high bottom brackets (like +90mm). The mods also compete under UCI throughout the world in their own class. The history of the mod actually makes sense as lots of bmx'ers are highly skilled tricksters. The trials bike story does not end here, there's more, much more and for so few riders. Along with the mods competing on sort of "natural" terrain are "stock" or 26" trials bikes. The stock bike is based loosely on a fully ridged 26" hard tail single speed mountain bike (think early Hans Rey), but like the mods the stocks are also highly evolved for competition. The other kind of trials riding is the Danny Mac kind, the cool kind "street trials". Obviously the Mac can ride any bike pretty much better than anyone making up the current human population. That said, he has mad trials skills, anther fantastic all around trickster is Chris Akrigg (who also happens to be a past British trials champ) and Fabio W all of these trials riders first weapon of choice for the streets is a 24" street trials bike. The Inspired brand is the grand master of this family, their bikes are shorter in wheel base than the above comp bikes with more moderate BB height and retain super strong disk brakes and heavier gearing for higher speed. The mod and stock trials bikes currently available have a pretty limited selection suitable parts. The common default for parts are a cobble up from other branches of cycling, for example the old Magura hydro rim brakes are pretty much the standard nuff said. There are incremental improvements and a couple manufacturers moving ahead slowly.... until now! .
What caught my eye first was Kevin Liu's short vid on his trials frame mold heading into a press for bladder forming, whaaaattt! an all new all carbon trials bike... hooked! I've been in the reinforced plastics industry for an undisclosed eternity. Filament winding, bladder molding, linear processing blah...blah... blah... but bike manufacturing is truly promising your soul the the Dark Lord. Kevin has the engineering education, manufacturing experience, rider skill, and devotion to our sport to re-think our gear for us, rather than our usual "hay I can make this pile of odd ball stuff work for bike trials". So heading down that rabbit hole, I read further of his strategy. Kevin's goal was to create a bike that works, not most of the time but all of the time. I love to mechanically fiddle as much as the next guy, and that may be what separates us from the savage beast and most of the opposite sex. However, eliminating constant head set adjustments, Magura HS33's leaking and in need of constant burping like a 2 week infant on formula, and fiddle F'ing with snail cams can get old. So I sent the the trials wizard a note and dipped my toe in the water regarding his V brakes. Sure enough his prices are more than fare, plus his bike and components look super comfortable under a guy that's not 12' tall. Simultaneously my beloved Karbon Try-all fork was starting to do funny things and was in need of some serious love. So why not just buy one of his nifty Lykke carbon forks a-la carte do a little adapter for the Jitsie head tube (non-tapered of course) and with a simple set of Lykke V's done! Nope... the wizard simply told me it would be a horrible ride as the head set adapter would compromise my Jitsies already good ride. His recommendation was to see if his sister could dig up a set of compatible replacement carbon forks back at his pad back in Canada while he was basically stuck in Thailand and China, or buy a Lykke frame kit which in all honesty was not all that much more than all the jeetering around to get my Jitsie back to correct. Alas I fixed the shit out of my Karbon fork and rode on...