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Correct they are thermosets, most are very, very stiff in compressive loading situations, >30ksi. Just as stiff as the aluminum caliper under similar compressive loadings. The only reason there would be impressions and deformations in the phenolic piston blocks is due to poor design leading to stress raisers that allow for point loading putting the material into a plastic deformation condition above typical elastic conditions. I personally have never seen such issues with the phenolic inserts in my Hopes, and I have yet to ever hear of anyone mention it before. I don't have a stress-strain curve for Bakelite or...

I believe phenolic resins are a thermoset not a thermoplastic. That means they do not melt at high temperatures. You have to get them hot enough to actually damage the polymer chain for them to do anything.

If you advance the piston past the timing port with the lever in the resting position, you have now created a fully closed system between the lever piston and the caliper pistons, where any expansion in fluid volume (as it heats up) will cause the caliper pistons to advance and thus, brake. It's the whole reason the timing port and the expansion reservoir exist to begin with. The only "real" way to adjust the amount of dead stroke in a brake system is to move the timing port or change the hydraulic/mechanical design by altering the ratio between level and...

Can confirm running a Bronson Cascade link on the V4 Hightower is working great fwiw

Late to the discussion- but I think you'd have to be a pretty good rider doing A-B-A-B testing to feel 250g of unsprung weight on the rear wheel. The unsprung weight on the rear end is probably about 5kg- wheel, tire, brake caliper, cassette, derailleur, chainstay/seatstay, link etc. 250g is a small % change. Another thing I didn't see any discussion about is the fact that the tire is kind of suspension for the wheel. A heavier wheel might make the tire work harder and filter out some vibration before it can even get to the axle. Think about a...

Yeah this was going to be by next point - heavier wheels can make the tyre stick to the ground better (to a point) so isn't guaranteed to be a negative thing. Plus like you say, heavier wheels normally bring more performance gain realative to the weight change. I've always felt most people could easily "sacrifice" a kg or 2 over the whole bike and gain a MASSIVE amount of performance and/or reliability with zero drawbacks but its hard to convince riders of that..... Neko Mullaly did a video exactly on this a few years ago, I believe it was...

I'm an engineering manager in aerospace that spends a lot of time with customers at various DoD agencies. Can confirm that none of the people actually making decisions will ever go on a Podcast or any social media platform. The fact that he feels comfortable going on Joe Rogan and spewing all of that information just tells you that he is not privy to real information.