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TheKaiser Added a reply to MTB Frame Compliance Analysis & Discussion
11/14/2024 10:00am Henry at PB, and many others, including very good friends of mine who are bike mechanics/wheelbuilders, all seem to think that increasing spoke tension will increase the stiffness of a wheel, and vice versa. They all rely on some sort of "feel" related justification, and post hoc rationalization of why they think the tension is leading to what they think...
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TheKaiser Added a reply to E-bike talk: not tech rumor derailment
11/11/2024 11:18am No worries. Yeah, 56.2lbs is is a bit on the heavier side, although certainly not unheard of for a full power e-bike. I spent a week on a Turbo Levo Comp Carbon, with the big battery, and didn't find it to be too sluggish feeling at 51lbs, although I also haven't ridden one of those Pivots for comparison. Apparently those...
TheKaiser Added a reply to e*thirteen's Sidekick Hub: Impressions & Discussion
11/10/2024 12:04am I've been wondering if the new Bosch CX motor does exactly what you asked for, in terms of building in free movement of the chainring, although I haven't seen any of the reviewers directly address this. All they're saying is that the new motor "decouples" the inner gears from the outer gears, so that you don't get the dreaded clutch...
TheKaiser Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
11/9/2024 11:21pm Yes, that exact retaliatory effect is famously the source of the so-called "Chicken Tax" that we still impose on foreign light trucks imported into the USA, which was in retaliation for the European tariffs that were imposed on the inexpensive American chicken that was flooding European grocery stores in the boom time after WW2.
TheKaiser Added a reply to E-bike talk: not tech rumor derailment
11/9/2024 10:28pm But can you tell us what does the bike actually weigh in it's current form, bro? That will help everyone to determine how much of the sluggish feel is actually due to the poundage, and how much is more due to the subjective traits of the parts and suspension tune.
TheKaiser Added a reply to E-bike talk: not tech rumor derailment
11/4/2024 9:39am Out of curiosity, how much does your Levo actually weigh in it's current form?
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
10/31/2024 12:45pm Wow, that is a pretty harsh but well reasoned review. Credit to the Loam Wolf for trying to investigate and resolve the issues and giving an honest report of the facts, without the sugar coating that you sometimes see with publications trying to keep their advertisers happy.
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
9/23/2024 7:39pm Hey no worries Dale, it was a great video, and as I wrote that a little voice in my head was whispering the various sayings about "you can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time...etc...", so don't let me bring you down. I get frustrated with the repetitiveness of...
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
9/23/2024 2:54pm That was an interesting "Deep Dive" batch of websluthing in the video, thanks for posting it! I'd seen much of that info in the forums over the past couple years, but having it all together was good, even if the video repeated it all 3 times, which was frustrating. It seemed to clear up that "Lewis" is indeed a fully...
Slavid666 Liked a reply to forum topic Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
9/23/2024 12:53pm
You can find the amount of dissolved gas in any fluid by looking up a table of the Ostwald coefficient for that particular fluid. Mineral fluid has 10% from my memory. Most liquids have about 10% dissolved atmosphere in them at STP. Mixing fluids, almost like that of bleeding brakes can increase the dissolved gas in a system until the liquid has had time to reach atmospheric equilibration. Degassing is critical in many industries even those that deal with fluid pressures well over 200ksi, Chromatography for instance. Dissolved air is not in-compressible, oil isn’t either but it’s isothermal compressibility coefficient...
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TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
9/22/2024 4:17pm Yeah, as someone else already said, high quality syringes like in the Sram kit make a huge difference for a few reasons. One is that the bore of the syringe will start, and stay, more round than the more flexible plastic on your garden variety medical style ones. Another big thing, particularly when pulling a vacuum, is that the pieces...
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
9/20/2024 3:53pm That is a seriously intensive bleed process, but I'm glad you found something that works, as it sounds like getting a good bleed on Mavens is a bit tricky. I'm curious about this statement: " one problem I noticed is that with the tiny ports on the sram syringes the oil foams a lot when I put it back into...
TheKaiser Added a comment about bike check Giant ATX 980 John Tomac "Downhill"
9/18/2024 2:33pm
Yeah, if I remember correctly, partway through the last season he rode this bike, he was blown away by how much better the Intense M1s were, and very shortly thereafter he joined the huge number of riders on M1s with their own sponsors paint/graphics affixed.
This bike check has 6 comments.
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
9/9/2024 3:43pm I think the other posts about the mirror like finish possibly indicating contamination are great advice, but I just wanted to add that, given that the pad-swept surface of your rotor goes right to the outer edge, and the rotor is relatively new to you, it would be good to double check that you don't have any pad overhanging the...
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
9/3/2024 10:45pm When you say: "Why is this a thing we must do?" do you mean: A. "Why do our very expensive brakes suck and require creative hacks to work?". or B. "Why does strapping the lever down help our brakes work better?" If you meant A, I can't tell you for sure, other than to say, either bike brake engineers lack...
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
8/28/2024 1:45pm If they are pumping up on rapid pulls but work consistently otherwise, as a general rule, it could be due to 2 different causes. 1. If the pumping up is taking you from an excessively long lever throw to a normal one, that is usually due to a poorly maintained brake that is low on fluid and/or has excessively worn...
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
8/28/2024 1:14pm Wait a tic, are you leaving the bleed cup overnight on the caliper or the lever? I'm guessing you meant lever, but said caliper, unless Mavens have a reversed procedure from most other brakes. Assuming that is the case, and you also have the levers rubber banded, it seems like it could be accomplishing 2 things. The lever compression could...
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
8/26/2024 4:51pm I totally agree with you regarding grip force being strongest when the fingers are closes to the palm, and have always preferred a bite point close to the grip as a result. I'm not so picky on free stroke as long as the return spring in the lever isn't so strong that it becomes fatiguing to hold the lever in...
TheKaiser Added a reply to Arm pump/hand pain solutions thread
6/2/2024 10:41am Regarding your foot question, yes, had that problem too, in 2 situations. The first is when using either a flat pedal/shoe combo with insufficient grip, so I was reflexively trying to "grip" the pedals with my toes. Any of the top sticky rubber shoes and current big/grippy pedals would resolve it. The second was when using SPDs with shoes which...
TheKaiser Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
6/2/2024 8:20am No personal experience with the Dominions, but I have seen rare occasions with other brands of brakes where there was a bad batch of caliper seals, or a bad surface finish on a batch of pistons, which would keep the pistons from advancing properly, and causing excess sea rollback. The fact that you get a slight improvement with thicker pads...