T-mack profile

The Revive is the WAO answer to the cx/xc market

Some guy rpped by me on an Ebike today as we were climbing up the road. All I could think about was how shitty of a time he must have trying to ride that 60 pound bike down the trails. I don't see the benefit of them but if people are happy to lug them around then so be it.

I don't know about that anymore tbh. Wheel standards do seem to be the default complaint but I think things have settled down for a few years. Lots of new carbon bikes have 148 spacing still.

Yup lots of awesome things coming down the pipe from WAO. The show this year was much better than the last few years, just seemed to have more energy or something.

I'll be there for BBDO 2019. I won't be at the Fivers due to cheating tho :(.

Why do crown races need to be press fit anymore? I always put a slice in mine so it slides right on sans tools. When you tighten the headset it gets squeezed against the steer tube anyway. Notice how there's a race in the top cup that already has a slice? Same same.  The days of bearings actually running on that race are over so I don't see the point anymore.

I find it hilarious how the masses would rather have a water bottle first and suspension design come second but something small like fork offset is a huge deal.

This is what Its all about:

Imagine you're Sam Hill and you're going to race the EWS in Whistler. Do you want a stable at high speed front end or twitchy tight turning front end? Probably stable at high speed so you tell Sram you want the 37mm offset fork. Now you have to race France or something that's super tight with lots of switchbacks, go with the 44mm. Now the general public isn' going to buy 2 forks for each race so you run what you think you'l be most comfortable on most of the time. All of this BS about bikes being built around the offset is marketing.

I'm running the Magura MT5 brakes. Maguras bleed technique is whack imo, ive got a way better system that works so easily. Too much to explain but I feel its a shame that they get a bad rep because of the bleed procedure.

I'm running an R on the front and + on the rear. I actually trimmed a 45 degree angle into the middle knobs to resemble a High Roller and its been awesome. Fave tire combo so far.

Posted by: craw

Posted by: T-mack

Posted by: earleb

I was never a big fan of Nicolai stuff till I started building my own bikes and geeking out of the finer details and machining.

https://en.nicolai-bicycles.com/frames/saturn-14/

Soo many sweet details in their frames. They also kill it with info in their tech sheets.

I feel like if more mtbers were machinists, bikes like the Pole Machine/Stamina and Nicolai would be way more popular.

People around here have been burned by boutique brands enough. Nicolai has decades of quality pedigree behind them. They're also super expensive. They're a niche bike for people that seek them out. The Machine/Stamina is wholly new and evolving by the day. It's a big ask to buy a $5k frame that's being revised every two months. It's exciting technology but for now I think a lot of interested riders are just sitting back to watch. The Evolink frames didn't do too well on the Shore so there's that.

Yeah I'm starting to grow more and more confident on mine but I still check it over after every ride for bends lol.

Posted by: earleb

I was never a big fan of Nicolai stuff till I started building my own bikes and geeking out of the finer details and machining.

https://en.nicolai-bicycles.com/frames/saturn-14/

Soo many sweet details in their frames. They also kill it with info in their tech sheets.

I feel like if more mtbers were machinists, bikes like the Pole Machine/Stamina and Nicolai would be way more popular.

Posted by: craw

Posted by: LoamtoHome

with all the technology in bikes, Fox and RS and figure out how to make CSU's that don't creak after a couple of weeks?

The surge in ebike sales will probably drive this forward. I don't think creaky CSUs have been a big deal outside of the S2S but now that heavy ebikes are under more and more riders that could change.

Funny how the s2s has been a driving force in the need for 36mm stantions and Lyriks over Pikes etc and yet when they can't figure out the creaking, they say we're too small of a market to cater to.

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: JBV

Now that it seems wheel size and frame geo's have more or less settled

ha, hahaha, hahaaahaaahaha. AHHHHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHHHHAAAAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bigger? back to smaller? 26" seems pretty much dead except for kids bikes. as for geo the longer/slacker has been around for a bit, just not for most brands. where it might continue to change is on the ebike front; if climbing comfort/efficiency is no longer an issue due to the pedal assist then that allows bikes to be optimized for downhill performance.

Yeah I think brands are going to put more focus into ebikes and leave analog alone for a while. 148 will stick around for a long while now etc.

That being said a birdie told me that 15mm rear axles are on the way. Now if they're on limited bikes like superboost or only ebikes remains to be seen.

Posted by: FLATCH

Maguras, worth it.

Agree. MT5 for the win

Posted by: grambo

Also never been to Watershed... may head down Sunday morning unless there's word that SFU is clear. From what I've heard Seymour/Fromme is not even close and it's just going to shit kick the poor trails unnecessarily.

I saw the Transition guys were riding double down on Chuckanut last night and it was clear. Might be worth going south

Posted by: DemonMike

They could machine reference points on OP 1, that they would probe in on the 2nd OP. We do similar on some of our casting products.

Yeah like they could use the through holes used to bolt the halves together for location pins on a fixture. Tons of different ways. %80 of cnc machining is figuring out the fixturing imo.

Posted by: DemonMike

Posted by: nouseforaname

Posted by: UFO

I have zero knowledge in this matter as you can likely tell, just laymans 'knowledge'.

After the initial programming and loading the billets, what more is there to do than to hit run? 

Posted by: nouseforaname

Pretty sure that's not the way CNC works. Pretty sure there's lots of set up and checking before you get to hit run. And given the size of the pieces being made it's not like you can make a dozen per slab of aluminium.

Haha me either - I'm pretty sure there's a couple of machinists above us ^^.

FWIW - I understand a CNC machine needs calibration regularly. If you just slap in a fresh slab of alu you can't be sure the heads are still in the same place they think they are. Maybe that's not a problem if theres only enough space per plate of alu to make two frame halves. :shrugs: If it was that easy everyone would be doing it?

LOL 31yrs in the trade , Ty is one as well , he the youngster LOL

Ha a red seal rookie! Anyway every morning when you turn on the machine you do a 'home' function. This is the machines way of finding it's limit switches so it knows where it is, the calibration youre thinking of. Once this is done your work coordinates are always bang on, if not then you have a problem. 

Without getting too crazy into it, one would basically throw on a billet and machine it out. The location of the billet isn't critical at this point but should be pretty close. I'm sure they have a fixture of some sort. When you're done this process they flip it over and would have a fixture with dowel pins or some sort of precision method to locate the frame. Then they would machine the other side. The repeatability would be very accurate depending on the machine. 

Dustin at We Are One uses a HAAS VM3 which can hold a .0003" tolerance I believe. I'd have to look on the haas website but Its less than half a thousandth. Cnc machines are crazy good these days.

Posted by: DemonMike

Is Pole forging their material prior to machining or are they using billet plate? A couple pallet changing horizontals , and probing in a well designed forging they could pump them out pretty quick. With the right equipment and programming they could run lights out.

Yeah that was going to be my next point lol. Wouldn't be hard to pump them out. I'm pretty sure they get them as plates and get the big chunks cut out then use those for linkage pieces.

Posted by: Timer

Posted by: craw

It would be cool to see a more efficient way to build a bike out of 7075 rather than Pole's way, which seems like a lot of added effort. Does 7075 need to be heat treated after this new process? Can someone with some related knowledge comment on that - just because 7075 can be welded can this process realistically be used for making bikes?

So far, I'm not entirely convinced that Poles way of making bikes has actual performance benefits over bog standard welded 6061 tubing. They have a unique look and allow for more creative shapes. But those frames are far from light. Given that welded frames of similar weight are pretty strong already, is the whole CNC+7075 affair actually necessary?

Well I mean they can control the thickness of the 'tubes' in High/low stress areas which is pretty cool. Can't really do that with welded aluminum tubes frames unless the tubes are butted.