DancingWithMyself's comments

Andrew - Thanks for the reply and great point.  Not "digging in" might definitely be a better goal that not "touching." And that's probably a better way of describing where squarewaves fall for me.

I've tried really thick grips, and absolutely agree that a thinner grip helps me relax my hands more.  

Maybe the reason I love the squarewave shape so much is that my hands are on the larger side given that I'm a little over 6'1", so the middle diameter feels good (and gives me some cushion in that area of my palm), but I'm still get the feeling of 29ish mm diameter with my pinkie. 

Thinking about the renthals some more, what I didn't get along with was the lack of cushion in the middle more so than the small diameter all the way across the grip.  Maybe I'm leaning on my bars too much on longer rides on rolling terrain, which could be a combo of lack of core strength and modern geo.

Edited the post before I saw your comment (sorry about that) because I agreed I had said it poorly and didn't mean to be snarky.

Something I don't see getting discussed is how realistic it is to believe bike companies can produce cutting-edge motors with very high levels of quality control.  Not an easy thing to do, even if you go hire some expertise.

Introducing a motor and electronics takes the potential for failure and other warranty issues to a whole new level.  And motors are black boxes about which I most certainly do not have a sufficient knowledge base to evaluate design, how likely it is to be robust, etc.  I can't imagine we're going to get one of Andrew's incredibly insightful teardown articles about a motor anytime soon.  And users can't evaluate and repair them.

I was nervous about all of this, but looking at TQ's history, the other markets that are their bread and butter, etc. gave me enough confidence to pull the trigger.

Not trying to make a dig at people that own Shimano, Spesh, and Rocky motors nor be a fanboy.  I'm sure many of them have had a great experiences.  Just thought it might be helpful to briefly consider my line of thinking when shopping a TQ motor against a bike-brand motor.  

To make a way oversimplified analogy, would you rather have a tool from a tool company (e.g., Wera, Knipex, etc.) or Park or Pedro's?

It's so widespread that their official silence unfortunately may be fairly strong confirmation.  But maybe/hopefully they are deep in discussions about a potential injection of capital.  Never owned one of their bikes, but mountain biking is better with more companies like GG.

I love my EXe and haven’t ridden a Spesh, so confirmation bias, etc.

But go read some of the comments on Game of Forks.  Personally, I don’t know if I’d ever trust a bike manufacturer to design and manufacture a motor.  That’s why the EXe was my first ebike.  

Hopefully some helpful food for thought.

Incredibly insightful!  Thank you!

Not sure about exchange rates if you're across the border, but you used to be able to get a tool and various heads pretty cheap from Oliver at Blue Liquid Labs.  If you do lowers services yourself and have some buddies that do, might be worth going in on one together.  It's pretty damn simple to run the tool through the bushings.  

And if you're neurotic like me, there's value in doing it on every new fork just so you know that's not the issue and it wouldn't improve things.

Thanks!  Do either of you know what diameter they were?  Isn't readily apparent from the site.

I just don't understand why the squarewave shape hasn't caught on more. Thinking about it in the abstract, I'd want my grip diameter to be just large enough that my middle finger is not hitting my palm, but I'd also want to get as much wrap around the grip as possible with me ring and pinkie fingers.  

Makes so much sense to me and feels so good.  And basically the only way to accomplish that is with the squarewave shape.

Maybe I have weirdly disparate finger length . . .

Appreciate the response on this.  

For trail and lighter enduro, would be looking to run EXO front (hopefully a DHR 2.5 EXO Maxxgrip ;) ) with CC trail, because it gives me more damping and grip while still performing pretty good in high speed berms.  For the sake of superstition, I'll forgo any comment about whether I've ever torn a sidewall on a front tire.

Would go DHR DD Maxterra (or hopefully sometimes a Dissector DD dual) in the rear.  

I know no one cares exactly what I want to run, but at least a data point on what one person wants that's not already in the thousand different combos y'all currently offer.

Again, super cool to see y'all engaged in the comments.  Thank you for listening.

If your comfortable sharing, I'd be curious about the philosophical approach regarding inserts, which is somewhat inherent in an EXO maxxgrip offering.  

I'm not sure EXO+ does anything with a CC pro or trail.  And, for example, the assegai is not offered in EXO maxxgrip, on EXO+.  I've always interpreted that as a decision not to offer tires with inserts in mind?  Or maybe it's a more practical decision that the market isn't that large and the insert crowd will accept EXO+?

Thanks for the reply!  Fingers crossed.  

I think people want a front tire without the dead zone of DHF 2.5 but that isn't as draggy and heavy as an Assegai for pedaling.  Don't know if that's a feasible and large enough space for a new tire that's similar to the DHR but with subtle difference like maybe the direction of siping of the center knobs, or if it's simply a DHR.  But I think the demand is there.

And to respond to your question about other additions, I'd be pretty interested in a Dissector 2.9 x 2.4 DD in dual compound to complement a DHR DD in maxxterra, swapping them on the rear tire depending on conditions.  I think for when and how I'd use the Dissector, I could live with dual compound for durability and speed.  But I haven't ridden a dual compound tire in a long, long time, so I'd take that with a grain of salt.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I've searched the BMX and moto worlds pretty thoroughly.  There's something in the moto world that looks really appealing, but one of the grips is the wrong diameter or something like that for some reason (don't know anything about moto).  Think I looked at what Paul recommends, but I'll make sure I did.

Ultimately, I think I'm just peculiar about my grips.  And since it doesn't seem like companies are interested in making new push-on grips, I just need to adjust to what's in the marketplace, which probably means running push-ons seasonally.  At least the non-summer months are when I tend to do really long rides on rolling terrain, which is where my hands bother me the most.

I have.  I think I have a slight preference for a Sensus EMJ, but Waxes are in second place, if not 1B.  I may end up running push-ons from Oct-May and squarewaves when the sweat factor gets intense (in the southeastern US).  

Don't know if you noticed it, but Sensus is making a "Lite" lock-on with the following pitch, "The Sensus Lite is brewed with the traditional Sensus pattern but with tighter and smaller ribs. This creates less "float . . ."  It caught my eye as that's what bother's me.  

Maybe over this winter I can get fully acclimated to it.

That's a super interesting point about focusing on the entire area under the spring curve as total energy.  Have not heard that before, but makes total sense.  Thanks for enlightening me!

Both of those look appealing to me.  Think Vorsprung has HBO and Push has something comparable that uses air.  Very happy with a Runt in my Zeb.  But still not available for my Lyric.  I need to bite the bullet and give one a try.

Seems like there's a space for a 2.5 front tire that rolls better than an Assegai and has less of a dead zone than a DHF?  Aside from maybe more braking performance, isn't that what people are chasing when they run a 2.4 DHR II up front?