ThadTheRad profile

Very, Very cool stuff

YES

"Mariano began to cut up existing BMC Trail Fox frames, modify them, and then put them back together with geometry that better suited the riding this group liked to do"

Now that is something I want to see. Please please please, if anyone at SCOR or Mariano sees this comment, can we pretty pretty please see these prototypes. Pleeeeeeaaaaasssseeee. That is the kind of prototyping that inspires me to want to go back to college just to try and get into some of the composites engineering professional electives.

I'm usually a fan of leaving visible machining marks, it can look quite nice when done properly, but the toolmarks on those 5Dev pedals look horrible. Maybe it's just the oilslick finish, but if you are gonna have a machined surface finish, at least put in the effort to make sure your finishing passes look nice. If not, just toss that shit in the tumbler for a bit. I get that they are pedals and are going to get chewed up anyway, but it would be a nice detail to see, and if I were to see how prominent those toolmarks were after anodizing I would make immediate revisions to the toolpath

Just installed a Wolftooth -2 degree headset on my Kona Woo this past weekend. Overthinking the alignment of it was a bit stressful but overall the installation went quite smoothly. The 3D printed installation spacers were very nice to use and such a thoughtful detail. The relatively low stack height was appreciated as well, just barely had enough steerer tube length on a used fork to fit a BMX stem with low stack height on it without any spacers. 

Really taking a lot of self control to not buy a 1 degree EC34 Works headset for my partner's 2011 Trek Fuel if only for the sake of satisfying my need to tinker with stuff. But if we're running a 120mm 27.5" fork on a bike designed for a 120mm 26" fork it only makes sense to try and shave every single millimeter and degree where it counts, right? Right? It's not just my desire to tinker and change things that will probably go unnoticed by a beginner mountain biker, right?

I love how light my proframe is but I do not love the MIPSqueak. It's bad enough that I've gotten a bit of sensory overload resulting in some serious demotivation on a long climb.

Posted by: AndrewMajor

Posted by: ThadTheRad

Am I remembering correctly of a MEATengines post during peak of bike part shortages about the rarity of SRAM self extracting crank caps? Last weekend I went out for a little hike to scout out snowmelting progress on the most popular trail near me, and lo and behold the one piece of trail litter I discovered was a SRAM Dub self extracting cap.

HA! Yes, Don't Cap Yourself.

Turns out our friend Will up at Republic had hoarded them all up like toilet paper. He sent me a photo of the nice pile of them.

Aha, wonderful! That post was the first thing I thought of when I recognized it's distinct shape embedded in the moist soil.

I immediately stashed it away in a dark corner of my local co-op, patiently waiting for the day that someone comes in with theirs missing and I can dart back into the staff room to grab it, making sure to let them know how lucky they are that we had one in the shop. As the nature of a bicycle co-op or DIY shop is more suited to older bikes with more ubiquitous and recyclable componentry, the satisfaction of not having to tell someone that we do not have any of whatever propriety and hyperspecific part they need and will need to source a new item (likely with some degree of scarcity these days) for their modern mountain bike component is a deeply satisfying and overwhelmingly rare experience.

Am I remembering correctly of a MEATengines post during peak of bike part shortages about the rarity of SRAM self extracting crank caps? Last weekend I went out for a little hike to scout out snowmelting progress on the most popular trail near me, and lo and behold the one piece of trail litter I discovered was a SRAM Dub self extracting cap.