xy9ine profile

i remember the unishock! soooo shit. they used a coil spring with no damper - just relied on the friction of snug tolerance plastic bushings for a modicum of rebound damping. of course, sealing & lubrication was nominal at best, so they seized within short order.

good to see. i imagine there'll be opportunity for a thriving cottage industry of savvy fixers able to repair no longer supported ebike hardware. curious to see the state of all the current 5 figure ebikes in 10 years time.

good stuff! i love that NF exists - proof that quality local manufacturing (with sane pricing) can thrive. i've got a couple pairs of pants - great product.

i know people that loved frogs (ok, ONE person), but the free-floating / lack of positive retention was sketchy AF to me.

here's the original installation (shudder):

i've run it cruiser mode on my schwinn (sans brake): 

we had a zzyzx come through the shop back in the day & somehow arranged to borrow it for a test ride; did a full disassembly, clean & lube prior to heading up to the bear mt dh track for some laps. after ONE muddy run it was sticky & feeling like shit. quite amazing.

i had a couple USD WB forks - they were quite good (for the era). certainly one of the most reliable forks i've ever run, and decent dampers; lighter & stiffer than a shiver as well. 

my xvert carbon was on the other end of the maintenance spectrum - needed a tear down (to clean & lube) pretty much every race weekend, and ended up cracking the lowers. was quite light, and had a good damper, tho. 

my (1st gen) monster seals died in fairly short order (amazing the volume of oil that can puke past seals on a big open bath fork; i recall seeing people with rags tied to their monsters to catch the flow), and the upper crown broke; otherwise was a good-ish fork? 

i can just go on. we old guys do like to wax nostalgic from our rocking chairs.

random - looks like the brake is more or less functional & someone is making reproduction elastomers for the fork (!), so I could *conceivably* get it rolling again...

oh man. i've been around long enough to have spent lots of $$ on questionable products. i had a mountain cycles suspender fork (circa 1991ish) that looked very trick - inverted single crown with one of the first production disk brakes - but (with only a qr front axle) was terribly flexy torsionally & laterally. and the elastomer springs compressed & hardened reducing the original 2.5" travel to half (i drilled holes in the elastomers to eke out a bit more compliance). it was both more expensive & worse than the OG rockshox RS-1 i had previously. but it sure looked cool.

i like the fox ranger water glove for the local rainy days. nice thin palm with a waterproof(esque) back.

Posted by: Kenny

It's short(ish) travel and pretty playful but has a sledgehammer feel to it at the same time. 

there's something to this genre i think; this, the privateer 141, meta tr (which i'm running) - aggressive & burly enough to not shy away from proper tech, chunk, and even park, with a more "engaging" ride than long travel platforms. a bit weighty for traditional "trail" use, but as versatile, smashy fun hogs, they're great.

haha, for giggles ($49 vs ~$5.77 / roll retail):

https://www.notubes.com/stan-s-rim-tape-60yd-x-25mm

https://www.packbgr.com/filament-and-strapping-tape/tesa-4289-1in-111357.asp

i'm sure tubeless sealant pricing is similarly jacked.

apparently stan's is tesa (4289) tape. impressive margins people are making on this stuff...

consensus that tesa 4288 (rather than 4289) is the current shit? time to pull the trigger...

while it's a neat industrial design project, i'm not seeing much of functional benefit; style over substance.  

and yeah, i agree that gearboxes might (finally) see mainstream adoption in the guise of ebikes. pedally bikes? not so much.

Posted by: shoreboy

Posted by: xy9ine

i'm confused what this is supposed to be. at first glance it looks like it has potential as a cheap / light backroad corner carving toy (with proper tires), but limited to 32km/h? dodging licensing is one thing, but seeing these mixing it up in bike lanes just seems wrong. not unlike the electro scooters, i see bombing about on sidewalks i guess...

The stand up electric scooters are currently legal in some parts of BC (https://globalnews.ca/news/7714175/bc-e-scooter-pilot-project/). They are of course, not allowed on sidewalks, but that doesn't seem to stop them.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-e-scooters-streets-bike-lanes

was actually thinking of the vespa - looking e-scooters with bodywork (not sure what the correct terminology to differentiate from the stand up things is). they're throttled bikes that LOOK like a vespa type thing, but because they're electric (and presumably restricted) they get to shralp bike paths and avoid licensing. i guess these retro things would inhabit the same gray area.

*edit* - ok, the above link addresses said issue.

i'm confused what this is supposed to be. at first glance it looks like it has potential as a cheap / light backroad corner carving toy (with proper tires), but limited to 32km/h? dodging licensing is one thing, but seeing these mixing it up in bike lanes just seems wrong. not unlike the electro scooters, i see bombing about on sidewalks i guess...

i know that spot! enroute to a favorite swimming hole.

sweet frame! would have been near the top of my list had they been available when i was shopping last fall.