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Test Hammering

GSAstuto

Maximum Pace
Oct 11, 2009
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I'm getting some variously new bits and pieces in and if anyone wants to torture test please let me know.

Mainly:

1) Microshift stuff. A fairly decent alternative to Shimano - but uses twin lever shifting ala Campy. I'm not a derailler guy - but these seem pretty good.

2) Saddles. I made up 2 pretty decent saddles , but still playing around with these. Looking at using soft carbon for the next prototypes.

3) Frames. I'll have a couple of generic carbon frames for anyone to beat the %$#* out of. Any takers? What size would be most <least> common denominator.

4) Forks. I have a few to choose from. Fat Aero hammers to svelte HCversions. Does a fork really matter? I have no idea. As long as the front wheel stays, well, in front of me, I really don't care. But at a fraction of the weight of cro-mo, I can dig that.

5) Wheels. Do they <really> make that big of difference? Lets try it out! for example how does a 50mm rear 2X / Radial generic really perform compared to a Lightweight that costs as much as Charlie Sheen's Coke habit?

Anything else??? Lets have a friggin play day!
 
If you want something torture tested let me ride it for a while :D
 
give me the wheels! :D
 
I`ll hammer a saddle for you, if you want.

I can stick it on my BMX and take it street riding, where it is guaranteed to get dropped on the floor about 100 times.
 
I'd be up for some wheels and saddle. How do you see this working out. All meet up somewhere with some tools and get to it? Report back as needed? Sounds too good to be true :)
 
Hi there - pretty easy to do this, I think. I do want some hard effort tests on this - and of course just general feedback. So - the time on the part should be more or less dedicated and finite.

So - I have 2 different saddles to swap around. This is probably more for the individual feedback than anything cause saddles are so individual. But a good chance to get some overall feedback.

Wheelset is 38mm Tubular carbons. I have these in 55mm as well - but main thing is just getting feedback on the rigidity , road feel, etc. And of course any failure issues (no BMXing please). They are tested up to 180kgF.

Fork is a bit hard to test without a direct A/B (and maybe some cutting) - it's OS size (1 1/8) and prefer to fit it on framesets around 58 or smaller - then I can just add spacers (ugly, but it willl work for testing).

I will take the resulkts and continue to feedback to the mfg so we can fine tune midrange prdts that people really want and work well within economic and performance constraints.
 
Tim, I can test out the saddles! I'm going to be on a 3 day ride out next Friday to Sunday! Maybe wheels too maybe?
 
Tim,

Would love to test out the carbon wheels sometime. I promise to be easy on the front wheel. For the backwheel, I have been looking at Carbon tubs from OEM makers for a while, wondering how flexy they are. Haven't found any wheel that doesn't flex under pressure.
 
Hi Gunnar - actually all wheels will flex somewhat - but you can get a really good ride by doing a radial / 2x lacing. This gives you very good driveside xfer and maintains lateral stiffness. Most vehicles from the 1900's have used this technique (and so does HED, for example). There really is no good reason to lace a wheel symetrically unless you need 'flip flop' or you have a perfectly symetrical wheel to being with (like Front wheel) which is exposed mainly to lateral forces. If you want really stiff wheel, then doing a high spoke count with crowsfoot lacing would work. Outside that - you are looking at something like Mad Carbons.
 
id like to do the wheels to (as its the easiest part to change) but I fear I am far to much of a newb to give any real kind of feedback. My limited experience would probably not be that helpful.
 
Says the man...

I`ll hammer a saddle for you, if you want.

I can stick it on my BMX and take it street riding, where it is guaranteed to get dropped on the floor about 100 times.

...with the broken ankle!
 
Actually Owen could tape the saddle to his broken ankle and then we'd finally get a chance to get him on a ride!
 
You know - I'm thinking just doing a parts swap 'play day'. Maybe meet up around Wada and then pound up and down the hill. That's a pretty good test road for alot of conditions.
 
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