Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - dsveddy

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 14
1
I have Cybrei, Lexon, and Rockbros. I would suggest going with Cybrei if you can afford it - overall, the quality of each part seems higher.

I find it unsurprising a product that costs twice as much is higher quality than the cheaper one.

2
Bought a set in 165mm during the anniversary sale. I paid under $403 for a set with an xcadey PM, kind of an impossible to beat deal especially with the impending demise of the de-minimis exception in the US.

Anyways, 327g. Judging from the weights I've seen on here and on the Aliex reviews, there seems to be ~5g of variance from unit to unit. Compared to the other 2 165mm cranks posted to AliEx reviews, my unit is the heaviest, but only by 5g compared to the lightest. No biggie.

First impressions: Rockbros did not spend much on packaging/unboxing experience, which honestly I see as a good thing. Wall thickness on the spindle is THIN. I hope not too thin. It's clear they've saved lots of weight on the spindle in this area. Whoever designed this was clever in that once you get leftwards beyond the part of the spindle that sits in the bearings, the diameter of the spindle tapers out to a much bigger diameter to form the crankarm bonding interface. This interface is bolstered by a large-diameter (like 35mm) flanged ring that threads into the inner surface of the spindle, and the flange buttresses the outer surface of spindle-circle on the left crankarm

This seems like a very different design to the lexon, which appears to use a smaller bolt to secure/bolster the left crankarm attachment to the spindle, and may even have a detachable left crankarm. If the carbon crankarms are really the same as they appear to be, then this difference in spindle interface design likely accounts for the weight difference.

3

So there are many ways to design a rim and convergent evolution hasn't quite settled on a single approach just yet. I'm starting to think the industry moved away from the theoretical best - which is likely a toroid - because the need for a rim brake track kinda compromised its advantages and pushed design toward parabolas and U shapes that bulged out closer to the nose. Now that disc brakes got rid of that problem, it's moving back towards toroids.


My guess is that a symmetrical toroidal shape is unlikely to be the best true shape because the leading half of the rim gets clean airflow while the trailing half of the rim gets more turbulent flow, on average. I remember Hunt's engineers saying as much regarding the rear wheel in an interview. The fact that many manufacturers' designs are converging on parabolic shapes (what I've been calling V-ish, I think your elipsoid/parabolic descriptions are more accurate than what I've been using) reinforces my suspicion that wheel designers are finding bigger gains from optimizing the profile of the leading half and throwing the trailing half to the wind, to some extent.


4
Actual market leaders (i.e. CRW Works, Roval Rapide CLX II) don't use v-shape profiles. Zipps are trash tier wheels in general.

1) We don't have wind tunnel data on CRW so it's hard to say. Peak Torque attributes their good performance in his testing to the low spoke count.

2) While it's true the CLX front wheel has a more U-shape, it's hard to compare because the extremely wide shoulder rim bead is an aerodynamic feature that no other rim (besides the new Hunt rims) has.

3) HED Vanquish reliably comes out near the top of wind tunnel test leaderboards, and they use a V-ish profile. Cannondale even licensed the profile from HED for the wheels specced with the System Six. The only intelligent conclusion I can offer is that the difference between V-ish and the modern moderately Toroidal/U-shaped/Parabolic profiles like you see on the CRW is going to be really marginal, and which profile you believe is faster is not unlike affiliation to a religious faith.

My take here is you guys are shooting us all in the foot by telling this seller to change the rim profile, which in effect will limit our choices as consumers. Toroidal/parabolic rim profiles are abundant. These more V-ish profiles are rarer, and it's nice to have the option on the market.

5
Isn't that what V shape means? V has not curve.
As opposed to U shaped rims. U is curved.

This is why I say these modern rim profiles are "v-ish".

"True" V-shape rims have flat walls that come to a point, like you saw on Lightweight Mielenstein or Mavic aero wheels from the mid-late 2000s. "Toroidal" and "U-shape" rims are characterized by a shape that bulges outwards, where the point of peak width and parallel walls is somewhere near the middle of the aerofoil chord (Toroidal) or closer to the spoke nipple bed than the rim bed (U-shape).

Unlike true V-profiles, "V-ish" profiles have a continuously bulging curve along the aerofoil profile to the spoke nipple bed. And, unlike U-shape/Toroidal rims, the point of peak width is no further from the rim bed than ~1/4 of the chord length.

Another key characteristic of modern V-ish profiles is the trailing edges (at the spoke bed) have much larger radii compared to rim profiles of old. Those early V and Toroidal rims that had bad handling featured really sharp trailing edge profiles, with curve radii as small (if not smaller) than half the width of spoke nipples. In contrast, modern V-ish profiles have trailing edges with a radius of around 0.5cm or greater.


6
look good and at that price is mega tempting.
Apparently they are the manufacturer and do 25mm internal although a better rim profile would be more acceptable as it is V-Shaped!
No website and they only sell on Aliexpress

V-ish shaped rim profiles are actually back in vogue with tire widths over 28mm. Look at rim profiles for industry leaders like HED vanquish, Enve SES 4.5, Roval CLX, Zipp 303 and 404 (after MY2022). At least for rear wheels, all these rims have v-ish profiles. HED and Zipp use v-ish profiles front and rear. I think the idea is that with wider rims and hookless beads, recapturing air trailing off the tire is less of a concern because it stays attached across a wider range of conditions than before.

7
Component Deals & Selection / Re: Rally Spindles on AliEx?
« on: March 03, 2025, 09:44:48 AM »
Are these legit? It seems like someone could build themselves a dual sided PM for under $500.

I just don't see the value in risking $500 like this when there's an abundance of proven spider power meter options from Magene and XCadey for $300 a pop. If you have a DA crank you can replace the entire unit with an XCADEY crank with PM and 24mm spindle that is lighter than a non-PM DA crank for less than $500. Does "true" dual-sided power really bring that much more value compared to virtual dual-sided power you get from spider PMs?

The original Garmin vector pedals had a reputation for being finicky to begin with. I've had my share of software issues with Magene's original dual-sided crankarm pods. I can't imagine this solution would be anywhere near reliable enough to justify a $500 hail-mary

8
Component Deals & Selection / Juintech ETF calipers
« on: February 23, 2025, 07:16:35 AM »
Juintech have released a flat mount 4-pot caliper. Some notes of interest:

-extended mounting points to eliminate rear brake block
-one piece construction
-75g and $180 per caliper  :o
-available on Aliex and Amazon Prime

These are the lightest, but also nearly the most expensive caliper on the market. It’s a similar concept to the Hope RX4 caliper, but are nearly $50USD more expensive.

Overall interesting to see these brands enter a new era where they are positioning themselves as the premium boutique option.

9
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Elves Falath EXP
« on: February 11, 2025, 10:40:00 AM »
These guys still don’t know how to design a headtube, huh. Always busting out “aero” bikes with nearly unfaired headtubes the diameter of a coke can.

10
After The Ride / Re: Is an Chinertown build really worth it?
« on: February 07, 2025, 10:07:23 AM »
Having done 2 builds, the margin is close between 2nd hand market and a Chiner build. I did my builds a couple years ago during peak bike inflation so the margin was a bit better, now you have to be more careful. The key is that you need to spreadsheet everything (costs, weights), across multiple builds. You’ll find that some chiner builds turn out pretty expensive for what you get. It also gets very expensive if you make mistakes and buy the wrong parts, install them, and can’t return them.

But case in point: I built up a lightcarbon gravel/cx bike for less than $3k, and comparable bikes new were 5k+ even after discounts.

The other big advantage is you get to control spec. With used/new, you are stuck with paying for wheels/cockpit you didn’t want. Thats not a problem if you build

11
Component Deals & Selection / Re: Chaser bike parts
« on: February 05, 2025, 11:18:33 AM »
Oh Jesus fuck. I did not know about section 301.

Well boys, looks like it’s time to pack it in. The golden age of D2C Chinese bike parts in America is over. It was nice knowing ya.

12
Component Deals & Selection / Re: Chaser bike parts
« on: February 04, 2025, 08:51:34 PM »
Tariff on Chinese goods is now 10% (AFAIK--the announcement said tariffs are increased 10%, but I can't figure out if there was a preexisting tariff that applied), and the de minimis rule has been taken out.

So yeah, 10% more expensive now. Not great but not horrible.

13
Component Deals & Selection / Chaser bike parts
« on: February 04, 2025, 12:17:49 PM »
I've seen the Chaser brand pop up on Aliex and Tiparts for quite a few products now. They seem to specialize in super lightweight aluminum parts, including flat mount brake adapters, cassette and disc lockrings, a 9-gram centerlock adapter, and bar end plugs.

I'm thinking about buying their brake accessories--that centerlock adapter seems to be among the lightest.

Anyone else have experience buying from Chaser?

14
Component Deals & Selection / Re: Magene P325 CS - First Impressions
« on: January 31, 2025, 06:34:45 AM »
They discontinued this model because the crank arms were not stiff. The marketing materials for the QED model that replaced it made a lot of noise about how much stiffer they made the cranks.
I also don’t really like the P325 power meter. Mine gave me constant power dropouts, iirc gplama and someone else found the same.

15
Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components / Re: Speeder Cycling SC-R55D
« on: January 24, 2025, 09:37:00 AM »
Painting is complete.  Now comes the slow build process.  I noticed last night that the rear axle is a 1.5mm thread pitch, while the UDH is a 1.0mm pitch, so there is the first thing needing fixed

This is a horrendous mistake on speeder’s end. Means nobody competent has bothered to check fitment of the assembly they ship

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 14