Ask the experts

[klauss]

https://www.taosnews.com/news/crime/...f1982effb.html
Did he do it?

WTF

The GoFundMe page Maurer's wife, Jenn Maurer, set up following the incident — with an original goal of $666

[skaredshtles]

WTF

Name of the bike company checks out: Baphomet Bicycles

[toast2266]

That whole thing reads like an accident that they tried to make a joke about, but the joke didn't land and now the whole thing is a clusterfuck.

[ASmileyFace]

https://www.taosnews.com/news/crime/...f1982effb.html
Did he do it?

Hogrefe then showed a photo of what he says is likely the most convincing piece of evidence that Maurer severed the foot himself: A bloody chainsaw containing signs of bone and human tissue on the chain and inside the sprocket cover.

Fraud is one thing but cutting off your own foot to start a go fund me? Biggest wtf moment I've had in a long time

[skaredshtles]

Fraud is one thing but cutting off your own foot to start a go fund me? Biggest wtf moment I've had in a long time

Doctor: It doesn't look like that foot came off in an ATV accident... looks like it was removed with a chainsaw.

[evdog]

This bike forum is pretty active, which is great. Anyone support the idea of creating 5 ‘ask the experts’ threads on the general topics of Suspension, Brakes, Drivetrain, Wheels, Tires (we have one for that already)?

This current Ask the Experts thread is a PITA. Conversation hops across multiple topics simultaneously, and I see questions and answers repeated since its hard to search such a long and varied thread. Can you imagine if the snow Tech Talk forum has a single main thread? It’d be a shitshow.

I'd be down for that. Either sticky them or create a sticky with links to them so people can easily find them rather than continuously start new threads. I'd probably combine wheels and tires into one thread, and have another for "other".

It would be awesome if gravel and bikepacking could be separated as well. Seems like regular bikepacking talk gets drowned out among all the gravel talk.

[XXX-er]

Lately I’ve seen quite a few lower end Sram derailleurs on Ebikes where the cage pivots wore causing the derailleur to not stay in gear. Even saw that lead to a folded over cassette!

since i am down thar praying to the Shimnao/ Sram gods anyway I usually slop a little lube on all the der pivots but i was never convinced it did any good

but you might have given me new faith

[Wes Mantooth]

Is it acceptable to have to rebuild a carbon wheel after a year? I’m blowing out spokes left and right all of a sudden in non-impact scenarios (one of them was while riding to the trailhead on the road). Had the tension checked after I replaced the last one, reinstalled everything, then found another broken one the next ride. Are my spokes all dying at the same time or is something else going on? Had this happen with aluminum rims when the rim itself bends and it’s impossible to get proper tension, but I’m relatively new to carbon and would think that shouldn’t happen?

The rims have a warranty on them but I don’t know if this is an issue with the rim itself or not

[Andeh]

I've blown out about 6 spokes all on the drive side of my rear wheel which is 1.5 yrs old. The local mechanic chalks it up to Fanatik doing a 3x/2x lacing pattern. These are WAO Union offset rims on a stiff frame that is further offset. I previously ran WAO Agent in the back on the same frame but laced 3x both sides and never had any issues. I went ahead and bought all new spokes and next time I break one, we're going to relace the whole thing 3x.

[toast2266]

Is it acceptable to have to rebuild a carbon wheel after a year? I’m blowing out spokes left and right all of a sudden in non-impact scenarios (one of them was while riding to the trailhead on the road). Had the tension checked after I replaced the last one, reinstalled everything, then found another broken one the next ride. Are my spokes all dying at the same time or is something else going on? Had this happen with aluminum rims when the rim itself bends and it’s impossible to get proper tension, but I’m relatively new to carbon and would think that shouldn’t happen?

The rims have a warranty on them but I don’t know if this is an issue with the rim itself or not

Seems similar to my scenario.

On my raceface next r wheels (fairly light for a heavier duty wheelset), I've rebuilt the rear twice now in about 4 years. Those wheels have seen a fair amount of use and abuse, but yeah, the spokes seem to just kinda give up after 1500-2000 miles. I've yet to rebuild the front though - it's still 100% stock.

Stock spokes were generics. Replaced with sapim cx-rays. Those didn't last too much longer than stock. Just rebuilt again with some (cheaper than cx-rays) dt swiss. We'll see how long they last; I'm guessing about the same.

Edit: these are 3 cross straight pull. They break on both the drive and non drive side, and mostly (but not always) just below the nipple. I can't really point to any clear mode of failure. I think carbon rims are just stiffer and transfer more stress to the spokes, which eventually takes it's toll.

[Wes Mantooth]

Interesting I’m wondering if I’ve just hit that point with mine. They’re consistently breaking non drive side down by the hub and as said not after any traumatic events. I have put in a lot of miles on these wheels including bike park seasons but just coming off a 2 month injury so it’s majorly annoying to be breaking spokes every ride when I’m finally allowed to ride again

[Andeh]

Mine are all breaking within the nipples, usually when landing a little bit sideways. There's one particular little jump that sorta kicks your rear end to the right while you're trying to go left, and I'm pretty sure that's responsible for 4/6 of my breaks. We feel like it's sideloading. It may also be that they (Fanatik) were off by a mm or two on their spoke calc... every one has broken just above the threads but within the nipple. Maybe they didn't put in the 1.5mm offset dish into their calc and it's enough to affect things.

[toast2266]

Interesting I’m wondering if I’ve just hit that point with mine. They’re consistently breaking non drive side down by the hub and as said not after any traumatic events. I have put in a lot of miles on these wheels including bike park seasons but just coming off a 2 month injury so it’s majorly annoying to be breaking spokes every ride when I’m finally allowed to ride again

Yeah, mine weren't breaking during traumatic events either. On my recent round of spokes breaking, 2 popped in quick succession on a smooth climb. I rode the wheel like normal on the descent because fuck it, and one or two more popped on medium sized impacts (on the other side of the wheel from the first two).

Relaced the wheel. Should be good for another 2 years or so.

[Wes Mantooth]

Yeah, mine weren't breaking during traumatic events either. On my recent round of spokes breaking, 2 popped in quick succession on a smooth climb. I rode the wheel like normal on the descent because fuck it, and one or two more popped on medium sized impacts (on the other side of the wheel from the first two).

Relaced the wheel. Should be good for another 2 years or so.

I’m getting close to the fuck it camp as well in terms of riding with broken spokes, but still holding strong. Such a massive pain in the ass process for such a small and cheap repair. I’ll see if Revel has anything to say about the issue otherwise suck it up and rebuild

I’m stronger at carving corners on left handers and the spokes are breaking non drive side, so I wonder if I’m putting more stress on one side of the wheel than the other. I also usually “whip” (sad version of a whip) out to the right which could also cause me to come down harder on the left side of the wheel. Interesting how our little imbalances add up over time - gotta work more on being an ambi-turner


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[toast2266]

I’m getting close to the fuck it camp as well in terms of riding with broken spokes, but still holding strong. Such a massive pain in the ass process for such a small and cheap repair. I’ll see if Revel has anything to say about the issue otherwise suck it up and rebuild

I’m stronger at carving corners on left handers and the spokes are breaking non drive side, so I wonder if I’m putting more stress on one side of the wheel than the other. I also usually “whip” (sad version of a whip) out to the right which could also cause me to come down harder on the left side of the wheel. Interesting how our little imbalances add up over time - gotta work more on being an ambi-turner


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just relace it. It's like $40-50 worth of spokes and 2 hours of time at a semi-distracted pace. And then you don't have to worry about it for a while.

[jono]

Are you guys using butted or straight spokes on these wheels?

[toast2266]

Are you guys using butted or straight spokes on these wheels?

My stock ones were butted. Replaced with bladed cx-rays. Just replaced again with butted dt competitions.

[jono]

Idle curiosity, but I'd wonder if 4x (still butted or otherwise swaged for more stretch) would be better or worse. They'd be longer with more stretch/better shock resistance, maybe.

[summit]

I bet you could build a test stand that could measure the difference but a blinded test on the trail would find riders couldn't tell the diff.

[climberevan]

I bet you could build a test stand that could measure the difference but a blinded test on the trail would find riders couldn't tell the diff.

Nuh-Uh! I can totally tell the difference between brass and aluminium nipples, even when they are on different bikes and tires, months apart! Don't get me started on my preternatural ability to judge the stiffness of stems, again months apart regardless of whether they are on a Supercaliber or a Bronson.

IMO if you're regularly breaking spokes you need more of them and a heavier rim. 350g 28h rims aren't for everyone. That said the old school wheelbuilding lore says that butted spokes are more durable bc the de-tensioning can occur more in the middle, where they never break. Maybe also consider landing, you know, straight instead of sideways.

[toast2266]

Idle curiosity, but I'd wonder if 4x (still butted or otherwise swaged for more stretch) would be better or worse. They'd be longer with more stretch/better shock resistance, maybe.

My vague recollection from the olden days is that 4x is only very, very marginally stronger than 3x. And really, the number of crosses mostly affects strength in the rotational plane - pedaling and braking forces. But my entirely unscientific take is that it's primarily side loading and impacts that are stressing the spokes, which more crosses won't really do anything to help.

I think more spokes would probably help the issue, at the risk of making the wheel feel excessively stiff.

[rideit]

I would only typically build 4X on wide flange hubs or for tandems. The crosses are just too severe. It’s a case of ‘point of diminishing returns’, unfortunately.

[jono]

My prior knowledge aligns with all of that but my prior knowledge also says the rim stiffness is not meaningful. And with aluminum rims I'm sure that was true. With carbon some people have been known to overbuild.

I wouldn't put any value on whether you can measure the difference or not, though. Shock loading can be easier to hear a difference than to measure, so riders may be able to cheat and it still wouldn't tell you whether the peak stress at just the right microsecond was higher or lower.

It just seems like either we're talking about people bashing on wheels harder (because they can?) or a shift in the balance of flexibility between rim and spokes. Probably both are true. I don't expect adding flex to the spokes would help as much vs the rim, but by the time you're getting steel to live for thousands of cycles it might only take a few% stress change to double the life.

[teledad]

Butted spokes are normally more durable since the spokes can flex and spread load, but that's when the force is applied through the plane of the wheel. For a wheel that's getting a lot of cross-loading I would consider using straight gauge instead for more lateral stiffness. Also agree that a heavier/stiffer rim and more spokes would help.

[jono]

Less heavy/stiff rim seems to be preferred.