quest è un articolo che ho trovato su bikeguide.org...butta alquanto male sinceramete e mi ha dato l'idea che anche le case produttrici di bmx tentino di buttrcela in culo come ogni altra ditta di ogni altra cos (benvenuto bel mondo reale freddy)
legge te leggete
Sheep-Dog Bites 6.0
The price of failure
First off, I want to say this is not an attack on weight freaks, since I know many will interpret it that way, and while thy did create the market for the situation, they are not the ones I am placing blame on today.
How much did you recently spend to shed ¼ pound off your bike? How many frames have you bought in the last 2 years? Why did you buy them? One was probably a new BB, another possibly for the new headsets, and possibly one to lose more weight. Correct? If not, I bet you wanted to.
I am not opposed to improvements. I am not opposed to watching parts weights, however something is happening that people need to be made aware of, as it is/will becoming an epidemic. Companies are working ever so hard to get you to buy things and doing so based on weight, wasn't that the point of the euro and these new tubes? All the whilethe manufacturer is claiming the part is stronger than its predecessor. To a point, better engineering is accomplishing just that, however in many cases this is far from true.
The best example of this is the new stems. Stems are made from the same materials they always have been for the past few years (other than a rare few). Nothing special, just plain old 6061. Now, think about this, if the material is unchanged, and all you did was remove material, without changing dimensions, how can this product be stronger? It is not even going to be the same strength. At best it can be close. Yet manufacturers are slimming and trimming to make seat clamps, and stems as light as possible. If nothing changed except material removal, it cannot be stronger.
Frames are a similar situation. While some are using stronger materials, others are using the same material as before, only making it thinner. While the material may be stronger, who's to say the welding process has not made the tube weaker. G of G-Sport recently wrote an article pertaining to this if you would like to read more. G's article is posted here it is quite good and dispels a lot about high tech tubing and the mysteries surrounding it. Once again if things are the same but thinner, it cannot be any stronger, barring significant changes in design.
So why are some light parts lasting and others not, simple.. Riding has changed. We no longer do 7 foot drop-offs to flat ground, and beat the living hell out of our bikes. Riding has gone more park, where flow is preferred over slamming into and destroying things. Granted people still do it, but not nearly as much. Guys who I know destroyed Big Cities and 48's, are now sporting euro BB's and 36 spoke Big Cities. Same parts that would not have lasted a week under the same rider 2 years ago.
The real problem is what is coming. So far most companies have been content to just shed weight from current products and be happy with it. Riders however are buying parts based on weight and some companies are willing to sell those parts regardless of them being safe or not. Some are willing to risk a bad rep just to make a sale. Most riders take a companies word that a part will work. Or they see factory riders running a part and assume that it is good. This is a bad thing to do, and it is getting worse. How many wanted the 24 spoke prototype wheels some riders were running? Pros do not pay for parts. If a frame lasts 2 weeks it does not matter.
I used to build and maintain a particular pros wheel, every month or so he would bring it in trashed. We would replace spokes and do what we could to nurse it back to health until new parts could arrive. He ran a 36h Big City , with Profile S.S. cassettes. Several times I tried to get him to let me build him something that would last him at least 6 months and only add 1/8 pound of weight or less. His response was something along the lines of Why, I do not pay for this crap. Another thing I noticed, many pros do not give a damn about quality. They will often run whatever is given to them rather than pay for something better.
If they blow a tire and need one, and all they can find is a red Comp3 fake, they will often run it until they can get a new part sent to them for free. Many pros are tightwads. They also will start stupid trends for fun. Like bringing mags back. There is no real reason to want to run a mag wheel in this day and age. So while many are trying to copy them, many times the pros are doing what they can to either be cheap, be different, or not care some are simply using the thing they like regardless of consequence.
Years ago I thought companies listening to riders was a good thing, and we did have a few good years of it, however now things have shifted to the extreme. Pros with no engineering skills are now running the designs, and in some cases that can be a very bad thing. They want as light as they can regardless of what is practical and so do you the rider. This is an accident waiting to happen.
All I am saying, is think before you buy that stupidly light part. If its lighter than others, there is probably a reason why. Think before you buy some of these things, use a little common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. Some of these dangerous or weak parts are already on the market, you may have heard of a few of them. Over the next few months I expect an awfully lot more of these parts to come out as companies see sales pick up and fight for their slice of the pie. One last thing to keep in mind, just because a company is reputable, does not mean they will not sell you out, some of these parts are coming from well respected companies that have been around long enough and seen enough to know better.
legge te leggete
Sheep-Dog Bites 6.0
The price of failure
First off, I want to say this is not an attack on weight freaks, since I know many will interpret it that way, and while thy did create the market for the situation, they are not the ones I am placing blame on today.
How much did you recently spend to shed ¼ pound off your bike? How many frames have you bought in the last 2 years? Why did you buy them? One was probably a new BB, another possibly for the new headsets, and possibly one to lose more weight. Correct? If not, I bet you wanted to.
I am not opposed to improvements. I am not opposed to watching parts weights, however something is happening that people need to be made aware of, as it is/will becoming an epidemic. Companies are working ever so hard to get you to buy things and doing so based on weight, wasn't that the point of the euro and these new tubes? All the whilethe manufacturer is claiming the part is stronger than its predecessor. To a point, better engineering is accomplishing just that, however in many cases this is far from true.
The best example of this is the new stems. Stems are made from the same materials they always have been for the past few years (other than a rare few). Nothing special, just plain old 6061. Now, think about this, if the material is unchanged, and all you did was remove material, without changing dimensions, how can this product be stronger? It is not even going to be the same strength. At best it can be close. Yet manufacturers are slimming and trimming to make seat clamps, and stems as light as possible. If nothing changed except material removal, it cannot be stronger.
Frames are a similar situation. While some are using stronger materials, others are using the same material as before, only making it thinner. While the material may be stronger, who's to say the welding process has not made the tube weaker. G of G-Sport recently wrote an article pertaining to this if you would like to read more. G's article is posted here it is quite good and dispels a lot about high tech tubing and the mysteries surrounding it. Once again if things are the same but thinner, it cannot be any stronger, barring significant changes in design.
So why are some light parts lasting and others not, simple.. Riding has changed. We no longer do 7 foot drop-offs to flat ground, and beat the living hell out of our bikes. Riding has gone more park, where flow is preferred over slamming into and destroying things. Granted people still do it, but not nearly as much. Guys who I know destroyed Big Cities and 48's, are now sporting euro BB's and 36 spoke Big Cities. Same parts that would not have lasted a week under the same rider 2 years ago.
The real problem is what is coming. So far most companies have been content to just shed weight from current products and be happy with it. Riders however are buying parts based on weight and some companies are willing to sell those parts regardless of them being safe or not. Some are willing to risk a bad rep just to make a sale. Most riders take a companies word that a part will work. Or they see factory riders running a part and assume that it is good. This is a bad thing to do, and it is getting worse. How many wanted the 24 spoke prototype wheels some riders were running? Pros do not pay for parts. If a frame lasts 2 weeks it does not matter.
I used to build and maintain a particular pros wheel, every month or so he would bring it in trashed. We would replace spokes and do what we could to nurse it back to health until new parts could arrive. He ran a 36h Big City , with Profile S.S. cassettes. Several times I tried to get him to let me build him something that would last him at least 6 months and only add 1/8 pound of weight or less. His response was something along the lines of Why, I do not pay for this crap. Another thing I noticed, many pros do not give a damn about quality. They will often run whatever is given to them rather than pay for something better.
If they blow a tire and need one, and all they can find is a red Comp3 fake, they will often run it until they can get a new part sent to them for free. Many pros are tightwads. They also will start stupid trends for fun. Like bringing mags back. There is no real reason to want to run a mag wheel in this day and age. So while many are trying to copy them, many times the pros are doing what they can to either be cheap, be different, or not care some are simply using the thing they like regardless of consequence.
Years ago I thought companies listening to riders was a good thing, and we did have a few good years of it, however now things have shifted to the extreme. Pros with no engineering skills are now running the designs, and in some cases that can be a very bad thing. They want as light as they can regardless of what is practical and so do you the rider. This is an accident waiting to happen.
All I am saying, is think before you buy that stupidly light part. If its lighter than others, there is probably a reason why. Think before you buy some of these things, use a little common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. Some of these dangerous or weak parts are already on the market, you may have heard of a few of them. Over the next few months I expect an awfully lot more of these parts to come out as companies see sales pick up and fight for their slice of the pie. One last thing to keep in mind, just because a company is reputable, does not mean they will not sell you out, some of these parts are coming from well respected companies that have been around long enough and seen enough to know better.