pimpedaline

I am not backing SRAM fork oil, but you have to be careful when buying fork oils from motorcycle shops. Some of them contain an additive that makes the seals swell and can lock your fork up. If you have been having good luck with the oil you have been getting great If you ever change brands or even formulas from the same brand drop an old seal in some of the new oil over night to make sure it does not swell or eat you seals. I have seen this happen more than once and a fork/shock that is blowing oil, or wont move is no fun.

I turn 50 this fall and my work life has involved wrenching in some form or another. I do have college education in electronics technician, but once I got into the field I realized that it wasn't for me. I am currently trying to get into a mechanical engineering program so I can maybe get a design job in the bike industry, or set up a small CNC shop and serve the small boutique bike market with limited production full custom items.

Had a similar thing happen to me. I was a bike mechanic and loved my job. Loved it so much that I would work extra long hours,16+ hour days 6 days a week during the busy season. I would take that one day off and go ride. After doing that for 7 years I developed tennis elbow in my dominate arm, but I loved my job so I kept working the long hours and started going to physio. The problem got worse so I cut back my hours and agreed to have surgery. After a long recovery, Sept.-Jan, I was given the OK to return to work on light duties and only working 4 hours a day. 4 weeks later my elbow was right back to where it was before the surgery. I then went through a platelet rich injection treatment. That was the most intense pain I have ever felt, but it did nothing. Over this whole surgery, recovery, next treatment period I was unable to ride my bike. Even a quick jaunt down the block would make my left arm and hand useless for the next week. Last year I had a second surgery on the same elbow, went through the long recovery period and had no improvement, if anything it got worse. In the end was given a list of permanent restrictions that will keep me from doing the job I loved and the pain I experience prevents me from ever riding again. Finally this year I had to be realistic and I sold both my DH and trail bikes. I miss the days of riding and wrenching on bikes, and am still trying to adjust to this new life style.

Too bad that this is not 1972 style music, it is more 1992. I know because I was in the music scene back then, right down to the long hair, Jackson guitar , rack effects, and a full Marshall stack. It was a good time, but I look back at pictures of myself from that time and it is embarassing :p

I enjoyed the music, and Macduff's riding is always fun to watch, but who ever directed and edited the video did a poor job of bring it all together. That or the guys in the band suck at pretending to play their own music because the timing was way off most of it and it just killed the whole thing for me. Maybe it is because I use to play that timing matters so much to me. On a plus side the over all feel of the video was good and I liked the composition of the riding shots. It is just the band not being in sync with their music:o

This is a very closed minded article, sure 50 bikes needed to go and full body armor was a little over kill for 95% of the riders out there. Skinnies were great and showed full control of the bike and body. Urban riding was all that some people had, not everyone lives on the side of a mountain or even has a decent riding spot within a 5 hour drive. Why should they have to ride a BMX because of their geography? Lastly, I loved stair gaps. Man made, natural, it didn't matter. There was a thrill that came from launching off the top, clearing the flat, and putting the bike down on the last few steps that couldn't be matched. Coming up short or over shooting always had bad consequences. If you don't like these things thats fine and dandy, to each their own, but keep in mind purple ano parts made a come back with the hipster fixie crowd. You are going to look pretty funny in your skinny jeans on your light weight 29r while all the cool kids are riding 50 pound monsters while wearing full body armor and baggies while railing skinnies and launching stair sets. By the time that happens you will be old like me and wont care how you look or what you ride, you will just do what you like and say the heck with the current trend:p

It is a different process for different metals. High carbon metals are heated to its austenitization temperature, then quenched to make it hard. Yet copper get work hardened and is heated and quenched to make it soft again. Kevin Cashen, a very knowledgeable blade smith has a lot of useful information on heat treating steel, but nothing on aluminum:(

Unless you are using a progressive spring, a springs rate is constant therefore the force/speed it returns stays the same with a constant load. Preload does not change the spring rate only its starting point. The higher compression setting will cause back pressure in the system and act sort of like a helper spring, it is basic physics. And yes you did mention preload and spring rate.