Tech from the Pits: Vallnord DH World Cup 2016

 Absolutely nothing warms my loins more than some sexy CNC and some masterful welding, and lets not forget the beauty of brazing.

 @steve45: "warms my loins" wtf

 @me2menow: haha warning tight redneck here

 @me2menow: let the man have his warm loins. whatever one wants to do behind closed doors......

 I still don't understand how Troy is on a different team than those guys...

 @MikeyMT: Yeah! And I heard Gwinn left the team and moved to YT. What is up with that?

 Don't worry, we're working on getting some in for evaluation.

 I am also curious. Seen them now on a few bikes, they either work, or they kick you something sweet for mounting them up.

 I wonder if any F1 teams use them?

 axxios-tech.com/bike Can't believe they're serious

 Sounds like a sellout. The energy has to dissipate somewhere and that little stamp can't be dissipating that much heat.

 Snake oil surely?
Surely any time improvement is psychological from having these "Magic patches".
Sorry but the inner realist in me says these are bullcrap, stick a patch of Alu foil tape on every component for similar "gains".

 @richard01: Couldn't agree more. Pure bullshit.

 The same type of device is used on mass produced cars. Im sure proper placement is absolutely key, but if that industry slip sit through with their tight wad bean counters, its probably legit.

 @jrocksdh: dampers (J Dampers) in F1 have been banned for a while.

 @es7ebanlv: These patches are no "J Dampers", they have absolutely no relation to the inertial or mass dampers from F1, absolutely no idea where you got the relationship with them mixed up???

 They probably work about as well as magnetic bracelets

 That being said a good placebo that makes you more confident can create a real mental benefit. Either that or they just have them for cynical marketing purposes which is more likely

 Those dampers also make you better in bed, and make your wife comes back

 same riders have crystal necklaces and read auras.

 Aren't these merely sensors, that collect data on vibration for the purpose of understanding and designing damper systems?

 @cerealkilla: no, they supposedly intercept vibrations and counter them

 @Pedro404 I wouldn`t call them sell outs, just gullible. And let`s not forget that (as much as it pains me to say) the placebo effect is real, so they might actually be faster with this crap.

 These things are complete bullshit. BUT for 10,000$ I'll put some on my bike for the next 5 years!

 Wait, what? By what possible physical mechanism is that sticker supposed to detect or dampen vibration? Unless there's something going on inside the head tube that we can't see, I call BS.

 @multialxndr: magnetic bracelets saved me at least 5 seconds!

 Isn't "attach this sticker to your bike and we will give you money" the entire basis of professional bike racing?

 @Fribour: your wife comes on your back?

 @mikekazimer:

you need to run some measurable, blind tests on 2 of the same model / size bike on the same DH run with the same rider, 1 with the stickers, 1 without. Multiple runs on both bikes to average the data.

and some way of detecting vibration on both bikes. and then does the rider actually notice? it there an improvement in speed due to less vibration reaching the rider, and the rider feeling comfortable to push faster?

is the rider actually faster? or feels faster?

vibration/feedback can be a strange thing?

on road bikes pumping up a 700 x 23c tire to 130psi (old school) actually provides a slower ride than 700 x 25c to 95-100psi as the harder 23c tire cannot maintain grip on real world road surface without excess deformation which is frictional / heat losses in carcass; if tire is too hard the tire will leave the road surface on numerous occasions

the 23c "feels" faster to rider due to increased vibration and road shock, but according to the manufacturers lab and real world timed testing (i.e. Continental on their GP4000II tires in 23/25/28c) is slower than the 25c.

the 28c is actually more efficient until higher speeds where aerodynamic drag is noticeably higher than 25c or smaller

is the advantage from these stickers really the placebo effect? the blind test should sort this out.

 @mikekazimer: Get ready to become a laughing stock with anybody who has even the slightest knowledge of the laws of physics. You'll be telling people to wear magnetic holographic wrist bands next.

 @dthomp325: lol

 @steve45: give him a break goddamn Steve

 @hampsteadbandit: also have the same test but with an amateur rider; they claim on the manufacturers website, that amateur riders would benefit more.

 @mikekazimer: Proper testing on a fork mounted on a testing machine in a lab? Gather vibration data with and without sticker and compare. Testing these while riding a bike vs riding without them is not testing them.

 @weebleswobbles: only if you do it right

 @mikekazimer: PB, please use telemetry gear or some kind of scientific approach, do proper testing.

 @steve45: no confusion, I meant those are the only dampers ever used in F1, in answer to the question "I wonder if any F1 teams use them [dampers]?"

 @hampsteadbandit: Thing is the sticker has nowhere near enough mass to have any humanly perceivable effect. So you dont even need a test.

 checkout there website axxios-tech.com

 @mikekazimer: Save the on the bike testing, just attach one to a tuning fork.

 @mbikes1: clever!

 @es7ebanlv: you're mistaken, J-dampers or inerters are still widely used in F1. Tuned mass dampers, used mainly by Renault over 10 years ago, were banned since they put something like a 10 kg weight suspended by springs into the nose (to dampen the movements of the car).

J-dampers are still used, since they are not a safety issue like that weight was. And the point of both TDMs and inerters is to smooth out the suspension movement of the car (prevent any spikes), since it's become known that the tire works best if it has as stable a loading as possible, the less spikes in the forces from the road there are, the better. J-dampers thus prevent or lessen any sharp accelerations (peak jerks, time derivatives of acceleration (da/dt) are lowered, just like peak accelerations are lowered by a damper through speed control and speeds are lowered by a spring through travel control).

 Brakes only slow you down!

 @karoliusz: good brakes make it possible to brake later, making you faster. That's why I rather go for 30g extra for a four piston caliper instead of a dual piston caliper. Even on XC / when climbing a lot it will still make you faster overall, unless you're one of those forrest-roadie xc riders who can only climb but has no technical skills to descend at decent speeds.

 Yea, the Direttissima, should be getting a pair "soon"

 @Mattin: Speaking of slowing down, I think you flew right past the humor in @karoliusz 's comment.

 @GumptionZA You're right: enduro-mtb.com/en/best-mtb-disc-brake-can-buy/15

 @Mattin: Subjective things like humor are impossible to pin down, but recognizing the joke is prerequisite to assessment.

 @Mattin: honestly i allways thought peope were crazy for using single piston brakes on a DH rig.(its not common but some people do it ) Thats is untill my saint brake gave out and swapped it for an SLX. I really couldnt believe how little difference their was. I actually allmost prefer the feel of the single piston slx brake over the saint. My experience with SLX and XT brakes have been my best. Totally consistent and predicatble.( although my zee brakes were great ).

 @strux: find me one article which mentions Gwinn riding TRP that doesn't have people commenting "brakes only slow you down"

 @Mattin: Find me a bike release article that doesn't have someone saying, "looks like a session". The point is, most people aren't going to respond seriously to it.

 @Mattin: i also thought it was funny.

 @strux: then why are you responding seriously to my comments?

 @Mattin: in Holland brakes are not that much of an issue, I reckon

 @karoliusz: in Amsterdam they are more important than anywhere else. Can't ride for 2 minutes on a bike lane without some stupid tourists suddenly deciding to make an unsuspected move and step right in front of you onto the bike lane. Usually it happens about once a minute while riding. Don't understand if they don't know the meaning of the red bike lane, if they are blind, or if they are too retarded to function properly... Tourists are the most dangerous things in our traffic.

 @Mattin: Well stop selling them weed and hoes on ever corner, street and coffee shop. Then there is a higher probability of the tourists being sober and not distracted whilst walking down the stretch the next museum!

 @Shinobi13: I wish I could. It's not on every corner though, it's just a very small district that you could walk through in less than 5 minutes if it wasn't that crowded over there.

The problem main with tourists here is that they either don't know the concept of a bike lane and think they are allowed to walk on them, or that they don't live in big cities themselves and are not used to looking both ways before they cross the roads.

 @Mattin: my comment was tounge in cheek. No worries. I have been there before. Beautiful country. Tourists are like that all over the world.

 I second that!

 I just bought a £400 seatpost

 Totally agree man. Super clean!

 @RLoganSx: Yeah at first i was like "where the f is the piggyback?"

 I'm convinced its an elaborate prank, or just cover for some wireless data acquisition sensors. There is no physical mechanism I know of that could do what they claim.

 So I was at an industrial trade show a few months back and some guy was trying to sell us some anti-vibration tape. His demo was cool he took a 4x4 piece of sheet metal and dropped it on the concrete it clanged made a sound, he picked it up slapped a small snip of the tape on and the sound was cut roughly in half second drop. I could see it cutting rattling but I don't see enough on there to do anything. I've got a sample I didn't think to try it on a bike.

 @loganflores: I am covering my entire helmet with it. Won't have to buy one with new rubber stubby bits for more safety.

 @loganflores: Good thing you've got two nice big air filled rubber anti-vibration rings so you're not dropping your frame directly onto the concrete.

 Had a look at a larger picture, the same sensor is mounted in front of the fork on the collar, that mounts the what is probably a LVDT sensor for the travel. The larger picture also confirms my suspicions, the mess of hoses and the big bulky thing over the caliper looks like a pressure sensor to see what the pressures in the system are. What these are used for is a good guess, i doubt it's for Sram designing new brakes, most likely it's to determine the level of braking force applied, which could be tied with fork dive, rear end jacking, etc.

If i'm not mistaken, the hose features Formula's connectors

 It's wierd that early today I saw an article about the g-spec dh brake with integrated fins and a different lever. Now they are showing the regular quadium? Maybe the g-spec isn't good enough for gwin yet? m.pinkbike.com/news/aaron-gwin-tektro-brake-eurobike-2016.html

 Hioe they dont fail like loic's brand did-Claudio pov

 @makripper: It could be the case that the one at Eurobike is a show sample and not exactly ready yet to be raced. Or Gwin is simply used to what he has and doesn't want to switch during the race that will decide if he wins the overall or not.

 @ka-brap: true. I'm really Suprised he's sponsored by tektro

 The G is silent like gnarly

 The spacers won't affect the head angle at all but it will raise the stack height which effectively lets them hang further off the back of the bike.

 @caketown: but if you move the crown up, you have to move the stanchions up, right? Wouldn't that decrease the head angle?

 @thedeathstar: they aren't raising the stanchions in the lower crown to get the height needed to raise the upper crown. They're just putting a taller upper crown on.

 I was thinking this, but it depends on how much spare stanchion is usually poking through their top crowns. I guess there's enough left going spare that they can raise the top crown without having to raise the stanchions in the lower crown too.

Edit: Just read @jflb comment - that'd make sense

 Pretty sure I saw an article about that somewhere this past week being in development.

 i was waiting when someone was going to notice that