Heatsink

Fred! Your riding continues to amaze me! Thanks for your great work on this vid Chris! I will have your Mk2 24UK ready soon Fred Youtube vid link for the lazy....here Steve

I know where you're coming from! I spent alot of time and effort getting together a small playground of pallets. Unfortunately these got removed by somebody too. They must have mistaken my carefully laid out trials park for a pallet dump I just need to find a spot which isn't easily noticed and with a bit of luck they might just stay where I left them next time! Steve

Hi there! Cambridge has a friendly scene I don't get time to get out riding there nowadays, but if you hook up with Julien and the others sometime then you'll be guaranteed a warm welcome. Steve

Hi, I've got some more of Gabriele's riding to show you The link takes you to the Youtube vids on my site where I've added download links too, which I hadn't managed to get around to doing for previous videos. In future I'll be keeping the download links going alongside the Youtube embedded vids because I get lots of requests for them Hope you like! Front Arezzo - Gabriele Pampanelli - Click and scroll down. Steve

My eldest son (almost 3 now) builds castles with the Coust blocks when he gets his hands on them!

Here's my set-up. Since its screen broke, my old laptop has recently evolved into a desktop PC. Its life should be kinder now it's found a peaceful nook! Steve

Hi Inur! Good point there. I would say though that I believe that there have been instances of plastic pad backings and cast aluminium backings breaking into pieces from the rigours of Trials use, but I've never heard of any Heatsink CNC aluminium backings breaking yet. It was a hastily typed paragraph since I'm at work and shouldn't be surfing! No probs to simplify. Basically, if you look at the data charts for pad material, they give data for a given compound in various hardnesses. They have a standard abrasion test which measures how much material was worn off in a certain test set-up. The data shows that the softer versions show a modest decrease in material lost during this test. The key thing is that this abrasion test is very different to how the pad is actually used. When used as a magura brake pad then the softness actually kicks in effects due to the pads being held in a floating arrangement for Maguras (Vees are relatively rigid in how they're held). With this floating arrangement he brake surface of the pad distorts more which means a smaller portion may take the concentrated load. The higher the contact pressure the faster the wear rate, Force/Area, so smaller area, same brake force applied, higher contact pressure. I'm sure that I could better explain this, but hopefully this time it's a bit clearer! As rule for a given pad type, the softer it is, the higher the coefficient of friction. Please remember though that the typical band of hardness for brake pads is quite narrow, between 80 and 90ShoreA. We can see that in practice a wide range of compounds in various softnesses in this range give performance and life that riders are satisfied with. Steve

You can get good results with both glue types. Depending on the current shape of the pads, superglue is great for minimal gaps (actually stronger the thinner it is) and Epoxy resin (of which Araldite is a brand name) is a great gap filler. In the case of alu backings, the glue has less of a challenge to contend with. This is fortunate because inherently an alu to pad bond is harder to achieve than a pad to plastic backing one. Glues are strong in shear but weak in peal. A flexing plastic backing creates the tearing mechanism, wheras the rigid aly version sidesteps this. Edds right. With time being money (and a typical UK rate for machining £30 an hour with VAT to be added), you will see examples with rushed machining producing a poor surface finish as the tool is forced to move faster than it would like. Done properly with acceptable feedrates then all is good. Actually, softer pad material can mean better abrasive resistance, although because of the floating magura pad holder design, when used on rims softer pads can mean increased deflection of the pad such that the area actually in contact with the rim dissapating all the wheel's energy is going to be smaller, and so this can lead to faster wear due to the increased contact pressure, and of course wear at angles where a pad is disposed of quicker since it has worn at too much of an angle. Steve

CNC machining means enhanced accuracy and repeatability compared to a hand machined version. CNC machining may not be the cheapest choice for mass production (each item has a relatively long cycle time, many minutes compared to seconds for a moulded item), hence the common choice of die-casting (the initial tooling cost upfront can be shown to be a minimal part of the unit cost if considered across the life of this tool) followed by only CNCing the important features like threads and faces requiring a high surface finish and accuracy of position. A 100% CNC machined item may not be necessary for all fabricated items, but for highly stressed components / high quality finish components, then it is desirable. Steve

CNCed items do have a strength advantage over a cast item of the same shape. When you cast an item then it's a major challenge to avoid microscopic bubbles occuring in the molten metal as it flows to fill the mould tool, and these voids equate to weaknesses in the material. Billet metal for CNCing is manufactured to be void free. In this case, you have to take into account both different manufacturing processes and different geometries. Steve

I'd say simple die-casting (with the split line between tool halves appearing as a raised line on the part) followed by machining the accurate features such as the inner cylinder bore and the threads. Steve

I'd just go and shop around your supermarkets for the laptops they've got on special offer, these entry level laptops for £350-£400 have inexcess of the spec most people need. There seems to be an explosion of choice at the moment. Compare the specs with the PC World entry level models and then buy which ever Supermarket laptop looks best. Here's a vastly simplified spec: Wireless ready DVD/CD rewriter Windows Vista (the swisher Premium version comes with 1GB laptops) Nice and large screen For memory/hard drive/screen size/general looks, get the best of the bunch in your opinion from the supermarket offerings. Steve

Back in 2004 I used to boil up saucepans full of old pads which were traded in in exchange for the first pads I was making. It was a question of leaving them boil on the hob for 5-10 mins, and many would peel out the backings easily although certain makes would always be stubborn after this so it wasn't plan sailing. Even after boiling them for longer, some pads wouldn't peel cleanly out the backings and left bits stuck in that I needed to spend longer cutting away with a stanley knife so the backings could be recycled (which was my need then before new backings were obtainable) I tried the "Pop them in the oven" idea recently with these same stubborn pads which had proven labour intensive to remove using the boiling method, and they just lifted out the backings afterwards. So the extra 50 degrees made the difference from partially weakening the glue to totally negating it's adhesion. More pad fitting info and photos here: HSB Pad fitting guide Steve

I'm getting together for my bike one of these tensioners which sits on the axle inboard of the drop out. This style I have in mind featuring two sprockets has been done before, but I was hoping to add a few nuances. Everything is pretty straight forward, with just the torsion spring to sort out now. I've got some torque figures measured from a Rohloff and a mech, and from the typical dimensions I've got a spring sourced which I could order in quantity to help others out who want to try and make their own. I'll probabily get a dozen or so in as the first attempt, so there will be some available to buy at cost price. I'd be quite happy to see these springs get some testing in by a variety of riders. If they prove reliable then that would be useful should I ever get around to releasing a tensioner as a product. Drop me a PM if you'd be interested in a spring for a couple of quid, and that will give me the motivation to get these on order Steve

I'm not surprised having to wear a skinsuit like that. As if the suit wasn't bad enough it has to be bright orange too. Poor lad! Steve

Agreed

Maybe they need a darn good clean of the gunk that builds up on rims/pads over time? If you still have them, please pop them in the post to me and I'm sure I can clean them up a treat for you Any queries about pads not performing correctly always get my top attention I hope that Connor can testify that I'm swift and helpful if you email any issues to steve@heatsinkbikes.com Steve

Hi Connor, It's great to hear that you've sorted the problem now As I said in my email, I think that the rim had some residue on it initially which would have been transferred to the pads once used together. I use an industrial quality degreaser to wipe the pad braking face before send out, so the pads are always 100% free of grease. I think the substance that you told me you used to clean the set-up initially is the reason why you couldn't make it work correctly (I don't think it's suitable for this application). You can't go wrong with any household cleaner (to remove grease) followed by washing away with water incase a residue is left. Enjoy the pads! Steve

Strong opinions! Discuss!

Best styled car: Seat Leon CupraR Not that I will ever own one!

I agree! No more bodge jobs on removing/inserting headsets either please! - Proper tools for a proper job The tools should last forever, and gradually building up a tool box will be definately worth it in the long run.

You have recieved a new feedback. Below are details concerning the new feedback. Type: Good Rating SummaryPaid swiftly and great to speak too. Super smooth transaction, recommended! Given By: Heatsink You were the: Buyer Date: 1186515312

The riding was stupendously amazing, and the scenary fantastic. Imagine he'd come up short on some of that architecture and taken a chuck out of those walls and statues! Can't believe le flic didn't move him on as we find in the UK! Steve

I'd definately spend an evening looking thoroughly at the website. Get all the grainy pictures properly resized, and remove the dead links. It may not be possible to measure the improvement a more polished website will have, but as people have said there is so much potential there to achieve much more success! Steve

Hi, Here's a new video from Euro and World Junior champ Aurelien Fontenoy (Sponsored by HeatsinkBikes for brake pads). Nicolas Luque (a very strong rider) and Aurelien are riding some big rocks at a great river location where the water is pretty deep and dangerous! http://www.heatsinkbikes.com/?p=team Hope you like it! Steve