Heatsink

Hi, I'm really sorry about delay on pad send out not being resolved yet I have roughly 20 orders made up ready to send tomorrow many of which have been delayed for over a week. I hope that my very generous compensation in the case of some long waits is appreciated Many say it goes beyond what they would expect to make up for delays, but I think it's important to strive for something extra special Mr koxx 20" 26" rider, please pop me an email so I can sort out the failed delivery of what I promised If something like this happens then don't hesitate to email me. I try hard to reply to all emails very quickly, and those regarding any issues quickest. If there has been a delay and I send out the catch up batches of many orders at the same time, that's when this sort of thing can be easily overlooked. These delays are only a temporary issue due to family and house selling stuff squeezing out my HSB time, and I can't wait to finally get on top of this! I will have all the outstanding orders sent tomorrow (after an evening's session of pad making), then I just need to work on the orders for overseas shops too! Any queries, don't hesitate to email: steve@heatsinkbikes.com Thanks, Steve

I'll have to give that a go - Good idea!

Hi, I hope that the answers to most of your questions are on the pads page of my website. There's an advert for it that appears on TF every so often You can read about the differences between the pad colours on there rather than me waffling on about it here! To remove pads from backings I used to just boil them in water for 5 mins to weaken the glue. Then I tear the pads out with my teeth . Recently riders have suggested putting plastic backed pads in the oven at around 150 deg C for 5 mins. I've yet to try this! I've overdue putting some photos up on my site showing some tips on removing Magura pads from plastic backings and fitting the pads/refills into aluminium backings. For now here's a quick guide for fitting pads into Heatsink Aluminium Magura or Vee backings: 1. Check the pad fits ok into the backing. Using a vice is easiest to save your fingers from being tired out! Start by pushing one end in and then the other, followed by the middle. If the pad doesn't go in properly then carefully trim away the area with a sharp knife. Take your time and do small trims at a time! 2. If the pad fits nicely then it's ready for glueing. Apply superglue to inside of backing and the top face. Apply glue to pad. Don't go crazy on the glue so that you don't get much squeezed out when you push them together 3. Quickly push the pad into the backing using the method in #1. Have some kitchen roll to hand to catch any superglue dribbles. I usually squeeze the pad all the way in nice and tightly to be sure, before backing of the vice a tad. Then I pop the pad out quickly so I can turn it over and catch stray glue before returning it to the vice so it's held whilst the glue sets enough (a matter of 30 secs minimum, and a few minutes is usually a good idea) Having a vice makes the job very quick, and there are a few brands of supermarket superglue which are a good choice. I will get more thorough info up on my site when I have a free moment! Steve

Hi there! I saw this post on TF too about prongs breaking in one example. You don't need to worry about this - riders have had prongs snap on magura slaves with plastic pads before my pads were even available. It's a very rare failure. The prongs are there to take the braking forces which act on the pad and make sure the slave piston doesn't take them. Steve

I've had a small batch of Boosters, Vees and CNC Magura backings hand polished first (for ultimate shininess when anodised) and then gold anodised. The result is impressive, but with it being carried out in the UK it was expensive! I certainly won't be releasing anything in 5 different colours anytime soon I'll have the gold limited edition stuff up to buy on my site before the end of the weekend, and I will have to add a small amount onto the price to cover the extra work that went in. It could get quite time consuming for me organising custom anodising, time I should be spending staying ontop of pad orders, but I am quite happy to hook any riders up with the place that did the work for me so they can arrange exactly the colour they'd like. I had an Echo Supa stem anodised too, so my bike's going to be peppered with gold Why not gather together a variety of aluminium parts and get them sent off together to be colour co-ordinated in some individual colours? Steve

Another quick one. I admit things have been at meltdown recently, and the group of riders waiting for pads is testimony to that, but I will nail it and get back to the send out I'd expect myself to receive Thanks to all who continue to show faith in HSB. I have to be careful to not overextend since I don't have the financial foundation of the big boys, and neither do I have the time, but I hope that my efforts to bring out more affordable pads and innovative stuff others aren't doing is appreciated. Here's some bling for you to brighten up the thread: [attachmentid=6982] Steve

Hi Tom, As I was saying to you the other day, I was sure I had sent the pads out to you originally. I did check my record book after our last message and they were ticked off. I wasn't aware they hadn't arrived until you gave me a shout. I assumed they had been lost in the post (not the first time for Royal Mail) or the address had been written down wrongly by me. I apologise for the delays sorting out this problem, and the good news is I am sending out replacements and will include some extras to make up for any delays There was a blip with send out speeds again recently due to our efforts to sell our current house. It looks like we've secured a buyer so that's great news. I really want to get back on top of orders so I can get send out back to being as swift as you like Must get back to making pads Steve

On one hand it's nice that I'm fairly regularily on TF and have always thought (like other rider run shops that have started up) that it's pretty beneficial to riders if queries can be answered direct on TF. On the other hand, by making yourself more accessable to riders you have to deal with posts like Chris' - It's a fact of life and totally disassociated from what I'm doing and who I am I think. Certainly, I've yet to find what his beef is with little me! Some shops have decided to avoid being available on TF, but I hope that I can continue to offer riders the convenience of being able to pose questions to me, whilst staying sufficiently professional when under attack, no matter how groundless the accusations are! Spacemunkee Chris, I hope my reply to your strong post clears up those issues you were questioning. I think the original query has been answered too.... Steve

Not true. if you take some of the other well known pads and inspect them, force them out of the backings you will see that they have been made in different ways. Contrast for example Koxx, Monty and Plazmatic pads. The process of getting the pad the correct size is different for each: 1. Koxx are moulded and the braking faces are ground in an effort to make these flat. 2. Monty are machined out of a moulded strip, with 1.5mm of submerged pad (which simplifies the machining requirement). Then the far ends are ground. You can only get away with 1.5mm deep of submersion if the pad is a harder compound otherwise the material will be too compliant and tearing will occur that overcomes the glue 3. Heatsink & Plazmatic pads are moulded with no post op grinding. I'll leave it to riders to judge whether the CNCed backings give noticeable stiffness improvements The direction that it went in was one of firstly offering a great performing and very affordable pad, then offering an uber-pimp component for those that want super quality innovative components on their bikes. It seems rather unfair to criticise me for bringing a pimp component to the market (offering quality components for riders was something commendable I thought, and is much more financially challenging and risky for a rider to sort out than for a huge Trials empire) especially since even if you disagree that they offer any performance benefits, in the long run they end up being cheaper to run due to the low price of refills. I'm trying to offer riders more innovative and quality products and I don't see other manufacturers being criticised for this! Both the great value and the pimp brake products are available side by side, so surely that's good work by any company to offer solutions to cater for a wide array of different rider demands? I'm sticking with my compounds since most riders think they're pretty decent from what I hear and read on the forum. Some of these compounds I've been making pads in for over 2 years and plan to make no changes to the compounds. It's the whole assembly process which I've been improving over the years since I discovered that there are so many subtle changes that can be made which optimise things further. Steve

Hi! Here's the answer direct I have a backlog of pads about to be sent out. After catching up with demand recently, I fell behind again due to having to organise selling our house as a matter or urgency. In recent months I have had a number of unusual things to sort out including pregnancy, babies not going to sleep in the evening, changing full time jobs. There surely can't be anything else left! Normal service should resume from the weekend onwards and outstanding pads will be sent Friday and Saturday. Thanks for your patience and understanding (and to all others who are waiting) and here's to things settling down for the foreseeable future so those orders can be sent straight away as I like. Steve

Sorry for the waffle! The white pads were intended for smooth rims as well as being resilient enough to use against harsh grinds. Their softness means they don't wear out grinds quickly and also work well on worn grinds. I thought I'd explain about the blues to illustrate why they are the pads which I will be continuing to make long term into the future, and explain about some of the negative feedback which they may have attracted in the past, how this has now been addressed so justifying me sticking with them. Steve

The whites aren't to replace the blues, and instead it's the whites which will have a limited lifespan. Once the batch of whites is gone then that's it. These whites were intended as a special edition, with performance which at least matches the blues, produced in a funky new colour for a nice change. The whites, like the blues, are intended for use on smooth or ground rims. Like for any brake pad, smooth rims are more prone to the coefficient of friction reducing effects of grease and moisture than ground rims. I prefer to run a grind on my rear rim so that the grip remains consistantly high and doesn't require occasional degreasing like my smooth rims of yester year. Because the blue/white pads aren't as hard as some pads, I don't need to refresh the grinds very often (they still work great on a worn grind) so giving me the very low maintenance high performance braking that I want I don't have plans to ditch the blues because I've been steadily improving many aspects of their manufacture which overall means performance and customer satisfaction is going up and up. Earlier made blue pads were not upto the same performance levels as the current made ones, for example the issue with the pre-glue degreasing in some instances being too aggresive reduced pad life for some riders. This occasional issue was highlighted and addressed over the past few months, and I think the extra effort involved on my side to implement the new degreasing methods is definately worth it to build customers belief in the pads. It will naturally take a while I think for posts about the older made blue pads to be replaced with ones of the upto the minute ones, but I hope that in time the message about the quality and performance of the current blue pad offering (which I am making a long term committment to) will start to filter through. I look forward to getting more of these special edition white pads sent out and put through their paces! Steve

The good thing about the bent top tube is that it at the head tube it allows the angle between the down tube to be tighter so that the weld between the two becomes longer. Because the stress experienced in this region drops off as you move away from head tube down the top & down tubes, then the further away the end of the weld is (which will act as a stress multiplier) the better. The better chance the lower stresses further away from the head tube, even when multiplied up by the stress riser by say 4x, will still be acceptable. A straight tube continuing at the same angle could mean that the resulting rear triangle is low enough that the slave cylinders collide with pedal arms. Personally I've always thought that the BT frames are built in a well thought out way to maximise their strength, and the attention to finish is great too. Steve

Hey Rav, Tartybikes? You could try www.bikedock.co.uk They were distributing Brisa, and may have been their sole UK representative. Bikedock are second only to www.chainreactioncycles.co.uk in my opinion. Steve

It's a big step forward for the site Really professional aura. Once all the portfolio content is dropped in then it'll be a very compelling advert for your work which can only attract future opportunities. Best of luck with it Nick! Steve P.S. I've just noticed the photo on the right hand side of the School website you designed. At a first glance it looks like the girl is trying to break the other girl's arm!

I think that all of us wonder and worry about the future. The main moments being as you're approaching leaving home, ending studies. I can remember clearly how worried I was about this unclear path I was following with my studies, and kept thinking that with so many engineers graduating each year surely all the jobs would be taken when I finally was looking. I was pretty worried just like all of you. Fortunately the real world turned out to be much more straight forward than all the hype. I must only use about 5% in my job of anything I've ever studied. I threw out all my Uni folders the other day after holding onto them for 6 years without consulting them. The hardest thing I've ever done was A-levels and passing my driving test. I think the most important thing is just to focus on striving to be the best person you can be, and if stick true to that then you'll pick up soul mates along the way and make your own luck to find the jobs which are the best match for you. Just follow the path which seems the best match for you, and don't worry about set-backs like missing a course or having to repeat a year somewhere. I repeated a year at Uni after being supremely lazy, and it hasn't mattered at all. Looking back there's no need to worry when avenues turn into dead ends, knowing what you don't want to do is incredibly useful as you gradually find your niche. It'll all come good Steve P.S. Some corny sounding advice which I've found to be true when I was gathering up the last shreds of motivation to recommence my 2nd year at Uni: "The journey is the reward"

Hmmm, A more thoughtful post possibly. I was browsing Wikipedia the other day, reading about the classic TV series Airwolf I used to watch based around an amazing helicopter. Wikipedia throws up answers to questions I didn't know existed! As I browsed one thread after another about stars from the past, I noticed how many of them have such sad existances following the end of their prime years behind the lens. For example, the ultra-cool pilot actor on Airwolf sped on the end of his career due to alcohol problems, and is now an old soak It's underlined to me again about the importance of not letting alcohol take an increasingly large hold on your life as you take on the challenges that come your way. The chap was very fortunate to have an amazing job which should have meant an enjoyable early retirement, a luxery the majority of us are unlikely to enjoy. On the other hand, I had a look at what "Mahony", Steve Guttenberg, from the Police Academy films (There's a new Police Academy coming out in 2007 reuniting the original start would your believe!) was upto nowadays. He was one of the best paid actors of the 80s, and amassed a huge fortune. Having so much money puts a burden of responsibility on you I imagine - much more than your fair share which could do so much good for others or be wasted. Maybe even too much to spend in the style of George Best ("Most of my money went on women and fast cars, the rest I just squandered") I was impressed with how he's turned the next stage of his life into one of philanthropy (being charitable / good causes). Whatever you think of Bill Gates, respect must be given for the next stage of his career which he's now entered, one of running a huge charitable fund. I was wondering what examples from other people's lives have particularily struck a chord with you and made you resolute to avoid certain errors in life, or conversely have inspired you to make an effort in certain positive directions. Steve P.S. My main charitable act is sponsoring the training of guide dogs for the blind. The incredibly grateful notes from the lucky recipients are particularily poignant!

Blimey! I was expecting it to have been a Croc. Very sad news. Steve Irwin, Aus newspaper With a young family too RIP Steve

I don't know anything about internal headsets, but if you can make use of the headset press then you're very welcome! I know from my own experience what a headache it was inserting headsets before I bought the tool. Now it's the job that is the easiest when building a bike. Will catch you later Steve

Using screw drivers to remove headset cups and blocks of wood to insert them is fraught with the risk of damaging components/frames! I can understand why it's common to wrestle with doing it this way though since the cost of the 2 tools is at least £65. If you come up to ride Cambourne on your BMX sometime soon I can sort the job out with the correct tools in 5mins ^ Headset press, Cyclus ^ Headset cup remover (use a hammer with this), Park tools Steve

Well, bad opinions and subjectivity are a fact of life for everything, so no probs in that regard On the other hand, I do have to help clear up assumption and misinformation every so often before it becomes TF fact! Even if Gazza had posted his allegations about the 24UK frames under another account which did not reveal his Triton involvement, I would have had to calmly correct this misinformation before letting people get back on with saying whether they like the frame or not. In fact, making attacks on rival products (and even worse, ones unsupported by direct evidence from the actual item) whilst trying to hide your identity is an even more unprofessional activity! Nice post later on in the thread from Gazza I'm looking forward to seeing the first 24" Triton frame. Keep up the good work with Triton there Gazza! Steve

I'm sorry that some may have weighed in with some strong words about Gazza in response to his strong slagging off of my frames. I agree in my post that I don't doubt that there were variations between design and actual geo for the case of other riders' custom frames. From my own experience having some Mod frames made, clear guidance needs to be given on the fork model used. If the fork during fabrication isn't realistic compared to the one to be used in the final build, then that will produce the geo differences straight away. There seem to be many examples of this in the case of other frames higher up the price scale. What I did have a go at Gazza for only alittle (because I'm not a nasty person!), is taking anecdotal evidence from unrelated frames, and then extrapolating this to my frames about which he has no evidence! It wouldn't be the first time an similar remark about a component or frame has been made on TF , but what is exceptional about this instance is that it's directly from someone with a guiding influence in a company in direct competition. Embarassingly unprofessional I'm sure you'll agree! What's nice usually is that despite the plethora of bike companies out there and the closeness of competition in some areas, groundless slagging off of rival companies frames doesn't usually happen. Even if there are grounds, it's very unprofessional to post on forums ripping rival products apart. The day I started to make my own components was the day I had to learn to keep my own thoughts on rival products off the forums Peace and Love Steve

Wow! Talk about unproffessional slagging off of a rival company with no evidence Just to clear this up: The first proto intentionally had different geo to try out some ideas, including a longer wheelbase than many 24" frames had at the time. The wheelbase did end up a couple of cm longer than planned due to an error on my part with fork measurements. I thought I'd be clever and tell them what size a standard trials fork is and it wasn't quite right. That's the whole point of getting a prototype made, to get things right. This prototype was ridden for many months by an experienced rider and all tweaks highlighted were channelled back into the design of the released frames. Now frames are built around the same physical fork in the factory rather than based on theoretical measurements. I've actually measured each frame in stock and the geo is very consistant. I've had two batches of frames made following the prototyping period. The first batch were all made to 15mm BB rise and 1015mm length. The current ones have 25mm BB rise and 1025mm length. Your statement implying each 24UK would be vary by upto 35mm on the Wheelbase is total fiction! When getting frames made in a run on the same jigs then it is possible to achieve this accuracy. It's understandable that other rider's one offs may not come out exact, but we've got the jigs set up correctly so they're coming off perfect now. Here's my 24UK looking rather nice, except for the pinch flatted tyre! Steve

The 26" frame on my website has been little publicised in the UK, and I've only sold it overseas so far! You'll be very lucky to find any info on it on TF. I can't. Note to self: Must better publicise the frame next time! Here are some photos I received the other day of one in Latvia. A new version (the MkII) will be coming out with some innovative features, including something clever to do with the braking. Kyle Hinchliffe will be putting it through it's paces in a matter of weeks, after which time it may be available again. Steve

The warrenty (free replacement) is pretty good but the letter of it doesn't cover all failures, nor should it! If it did it would be very costly for Middleburn! For example it doesn't cover snappage following material being ground away on an arm to the point where strength is compromised. It sounds like this is where you have the choice of 1/2 price replacements, which is a pretty decent thing! Middleburns ***! Steve