[Closed] Componetns and tools that were clearly never prototyped or tested (RANT)

Same as a lot of Crank Bros. stuff...more design over function.

I bet it's won some awards, though.

Sturmey Archer made the best spoke keys in the world, ever...

Same as [s]a lot of[/s] all Crank Bros. stuff...more design over function.

FTFY 😕

Birzman stuff all looks lovely, and some of it works.

K-Edges's ACS anti-chainsuck device, obviously tested in california where they don't know what mud is...

My current pet hate is fsr frames and the front mech cable pinch bolt
Swing arm gets in the way.
Even Spesh changed the bolt to a hex head rather than an Allen key one

Its got to be the 'tool free pad replacement' on Juicy's.

Tool free but replies on having a couple of hours spare in a warm, well-lit workshop!

Even Spesh changed the bolt to a hex head rather than an Allen key one

No, to fit in with the original criteria it would have to be an inacessible allen head. They've tested it and put a hex head on there which does the job just as well.

Eh?

thisisnotaspoon - Member

2) it's too big to get anywhere near the nipples on shimano wheels which are at the hub end!

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I just take a bloody great big pair of pliers to my Juicy's when I change the pads it's the only way.

It seems to be getting increasingly difficult to find anything that is actually fit for purpose these days, especially electrical items. Thank god for recycling that's all I can say.

It took a while for them to fix the problem. And if you buy a frame and mech used its a pain in the ass

It seems to be getting increasingly difficult to find anything that is actually fit for purpose these days,

Your confusing your purpose and the manufacturers.

My old 105 wheels which, when the brakes wear down a bit get fouled by the brake shoe. So much so that one of the rubbed spokes has now snapped. Replacements not available 🙁

Xpedo pedals. The bushing was made out of a harder material than the axle, so the axle wore out rather than the bushing, pedals became scrap.

The bushing was made out of a harder material than the axle, so the axle wore out rather than the bushing

My Crank Bros stuff (3 pairs of pedals and Joplin) has never failed me! It's not been wrapped in cotton wool (I have used original egg beaters for DH runs) - just maintained sensibly.

I am not a form over function monkey either!

The original Crank Bros freehub design. Seems like they only used "spinners" and not "mashers" to test ride it. The pawl carrier was made of tissue paper.

Xpedo pedals. The bushing was made out of a harder material than the axle, so the axle wore out rather than the bushing, pedals became scrap.

Was there ever any oil involved? Do you think ball bearings would have been any better?

Not sure if bearings would have been better as the bearings were tiny anyway. They were stripped and greased before I started to use them - from the box they were dry - but it didn't help. Over the years I've destroyed most pedals other than Shimano. I now run 540s on all MTBs and while they do get loose after a while, they are £25 a pair rather than £200+ for the ti axle Xpedos so it's not as painful. It was a known problem - I got 3 sets under warranty then just gave up and binned them.

I often feel the bike industry uses consumers for Beta testing.

I heard that recently that shimano pedals just go on and on and on....... 😀

SRAM shifters would be a good place to start. My X9 died a while back as the lever return spring snapped, so I fashioned a replacement and slotted it back into place...ever dismantled an X9 shifter? Rebuilding it is an exercise in learned patience.

My old X7 shifter fell apart one day mid shift. Part of the problem seemed to be the three grubscrews that screwed directly into soft plastic, rather than bolting through the plastic shell and into the alloy body. SRAM twigged pretty quickly that there was a problem - successive units were built with four grubscrews.

Can someone please take a 2lb hammer to the fingers of whoever designed the Avid Juicy pad retention system?

Also, a special mention must go to Marin. I love the Quad Link 2 suspension, but I would like to adjust the compression and rebound on my RP23 sometime, without having to have fingers like ET.

My xtr's are 7 years old....still going on my cx bike.

Can someone please take a 2lb hammer to the fingers of whoever designed the Avid Juicy pad retention system?

I am no expert on cruel and inhuman ppunishments, however it would seem appropriate to make him work in a cycle shop doing nothing but change pads on juicy 3's untill he reached the point of taking the 2lb hammer out of the bottom of the toolbox and smashing his own fingers. I would give him half a day before it all got to much for him and he took the option.

"fsr frames and the front mech cable pinch bolt
Swing arm gets in the way.
Even Spesh changed the bolt to a hex head "
From the setting up the front mech perspective it wold seem a bit rubbish. Ii guess theyve decided saving a little bit of weight in using a straight, not dropped nds chain stay was worth the extra hassle
When I built my spesh frame up I couldn't worjk out what that bolt was for, until I came to setup the front mech

"'tool free pad replacement' on Juicy's."
Get rid of the clip thing on the back of the caliper, unless you get the knbobbly bit on the pistons to fall off, you don't need the clip. It makes it easy to swap pads
The clip looks like an after thought anyway

"shimano pedals just go on and on and on"
The bearings might, but ime the bodies don't and while new cleats aren't as bad, my worn m540 and m520s I can pull up/out of far too easily

cant believe nobody has mentioned superstar yet

A crank brothers multitool half the tools/bits on it were rounded within 6months. The other half I had rarely used

erm, Kenda tyre standard wire or folding sidewalls. The sidewall breaks (3 tyres) before I'd rounded the squares of the knobbles. At least on the rear. Front's just looked very worn around the bead. Before being assigned to a certain death on the rear

Eggbeaters
anything by leyzene

Pretty much all Crank Brothers stuff, pedals, seat posts, pumps. Not tried their wheels yet, but I suspect they're equally duff.

Again CB pedals going really strong here. Outlasting any of my Shimano stuff. (mallets & candys) Just ordered a new set of mallets for the Hard Tail 🙂

ISIS probably never saw a test in the UK or damp.
Large Green Commencals that snapped

The rear seat-belt attachments on a VW Touran. Fold a seat, pop it back in place = busted seatbelt buckle, AGAIN.

To be fair though, crank bros stuff comes in brilliant cardboard boxes. In fact I think a crank bros cardboard box is better than anything that comes inside it. Stick one of their boxes on the end of your crank arms and they'll last longer than their pedals. Stick one down your seat tube and then balance your saddle on top and it will last longer and have less play in it than a Joplin post... And on we could go.

Well, my Crank Bros Mallets have now passed their seventh birthday, with more than 10,000 miles and only one rebuild to show for it. I guess they must be a duff pair or something.

The Candys are pretty dire though, the (unique) cleats don't last, the nylon body is made of cheese and the bearings seem shoddy too.

got to be the 'tool free pad replacement' on Juicy's.
Tool free but replies on having a couple of hours spare in a warm, well-lit workshop!

I one bragged on a thread that I could do it in seconds. Then a forum ride happened at Swinley and someone remembered and took me up on the offer.....
Sure enough, second attempt they went in nicely. Maybe took 30 seconds. In the car park. Piece of piss. 🙂

Work as a bike mechanic for a few years, and you'll find the list is depressingly endless. Pet hates of mine are internal cable routing that requires awkward friction inducing bends in the cable, cable discs that are so poorly made that without bodging them you've used 2/3rd of the lever travel to get pad clearance on the rotor, crown races with a square edge that prevents removal tool insertion, inaccessible bolts(lots of front mechs, but the best are BMX rear brakes, where they fit the cable clamp screw pointing at the stay instead of facing outwards), chain devices that need chainset removal to adjust, and Renthal Duo stems that require disassembly and removal from the steerer to change bars.
In the words of my father,"Whoever designed it should be made to come back and work on the b****y thing."

Yup, too many to list - but I have made myself some special cut-down right-angle allen keys for all those bolts that manufacturers put where it's impossible to reach them.

Favourite recently: the rear wheel on a Workcycles bike. To fix a puncture, you need to: Remove the three-part steel chain case. Disconnect the chain. Remove the chain tugs from both sides. Undo the drum brake arm. Undo the drum brake cable. Undo the gear cable. Undo the wheel nuts and pry off the tab washers which have jammed in the too-thin dropouts, Remove the mudguard, and finally remove the wheel. Reverse the procedure to refit.

All this on a bike which weighs 30kgs so it does your back in getting it onto the stand, a bike which is meant to be for everyday city use, and a bike where they were too cheap to spec kevlar tyres.

On small Sworks carbon Epics from a couple of years ago the hose that goes from the brain to the shock had a small metal bend in it at the shock end. At full compression this hit the underside of the top tube, wearing a small hole eventually. Tuned out they only had medium and large prototypes.

I one bragged on a thread

Don't sell yourself short, you have bragged on lots of threads...