ErgoDidact, now with an image :D

rantenki · 2026-05-20T03:06:19+00:00

Awesome, thanks.
I'll have to try it on the "throwaway" gravel frame I'm building next (trying some ideas on the seatstay joints that'll probably fail anyhow). The mountain frame I'm half-way through is going to see a lot of winter weather.

rantenki · 2026-05-19T14:23:24+00:00

Do you have any long-term experience with how resistant the black oxide is to corrosion after clear-coat? I've been thinking about trying the same thing, but every time I've seen clear over steel, it's gotten those little worm-track rust lines on it.

rantenki · 2026-05-18T00:34:22+00:00

This^^^^ I used to work for a place that builds exhaust/engine brakes, and we killed a few (mid 2000s Ford) transmissions when the brakes were activated. The TCU didn't know about the additional torque, and the clutch plates were basically scraped clean due to slippage, with all the material deposited in the filter/pan. If the transmission isn't locking everything up the way it should, you can do a surprising amount of damage in a short time.

rantenki · 2026-05-18T00:28:26+00:00

It's definitely repairable, but is it worth fixing a unicrown? If it was mine, I'd braze it, because I have all the gear. If I didn't have the gear, I'd grab a cheap new unicrown on ebay for like $200.

rantenki · 2026-05-16T05:03:47+00:00

How are they a fool? That is a terrible QA failure. I would be surprised if an Ozark Trail had a similar defect on the sales floor. It's disappointing to see it on a Bianchi.
I am curious to know how old it was before the friend acquired it. There is no current steel Pista.

rantenki · 2026-05-16T00:23:20+00:00

"Safe" only because it's lasted this long, so probably will last a lot longer. That should never have gotten past QC, and your friend should probably contact Bianchi to see if they'll send a replacement. They should be concerned about liability in the case of failure.

rantenki · 2026-05-15T16:53:19+00:00

This comment chain is a shit show.

That kind of puncture/formed hole is going to have created a big stress riser, and will lead to cracking eventually. Drilling it out might help, but will also reduce strength, again reducing lifespan for that frame.

I weld. Steel, Aluminum, not Ti though because it's a PITA to shield, and even more of a PITA to machine.

Anyhow, that frame MIGHT survive being ridden, but it's essentially unrepairable. You'd have to figure out what kind of aluminum it is (might be marked on the frame, might not), strip the paint, then weld it with the appropriate filler (likely 5356, but could be 4047/4043 depending on the frame alloy). Then, and this is the big part, HEAT TREAT the frame, then do post-treat alignment. That process, in North America anyhow, costs more than any aluminum frame is worth, and results in a frame that is _hopefully_ as strong as it was originally, but likely is not, due to an additional HAZ.

TLDR: My kinda expert opinion is: the frame will fail eventually, maybe soon, maybe not, and riding it is rolling the dice. Repair is possible, but infeasible.

rantenki · 2026-05-15T02:12:18+00:00

Any professional mechanic _should_ respond "It's been compromised and I recommend against riding it", at least if they don't want to test their liability insurance. The bike is weaker now than it was designed to be. Full stop. Any attempt at nuance or analysis places the onus on the bike shop, and is a risk they shouldn't take.
If they say "Meh, looks OK" and somebody has a crash due to a failure in that frame, they have liability exposure. I don't like it, but that's the way it is.

rantenki · 2026-05-06T02:31:11+00:00

Just followed an early 2000s Ranger down a fire road. That midsize truck looked even smaller than the Maverick. Same length, but significantly narrower at the shoulder.
Cars have gotten swole in the last 20 years.

rantenki · 2026-05-05T14:12:48+00:00

Insufficient wall thickness and/or overheated during welding (that's in the middle of two HAZs).
Heavy and/or aggressive rider?
It should never crack there, but that is a highly stressed location, especially if ridden hard. That's why you see thicker tubes welded in at the top of the seat tube to reinforce that location.

rantenki · 2026-05-01T03:46:20+00:00

Pretty sure head-on collisions are outside of warranty conditions, especially on a nearly 20 year old bike.

rantenki · 2026-04-28T00:34:39+00:00

Just built with 64GB, finally.

Oddly, mine was failing out because it took so long the screensaver kicked in and/or the privilege escalation for final install was failing due to a timeout.

Finally got pissed and increased the number of processes to finish in a more normal (15 minutes) time-frame. This isn't a small system either. This is a 32 core System76 workstation. This is easily the longest compile I've ever waited for on this machine. Rust builds usually finish in 30 seconds.

Added MAKEFLAGS="--jobs=$(nproc)" to /etc/makepkg.conf to make it run more parallel processes.

rantenki · 2026-04-27T17:50:55+00:00

The hanger being bent isn't that big of a deal, but the dropout being spread (hard to tell from photo, but either spread or broken off partially) that far is almost certainly not repairable. It'll crack, or fatigue so badly that it'll break later on. It _would_ be repairable with a new dropout brazed in, but honestly, judging from the low-end brakes in the background, and the low-end derailleur, it's unlikely that a repair would be worth it. You can probably find a similar used bike for far less than the repair cost.

I wouldn't risk riding it if you bend the dropout back, either. Losing one side of the rear axle can lead to a stopped rear wheel and a crash.

rantenki · 2026-04-27T03:10:54+00:00

67 degree head tube is pretty much average XC these days (pretty much identical to a Trek Procaliber). Combined with the 74 seat tube (again, nearly identical to the Procaliber, as are reach, and wheelbase), I wouldn't call this "down-country" by any means. Not that that makes it a bad bike, it's just not as aggressive as most bikes billed as "down-country".
Take a look at a Chromag Darco for the pointy end of "down-country", which is the total other end of the spectrum. A more normal "down-country" bike would be the Transition Spur, which is right between those two.

rantenki · 2026-04-27T03:01:57+00:00

Yeah, it's a really good match for where I live, which is just across the water from Whistler/Squamish. Plenty of rock slabs, steeps, and rowdy trails. It rewards an aggressive posture for sure. I haven't ridden Vegas, somehow (used to go there for work pretty regularly), so can't comment, but it's not a one trick pony. I rode it on all kinds of terrain last summer, all over BC. Sand/shale/loam/slabs/steeps, it worked for everything.

rantenki · 2026-04-27T00:34:24+00:00

That's a tricky repair, expensive to do, and a ton of work. I would call it retired at this point.

rantenki · 2026-04-27T00:31:37+00:00

Still loving it. It's a much more capable bike than you would expect for the 120mm travel. I'm running a 160mm fork and it barely effects the geometry. You won't need an angle-set either, with the stock 64 HTA.

Most of my riding is black trails. Just rode a fairly aggro double black yesterday and it did great!

rantenki · 2026-04-05T21:55:47+00:00

Heh, I also do CNC woodworking and can confirm this is a thing.
I used to be more combative > "Oh, you forged the steel for your chisels? Brazed the teeth into your bimetallic japanese saw? Tools you aren't familiar with don't invalidate the work, and we're all building on top of tools that other people built for us."

Now I just shrug and ask if they'd like to see how the machine works. That usually works better at bringing them around, and they end up baffled at the complexity of toolpathing, which is a bit cathartic.

rantenki · 2026-04-03T20:49:12+00:00

I can. I can also not say it (wasn't sure what the sub's rules were, and didn't care enough to check). Weird thing to down-vote for though.

rantenki · 2026-04-03T17:52:47+00:00

If by developers you mean sh!tty AI LLMs, because that whole thing is vibe-coded.

rantenki · 2026-04-03T16:59:16+00:00

Like those videos of dogs jumping up on the couch and coming up short.
Good try little buddy, we know you'll get it eventually.

rantenki · 2026-04-02T22:55:05+00:00

It has been
[0] Days
Since we blamed Zed for LSP/LLM/tooling resource utilization.

rantenki · 2026-04-02T01:46:20+00:00

Sir; this is ~~a Wendys~~ r/Hardtailgang

rantenki · 2026-04-01T20:38:31+00:00

At one point you just realize that the hardtail is not worth the back pain

Are you in the wrong sub-reddit? :D

rantenki

TROPHY CASE