How I spent my Summer Vacation (an ongoing vendetta saga)

[ratz]

Finally getting around to finalizing the New Hydro Mounts for the Silvio and Vendetta; The new bracket Steve designed has worked great on all the shake down rides. So now I'm adding in the designshine mounting brackets and the mount for my rear facing camera.





The unique design of the Toppeak extender lets me get the post above, behind and centered between the water bottles which is exactly where I want the camera to be.



This is just temporary I hope; as I have a custom bracket in mind but I need to get some time to review with Steve and see if it will work. It it does it will be more elegant than this; and shouldn't come with the .25 lb penalty; as the the toppeak is not a light weight accessory; but if it has to stay I suppose I can just loose another lb.

As soon as I figure out the hose drinking system mounting; I'll finish this up and get photos together of the full system

 

[ratz]

Final debugging and it turned out pretty good.

Debugging the water hoses without the head set pad in place. Decided to lower the bottle height bit.

Notice the small magnet to hold the hose.



Carabiner to pull the hose under the seat.



Disassemble for head rest pad install.



Strap the under pad down with electrical tape.




Pad happens to line up right with the top of the base mounting bracket.




Cut tiny holes to pull the cover over the top foam pad and the connectors. (Yes my cover is a bit cut up from various version of this project; none of the holes are from tears).
Normally a tiny hold can be cut and you can pull the cover over the item and it will not tear further.




Re-mount gear

 

[ratz]

Time to let the pictures do the talking.

 

[ratz]

And Lastly the video walk around.

And the sneak peak of the next item on the list

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[jond]

WOW looks spectacular bob. is that a solid disc or a cover. looks like a cover and i want one for my bike.
where did you get that from wheelbuilder?

 

[ratz]

Catalyst Carbon covers. I've used the wheel builder ones and they are noisy.

http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/front-disc-wheel.7896/

and yep the electrical tape mounting works great; who knew.

 

[ratz]

And here's the first video shot from the camera.

Design Shine DS500 running in Flash mode 5 = Level 1 steady out with flashing triple pulses of level 3. Film with a Fly6 in camera only mode.
The flashing makes it look like the light is out; but if you look at the cars that I go past you can see the tail light lighting up the reflectors and license plates.

The end goal here on this bike is to use the fly6 as a camera only. It's a great camera for the rear view; but it's only an ok light. Pairing it with the DS-500 gives me 6+ hours of video recording and many more hours of light. If I used the fly6 as an actual taillight then I'd only get about 2 hours max. Since the fly6 uses SD cards record capacity is dictated by size of card.

Now that I have built this and futz with it; I can recreate it on another bike in about 20 minutes. If you have the parts it should be possible to setup this in about 30 minutes if you'd never done it before. That's a final solution in my book.

 

[Suz]

Wow, quite impressive! I will be studying this thread. Looks beautiful as well.

 

[Rick Youngblood]

Catalyst Carbon covers. I've used the wheel builder ones and they are noisy.

How's decal project going for the wheels and covers? They look naked...nothing wrong naked I might add!

 

[ratz]

How's decal project going for the wheels and covers? They look naked...nothing wrong naked I might add!

I saw final art from the place that is making them; but it's a side gig for the guy and he goes radio silent frequently; Frustrating but patience is rewarded. Thanks to repairs on the truck this week I'm not in that big a hurry to pay for the decals. If we get it done this summer I will be content. Maybe by the time I get them I'll be fast enough to deserve them.

 

[Rick Youngblood]

I saw final art from the place that is making them; but it's a side gig for the guy and he goes radio silent frequently; Frustrating but patience is rewarded. Thanks to repairs on the truck this week I'm not in that big a hurry to pay for the decals. If we get it done this summer I will be content. Maybe by the time I get them I'll be fast enough to deserve them.

Bob, I think you deserve them now than later. You have much more patience than me, but when you get to be my age (will turn 60 next year, ouch ) you learn to be patient but at the same, I want it while I'm still alive .

 

[JOSEPHWEISSERT]

Catalyst Carbon covers. I've used the wheel builder ones and they are noisy.

http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/front-disc-wheel.7896/

and yep the electrical tape mounting works great; who knew.

Justin at Catalyst said my Mavic Ksyrium SL non-drive wheel may not have enough rim height to allow taping of the cover to the rim. I like the Ksyrium because it is bulletproof and never goes out of true. I used to jump train tracks, curbs, and was generally pretty rough on them on my DF, but they always stayed true for about 10 years or more.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a new wheel if I need to find a non-drive wheel that has enough rim height to tape on Catalyst covers? I would like some durability as well as a reasonable cost.

 

[ratz]

Define reasonable cost? Ksyrium SL's are a pretty darn good wheel

If durability = metal and not carbon. The Bontrager Aura5 is the wheel with probably the best price. Aluminum, wheel; carbon fairing; stickers peel off easy to make it match other wheels better. Run with or without the cover because it's 50mm carbon faring. Can run tubed or tubeless which is a plus when the covers are on.

Others would be stuff from AMClassics like the 420Aero3, something from Velocity, maybe the stans 420.

Problem is most deep v stuff has gone carbon; and expensive.

Zipp 101 would be good but too expensive in my mind; and it's getting hard to find those in 700c if I recall the scuttle butt. Example wheelbuilder.com will build you wheel with them and it will darn good but they won't sell you the rim separately due to limited supplies.

If carbon is ok then there are tons of options. Price becomes more a factor of your comfort level with inexpensive carbon.

Flo is good but everything is sold out right now and it's all waiting lists not sure I'd run my business that way weird.

There are others but price point and material will drive you towards a pretty small subset.

 

[JOSEPHWEISSERT]

Define reasonable cost? Ksyrium SL's are a pretty darn good wheel

If durability = metal and not carbon. The Bontrager Aura5 is the wheel with probably the best price. Aluminum, wheel; carbon fairing; stickers peel off easy to make it match other wheels better. Run with or without the cover because it's 50mm carbon faring. Can run tubed or tubeless which is a plus when the covers are on.

Others would be stuff from AMClassics like the 420Aero3, something from Velocity, maybe the stans 420.

Problem is most deep v stuff has gone carbon; and expensive.

Zipp 101 would be good but too expensive in my mind; and it's getting hard to find those in 700c if I recall the scuttle butt. Example wheelbuilder.com will build you wheel with them and it will darn good but they won't sell you the rim separately due to limited supplies.

If carbon is ok then there are tons of options. Price becomes more a factor of your comfort level with inexpensive carbon.

Flo is good but everything is sold out right now and it's all waiting lists not sure I'd run my business that way weird.

There are others but price point and material will drive you towards a pretty small subset.

Here's the Bontrager Aura 5 TLR at $529.99 from Trek: http://www.trekbicyclesuperstore.com/product/bontrager-aura-5-tlr-front-wheel-clincher-195678-1.htm
Do you have a better source or better price?

 

[jond]

And here's the first video shot from the camera.

Design Shine DS500 running in Flash mode 5 = Level 1 steady out with flashing triple pulses of level 3. Film with a Fly6 in camera only mode.
The flashing makes it look like the light is out; but if you look at the cars that I go past you can see the tail light lighting up the reflectors and license plates.

The end goal here on this bike is to use the fly6 as a camera only. It's a great camera for the rear view; but it's only an ok light. Pairing it with the DS-500 gives me 6+ hours of video recording and many more hours of light. If I used the fly6 as an actual taillight then I'd only get about 2 hours max. Since the fly6 uses SD cards record capacity is dictated by size of card.

Now that I have built this and futz with it; I can recreate it on another bike in about 20 minutes. If you have the parts it should be possible to setup this in about 30 minutes if you'd never done it before. That's a final solution in my book.

fantastic set up ratz. really well done. i have shamelessly copied your hydration storage solution. hope you used some inner tube to help isolate the topeak mount this time cheers jon and again a big thanks for sharing.

 

[ratz]

Here's the Bontrager Aura 5 TLR at $529.99 from Trek: http://www.trekbicyclesuperstore.com/product/bontrager-aura-5-tlr-front-wheel-clincher-195678-1.htm
Do you have a better source or better price?

If you stalk ebay for a week or two they always show up for about $150 off of list. They ship on a lot of TT bikes and people sell them as unused take-offs. Got Mrs Ratz's fullset for $450 off.

 

[ratz]

From prototype to beta test...

It's getting better.... Steve is the master of taking my obtuse ideas and making physical and practical.

Road testing next week to make sure no refinement is required. Poof bye bye ¾lb.

 

[ratz]

Occasionally I get into the "why?" tubeless discussion or the "are they worth it?"

last night it was worth it hands down.

I was running the 1k and 5k TT's for our fantasy time trial series. I decided I would run those distance on the high-school track at night to avoid wind allowing me to run rear wheel covers every time. So after finishing my runs; I decided to do some adventure riding with the vendetta as a cool down. That basically means 2 miles down hill through the wood on a super twisty paved trail that is about 3-5ft wide. Lots of fun even on the Vendetta and I thought it would be a nice test of the DesignShine lights.

¾ of the way through the descent I hear "pssssttttt" as the rear tire takes a puncture at 20mph from debris. I hear a couple of squirting noises as the sealant shoots out the hole and 10 secs later the event is over and I'm still rolling; the hole is seal. Get home still 95psi in the rear tire (I had them at 105psi for the TT).

Without sealant this would have been; in da woods at the bottom of the hill, in complete blackout (other than my lights) trying to remove disc covers so get enough access to change the tube. while swatting bugs and mosquitos.

 

[super slim]

How did you lights go on the twisting track???

Did the squirting of the slime push out the debris from the puncture?

What is the weight of this simpler newer option compared to the previous option with the T bar?
It is a neat way to connect to the tubing!!!!
Could the 1/??? " thick Aluminium be extended to the headrest clamps, replacing the purchased bottle support system, and would it be strong enough sideways?

 

[ratz]

Lighting was great, I did have a camera on the nose, but it was so far forward and low that you really can't tell how good the lighting is. When I get back to town I can process up that video it anyone wants to see it.

The prototype (previous) to the one in the photo showed up as I was leaving. Testing next week weights and other items to follow.