Ask the experts

[climberevan]

Your dentist must love you.

Haha. Sometimes it shocks me to eat this much sugar, but i only do it during activities. I eat basically zero refined sugar in my regular diet.

But yeah, today I had 6 bottles with 80g each, a big Snickers, 2 fig bars, a nature valley granola, 2 homemade rice bars, and a gas station "cappuccino". A shitload of sugar. But i burned 3900 kCal in 7.5h, so it all turned straight into energy as I was consuming it.

[Ktow01]

Question for the experts. Spare bike( 18 rockhopper w/ shimano deore) started to get soft spongey rear brake. Did a brake bleed @ caliper, replaced pads, put back together and still not any better. Went ahead and did a quick bleed @ lever without any improvement.The brake lever is still soft & spongey. Am I missing something or doing something wrong?


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[climberevan]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you did a bleed at either end...a good bleed goes from one end to the other. That bike would certainly benefit from a full flush. Do a good bleed and get back to us.

[Ktow01]

Roger. I’ll give it another go.


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[Dee Hubbs]

It’s best to do a gravity bleed. You don’t want to push crap/dirty fluid backwards though the system.
A gravity bleed ensures that only clean fluid enters the lever and exits the caliper.
Steps:
-Remove the pads.
-Fill the funnel with fresh fluid at the lever.
-with the funnel plunger out, push the pistons in and install a bleed block.
-Attach a hose and bottle at the caliper end.
-arrange the bike in work stand so that the caliper is below the lever.
-Open the caliper bleed port.
-Pull the plunger and let fluid flow until clean fluid flows. (Make sure funnel does not empty/introduce air)
-close bleed port on caliper, remove the hose
-flick and rotate lever to get remaining air out of lever body.
-Close lever bleed screw
-clean caliper and reinstall pads, use pad/disc centering tool while squeezing lever.
-reinstall wheel, adjust lever to correct reach/position

[fool]

Fueling science is changing quite a bit in the past few years.
Osmolality is less important than it used to be. Right now it's all about multiple transportable carbohydrates.
We've realized that glucose transport tops out at about 90g / hr. BUT, you can also shove sugar through the gut using Fructose transporters as well AND when the glucose transporters are saturated, the body is able to use the extra Fructose.

Table sugar is - conveniently - 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Somewhere between the 1:1 ratio and a 2:1 glucose: fructose seems to work well for most athletes.

All the powdered gatorades are fine - they're in the 2:1 to 1:1 range above. They have a few extra ingredients that aren't really needed and the sodium contents may or may not be right for individual athletes (but this is the case with all products).

Last weekend I did 5 hours using nothing by table sugar (3 cups) and sodium citrate (3 tsp.) dissolved in water (3L). This was great for 120g / 480 Calories per hour.

Thanks, Pickels - this is super helpful. So it sounds like table sugar is fine, but if I wanted/felt better, I could add a bit of dextrose to get closer to the 2-1 ratio? (Also, coming from the trail/ultra world, consuming 4-500 cals/hour is incredible. Way more than the 2-300 cals that most runners can/do ingest).

I might add potassium as well. When I was running a lot I would take Succeed S Caps for hot/long/humid days. Anecdotally, my body likes salt, so I try to be diligent about it.

I dug up a few recipes from other experts from the training thread for reference. It sounds like Evan went to a more simple recipe. DTM, curious if you’ve changed your formulation in the last two years.

Mine is even more slacker-friendly.

500g maltodextrin powder (glucose) (Bezos or GNC in giant buckets)
250g fructose powder (same, but more $ and much sweeter tasting)
10g table salt
2 packs unsweetened Kool Aid (I like minimal flavor)

Mine is 250 g dextrose, 150 g sucrose, 5 g fine non-iodized salt, 2 g potassium citrate, 15 g True Lemon powder, 5 g citric acid. Tastes like lemonade. You can adjust the lemon and citric acid to taste. 1 tbs is 9-10 g carbs, about 3:1 glucose:fructose.

No K? I have to take in extra Na and K on top of what's in my mix to prevent cramping, but that's a pretty individual thing. I'm aware that there's a dearth of data linking electrolyte depletion to cramps, but I've experimented with it quite a bit and for me salt works. Not capsules either, right in the mouth--an uncomfortably salty taste in my mouth seems to be a key part of it.

The main thing seems to be glucose:fructose at around 2:1-3:1, an electrolyte content of ~1.5%, and putting down enough of it. The rest is window dressing.

Also, since you had the cramping, I ran across this, though I imagine you’ve tried it/something similar already: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...KIKX0DER&psc=1

[XtrPickels]

Glucose transport tops out at ~60g/hr, so if that's all you're looking to do then pure glucose / maltodextrin is fine. Go beyond this and the body can't physically move more glucose across the lining of the gut, so it sits -ferments - and pulls in water. This is where the recommendation for 2 to 300kcal's came from.

If you want to go beyond 60g/hr you need to begin adding fructose into the mix. This came from the work of Asker Jeukendrup (and others) who added some fructose to the mix in a 2:1 ratio. Fructose goes through a seperate transporter, and their seems to be some magic when it's consumed with glucose, because the sum of the whole is higher than the sum of the parts: consuming fructose alone is moderately disastrous. Suddenly the key to transporting more than 90g/hr was found.

More recently, research is supporting that a 1:1 ratio can increase oxidation rates to 120g/hr.

I'm of the opinion that you want to keep your glucose maxed (it's what works best for me) because fructose oxidation is relatively "harder"/ slower than glucose oxidation.

So:

Rate	Ratio	Grams per hour
>60g/hr	100% Glucose	up to 60g
60 to 90g/hr	2:1 Glucose:Fructose	60g Glucose / Up to 30g Fructose
90 to 120g/hr	1:1	60g glucose / 30 to 60g fructose
>120g/hr	???	We don't know what happens here

[Andeh]

OK experts: is there any way to get Hydra hub bearings to last for more than a season (let alone more than a year)?

The sealing on them seems piss poor. I just replaced these fuckers late fall, and they already feel chunky/draggy when I spin the rear wheel in my hands. It's been a wet winter, and they've gotten rinsed off a lot, but I think I've only used soap on my bike once to minimize grease washout. I love the look and sound of them, but this is getting ridiculous. At least they're really easy to replace bearings on because they sure do seem to need that often.

[Boissal]

OK experts: is there any way to get Hydra hub bearings to last for more than a season (let alone more than a year)?

The sealing on them seems piss poor. I just replaced these fuckers late fall, and they already feel chunky/draggy when I spin the rear wheel in my hands. It's been a wet winter, and they've gotten rinsed off a lot, but I think I've only used soap on my bike once to minimize grease washout. I love the look and sound of them, but this is getting ridiculous. At least they're really easy to replace bearings on because they sure do seem to need that often.

No input on this other than to concur with your assessment that the bearings are shite. Mine lasted 1 Wasatch season on my less used biked, probably 1000 miles. Comparing the Hydra to ye ole DT 350 is a bit depressing, I'd be kicking myself in the nuts if I had paid full price for the hub.

[El Chupacabra]

It seems to help cartridge bearings a little if I smear some grease on the outside of the bearing, on top of the seal. It does attract dirt though, so YMMV.

[Andeh]

It seems to help cartridge bearings a little if I smear some grease on the outside of the bearing, on top of the seal. It does attract dirt though, so YMMV.

Yeah, I do that as standard practice. It makes a ton of sense for hub bearings since they usually have full dust covers. I've had more mixed luck with doing it on partially or uncovered frame pivot bearings, since it seems like when it attracts sand, it can do a lot of wear & tear on the pivots.

[Andeh]

No input on this other than to concur with your assessment that the bearings are shite. Mine lasted 1 Wasatch season on my less used biked, probably 1000 miles. Comparing the Hydra to ye ole DT 350 is a bit depressing, I'd be kicking myself in the nuts if I had paid full price for the hub.

The extra shitty thing is they're not even standard bearing sizes, so you can't go hunting for better quality bearings.

[skaredshtles]

The extra shitty thing is they're not even standard bearing sizes, so you can't go hunting for better quality bearings.

[Dantheman]

DTM, curious if you’ve changed your formulation in the last two years.

Also, since you had the cramping, I ran across this, though I imagine you’ve tried it/something similar already: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...KIKX0DER&psc=1

I've upped the fructose content based on Pickles' more recent posts.

I'm skeptical about the Gatorlytes. Mag oxide and calcium silicate both have really low bioavailability so those ingredients seem useless (eta: probably just anti-caking agents, actually). Maybe the calcium lactate does something special, but a quick search on PubMed didn't bring up any results. Even if the CaLac does do something, you can buy it in bulk on Amazon for pennies on the dollar.

No input on this other than to concur with your assessment that the bearings are shite. Mine lasted 1 Wasatch season on my less used biked, probably 1000 miles. Comparing the Hydra to ye ole DT 350 is a bit depressing, I'd be kicking myself in the nuts if I had paid full price for the hub.

Huh. I have three seasons on mine.

[Andeh]

Yeah, so it's worse than I thought. I just looked in my email history and I last ordered a set of replacement bearings on 1/24/23. So I got about 2 months out of them.

[Boissal]

Huh. I have three seasons on mine.

Maybe Andeh and I are doing it wrong? Most people I know with Hydras are annoyed at the maintenance and have either moved on or swore they'll never buy another one. I'm in that camp at this point, I jumped on the hub on Pinkbike cause it was cheap and I was building a new wheelset but I'll never buy another one. I'll probably ditch the hub when I rebuild the wheels and stick a 240 in there if I feel fancy, a 350 if I don't. I'm happy limiting myself to 1 piece of bling per bike and it should be brakes or shock, not something that requires constant maintenance and makes me sound like a nest of hornets.

[volklpowdermaniac]

Yeah I was at at least 2 seasons when I had mine electively serviced because I was swapping from a 27.5 to 29, but other than that they’re going strong, torch I’ve done once in 4 years.
Ymmv

Or maybe I just don’t notice when it feels like shit

[smmokan]

Yeah I was at at least 2 seasons when I had mine electively serviced because I was swapping from a 27.5 to 29, but other than that they’re going strong, torch I’ve done once in 4 years.
Ymmv

Or maybe I just don’t notice when it feels like shit

Oh, you'd notice.

[Roxtar]

OK experts: is there any way to get Hydra hub bearings to last for more than a season (let alone more than a year)?

The sealing on them seems piss poor. I just replaced these fuckers late fall, and they already feel chunky/draggy when I spin the rear wheel in my hands. It's been a wet winter, and they've gotten rinsed off a lot, but I think I've only used soap on my bike once to minimize grease washout. I love the look and sound of them, but this is getting ridiculous. At least they're really easy to replace bearings on because they sure do seem to need that often.

Surprising to hear.
I've used I9 System wheels for each of Mrs Roxtar's and mine's last four bikes without a single bearing issue. I did replace bearings on a bud's 5 year old Torch set but that's pretty good longevity.
I do clean our bikes after every ride. Just a light, no-pressure, shower to remove New Mex moon dust.
We generally keep bikes for 3 years and haven't had to touch the bearings once.

[Andeh]

I should say, they're not getting rusty inside. It's just that the bearings feel notchy and spin really slow. Like, the reason I noticed something was up was that when I spun the rear wheel in the stand, it stopped after like 2-3 sec.

I just use a garden hose with the "gentle shower" setting on the sprayer. I've used MucOff on the bike in question once since building it up, just to get it cleaner before I dove into the linkages. It has gotten rinsed down almost every ride in these 2 months though because of those endless atmospheric rivers we were getting.

[Eluder]

For what it's worth I have multiple sets of I9 1/1 hubs, and they are all great after 2+ seasons. I don't look as cool though.

[XtrPickels]

Both my mountain bikes have Hydra's and they've been rock-solid for me.
I'm moderately meticulous about keeping bikes clean, and most of my riding is in dry conditions but not moondust like some other dry places.

I did just order a new bearing set for the XC wheelset in prep for Portugal - I'll report back if I feel a difference.

[carlh]

My hydras seem fine after 2 years but I don’t wash my bike often just let the mud dry and brush it off.

[Andeh]

I-9 responded and agreed that it seems like excessively short lifespan, and offered to send a new set of endcaps, axle, and bearings. They said the most likely cause would be the hub's tolerance stack (set by axle shaft and freehub spacer). And if this was too short, the hub would get overloaded.

This does seem plausible. The hub was originally set up for MS, but pretty quickly converted to XD. I replaced the endcaps along with the freehub when I converted it, but maybe I somehow got the endcaps mixed up and have been running the wrong spacer. The front bearings always seem to be fine.

[Roxtar]

I-9 responded and agreed that it seems like excessively short lifespan, and offered to send a new set of endcaps, axle, and bearings. They said the most likely cause would be the hub's tolerance stack (set by axle shaft and freehub spacer). And if this was too short, the hub would get overloaded.

This does seem plausible. The hub was originally set up for MS, but pretty quickly converted to XD. I replaced the endcaps along with the freehub when I converted it, but maybe I somehow got the endcaps mixed up and have been running the wrong spacer. The front bearings always seem to be fine.

Good to hear.
Glad I9 is responding.