Older cubers discussions

mafergut said:
@pipkiksass I don't really know how to make a Weisu better. I'd think about buying a new 4x4 there are lots of cheap, great cubes out there since the Weisu came out.

Also, very nice progression back to sub-20 at 3x3 in no time.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Surprised myself a bit, had a run of over 20 sub 20s last night. Need to knuckle down and finish learning OLL, and do better crosses. I'm still a LITTLE bit slower than I was 2 years ago, but will hopefully overtake myself soon.

What 4x4 is best? Might go stickerless, if that influences the decision. I've read good things about the Yuxin Blue, but apparently it's better with a spring swap??

Edit: a little research shows that lots of folk do a spring swap with the Thunderclap, and The Cubicle do Thunderclap springs for $1, however I did find a post on here where someone had swapped with Fangshi ShuangRen springs, and i happen to have a Fangshi which I was going to throw out, so might try that.

Edit Edit: just done my first ever timed 4x4 solves. First solve was just under 4 minutes, third was 2:38. That's what I call progress!!!!

Generated By csTimer on 2016-11-9
solves/total: 3/3

single
best: 2:38.34
worst: 3:52.64

mean of 3
current: 3:05.20 (σ = 41.20)
best: 3:05.20 (σ = 41.20)

Average: 2:44.62 (σ = 0.00)
Mean: 3:05.20

Time List:
1. 3:52.64 R' F Rw2 F Uw D Rw' D' Rw2 Uw' R' Fw R2 F2 Rw R' Uw2 R2 B' Rw R' B' D L D' L Rw' B2 Fw' L2 F2 L Fw L2 Rw F' Uw' Rw' D' F'
2. 2:44.62 Rw' Fw' Rw2 D2 L2 R2 Uw L2 Rw R B2 F L D Fw2 D2 U Fw B L' R F2 B R L' B2 U Rw Uw2 Rw D B' F2 U2 Uw' R' F' U F' Uw'
3. 2:38.34 L B' Rw D2 R2 L Uw F2 D2 F Uw B' D2 R2 Uw' Fw2 U' F L' Fw2 U2 R F' Uw L2 U B U F2 Rw U' D Fw' U' D' Fw2 D2 Rw B2 U'
 
Last edited:
pipkiksass said:
Thanks! Surprised myself a bit, had a run of over 20 sub 20s last night. Need to knuckle down and finish learning OLL, and do better crosses. I'm still a LITTLE bit slower than I was 2 years ago, but will hopefully overtake myself soon.

What 4x4 is best? Might go stickerless, if that influences the decision. I've read good things about the Yuxin Blue, but apparently it's better with a spring swap??

Edit: a little research shows that lots of folk do a spring swap with the Thunderclap, and The Cubicle do Thunderclap springs for $1, however I did find a post on here where someone had swapped with Fangshi ShuangRen springs, and i happen to have a Fangshi which I was going to throw out, so might try that.

Edit Edit: just done my first ever timed 4x4 solves. First solve was just under 4 minutes, third was 2:38. That's what I call progress!!!!
Click to expand...

You'll be beating me at 3x3 and 4x4 in no time, I'm sure. The Yuxin Blue seems to need a spring swap and some breaking in, lubing and tensioning. Mine is terrible out of the box and I have a Thunderclap ready to do the swap. Will try to do it during Christmas. If you don't want to tinker with it and get a cube that will be good with just some breaking in, my current main is the Cyclone Boys G4, which also happens to have lovely stickerless shades and is also 60mm as the Yuxin Blue. I like smaller cubes.
 
mafergut said:
You'll be beating me at 3x3 and 4x4 in no time, I'm sure. The Yuxin Blue seems to need a spring swap and some breaking in, lubing and tensioning. Mine is terrible out of the box and I have a Thunderclap ready to do the swap. Will try to do it during Christmas. If you don't want to tinker with it and get a cube that will be good with just some breaking in, my current main is the Cyclone Boys G4, which also happens to have lovely stickerless shades and is also 60mm as the Yuxin Blue. I like smaller cubes.
Click to expand...
Yes, the Cyclone Boys G4 is great once it gets going.
 
mafergut said:
You'll be beating me at 3x3 and 4x4 in no time, I'm sure. The Yuxin Blue seems to need a spring swap and some breaking in, lubing and tensioning. Mine is terrible out of the box and I have a Thunderclap ready to do the swap. Will try to do it during Christmas. If you don't want to tinker with it and get a cube that will be good with just some breaking in, my current main is the Cyclone Boys G4, which also happens to have lovely stickerless shades and is also 60mm as the Yuxin Blue. I like smaller cubes.
Click to expand...

newtonbase said:
Yes, the Cyclone Boys G4 is great once it gets going.
Click to expand...

So is the consensus to go with the Cyclone Boys? I don't mind a bit of tinkering. The issue I have is that thepuzzlestore.uk stock the Yuxin, but not the Cyclone Boys, I could get one from Lightake for £4.50, which is ludicrous for a 4x4, but I won't get it for a fortnight, or could pay £8 for express (1 week) shipping. I could get the Yuxin in 2 days, and have a spring ready to swap.

Thoughts?
 
You can see from my 4x4 times that I'm a straight-up n00b but I enjoy it a lot (even more green with 5x5, but I've fallen in love with that puzzle... 5x5 may be my favorite).

I have a G4 and a Yuxin (the bigger one, not the Blue). The G4 was very stiff for me initially, inner slices needed some elbow grease and were rather catchy. It took more than a few solves to break in, probably a week and a half, but it did break in quite nicely. I did not lube or tension it at all for at least a week. It feels somewhat heavy to me but it's a joy to solve. Sticker quality isn't the highest IMO, so stickerless is probably a good choice if the color scheme is acceptable.

The Yuxin turned much better out of the box but even as a newb I don't trust it if I'm timing. It caught and popped on the centers while scrambling early on, luckily I kept it mostly intact. The G4 has been very trustworthy since break-in so the Yuxin hasn't had the same opportunity to get broken-in. I did pick up a set of Thunderclap springs to try in it at some point, even though it's not the Blue.
 
Pip: My Weisu was a bit catchy when new, I felt it was the poor moulding of the centre-pieces. I removed them one at a time and smoothed them off around the corners/edges of the flat face, using a needle file & silicon carbide paper. It seemed better afterwards.
 
AT LAST, I finally had an Ao10 under 30 s :

31,88
31,04
34,05
26,41
32,11
31,69
22,83
31,78
25,96
25,00

Ao10 = 29.28 s.

Oh and that's my new Ao5 PB = 27.45 s also !

I still feel I'm reaching a plateau, though, because my PB single has been the same for over a month and a half. Any advice on further progress with CFOP ?
 
teacher77 said:
AT LAST, I finally had an Ao10 under 30 s :

31,88
31,04
34,05
26,41
32,11
31,69
22,83
31,78
25,96
25,00

Ao10 = 29.28 s.

Oh and that's my new Ao5 PB = 27.45 s also !

I still feel I'm reaching a plateau, though, because my PB single has been the same for over a month and a half. Any advice on further progress with CFOP ?
Click to expand...

Try the CFOP substep comp. It should help highlight which areas you can improve on most. Have you read Escher's stickied post on 'how to practice'? The best way to beat plateaus is to do focussed practice, like blind crosses, slow turning, or LL drills.

Noah Arthurs did a really good post a few years back on beating plateaus, when I'm not mobile I'll post a link, but should be fairly easy to search for. Look for "The Mountain"...

The thing is that progress will now be a LOT slower - when you were solving in 90 seconds there was SO much room for improvement, and as you get faster the improvements become smaller more subtle tweaks, and the difference they yield will be smaller. Also, you will reach a point where pure solving will no longer result in improvement, you need targeted practice. But it will come. You'll break PBs by .1 of a second rather than 5 seconds, but don't get disheartened.

Remember:

There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
teacher77 said:
AT LAST, I finally had an Ao10 under 30 s :

31,88
31,04
34,05
26,41
32,11
31,69
22,83
31,78
25,96
25,00

Ao10 = 29.28 s.

Oh and that's my new Ao5 PB = 27.45 s also !

I still feel I'm reaching a plateau, though, because my PB single has been the same for over a month and a half. Any advice on further progress with CFOP ?
Click to expand...

Nicely done!

Have you ever recorded and watched your solves? Even if you never share it, it's super helpful. Look for where your pauses are. Figure out how much faster you'd be if you mostly eliminated those pauses. Figure out what you need to adjust to do so.
 
Photo courtesy of Bernard Solomon AKA Bernzilla @ UKC 2016.

Left to right...

Andy @Shaky Hands, Ben @bubbagrub, Mark @newtonbase, Mark @mark49152, Chris @Selkie, Mike @Logiqx

1.jpg
 
Nice to put faces to names. I know most of you have photos on profiles or WCA page anyway, but still!

I like to think you were doing your bit to compensate for the fact that many of the attendees were too young to prop up the bar?

Anyone have any input on my 4x4 purchasing decision? I'm going to buy one in the next 20 minutes, and it will either be a Yuxin Blue (from Puzzle Store UK - would be with me maybe Saturday/Monday) or a Cyclone Boys G4 (from Lightake, would be with me some time this century).
 
Been mainly working since UKC culminating in a 500 mile driving day today to see clients but some great chat going on about BLD/Comms and OH on here, some really interesting stuff guys. Personally for my drive for BLD success over Christmas I am going to go with M2/OP Corners. As for OH I am going to try some of the suggestions. I gave up OH a long while ago but it may be worth looking at it again if I can change method so I don't feel like I have a broken hand after each solve.

Loving the group photo and thanks for Bernie for taking it. I would love to post it on my Facebook profile if you guys are ok with that? I won't tag anyone and the only person in the photo I am not FB friends with is Andy @Shaky Hands . Let me know if any of you have any objections.

Delighted to see that the schedule for Birmingham Open is up and with 3x3, 4x4 and 6x6 on the menu for Sunday (the day I can attend) really going to be practicing 4 and 6 hard for the next month. I have a 4 hour train trip on Friday and intend on doing solely 6x6 for the journey. I have a few sub 4 minute means of 3 and with the two new eagerly awaited 6x6's being released would be great to Get to sub 4 officially to take pressure off qualifying for UKC 2017! :)

@pipkiksass - The Cyclone Boys G4 is a great 4x4 but will take a few solves out of teh box to feel its best. I hear awesome things about the Yuxin Blue with Thunderclap springs and will be ordering on imminently.
 
pipkiksass said:
Nice to put faces to names. I know most of you have photos on profiles or WCA page anyway, but still!

I like to think you were doing your bit to compensate for the fact that many of the attendees were too young to prop up the bar?

Anyone have any input on my 4x4 purchasing decision? I'm going to buy one in the next 20 minutes, and it will either be a Yuxin Blue (from Puzzle Store UK - would be with me maybe Saturday/Monday) or a Cyclone Boys G4 (from Lightake, would be with me some time this century).
Click to expand...

I'm happy with my G4, no experience with the Yuxin.
 
Great group photo, thanks for that. I have 'tabloid press' comments in my head now, stuff like "...with a combined age of 265 years...." hehe, if I was there it would certainly top 300 yrs.

The 4x4 chat is good, too, I was toying with getting a good one, that Weisu I have seems nice until it locks and spits out odd-shaped internal parts without much provocation. I might enjoy solving more if I'm not on the floor looking for black plastic parts hiding in the shadows.
 
pipkiksass said:
Try the CFOP substep comp. It should help highlight which areas you can improve on most. Have you read Escher's stickied post on 'how to practice'? The best way to beat plateaus is to do focussed practice, like blind crosses, slow turning, or LL drills.

Noah Arthurs did a really good post a few years back on beating plateaus, when I'm not mobile I'll post a link, but should be fairly easy to search for. Look for "The Mountain"...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words.

Maybe it's my poor english, but I have no clue what a "substep comp" is. Can you please enlighten me ?
 
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