Older cubers discussions

The most pain from M moves in my opinion is the Moyu Dianma with its thinner middle layer. Might have been good for young-uns, but big fingers don't work with it.

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I've hated DianMa. I've sold it a day after I bought it.
 
I've just squished up my Zhanchi, and it looks exactly like the "beta=18 degrees" picture. I can lay my hands on a genuine Rubiks with a beta of 0.000. So if the science is right, that riveted old monster is ideal as my 'main'.

[nerd alert].. I squished it diagonally (pushing two diagonally opposite corners on the top face together) until it was solid. It appears the limiting factor was how much the corner pieces overlap the centre-piece. If the corners weren't 'under-cut' the 'beta' would be reduced a fair bit.
 
On the other hand I must say I've started use it in 3bld and it's great. I had only one blow up pop but after that accident all is fine. And funny but comms when I use M/M' moves are fine. It will replace my other cubes like Yuxin, Aolong v1 and Thunderclap v1.
It's indeed quite nice for bld. I had a decent Ao5 on my Thuderclap v2 just now. Ao5: 3:01.80 - (2:18.25), 2:45.04, (03:38 DNF), 03:03.42, 03:16.93

Times show a typical trend for me. Those were the first 5 solves today and times get slower and slower with every solve. Memo in first solve was 50s, all other >1 min, with the 4th having slowest memo (1:47). Usually the first solve I do in a session is the fastest. Then memo and recalling memo gets slower. I can't really do long sessions at all, have to take a break after a few solves. Am I memorizing things too well, so that old memo keeps interfering with new memo? Or is this just so fatiguing for the brain that It's supposed to be like this?
 
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Interesting how some people prefer 356s as main for 3BLD. I also like a lighter, faster cube for 3BLD and am less concerned about stability. Perhaps the techniques we use to keep control of the cube are different with eyes closed. For regular 3x3 I find it a bit too unstable.
 
Oh didn't you recently say the Aurora was really good and were going to pass on the Galaxy? :p

I'm not buying any more cubes... ok maybe different puzzles that I don't own like a 6x6 or a fisher/axis/rex cube.
I did say that indeed. Which proves my point that I have problems to control myself when buying new cubes. In this case everyone kept saying how great it was and I really wanted to have a stickerless Mega just because of the "stickerless everything" trend in this thread and, yeah, I have a stickerless Dayan with ridges but everybody knows how that ended up, right? So, yeah, I got the Galaxy and then some more to keep it company during the trip home :p

So, no more orders until at least Christmas, I hope.
 
I quite liked the Dianma but I was quite new then.

I've lost part of a corner from my Weilong GTS. Put it in my pocket, walked 50 yards to my car. Walked back and pulled it out of my pocket with the outer bits of the corner missing. Bizarre. Retraced my steps 3 times and it's gone. Lovely smooth cube so it's a shame.
 
I quite liked the Dianma but I was quite new then.

I've lost part of a corner from my Weilong GTS. Put it in my pocket, walked 50 yards to my car. Walked back and pulled it out of my pocket with the outer bits of the corner missing. Bizarre. Retraced my steps 3 times and it's gone. Lovely smooth cube so it's a shame.
Lesson learned the hard way, always carry them in a bag. I used to solve all kinds of cubes in the train but now I'm worried to carry my CB G4 after the massive pop I had at home, those pesky little inner edge pieces would prove very difficult to recover from a pop in the train. I had my Weilong v2 pop in the train when it was like 1 minute to my stop. Luckily I could get back all the 2-3 pieces that popped but 1 min later I would have had to abandon the train leaving the pieces there. Yuxin 5x5 does not pop or does it? Because it's the cube now I most frequently use on the train... and 3x3s that have never popped like the Yuexiao, etc.

I was going to like your post but then I thought: "I don't want him to think I like the whole thing of him losing pieces from a good cube" but it really sounds like a weird story. It's like the Bermuda Triangle was somewhere in between your car and your home.
 
@Lid , Thanks very much will take a look. I have been learning more CO cases and EP cases to bolster my current method and LL is getting faster.

Loving the discussions on the Gans 356 Air and stability etc. I always did love the 356 v2 when I solved on stickerless and it still holds the record for my best average on film 13.5x. I would love to try but but for the fact I need sticker less now.

The puzzle order arrived today and I did a 25 minute unboxing video only to find for some reason it did not record the audio so a waste of time :(

Qiyi Skewb - Only ordered to have s stickerless one. I hardly average sub 20!
Yuxin 6x6 - Very nice but easy to mis-align. Only did one solve for tthe unboxing at 4:15.xy. promising
X-Man Galaxy Megaminx - Wow, just wow, been solving on this thing all day on and off with the following results:-

PB Ao5: 2:36.53
PB Ao12: 2:42.51
Ao50: 2:49.74

2:52.24, (3:18.33), 2:43.32,2:55.85, 2:53.82, 2:32.16, 2:49.88,2:44.12, 2:56.58, (2:17.79), (2:20.45), 3:00.83, 2:50.16, (3:05.96), 2:54.94, 2:54.09,2:52.14, 2:52.78, 2:56.88, 2:56.44,2:41.56, 2:43.19, 2:56.28, 2:42.84,2:54.18, 2:45.00, 2:34.61, 2:46.97,2:48.73, 2:32.17, (2:31.45),2:36.29, 2:41.12, 3:05.30, 3:05.45, (3:08.05), 2:59.78, 2:50.14,2:40.25, 2:38.77, 3:01.80, 2:39.86,2:48.18, 2:50.64, 2:57.54, 2:55.22,2:57.73, 2:34.68, 2:55.74, 2:58.20
So sub 2:50, 6 more weeks of intensive practice to get that sub 2:30.

The Guildford Open 2016 schedule is up and since I can only make the Sunday I will concentrating on: 3x3, 5x5 and Megaminx and after all that 4x4 and 6x6 progress recently. That will have to wait for UK Championship in November :)
 
Valk and Gans Air? So that's 2 more cubes I should own, which I didn't even know existed yet... I never had a Gans, I'm quite curious what they hype is all about. Will probably order one some day. But not now.

With my new set of proper lube, I discover a whole lot of "new" cubes in my drawer at home. Today I set up the Weilong v1. This one had terrible spring noices on 4 sides when I got it and felt really awkward. After some treatment it became a completely different cube. Wow, that thing is fast! Not sure what I would use that cube for, but it's quite fun to solve. Shame it is white, which hurts my recognition.

Interesting to read about explosive pops. This has never happened to me, not with any cube. Does this mean my tensions are too tight? Or I'm too gentle in my solving?
 
I'm surprised you found a buyer!
:) good price....

It's indeed quite nice for bld. I had a decent Ao5 on my Thuderclap v2 just now. Ao5: 3:01.80 - (2:18.25), 2:45.04, (03:38 DNF), 03:03.42, 03:16.93

Times show a typical trend for me. Those were the first 5 solves today and times get slower and slower with every solve. Memo in first solve was 50s, all other >1 min, with the 4th having slowest memo (1:47). Usually the first solve I do in a session is the fastest. Then memo and recalling memo gets slower. I can't really do long sessions at all, have to take a break after a few solves. Am I memorizing things too well, so that old memo keeps interfering with new memo? Or is this just so fatiguing for the brain that It's supposed to be like this?

In 3bld my first times are almost always bad and dnf. I'm warmed up after 5-10 solves and this is the moment good times come.
 
@Lid , Thanks very much will take a look. I have been learning more CO cases and EP cases to bolster my current method and LL is getting faster.

Loving the discussions on the Gans 356 Air and stability etc. I always did love the 356 v2 when I solved on stickerless and it still holds the record for my best average on film 13.5x. I would love to try but but for the fact I need sticker less now.

The puzzle order arrived today and I did a 25 minute unboxing video only to find for some reason it did not record the audio so a waste of time :(

Qiyi Skewb - Only ordered to have s stickerless one. I hardly average sub 20!
Yuxin 6x6 - Very nice but easy to mis-align. Only did one solve for tthe unboxing at 4:15.xy. promising
X-Man Galaxy Megaminx - Wow, just wow, been solving on this thing all day on and off with the following results:-

PB Ao5: 2:36.53
PB Ao12: 2:42.51
Ao50: 2:49.74

2:52.24, (3:18.33), 2:43.32,2:55.85, 2:53.82, 2:32.16, 2:49.88,2:44.12, 2:56.58, (2:17.79), (2:20.45), 3:00.83, 2:50.16, (3:05.96), 2:54.94, 2:54.09,2:52.14, 2:52.78, 2:56.88, 2:56.44,2:41.56, 2:43.19, 2:56.28, 2:42.84,2:54.18, 2:45.00, 2:34.61, 2:46.97,2:48.73, 2:32.17, (2:31.45),2:36.29, 2:41.12, 3:05.30, 3:05.45, (3:08.05), 2:59.78, 2:50.14,2:40.25, 2:38.77, 3:01.80, 2:39.86,2:48.18, 2:50.64, 2:57.54, 2:55.22,2:57.73, 2:34.68, 2:55.74, 2:58.20
So sub 2:50, 6 more weeks of intensive practice to get that sub 2:30.

The Guildford Open 2016 schedule is up and since I can only make the Sunday I will concentrating on: 3x3, 5x5 and Megaminx and after all that 4x4 and 6x6 progress recently. That will have to wait for UK Championship in November :)
I've got a pass for both days of Guildford! No mention of an overnight stay yet but I'm not pushing it.
 
That Dianma looks horrible, think I will have bad dreams about it.

Chris, you should dub over your video like a bad martial arts overdub. That could be funny. :)

I almost decided to order my birthday cubes early for the Portland comp, but I'm going to wait. I had been putting Maru on the Yuexiao recently and liked it after some solves but it only lasts like a day it seems which is annoying. I decided to try some of my weight 3. I accidentally squirted way too much, but just wiped some off and worked it around, and I really like it. It slows it down almost feels like my Gans, not as clicky as it was but still stable.
 
Just finished setting up my Thunderclap V2. It's really nice now. They probably should have given it a different name though, it doesn't feel much like the original Thunderclap. It's really fast, snappy, and stable. If not for one major issue I would put it in my top 3. It's just so damn noisy. I was hoping some weight 5 lube would shut it up a bit, but nope. It's clacky and really loud. Despite how great it is to solve, the noise is a deal breaker for me. Sadly, I think this one is getting shelved.

There's been some discussion recently about filming solves and discovering how bad they look when you watch the video. So I decided to film a few 5x5 solves tonight... It's true! Here's a video of my best solve of the session. It's only a couple seconds off my PB and it looks awful on video. The centers were okay I guess, but the edge pairing was just awful. So many long pauses. Then 3x3 was a mess with mistakes. I used to think sub 2:00 was a pipe dream, but now seeing how much room I have for improvement I can definitely see sub 2:00 in my future :)

 
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