Older cubers discussions

Who'd have thought that Ra would cause so much conversation, lol.

I used the RUD alg for years but I find the RUF much better for big cubes and slightly more reliable for 2H. I think most people probably do the RUD alg.

It's crucial that you can double flick with your left hand for the RUF alg. Chris Olson did a finger trick video a long time ago.

 
Today I did a complete reboot of my stickerless MeiYing. Cleaned everything thoroughly, put some 30k in the core and no other lube. What do you know, first 50 solves give new pb Ao50 and Ao12. Ao12 pb now 20.00, that sub-20 Ao12 didn't want to come just yet... But I'll get there! :)

Picking a main is hard. Now I have to consider the MeiYing again as well. It is the cube that I used for my current pb single last year, so at least I know it can be very fast.
 
JanW said:
Today I did a complete reboot of my stickerless MeiYing. Cleaned everything thoroughly, put some 30k in the core and no other lube. What do you know, first 50 solves give new pb Ao50 and Ao12. Ao12 pb now 20.00, that sub-20 Ao12 didn't want to come just yet... But I'll get there! :)

Picking a main is hard. Now I have to consider the MeiYing again as well. It is the cube that I used for my current pb single last year, so at least I know it can be very fast.
Click to expand...
I picked today my Cubicle Premium Meiying (sadly it's stickered black, not stickerless) and, you guessed it, it feels very similar to the Yan3. I remembered it was quite unstable and that was the reason I never used it as my main but it's not bad at all and it looks like another cube that would greatly benefit from magnets.

EDIT: First sub 5:30 single (6x6): 5:28.59
EDIT2: And nice PB Ao5, including a pop of a center piece: 5:43.94 = (5:28.59), (6:08.84), 5:44.20[pop], 5:55.21, 5:32.38
 
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JanW said:
I guess it's listed in those algs for some kind of practice reason, to be able to set up and immediately solve with the same alg, but this seems very counter productive to me. No point teaching your fingers to perform unnecessary moves at the end of the alg.
Click to expand...

Exactly, I copy/pasted directly from my spreadsheet; it's in there that way because that realigns it to make it repeatable. In a real solve there's only a 25% chance it will align that way. If I put that U' into muscle memory it's probably a good recipe for more future U3s. Really good point, I'm gonna omit that while drilling and realign after stopping the timer.

Logiqx said:
It's crucial that you can double flick with your left hand for the RUF alg. Chris Olson did a finger trick video a long time ago.
Click to expand...

That's where I got it, Chris's series is where I picked up most of my PLLs. I can't do U2 well at all OH, my fast double-flick requires both thumbs on the front: opposite hand holding the weight with the performing hand's thumb bracing against the move. If I have any fingers of the performing hand on the back to hold the weight then my middle finger's mobility is seriously hampered making things a lot slower as well as being prone to deforming the cube due to loss of turning accuracy. I only get full speed if I'm bracing with the thumb and leaving all fingers free on that hand.

R' U2 is the trouble spot. I start the alg with my right thumb on the bottom to come up for the R U R' F', ending with thumb on the bottom. Without any re-grip my right thumb will again be on the bottom after the R U2 R', out of position and leaving the left to both hold the weight and do the U2. I should take a close look at how he executes it again but TBH the RUD alg immediately flows very well for me. Right thumb smoothly glides naturally throughout, guiding the whole alg without lifting. When I reach the lone U2 in context, my left is all set to support the weight for my right to do the double-flick.
 
I can definitely end the internal Ra debate. The RUD one was good for a 2.28 and I was getting 2.5s with my GuHong and Aolong V2. I was able to get the RUF one down to 2.8 with a little spamming but it's clear the RUD one has about a half second advantage for me only two days after picking it up. I'll gladly take that free half second every time the alg shows up, all I gotta to is rewire the recall.
 
pglewis said:
Exactly, I copy/pasted directly from my spreadsheet; it's in there that way because that realigns it to make it repeatable. In a real solve there's only a 25% chance it will align that way. If I put that U' into muscle memory it's probably a good recipe for more future U3s. Really good point, I'm gonna omit that while drilling and realign after stopping the timer.
Click to expand...
The RUD Ra alg is still repeatable without the U'. You'll just have to do it 3 times to get back to where you started. That's 50% more practice for the same price! :D

In general I think the goal should be to always be able to tell how the top layer will end up aligned before or while performing PLL. Then you can automatically apply the correct amount of U/U' moves at the end, without another look. I can do this already for most PLLs and I know it in theory for R-perms, I just can't always work it out in practice for R-perms yet. Need to know my color scheme better.

Speaking of aligning the U layer, do people ever rotate the cube before performing PLL? If you see that the U layer is correctly aligned in relation to the rest of the cube, but not correctly aligned for you to solve the PLL, do you do AUF-PLL-AUF' or rotate cube then PLL? For some reason I tend to rotate the cube if I have a U-perm with the top layer correctly aligned in relation to the cube. Otherwise I never rotate it. I wonder if I should get rid of the U-perm cube rotations as well.
 
JanW said:
Speaking of aligning the U layer, do people ever rotate the cube before performing PLL? If you see that the U layer is correctly aligned in relation to the rest of the cube, but not correctly aligned for you to solve the PLL, do you do AUF-PLL-AUF' or rotate cube then PLL? For some reason I tend to rotate the cube if I have a U-perm with the top layer correctly aligned in relation to the cube. Otherwise I never rotate it. I wonder if I should get rid of the U-perm cube rotations as well.
Click to expand...
AUF-PLL-AUF is what we should do for every PLL case.
I tend to rotate for A perms. That is, because I have problems with post-AUFs after x rotations. I think it's the only PLL though. For U perms I can't understand, even with the AUFs RU-2gen is so fast and easy to execute.

EDIT: Same goes for the MU ones in case you use these..
 
sqAree said:
For U perms I can't understand, even with the AUFs RU-2gen is so fast and easy to execute.
Click to expand...
I think the U-perm rotations might be a remain from my early cubing career when most solves ended in a U-perm and I probably had many bad habits involving unnecessary cube rotations. I shall try to stop doing those.
 
JanW said:
In general I think the goal should be to always be able to tell how the top layer will end up aligned before or while performing PLL. Then you can automatically apply the correct amount of U/U' moves at the end, without another look.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Two sided recognition is easy for R perms so I can AUF quickly to align for execution. Then I know that for the inverse of that RUD alg, the FU edge sticker doesn't move, and I'm already prepared to AUF accordingly at the end with no pause or regrip. For most of my PLLs, the trailing U, U' or U2 is already in muscle memory, as if I'd learned four variants of each alg.
 
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