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Older cubers discussions

Logiqx

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@Michael919 - Welcome to the thread!

I do most of my cubing on a train, commuting (no pun intended) to and from work so I only use quiet puzzles. I sit near the same people every day so I don't want to annoy them with noisy cubes!

The Gan range are the quietest 3x3s in my experience but I've recently got a couple of magnetic Valks (one stickered, one stickerless) and they are both surprisingly quiet. The reduced noise was somewhat unexpected but the Valk is definitely quieter when it has magnets added. I have three regular Valks (2 black, 1 stickerless) and one the two magnetic ones (1 black, 1 stickerless) so it's definitely a "thing".

5x5 is also a quiet puzzle to solve when in company.
 

h2f

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Video showed that a cube was much more solved than you can see it in the final effect: corners and wings and some inner centers were ok before I've started obliques. I'm happy about it.
 

mark49152

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Video showed that a cube was much more solved than you can see it in the final effect: corners and wings and some inner centers were ok before I've started obliques. I'm happy about it.
DNFs are often not as bad as they look. I had a 5BLD DNF earlier that looked bad but was just a single slice error in execution. 4 wings and about 12 centres off made it look worse than it was.

I feel for the guy who did the 10BLD attempt recently and ended up with a scrambled cube due to an early rotation error. Who's to know, but without that one small error the cube might be solved.
 

pglewis

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After I lubed and cleaned my Valk M I also had my first sub-11 lucky solve, and first sub-12 NL. Getting closer to that random fluked sub-10 single!!

I consider a sub-10 single to be "an outlier well within your rights to get". Now, sub 8 and we can call it a fluke :D. Glad to see you're maintaining and improving, I know real-life has returned and probably cut into practice time.

@Michael919: Welcome! We're more of a rare breed but there are definitely some active over-40s around. I'm also 49 and a year into speedsolving. I could casually solve back in the early 80s but probably never got faster than a couple minutes. I don't have any further suggestions on specific cubes but you can also experiment with different weight lubes to quiet a noisy cube some. You'll find plenty of great advice and encouragement here and it has been a welcome outlet for rambling on about my obsession... my non-cubing friends are spared a lot of eye-glazing.
 

Jason Green

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Thanks for the replies. Re. Magnets, I have a pile of N35's on the way that I am going to try in my Air and Valk. I'll let you know how it goes.
Welcome, this is a great place to be! I saw on your welcome post you didn't think you would learn more than 4 look LL. I remember getting into speed cubing close to 2 years ago, and learning about the 57 OLL algs. I thought oh my, who would ever get so obsessed to try and learn all that! :) Now I know full PLL and OLL, and some alternatives for OH, etc. My knowledge is still pretty small compared to a lot of the guys on here, but I definitely think I'll continue learning more now!
 

phreaker

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Mar 18, 2016
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Updates:

1st Comp Ahead: 29th.

New OH PB: 42.126. (Overall PB also. Full step.) The GTS2 Magnetic is a damn fast cube. I think it may become my OH main... I need to work on what cube I want to main.. and if I want to make a duplicate of it for the competition. Hmnn... (Either a Valk M or GTS2 M, I have the magnets, just would need to order more for my next cubes.)

I know many people like to have a spare cube that's similar to their main to warm up on.

3BLD: I'm working on my "fast memo" technique for edges. I'm skipping verbal and going to taps. I played a game like Simon as a kid up thoruhg ~30 steps. Now against 12-15 steps.. if my mind is on, I've got a a shot. The practice isn't easy, I only get a few shots a night right now. The images etch too well, and I don't put them in rooms, because I don't know how.. I never learned that as a kid!

Overall, I feel like the technique is faster, and it'll come in with practice. It is amazing how much better I see the cycles etc now... I just need practce, practice, practice.. but it is fighting with OH for time ;).

Need to also decide on my cube for 2H, and BLD. (Even if I DNF all my BLD attempts I will do them... Just to feel what the room feels like when doing BLD..and learn how to do better.)

I'm thinking of setting up my Valk M for 2H/BLD also... Maybe my Gans AIR UM, or a GTS2 with stiffer magnets? Hard to say... So many options... So little time.

I can tell I'm speeding up... overall. Just more practice, and learning. :)
 

pglewis

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Today 10 out of 69 solves were sub-16, but mean is not sub-20, when will I stop making so many (of many kinds) mistakes? :mad:

I know the feeling so well right now. Still haven't ducked 30 for an Ao12... I'll start a session with a 25 and 27, followed by a 45 and 38 just to make sure I blow the average early. A lot of silly mistakes in my timed sessions lately.
 

DVcuber

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Apr 12, 2017
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I think you need to have a good muscle memory for all f2l algorithms. You do the pairs very slow, but if you wiil do some fingertricks and fast moves it will be faster. Also you need to learn how to idenfity the pair elements fast, because you spend a lot of time to find them and idenfity the situation. Also you do the cross very slow. Try to do it less then 9 moves.
Thats all.
 

pglewis

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I think you need to have a good muscle memory for all f2l algorithms. You do the pairs very slow, but if you wiil do some fingertricks and fast moves it will be faster. Also you need to learn how to idenfity the pair elements fast, because you spend a lot of time to find them and idenfity the situation. Also you do the cross very slow. Try to do it less then 9 moves.
Thats all.

I'm unsure who you're referring to, but this thread is over 700 pages long covering the past several years. If you're critiquing one of Marcel's early recorded solves in this thread, I assure you he has gotten much faster since then :D.
 

newtonbase

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3BLD: I'm working on my "fast memo" technique for edges. I'm skipping verbal and going to taps. I played a game like Simon as a kid up thoruhg ~30 steps. Now against 12-15 steps.. if my mind is on, I've got a a shot. The practice isn't easy, I only get a few shots a night right now. The images etch too well, and I don't put them in rooms, because I don't know how.. I never learned that as a kid!

Overall, I feel like the technique is faster, and it'll come in with practice. It is amazing how much better I see the cycles etc now... I just need practce, practice, practice.. but it is fighting with OH for time ;).

Need to also decide on my cube for 2H, and BLD. (Even if I DNF all my BLD attempts I will do them... Just to feel what the room feels like when doing BLD..and learn how to do better.)
Tapping used to be quite popular though I don't know of anyone who still uses it. But, if it works for you then good luck with it.
Experience in competition is very important in blind events so you have the right idea and you might get lucky. What is the time limit?
 

phreaker

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Tapping used to be quite popular though I don't know of anyone who still uses it. But, if it works for you then good luck with it.
Experience in competition is very important in blind events so you have the right idea and you might get lucky. What is the time limit?

Overtime I thought the tapping went away, and you just memorized the pattern. No idea on the time limit. I currently am not expecting to get a time with my current performance... But who knows.
 

newtonbase

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Overtime I thought the tapping went away, and you just memorized the pattern. No idea on the time limit. I currently am not expecting to get a time with my current performance... But who knows.
It's often 10 or 12 mins in total for your 3 solves but it can vary and if you have a friendly judge they may just let you carry on.
 

pglewis

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Same here, mine should arrive today. I didn't care for the GTS's I tried at comps but I'll give the stickerless GTS2 a try.

And denied; USPS literally lost the package. Never had that happen before, now the fun of waiting for a claim form, filling it out, returning it, and waiting to be reimbursed.
 
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