Quantcast

No bindage on this Obtainium spring

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
Whats up with Jim and Obtainium? They dont have hardly any springs in stock. Anyone know what the deal is?
been waiting two months. everytime i talk to him, he says 2 weeks.
the Diverse is my second option now too, but a 475# would be nice
 

Kntr

Turbo Monkey
Jan 25, 2003
7,526
21
Montana
I doubt it, unlike some people, the majority of us dont actually fall for the blurb.
I really like the weight savings of 1/2 to 1 lb, but I really like the feeling of ti. I can really tell the difference. It feels more plush, smooth, and linear.

Still no response from Jim. I emailed him a week ago. I guess Ill go with a DSP.
 

bansheefr

Monkey
Dec 27, 2004
337
0
I dealt with Jim a fair amount last season and it was a good experience, but recently I have not had any luck getting in touch with him. I'll try to contact him again and let you know what I find out.
 

zdubyadubya

Turbo Monkey
Apr 13, 2008
1,273
96
Ellicott City, MD
Simple... Not happy with Obtanium, go with DSP. Their customer service has been awesome! Good company to work with and great prices. And stuff is almost always in stock! I will always get my Ti from them from now on... Good work Fadi and Co.
 

Kntr

Turbo Monkey
Jan 25, 2003
7,526
21
Montana
I use to stick up for Jim at Obtainium all the time. Im am done. I have left numerous messages and sent many emails over the last few weeks. I have received NO replies. I wont deal with a company that has customer service like that. I run ti springs on all my bikes and buy and sell them all the time. It looks like I will be buying my ti springs from Diverse Suspension from now on. Anyone else feel the same way about Obtainium?
 

time-bomb

Monkey
May 2, 2008
957
21
right here -> .
I use to stick up for Jim at Obtainium all the time. Im am done. I have left numerous messages and sent many emails over the last few weeks. I have received NO replies. I wont deal with a company that has customer service like that. I run ti springs on all my bikes and buy and sell them all the time. It looks like I will be buying my ti springs from Diverse Suspension from now on. Anyone else feel the same way about Obtainium?
Problem is, they get all their raw material flown in from Pandora. It is a long ways away and made from the well guarded natural resource: unobtainium.
 
Last edited:

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
Anyone else feel the same way about Obtainium?
absolutely. ive been dying to get one of their odd size springs, but hearing "2 weeks" every month for 3 months is ridiculous. just tell us that you arent getting them for another few months.
no email replies and occasionally he'll pick up his phone (i think it directs to his cell phone.) he never seems to know price and or anything else besides "2 weeks"

Problem is, they get all their raw material flow in from Pandora. It is a long ways away and made from the well guarded natural resource: unobtainium.
he could have gone to Uranus and back in the time its been since theyve had stock
 

zdubyadubya

Turbo Monkey
Apr 13, 2008
1,273
96
Ellicott City, MD
I use to stick up for Jim at Obtainium all the time. Im am done. I have left numerous messages and sent many emails over the last few weeks. I have received NO replies. I wont deal with a company that has customer service like that. I run ti springs on all my bikes and buy and sell them all the time. It looks like I will be buying my ti springs from Diverse Suspension from now on. Anyone else feel the same way about Obtainium?
Good to hear DSP took care of ya. They will always have my vote. Their customer service is top notch and they (Fadi especially) are very knowledgeable. Looking forward to running their new shock. I will post up a complete review when its had a good thrashing this season.
 

DIRTWRKS

Monkey
Aug 13, 2003
615
0
Canada EH !
I use to stick up for Jim at Obtainium all the time. Im am done. I have left numerous messages and sent many emails over the last few weeks. I have received NO replies. I wont deal with a company that has customer service like that. I run ti springs on all my bikes and buy and sell them all the time. It looks like I will be buying my ti springs from Diverse Suspension from now on. Anyone else feel the same way about Obtainium?
Yup, same here I have ordered springs from him in the past and while the support and communication were spotty, it seems to have gotten worse lately.

I ordered a bearing kit 4 weeks ago and two weeks later I emailed to see if my order had shipped, the answer I got was that my bearings have not shipped yet .... , the exact response was "OH were really busy here trying to fill orders, I'll make sure it goes out ASAP ", that was two weeks ago still no bearings have shown up !!

I still think they have a great product but they really need to get someone on board that can manage a small business efficiently !
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
0
South Seattle
Anyone else feel the same way about Obtainium?

Not trying to talk trash, but he is shady. My buddy had a free sign on some half worn tires at a local race. He snagged them and sold them in his booth.
I know they were free, but I don't want to do business with a guy like that.
 

Big J

Monkey
Jul 18, 2005
421
0
Chicago
I feel sorry for the dude since these days Net perception is reality for many and he may not even have a clue that the wheels are flying off the virtual cart….

I ordered a DSP spring with some hesitation due to possible fitment issues. I was running a steel 550 then tried a 600. I decided to mount a Ti 550. Here’s what I found.

550 steel:



550 Ti:



600 steel:



DHX 5.0 w/ Ti:



The DSP Ti 550 stayed in place with proper preload and felt much more linear than the Fox steel.

After Windrock test ride.

 
Last edited:

wood booger

Monkey
Jul 16, 2008
668
72
the land of cheap beer
Are people really still buying into the thrust bearing under the spring thing?

At my place of employment we ran the same shock/spring with and without thrust bearings under the spring on a shock dyno. It was run fast, it was run slow. It was run deep, it was run low. The difference between thrust bearing and no thrust bearing was not even registering. Don't waste your money!!

Buy a bottle of my go fast pills made from distilled rhino ball sweat instead. Results guaranteed! :thumb:
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,919
24,487
media blackout
Are people really still buying into the thrust bearing under the spring thing?

At my place of employment we ran the same shock/spring with and without thrust bearings under the spring on a shock dyno. It was run fast, it was run slow. It was run deep, it was run low. The difference between thrust bearing and no thrust bearing was not even registering. Don't waste your money!!

Buy a bottle of my go fast pills made from distilled rhino ball sweat instead. Results guaranteed! :thumb:
did you try it on a fork too? IIRC the e-wisdom surrounding thrust bearings is that you'd benefit more on a fork since the spring lengths are longer (1:1 shock displacement to travel)
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,069
5,980
borcester rhymes
Well I'll probably need a spacer if I do what I might be doing. May as well fill it up with something that might do something vs something that will do nothing, I supposed.
 

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,741
473
They work. It's going to have most to do with the friction against the mating surfaces of the spring, both on the ground flat ends and the ID. If those move freely, then there's no much reason to have the relief in the form of the thrust bearing. Likely your dyno has a nicely machined surface. If you have a ****ty surface covered in dirt, or something that's snagging the end of the spring (which is likely on the shaft collar end), you'll have all sorts of interference.

These things work amazingly good on a moto too, but they're generally expensive.
 

mt13

Chimp
Jun 17, 2013
1
0
The function of the thrust bearing allows the spring to rotate around the center axis of the helix. When the spring compresses the force generated causes torsion in wire which changes the length of the wire. You can visualize this if you take a straight rod and twist it, the rod would shorten in length and the diameter would increase. If this case, the wire is not straight line but the idea is the same. The spring also expands in diameter as well due torsion loads in the wire. If the spring is not allowed to move freely during compression then we have an increase in stiffness since the spring ends become fixed until it slips. The slip and stick effect can cause significant variations in spring rate which you will feel and can see in raw data points when tested. Doing a Quasistatic dyno of spring is not going to cut it...the real applicaion is purly dynamic and the delta between static and dynamic friction is what one needs to look at for the memeber who said this was waste of time.

A more important problem with ground end spring is side loads on shock shaft /fork tube. The side load is introduced due to uneven loading of the spring end faces. The uneven loading causes a tilting action on the spring end faces. Since the spring end faces are restrained form tilting a side load is generated on shaft or fork tube. This will cause significant friction in the system (this load can be in the hundreds of lbs force). The solution is to allow the spring ends to pivot using spherical joint.

Correcting both the issues above with a high quality design and materials takes coils to a new level of suppleness and increased traction that one can feel that few have experianced. Forgetting the issue above, if one digs deeper into this you will find that most spring are far from linear. A good design will mitigate the issues mentioned but they are few and far between from my experience especially with commerical grade springs such as in the MTB world. Looking at the raw data instead on some linear trend plot is where the story is. Here a good example from engineer who took some data points but did not take the next step to understand the whole story.

http://www.peterverdone.com/?p=1415

http://www.peterverdone.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cane_Creek_Double_Barrel_(TTX)_Shock

In general, spring design and material seem to be a decade behind other suspension performance application. With the current high performance steels springs can be made 35% lighter, smaller and with 25% more deflection than the current materials used such as ASTM 401. These high performance steels will be lighter than Ti spring and certainly a smaller package. The cost would be about twice what you now pay for a steel spring and Ti springs would be obsolete.
 
Last edited:

DHRracer

Monkey
Sep 29, 2004
371
0
Not trying to talk trash, but he is shady. My buddy had a free sign on some half worn tires at a local race. He snagged them and sold them in his booth.
I know they were free, but I don't want to do business with a guy like that.
Buildyourown if you are referring to an event at PA the items including the tires were not Jims they were mine. I was talking to a young kid and I remember some girl walking by and making some comment about tires she was giving away and thinking I was now trying to sell them. I will set it straight (they were not her tires) just because some is selling tires that happen to be the type someone else was giving away does not mean they were the same tires. If she stopped to ask instead of making an assumption she would have been clued in. Just think and ask before making claims about something you know nothing about. When at least 75% of the people that ride/DH in the Northwest use Minnions it goes to reason that maybe more than one person might be selling the same type of tires at a DH event. In fact that is the exact reason I don't advertise things for free. I don't want someone taking them just because. In most cases if someone shows interest and is willing to pay something they will usually pay very little for what they get from me. If I remember correctly that kid got two rotors and two tires I think for ten bucks. As far things go with Jim he was running two companies one being Obtainium trying to bring a better spring to market/ a very fickle specialty market then the economy tanked. What should he do when it no longer make sense and was getting hundreds of e-mails a day and what did any of the riders he helped with product do for him? If you now want a Ti spring you can by a Ichu from Taiwan or a RCS(weigh RCS springs there not as light as they once were).