Posted a pad design, separate front/back/jump, free to modify, distribute, or sell

[Flygonial]

Currently, I just have the design hosted on Printables, might also push it to GitHub for the sake of it. I had the Flexi-Feet Grizzla-a-likes printed at first with a minor modification I made in Tinkercad to add jump-inserts. I didn't quite make these as large of a part of the cross-section as I should have and as a result they didn't do enough to add to the rigidity. Furthermore, I would find that the rear pads had a small chance of getting unstuck during hard braking and this prompted me to look into designing my own pads.

I wanted to design a unibody piece at first (which would guarantee no problems with velcro unsticking) but my printer (a Prusa Mini) was far too small for this. In fact, I had to print the front Flexi-Feet pad at 90% scale. As a result, I decided to look into making my design three separate pads altogether. As I had heard complaints from some of my friends that many dedicated jump-pads available were too small to get enough contact area to feel secure, I knew I needed mine to have a generous amount of area. Besides that, I just took some notes from how certain designs such as NyloNove have the actual pad itself situated off-center, letting you put your pads farther out to get more lean while ensuring much of it is still stuck onto your wheel. After a few prints and reprints, I scaled back the size of each pad and the geometry of them should ensure that you're able to get both a loose and relaxed fit depending on your preferences. Definitely will not fit on a small wheel, but the design is reasonably parametric so a larger or smaller version can be released too. Source files included and feel free to modify however you see fit.

Finally, as a finishing touch I took notes from the "memorizers" that are on the Grizzla Flows and added reference notches to these pads for storage or transport. The pictured pads aren't the most updated versions and I personally only have a need to use them on the jump pads anyways.

I've been pretty happy about them in my own use. The extra rigidity on jumps is nice and they feel firmly stuck. The very far forward position compensates for how high the front pad needs to be installed and is enough for me to overpower the S22 if I really tried. The rear pads don't crackle as much when braking hard (from the velcro) and so far I haven't even come close to getting them to unstick. Probably not the most innovative or ergonomic pads out there, but they're accessible to print (will fit on all printers >160x160mm, and a bit smaller if you scale down the front pad) and put together (no hardware needed). At the end of the day, I designed these mostly for myself and if any of y'all get use out of them I'd be happy too.

As far as the license goes, I don't have any plans to turn a profit off these and they're free game for anyone to make or modify themselves.

[0000]

Looks like a winner. Thinking about my ride interactions with my Grizzla knockoff pads, I'm not sure how much you gain having the larger acceleration pad anyway as long as you cover the main points of contact with a reasonable amount of surface area like you have. Nice!

Edited May 25, 2023 by Vanturion

[Flygonial]

Ah always good to see another designer, and thank you.

Quote

I'm not sure how much you gain having the larger acceleration pad anyway as long as you cover the main points of contact with a reasonable amount of surface area

Agreed on that, one could really get away with a bit less than I put on before it starts to really feel sparse. I suppose at most some people might enjoy a maximally-locked in feeling around their ankles but past a point this starts to get in the way of transitioning to a seated position (hence one of my friends who needed to cut apart his Biopads).

[0000]

5 hours ago, Flygonial said:

...(hence one of my friends who needed to cut apart his Biopads)

Wow bummer - I've never tried out a full locked-in pad design, but always thought it was not a great idea conceptually. I know I spent a bit of time deliberating how tall I wanted to make each pad since I had no measurements to compare to. Balancing comfort, control, and ease of ejection were all considerations when creating the variable contours and finalizing dimensions.

While we're on it, the other thing that struck me about the Biopad design (unless it's changed since) is that it doesn't look like it would hold up too well after a few off-wheel events trail riding. I don't imagine a lot of people besides designers think about the crash protection aspect of pads too much, but I consider that feature just as important if not slightly more so than the increased control aspect.

Besides general shell scratch protection, having good/strategic coverage with a material like TPU can even dampen the impulse forces that get imparted to the overall assembly in some wrecks that could otherwise reduce the durability of plastics or break weak solder joints internally over time.

I guess you could say I'm a big fan of wrapping it up (in TPU). Anyway, I'm probably preaching to the choir here.

[mrelwood]

Thank you so much for sharing these! Deeply appreciated!

 You mention 3 walls with a 0.8mm nozzle. What kind of infill settings would you recommend?

[Flygonial]

8 hours ago, Vanturion said:

Wow bummer - I've never tried out a full locked-in pad design, but always thought it was not a great idea conceptually. I know I spent a bit of time deliberating how tall I wanted to make each pad since I had no measurements to compare to. Balancing comfort, control, and ease of ejection were all considerations when creating the variable contours and finalizing dimensions.

While we're on it, the other thing that struck me about the Biopad design (unless it's changed since) is that it doesn't look like it would hold up too well after a few off-wheel events trail riding. I don't imagine a lot of people besides designers think about the crash protection aspect of pads too much, but I consider that feature just as important if not slightly more so than the increased control aspect.

Besides general shell scratch protection, having good/strategic coverage with a material like TPU can even dampen the impulse forces that get imparted to the overall assembly in some wrecks that could otherwise reduce the durability of plastics or break weak solder joints internally over time.

I guess you could say I'm a big fan of wrapping it up (in TPU). Anyway, I'm probably preaching to the choir here.

Ease of ejection sounds funny but is indeed something I’ve thought of before. I’ve never had a super locked in set-up so I’ve not had problems with this yet.

Long-term durability from bumps and crashes is a real concern too and it’s true that pads do a lot of grunt work in absorbing damage from a tumble. That being said I’m not sure what features in a pad design are much more beneficial for protection besides maybe area or the ability to be more spread out. Besides the Biopads, I can’t think of any designs that seem fragile in an off-road crash much more than other ones.

2 hours ago, mrelwood said:

Thank you so much for sharing these! Deeply appreciated!

 You mention 3 walls with a 0.8mm nozzle. What kind of infill settings would you recommend?

I actually printed mine as low as 7%. You probably could go as low as 5% and high as the mid 10s but I can’t see there being much of a point to making it higher than 20.

[0000]

15 minutes ago, Flygonial said:

That being said I’m not sure what features in a pad design are much more beneficial for protection besides maybe area or the ability to be more spread out

Besides finding a good compromise of infill %, shells, and material hardness (got a few options with TPU), it's pretty much as you said, surface area, and designing smooth transitions to reduce the liklihood of getting hard stopped in a tumble. Even the hook and loop material plays a part with absorbtion by reducing the impulse force(s) from shearing impacts.

27 minutes ago, Flygonial said:

Ease of ejection sounds funny

What can I say, ya always gotta watch for those unplanned ejections...

[Flygonial]

13 hours ago, Vanturion said:

Besides finding a good compromise of infill %, shells, and material hardness (got a few options with TPU), it's pretty much as you said, surface area, and designing smooth transitions to reduce the liklihood of getting hard stopped in a tumble. Even the hook and loop material plays a part with absorbtion by reducing the impulse force(s) from shearing impacts.

What can I say, ya always gotta watch for those unplanned ejections...

Besides the durability yeah I can see your point: smoother edges letting it slide better or longer without just instantly catapulting the wheel into a tumble. I imagine it’s unavoidable in certain instances but the only other thing I can imagine is that maybe if pads are able to have their protrusions situated farther out to the ends they act more effectively as bumpers (rather than in the middle where they might end up smashing the front or back into the ground in a tumble).

And yep concerns over getting your ankles stuck is definitely a real thing, I end up shuffling my feet outwards when seated because it feels a little too locked in. Because my feet are pointed out it’s still pretty easy to stand right back up and even if the stance ends up being wide at first it’s not ever been a problem (the wider stance is stable, if anything).

[0000]

56 minutes ago, Flygonial said:

the only other thing I can imagine is that maybe if pads are able to have their protrusions situated farther out to the ends they act more effectively as bumpers (rather than in the middle where they might end up smashing the front or back into the ground in a tumble).

For sure, you can only get so much coverage with power pads no matter how you mount. So that was one of the things I considered right after I mounted my pads, looking at which surfaces weren't covered by the angles made between the tire, fwd and aft, and the protruding pads in a tumble crash scenario. Then I just made more pieces of TPU to cover areas I thought could use a little more scratch/slide protection for my RS. I didn't go for 100% protection, but after all the trail wrecks I've had, I've been very pleased how well the wheel/shell and all of the TPU protection pieces have held up to repeated abuse. In fact, I'd repeat the same process (making armored bits) for any future wheel too if I ever go that route.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Vanturion