#ST1X | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fedoraspooky · 7 months ago

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(sorry for the screenshots @twilightfreefaller but I wasn't sure how else to answer submissions without like editing it and making it look like you wrote the answer too or something? .w.)

Anyway, to answer your question: The character you've drawn here (very well for mspaint i might add!) is none other than Black Ace, who belongs to @zeurelart!

The kind of tournaments you're asking about were/are known as OC Tournaments, or OCTs for short. While I may not have made Black Ace, funny enough, I was a participant in the same tournament, Escape From Nevara! Our characters never crossed paths, though. XD Here's the lil guy I entered, if you're wondering:

Also I HAVE drawn Black Ace before, fighting Chester! (Chester wasn't in Escape From Nevara so this was purely a what-if scenario I drew for funsies.)

....Damn, i was really cookin with my art back then, what happened? XD ;

Now Chester WAS in another tournament, though it was more an AU of himself. You see, back on dA around the same time was a huge open submission OCT going on called Samurai Duelers League, where you would enter your character (you DID have to change them to match the old samurai-era Japan setting of the tournament though if they otherwise didn't fit, hence the AU) and fight other people who entered, and it wasn't an elimination tournament so you could still fight others even if it was determined you lost.

Here's what Chester looked like for SDL:

And while he didn't participate in the tournament as an entrant, Chester as his normal robot self was also in spectator entries as a side character in a tournament named Infractus Fatality!

As for Charlie, I sadly only made him in the last few years or so, well after the OCT scene on dA had largely died. Not to mention I left dA due to their AI bs shortly after I made him, so even if OCTs were still a thing on there I probs wouldn't have stuck around for it. ;w;

But MAN he would've been perfect for OCTs!! I literally made him because I was inspired by watching cool stickman fight animations! And in canon he's a living weapon, he was engineered specifically for combat and blowing stuff up! If there were any characters I could have sent into a situation where they have to fight other characters for survival or a wish or what have you, it should've been him! But alas, I made him way too late.

People still run OCTs on discord and... i think twitter, these days? But idk, I don't really like being on twitter and discord is such a closed off space that discoverability is super low.

But man, I can dream...

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newwheel · 8 years ago

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Stromer ST1X Customer Ride Report by Paul Yonemura

About Paul

Age: 66 Occupation: Retired Music Teacher/Independent Jazz Recording Artist Home Town: Berkeley, CA Bike Usage: Errands/Pleasure Rides Average Weekly Mileage: 20 miles/Errands Pleasure Riding Mileage: 10-30 miles per trip

Bike: Stromer ST1X 17″ in Orange w/ Stromer Front Suspension & BodyFloat Seatpost

How I Wound Up On An Electric Bike Like a lot of people, I rode a great deal when I was a child. I’d ride all over Berkeley on everything from a balloon-tired cruiser to a ten-speed. Then the driver’s license came at age sixteen and that ended my biking for a long time. I got back on a bike at age 38, riding an early mountain bike, which was great for Berkeley’s not-so-perfect streets, but I wasn’t consistent with it. Being a band director meant having to haul instruments in for repair in a car, so the bike got very sporadic use.

I was very out of shape, going into retirement, so I signed up at a local gym and also signed up for a personal trainer. My trainer is about my age, super-fit, and sets a good example. She rode to the gym every day on everything from an urban “beater” bike to her fancy carbon-fiber road bike.

One day, I arrived at the gym and saw an electric bike parked where she normally parked. Like a lot of people, I thought electric bikes were for people who didn’t want to exercise. I felt sure that someone had taken her parking spot. I had to admit, looking at her bike (which was a Specialized Turbo) made me realize that electric bikes had come a long way. Yes, it was her bike. She said it was a present from her partner and when I asked how she liked it, she said, “I love it! You should try one!”

I did try one, liked it, but was unable to get a duplicate of her bike (Specialized had discontinued production). A recommendation to try The New Wheel Electric Bike Shop came my way. I had also done some research on bikes and the one that came up in comparisons with the Specialized was the Stromer line. I went to The New Wheel in Larkspur, took a ride on a Stromer ST1 Platinum and a week later I had one of my own. Over the next six months, even with the heavy winter rains, I put over 1200 miles on the bike, all very enjoyable.

Why The Switch To The ST1 X? One day, while my bike was being serviced at The New Wheel, I saw a Stromer on display that was a very eye-catching orange metallic. Brett Thurber told me this was the new ST1 X, which would be coming out the next year (this was in 2016 when I saw the display model).

While I was happy with my ST1 Platinum, I had to admit there were some range anxiety issues on longer rides. I never ran out of battery, but it was something to think about when I was riding in unfamiliar territory. The ST1 X with the biggest battery pack (910 KWH) effectively solved that, at least on paper. I wasn’t sure about the Omni system, whether I really needed all the tech features, but I had to admit it cleaned up the handle bar area by putting the bike’s brain in the top tube. The look of the bike is what really caught my eye though. The frame looks the same as the ST1 Elite or Platinum, until you take a closer look. It’s a more refined, precision piece of work and the wiring is, for the most part, tucked away out of sight, which makes the bike look cleaner. I finally put in an order in early April 2017 and took delivery in mid-April. Mine is in orange metallic, which is very eye-catching.

The ST1 X Riding Experience I had a floating seat post and a Stromer shock fork on my old bike to help deal with the much-less-than-perfect streets around my Berkeley neighborhood. I learned early on that the Stromer goes fast enough to magnify even small bumps. I upgraded the ST1 X with both of these features, along with an aftermarket seat that was more to my liking. I’m also running the biggest battery option available, with is the 910 KWH battery. With conservative settings on the torque sensors, I could potentially get over 100 miles on a charge, depending on riding conditions. My Platinum did about 35 miles with 20% battery left, so that was quite a bump in range!

Berkeley, like most Bay Area cities, is not totally flat. There are grades and hills of varying steepness. This is what greeted the ST1 X when I got it home. A test ride is one thing, but riding the way I was accustomed to riding my ST1 Platinum brought initial disappointment. The Platinum has four different power settings and even the City mode on that bike felt more powerful than the #2 mode on the ST1 X. It seemed like the new bike was more of a chore to ride, very sluggish. The settings on the phone app torque sensors were right in the middle of the screen “sliders” and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep the bike.

Brett Thurber assured me that there were things I could do to cure the lack of go on the bike. The ST1 X rides very much like an ST2, so it meant that I had to play around with the torque sensors. There’s one on the on-board computer, and three sensors on the app, one for agility, one for torque, and one for speed, all used to tune the #2 mode on the controls on the handlebar. (The controls, for modes 1, 2, and 3, plus lights are right at the fingertip, very easy to use, an improvement over the old bolt-on control panel on my old bike.)

I definitely am not tuning this bike for maximum battery range. The bike torque sensor, plus the app agility and torque sensors are all set for maximum power. I left the speed adjustment a little higher than the factory middle setting. It’s taken a few weeks to “dial it in,” but my somewhat troublesome knees are now telling me that I’m getting it right. My knees haven’t felt this good in a year. More important, I’m now getting that power boost that I’m accustomed to. Here is the breakdown on how the ST1 X does in my riding around Berkeley.

Power This bike isn’t any faster than my Platinum was, since both bikes are rated with 28 m.p.h. top speeds, but I have to say that the ST1 X surprises me by being easier to exploit that top speed. I think the torque curve of the motor is different and puts out a good amount at higher speeds. On San Pablo Avenue, I actually pushed the bike past 28 mph, hit 29 mph. the other day. If I had a little more street between signals, I may very well have touched 30 mph.

Great, you say, but how does it do on hills? On my gym commutes, I hit grades and moderate hills that would slow my speed down to between 5-7 mph on a conventional bike. I did a little test on the ST1 X with no assist on and this was the result. On the same hill, putting it on the #3 mode, I pulled as high as 17 mph, dropping to 15 mph at the crest of the hill, all still seated. If I came out of the seat, 17 mph would have been the speed at the crest.

There are four bad hills in this area, which are the top part of Marin Avenue in Berkeley, Moeser Lane in El Cerrito, Potrero Avenue in El Cerrito, and Cutting Blvd. in Richmond. Using upper Marin Avenue as an extreme hill test, I lasted for one block in maximum assist and the lowest gear on the rear cluster. It was work, but I made it to the next intersection. If your commute or riding includes hills like these, I’d recommend something else, maybe a mid-drive with double the torque.

Since I don’t use these hills for anything, the ST1 X is perfect. It flattens everything else even resembling a hill that I normally encounter. The power delivery is smooth and quiet too. I’ve already mentioned the speed, but it’s worth bringing up that it’s easy to exploit what power this bike has in every situation. It’s also easy to just putter along at a moderate pace.

Shifting The ST1 X has plenty of gears for how I ride. The shifts are very clean and crisp. I think this is due to an upgraded shifter over my old bike, plus no multiple chain-rings up front, which makes tuning the rear deraillier easier.

Range Even with my power-mad tuning of the motor, I’ve charged the bike twice in six weeks. The first charge still had 28% battery life showing at 77 miles. The second charge had 20% battery life left at about 85 miles. If I wasn’t conservative about holding something in reserve, I could probably break 100 miles. I find that once I hit my ideal spin speed in a given situation, the assist drops off to almost nothing, so I think that has more to do with saving the battery. It seems to be a “have your cake and eat it too” sort of situation. At any rate, having the monster battery on board was a good investment.

Braking On my test ride, I noticed that the ST1 X has a much more pronounced regenerative braking action. It’s also adjustable. I boosted mine up to double what it was in the factory settings. I’ve talked about climbing hills and what goes up has to come down. This feature makes maintaining control on a long downhill stretch easy and it helps with keeping me off the brake pads until I need to come to a complete stop. On flat ground, if I time my application of the regen feature properly, I can almost come to a complete stop without getting into the brake pads, saving them until the last several feet.

So far, there is none of the ST1 brake squeal that I had on my old bike. This bike only has 205 miles on it so far, but the brakes are impressively quiet and smooth in action. The only thing I’d like to see on this bike is the addition of a regen mode in the Omni controller for those long downhill runs. That being said, it’s easy to partially pull on the brake handles to kick the regen mode on. Nice job, Stromer!

Other Features Remember how I thought I wouldn’t use the other tech features? Well, I’ve started using the remote locking hub feature on the Stromer phone app when I park the bike (I also have a good lock). I mentioned the control buttons, but I have to say that’s the first thing I really liked over my old bike. The GPS tracking feature is a nice thing to have too. The only nit here is that it sometimes takes a few minutes for the bike and the app to sync up. I’m sure there will be improvements from Stromer as more of these bikes hit the road.

The standard headlight puts out plenty of light at night and I like the big tail-light as well.

Stromer supplies a rack with this bike, along with fenders (same as my old bike, the “City Kit”). I’ve seen some reviewers bash the rack as useless, but I just hang my saddle-bags on the rack and do grocery runs with it. I don’t think Stromer recommends putting a child seat on the rack, but for running errands and hauling moderate loads, I think the rack makes this bike very useful. I don’t have the need for a cargo bike yet, so the ST1 X makes for a fun around-town errand runner.

Final Thoughts My initial disappointment with the performance of the ST1 X went away when I was able to find the settings that I liked. That’s one of the beauties of this new bike. If you have a flat commute and want to extend your battery range, you can either run it in mode #1, or set the sensors in the middle for mode #2 (which is where the factory puts them). It’s very adjustable for the individual rider’s tastes. This bike is a blast to ride and makes dealing with Berkeley’s traffic congestion and most of the hills I encounter a breeze! It’s also very useful as an errand runner and has already taken me to Point Richmond and back, along with a Bay Bridge ride. The miles are adding up quickly. Most important, the ST1 X is now part of my fitness routine, while taking care of my around-town commuting needs. My car now stays in the garage, unless I have to hit the freeway, or haul out my drums to a gig. The savings in fuel and parking costs, as well as wear and tear on the nerves, is worth it. For those of you who think that I can’t ride a normal bike anymore, I still can. I’ve also found out my pedal cadence is much steadier than before, so I am getting a workout on an E-bike, which I didn’t think was possible. It really is an around-town replacement for my car and I feel a lot better after a ride, no matter how short or long.

Would I recommend this bike for anyone else? Yes. While it’s not a cheap ride, it has a lot of the features of the ST2 for two thousand dollars less. That’s a pretty nice deal. It’s a bike for a person who likes a sportier, faster ride. I’m enthused enough to recommend the ST1 X to my son, who does a round-trip 12 mile daily commute to Oakland. It would cut his commute time in half, and time is a precious commodity these days.

If you like high performance in what you ride, give the Stromer ST1 X a test ride. As for me, I’ve got some new roads to conquer. If you see an orange ST1 X out on the road in the East Bay, it’s probably me…

#Stromer #st1x #ebike #berkeley #commute

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