- Welcome to Ask GMBN,
the weekly show where we get into your questions,
delve in, see if we can help
and have a bit of a chat about mountain biking.
We're getting it all from your comments
down below the video and #askgmbn.
So get involved.
I'm well up for this this week Doddy.
- Fire 'em at me,
come one, I'm king. - Are you ready?
- Right, first question.
It's from George Freestyle Gaming Vlogs and Football.
- That's a handful,
innit? - You can have
a shorter name than that, but anyway.
Question is, "I want to get better tyres.
"I ride cross country and sometimes commute on roads.
"What tyres should I get?
"Currently my tyres are ..."
and I think he means plus size here,
'cause it says pause, but I think he means plus,
"my tyres are currently plus size, 27.5, 2.8s"
- Yeah, all right.
- Not great for commuting on.
- No, definitely not.
The easiest solution really for that
is probably to pick something faster rolling out back
with a lower profile tread on there.
- Okay.
- And then stick to your heavy-duty tyre up front
for control really.
- Yeah.
- That's the quick answer. - Oh that's interesting.
So changing the tyre size at the rear,
but sticking with that big tyre at the front.
- Yeah, you're don't have to change the size, as such,
I meant more of the tread pattern itself.
You know, the gnarlier the tyre,
the more hard-core it's gonna be to commute on it.
And obviously tyre pressure makes a big difference as well.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So you're running at a low pressure for off-road,
it's gonna give you loads of traction,
but on the road, it's more friction and rolling resistance.
- Yeah, that's a really good point.
I suffer the old pressure in me wheelchair tyres, actually.
They've gone a bit soft.
You might have to pump 'em up a bit later on.
- No chance of that.
- (chuckles) right, next question is Vonpupees.
He's saying, "Hey GMBN, So Harry Main ..."
a famous pro BMX rider,
someone I follow on YouTube, he's incredible.
Has just got a full-on Enduro mountain bike.
- Yeah, I seen this actually.
- And "you guys should try and meet up with him,
"maybe with Blake, and maybe get Sam Pilgrim involved."
now what do you think about these BMXers getting it,
he looks so pumped on it.
- You know what? - He's so into it.
- It's really cool, - It's a great idea.
- Because you can tell he's just having such a blast.
- Yes, yes.
- BMXing is clearly his thing.
- Yes. - You know?
And he's just out there hitting the hills and jumps.
I think we should definitely do something if he's up for it.
- Definitely a great idea,
lovely suggestion. - I think Blake would be
awesome to ride with him.
- Yes, yes. - I'd be really cool.
Yeah, so, good idea. - Gotta see it.
Gotta see it, good idea.
Ben Edits is saying, "Can Martyn wheelie his Canyon Sender?"
(Martyn exclaims doubtfully)
- Kind of, yeah.
- Kinda.
- Yeah, he does this cool thing where,
well, where was it?
It was Mojo, isn't it?
The suspension place. - Yes.
- He set some pallets up - Practising outside.
- Outside and he was bumping up
and sort of almost like
kind like a manual. - Something like, kinda
manual.
The thing is, with my Canyon Sender,
the throttle doesn't really work like a motorcycle throttle.
So, I can't pick up the front end once I've got some speed.
But a very slow speed, I can pop the
front end up. - You can get it up, yeah.
- But we're talking, like, walking pace.
The moment you're past walking pace,
it has to catch up to the free wheel at the back,
so you've lost your snap.
- Yeah, of course.
- Which means, you can't do the old
(both imitate motorcycle)
which I would love to do.
But that's motorcycling,
- It is.
- And I don't wanna do moto, well ...
- But check this picture out of mine.
Actually hitting the pallet, it's pretty cool.
And you'd never really know ...
- You've made me look very good in that picture.
- It's easy. - If you actually saw the
video, it's less impressive.
- No, it's not.
- Parker Casazza says, "Is there more maintenance required
"for high end components and shocks?"
So is spending more money on bikes,
is that going to require more maintenance?
That's a hard question. - Kind of, no
it depends on how often you ride, how hard you ride.
The conditions you ride in as well.
- Yeah.
- But if it's just like for like,
then technically on paper, yeah, the high quality components
should last longer before they need servicing.
- Yeah.
- But it's really up to you to monitor your bike.
Manufacturers make recommendations on how often
you should service stuff, but,
- Yeah.
- you're the one that rides it,
you know when things are going wrong,
you know if it's exposed to moisture and stuff.
So, it's kind of up to you, really.
- Up to you, look after it as well as you like, yeah.
And that brings me 'round to a really good video actually
we've made in the past, that might be helpful, actually.
It is six things every mountain biker
needs to know about their bike.
- Whilst working on mountain bikes
can be quite straightforward at times,
some jobs can become a little bit tricky.
So here are six straightforward tips
to help you on your way.
- Right, Josh says, "Do you know if there are any
"manufacturers that make prescription riding glasses
"or even goggles?"
- Well yeah, there's a few.
I think Adidas do the glasses, Oakley definitely do.
Probably a few more of the high end ones, I think.
Actually Uvex probably do as well.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Goggles though, I don't know,
because it would be quite expensive to have a
goggle lens done.
A few of 'em do inserts,
I know that much. - Inserts, yeah.
So that sits behind the plastic, normal plastic glass.
- That's right, it clips in
almost like a nose piece, I think.
I would check Oakley for that first,
because they've always done prescription glasses.
So of all of 'em, it'd be quite likely to do goggles.
- I've had prescription Oakley glasses in the past,
and they were really cool.
I know you were saying before that a lot of the goggles
are designed so that glasses will just fit under 'em.
- Yeah, Oakley used to make goggles to fit exactly that.
- So I'd go with a slight tint on your goggle,
glasses underneath, no one's gonna know.
- Ah, it's all good.
- No one's gonna know, that's fine.
Right, John Graham, "How many times is it acceptable
"for front forks to bottom out?"
In my opinion, none.
He doesn't do big jumps,
he would like to run a front a bit softer,
but at the moment, he's bottoming out
once or twice on a one- to two-hour ride.
- To be fair, that's about right.
You wanna be using all of that travel,
but when you say bottoming out, you know,
there's using your travel and then there's a harsh
bottoming out. - Yeah, smack.
- If you don't like that,
then perhaps it's more a question of tuning the fork a bit,
which you can do with air volume.
- Yep.
- So I've just done a video
on putting air volume spacers in forks.
So they should definitely check that one out on the channel.
- Let's have a little look at it now.
- Straight to it, yeah.
- Yeah, let's have a look.
- Most suspension forks available today
offer a range of adjustments
to get them feeling just the way you want.
And the most obvious options out there
tend to be air sprung.
Air volume adjustment takes care of
the initial breakaway force under small bumps
and how the fork ramps up through bigger hits.
So with the RockShox Yari and the Fox 34,
we can demonstrate
how to change the air volume of your fork.
- Next question is from Lines 737,
"I'm looking for a good trials bike under 200 pounds.
"Any ideas?"
- None at all.
- Well now, - But you might.
- Yes, now see, Trials, great sport,
because you can get something for real low price.
Budget sport, you can get some really good stuff now.
What I'm gonna recommend,
I wouldn't normally recommend specific shops,
but for trials, I've really got to, okay?
tartybikes.co.uk, - Oh okay, yeah.
- Global distribution of their products,
but they know so much about the sport.
If you want to get a good bike at budget, give 'em a call.
Because they're either gonna have a bike,
or know someone who does.
Trials is small enough for the community
just to all work together in that sense, so,
they're gonna point you in the right direction
and to that actual bike.
- Do you know what?
I actually wanna get a trials bike for playing around on.
After you laughed at me.
- Well your trials, - I thought it was,
- Your trials, - I thought it was quite good.
- Good, it's good, it's really good.
But it's incredibly inconsistent.
- That's 'cause I never do it.
- Well, yeah, but that--
- That's why I want one.
- Inconsistency, a good trials rider does not make.
- Can you tell he used to be a world champion trials rider?
Just like that innit he?
- What I don't like to go on about it, you know what I mean?
Anyway, moving on from trials,
which I won a competition, anyways.
(Doddy chuckles)
- Jordan Guy says, "Dominant foot forward or back?
"Does it matter?"
(both laugh)
- Well, it's not dominant if it's back, is it?
- Yeah, if you're getting away with riding
with your dominant foot at the back,
it isn't a dominant foot.
- I think he probably means,
does it matter if your right foot forwards
or left foot forwards? - No.
- In which case it doesn't. - NO.
- You just ride with your preference.
- Yeah, your dominant foot is your one,
no one can tell you different.
- Yeah.
- It just feels right, the dominant foot.
- You'll know it - its like picking up a pen.
Yeah, it is literally - You know when it's
the right hand. - left or right handed, yeah.
Dale Hefferman says, Heffernan, sorry, says,
"Fat bikes, Doddy if you want to ride some fat bikes
"in the extreme cold weather--"
- Ooh. - That's referring to
last week's show.
He lives in Yukon, Canada.
- Wow, that's Alaska, innit? - He would love you
to come over and do some riding there,
it's minus 30. - Oh my god.
I can't even imagine that temperature,
and I would love to.
But I reckon there might be a bit of a fistfight
between me and Neil, who gets it,
'cause he does love that sort of thing.
- You and Neil are equally mad
and would be fighting to do that,
whereas I think me and Blake would be fighting not to.
- I think it might make a really cool team video type thing.
I dunno, it's definitely, - No, you'd go on your own.
- They've got northern lights - I think you should go
- And stuff like that, - on your own.
- haven't they?
- Northern lights? - Love to see that.
- You could take me, you could take me a lovely photo.
- Yeah, I could.
- I'd love to see the photo of that.
(both chuckle)
Okay, it's between you and Neil on that one
but, yes, thank you Dale.
- We'll definitely look into it, yeah, thanks Dale.
- Yeah, we're gonna look into that.
Alex Fazonne says, "Could you guys do a video on
"riding rock gardens?"
- We've done that. He lives in Texas.
"Over 90% of the trails near me are rock gardens."
Any rock garden experience?
- Yeah, I've ridden some rock gardens.
Rocks don't like me. - I think they're a lot of fun
You remember Steve Pete's nickname used to be Pinball
because he used to (imitating pinball machine)
bang his way down through the rock gardens.
But thankfully we have done some video on rock gardens,
so check this one out that we did
that will take you through what to do
when you hit those rocks.
- A rock garden is exactly that.
It's a garden full of rocks.
And these things are gonna be biting at your tyres.
They're tricky to ride, they're complex,
there can be a multitude of lines.
In this video, we're gonna talk about
how you might tackle them,
and how to pick the smoothest line.
- Right, quickfire round.
Doddy you ready? - Oh yeah.
Let's go. - They're coming at you fast.
- Go, go, go, go. - I mean it,
I'm not messing around.
- Okay. - All right.
I'm making, building tension.
- Yeah.
- Go. - It's working.
- First question, Pooleheart, "I'm only 38
"and I can ride one-handed, is that any good?"
- No.
- Oh my god, I'm gonna skim over that question.
Piotr Czopek says, "Who have bigger biceps, Neil or Blake?"
- (scoffs) Blake,
he's a right gym monkey. - Blake, by miles.
- Gympanzee.
- GTR Fanboy says, "Guys, do a full sus fat bike."
Mmm, nah.
- What is? - Do one, make one.
- Make one?
- No, no. - No, s'all right.
- Blake from the Isle of Wight asks,
will a gross beard make him any quicker?
- 100% not.
No - No.
- Get rid of it.
- No, get rid of the beard.
Fight4thebattlefront says,
"What is your favourite downhill or Enduro?"
Doddy.
This is a quickfire round.
- I don't have one.
- Wow, that was a bad answer.
I'm gonna answer for you.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna say, it is Ireland DWS.
Amazing crowds, apparently. - Okay.
- I wanna get there next year.
This is too chatty for quickfire, we could get banned.
- Well get on with it, then.
- Right.
Bruno Ferreira says, "I have a bike with 160 front
"and 130 rear," should he change the forks settings to 140?
Balance it out?
- Only if it feels like you need to.
- Oh, but, general?
- No.
- Don't need to.
- Okay, Neil from the Shire asks, "Is it acceptable
"to ride road bikes in a full face helmet?"
- (chuckles) It should be.
(Martyn laughs)
- MTB 2002 says, "Could you fit a one by 11
"on a three by eight cross country bike?"
- Yeah.
100%, yeah. - He could upgrade it to that,
couldn't he?
Wrexpin MTB says, "Would any of the presenters attempt
"Redbull Hardline Course, and which parts of it?"
And maybe Blake on the Cannon.
- Do you know what?
I think if Neil was fit and well,
Neil could ride that course.
- Yes.
- 'Cause he's really good at jumping,
he's always been amazing at downhill.
- Yes.
- Blake could do the jumps,
without a doubt. - Yes.
- But I know from chatting to Blake,
how insanely scared he was of some of the steep stuff there.
- Yeah, in fact--
- He said he couldn't visualise himself doing it.
- In fact, let's jump out of quickfire just for a moment,
to look at what Blake thought exactly of Hardline.
He looked scared.
- This, my viewers, is Redbull Hardline,
one of the most gnarliest downhill races in the world.
This course has it all, from big jumps to gnarly sections.
I'm gonna find out how big these things are,
and how fast you have to actually go
to hit these huge jumps.
Holy, holy, mackerel.
This mammoth road gap.
I'm pretty nervous to get to the end, though.
I've got weak knees sitting up here, it's massive.
- Correct me if I'm wrong.
Love this bit of the show, Doddy, love it.
'Cause this is our chance to fix someone's ride.
- Hopefully we can.
- Which is a privilege.
- It is, yeah.
- Or, just get to look at some of ya,
it's getting quite well, and encourage.
Right, so, first one this week is from Joel Cam
who's been riding in St. Moritz,
lucky you. - Oh, very nice.
- Riding a Floatrow,
wants a few tips on his riding down this.
It's a nice looking trail, actually,
but here he comes.
What's your thoughts, Doddy?
Actually, he looks--
- Not looking too bad, actually.
- It's not too bad.
You know, first thing I'd say is stop going down that trail
with a bag on your back.
- Looks like it's hindering you a bit.
- Yeah, I mean it's hard to jump with a bag on your back,
it really is.
- I think he's got quite a good style.
I would say it looks like you need to just
push in the takeoffs a little bit more.
'Cause it looks like you're just hitting them
at the right speed, and it's just sending you over,
but you're not quite getting that nice pop.
- [Martyn] Yeah.
I disagree slightly on the speed.
I reckon a little bit, we were talking about this.
- Oh, you're coming on speed.
- I think a little bit more speed,
and I think it might be problem solved.
- Or bigger problem arise.
- It's a good point.
But I do think a little bit more speed on that
would've just kept you straighter,
you would've cleared the jumps,
so I think you would've landed in that last one.
Just see as you're landing there,
you're not ready for that berm.
I think if you'd had a bit more speed,
you'd come over that, and a nice, smooth style (whooshes)
into that berm and you're off.
Pump the sky, pump the sky.
That's what we think.
Let us know.
We'd love to see some video of how it goes.
- Okay, so that's the end of Ask this week,
so don't forget, please continue to
send your questions in to ask@gmbn.com
or just comment below.
Love reading all those comments.
And for an exciting video on the Icon Explore,
click over here, check that out.
- Yeah, absolutely, that's a great video
and that bike is amazing.
- It is amazing, I've rode it as well (mumbles).
- So good, so good.
And click over here to see some tech
from the EWS final round in Finale Ligure,
which was absolutely amazing,
and it's got Sam Hill's bike in it,
which I think is - The winning bike.
- gonna go down in history
that bike. - Yeah.
- So check that out.
Make sure you give us a subscribe
by hitting the old GMBN logo right there,
and I guess you can probably give us a thumbs-up, like that.
- I reckon it's the thumbs-up time, innit?
- Yeah, go for it.