(dramatic music)
- Now it might feel that the worst of winter is behind us,
but there's still a lot of mud out there
and certainly a lot more rain to come until spring,
which does mean that you're gonna be maintaining
your bike lots until that point.
Which means there's still a load of great hacks
and Tech tips that can help you on your way.
First up, mud guard hacks.
Now let's not beat around the bush here.
The only reason that mountain bikers
put mud guards on their bikes
is keep the spray out of your face,
especially out of your vision,
so you can ride faster.
And of course here and there to basically protect
some delicate parts of your bike,
like your fork seals perhaps.
Or sometimes suspension bearings.
They're certainly not there to keep you clean.
They will not have the same effect
as a set of full length guards on a road bike.
Now at GMBN we run a mud hugger guard,
and there's quite a few different options available
from the full length FRX,
to the shorties I've got on this bike.
Now clearly the bigger guard is gonna offer
more protection against spray.
But on this bike I tend to ride
in a lot of areas with heavy mud,
like really thick stuff that clogs stuff up.
And a shorty actually sits a bit higher,
there's less of it as well,
and there's a lot more clearance around the tire.
So it's very beneficial for this bike.
And of course, I emphasize the point
I don't ride this one as fast as I ride my Mega.
On the Mega I really like the protection
of the full length guard.
However, with a full length mud guard of any kind
you're gonna have to sacrifice something.
And that is mud clearers.
But there's some cool little hacks you can do,
especially if like me you end up running
a huge front tire and the fork brace on your particular bike
doesn't allow positioning of the mud guard
in a place with optimum mud clearance.
Now I've done this cool little hack
where essentially I offered the mud guard
up to my foot brace and I cut a little notch
out of the mud guard just so it can bump it up
very slightly.
Now it's not changed the way the mud guard performs
in any way.
The seals are still protected by the sides
of the mud guard here.
It just enables it to sit that little bit higher
and that 2.4 tire I really favor up front
is a particularly tall one.
So, in the local conditions near to
where we ride here at GMBN it's really thick with clay.
And it can cause problems here and there.
But do what the pros do, do what the pro mechanics do,
and hack stuff apart.
Make it work for you.
In recent times I was looking at Sam Hill's bike.
Now Sam Hill's Nuke Proof Mega.
He's got one of the shorties up front,
but he's also got one on the back
that's been butchered so it fits around his chain line.
Now this is a front mud guard.
It's not a rear mud guard.
And the reason he's got it there
is not to keep his bike clean and protected
from the spray.
It's actually there to stop the mud
building up in areas where it weighs lots.
Now mud can weigh a lot.
And when it comes off that back wheel,
it's gonna collect in areas around the,
the yoke, around the bottom pivot here,
and all that sort of stuff.
And by having a mud guard on there,
certainly with the speed that Sam rides,
it's deflecting that crap all out of the way
and back down to the floor.
It's gonna avoid it all collecting on the bike.
And it ultimately means between stages of endura races,
if he does need to sort of clean
anything with a water bowl it means the bike
is gonna be fit for action straight away.
Now a couple of weeks ago on the weekly GMBN tech show
in the news I talked about a product by a bike co
called the Willy.
Unusually named, it's a black rubber boot
that effectively seals off your seat tube junction.
So really neat looking product.
And because it's a Be Spoke product it does look very cool.
However if you've got a lot of old inner tubes lying around
you can achieve a pretty similar result,
if you're willing to sort of forgive the looks.
Doesn't look good.
But you can make a little simple rubber boot
using a couple of cable ties
and a section of old inner tube.
Now this does work well but something to bear in mind
whenever you're applying a boot to a bike
is whilst it can keep the crap out,
sometimes if the crap's in there,
it can keep it in.
Which is why I would never recommend
putting one over something like a suspension fork seal
or dropper post seal.
And also, if you cable tie one onto your dropper post,
there's a chance that a cable tie
can slip and actually scuff the actual stanchion tube
of that post so I would avoid that.
However, the one going over the clamp of the frame,
that is fantastic.
You can put a blob of grease around the top.
Seal it all in.
And that should be done for winter.
It should work fantastically.
Whilst you're in the area, you may as well,
if you haven't got Rockshox reverb that is,
if you've got any other type of dropper post,
unscrew the seal here, put some fork oil underneath it,
screw it back in place, just to keep everything at bay
and operating nice and smoothly.
Now hopefully I'd assume that most of you
have probably got a waterproof jacket.
And some of you will be riding in shawls or trousers.
Now get yourself some waterproof spray.
And you can actually make your bag fairly waterproof,
or at least help stop stuff sticking to it
and getting it saturated.
Now my Camelbacks I use at the weekends
all have a coating of this stuff on the bottom.
Now I'm well aware it's not gonna turn
a non-waterproof item into a waterproof one.
But it can help stopping it get saturated.
Which means if you're carrying spare clothing
and other stuff inside it does help
add to the waterproof ness of the bag.
Now something on my daily bag
that I use to ride to work,
it actually stops stuff sticking to the bag
quite as much.
Now I do ride through a muddy park
on the way to work everyday.
And you can see just the general state of the bag.
It's got a few speckles of mud and stuff on it.
But it does mean with this on
it doesn't absorb it too much.
And it does get cleaned a lot easier.
But if you wanted to go one step further,
something you can invest in, which is very cool,
is wax.
Now I've got this particular stuff for waxing a coat,
and there's various different types out there.
But beeswax, you can get it in blocks like this.
If you rub this stuff onto the bottom of your bag
or areas that you want to waterproof,
then you just need like a hairdryer or heat gun
just to apply some heat so it soaks into the fabric.
It does a really, really good job.
It's not too expensive.
You can get it from outdoor stores
and home stores and other stuff like that.
It's a real good little hack.
Now if you don't have some proper weatherproof shoes,
if you've got something a little bit more
like the ones Blake's wearing in this video
I shot with him, they've got an actually,
the surface of the shoe is quite shiny.
So it's pretty good with keeping water at bay.
But if you coat them with some silicone spray
it actually really helps mud and other stuff
stop sticking to them.
It's really, really useful stuff.
And another great hack you can do with shoes
especially if you're a flat pedal rider
and you've got laces that are exposed to the elements
on your shoes is wax the laces.
Now waxing the laces stops them soaking water
like a sponge.
And despite what you think,
you can wax the laces and you can still tie your laces,
provided you actually tie your laces correctly.
You may laugh at me for that,
but I watched a Ted Talks on tying shoelaces
a few years back and it changed my life.
I'd been tying my laces wrong forever.
In fact, I'm gonna put a link to that video
underneath this video because I think
you should check it out.
But, wax your laces.
Works the treat.
And whilst we're on the subject of wet riding gear,
one of my best little hacks that I really like doing
is getting some antibacterial household spray.
Once I've cleaned my riding shoes
and they're obviously drying out,
spray them with that stuff
because it avoids that horrible funk
that you can get from knee pads and riding shoes,
in particular if they've got a lot of neoprene cuffs
they develop that certain smell.
And I know you know what I'm talking about.
And it really does help.
Now protecting your frame from knocks and scraps
is always a good idea,
especially if you've got a nice new bike.
Take advantage of that, fit yourself an Invisi Frame kit
or some Heli Tape or something similar on the market.
We've got our own ones of those.
It's a really good idea to do exactly that.
Now, in winter it actually is almost more important
because just for example where cables rub on the frame
they'll rub your paint away.
And when those cables are covered in mud and grit
it does that twice as fast.
It can be really, really abrasive.
So make sure you pay attention to your frame.
Get yourself a kit.
They come with various different sized pads on them.
Apply them correctly.
Now make sure if you're not applying it to a fresh frame
get some like contact cleaner or something similar
with isopropyl alcohol in there
and clean the area completely
so it has no residue, no grease,
nothing that's gonna avoid the adhesive doing its job.
And place them on carefully.
And just work your way around the bike.
Now there's two other areas in particular
you wanna pay attention to.
Especially I might add with winter conditions.
First one is the top tube of the bike.
Now the reason for that is,
let's just say riding with knee pads,
your knee pads are gonna get wet and muddy at some point.
And when you're riding you might not realize this,
but you rub your knee pads on your top tube
quite a lot.
Now that can happen when you're cornering
or it can happen just when you're riding
if you're using bulky knee pads.
So do yourself a favor and get your top tube
covered up on your bike.
And whilst you're at it do the chain stays as well.
Winter riding shoes are quite often chunkier
than the riding shoes you use in the summer
and other times.
And again if you're riding on flat pedals
or if you ride with your feet at 10 to two,
you're likely to take the paint off your frame.
So do yourself a favor,
protect it.
Now I actually made a video on installing
some frame protection onto one of Neil's bikes
last year on GMBN.
I'm gonna put the link to that in the description below.
And if you wanna know anything more about frame protection
just add a comment in the comments below.
Centered pads last longest in winter.
All right, so it's not really a hack.
But nonetheless it's a good tip.
And it's one that we should all listen to,
especially if you ride in sandy, wet, muddy conditions.
Now centered or metal pads
certainly do last the longest.
But as a downside, they do make a bit of noise
when they're wet and maybe if they haven't heated up yet.
And there's a sort of an undulating ride
where you're not really using the brakes that much.
You'll notice that even if your brakes
are bended in properly that they're gonna squeal
from time to time.
I know my brakes on this after riding in the snow
they were howling.
But at the same time, I'm willing to put up with that
because otherwise I'd be going through pads constantly
in the winter conditions around the GMBN offices.
Now the next best bet is semi-metallic.
So you get a little bit more traction,
a little bit more grip with them.
They're a lot quieter.
But they do have some of the benefits
of the metallic backing to them
to avoid wearing down.
What you don't wanna be using are resin pads.
Now resin pads, although they're not,
they don't favor the wet conditions,
they do grab quite well.
However, they'll wear out super fast
and cost you loads of money.
Now if you don't wanna use the all around centered pads
all year round on your bike,
maybe take a tip from some of the Scandinavian drivers
who have winter tires and summer tires,
and do the same with your brake pads.
Have some winter pads.
And you can always have your resin
or your organic pads for summer use.
Cover up the rear of your brake arch.
Now whether you use a mud guard or not,
it's a haven for mud to collect.
And the best way to do it is a sticker on it.
You can use some GMBN stickers.
You can use the RockShox stickers that came
with your Rockshox forks, just like it did
on my commuter bike.
Or you can simply use some black electrical tape
and just wrap it around that fork brace.
You don't have to keep it there all the time.
If you just do it through winter
it stops them all filling up with mud.
And makes things a lot easier to clean.
Moto foam.
Now this stuff is a non-porus foam.
It will not absorb moisture or mud
or anything like that.
It's used by a lot of motocross mechanics.
And the sort of places they'll put it on a bike would be
above the sump guard for example that sits down here
where there's gonna be holes
where otherwise heavy weight mud
would just pack in there when I'm riding.
Now a lot of downhill mechanics
have been using this on downhill race bikes
and you see the same on endura bikes
in certain situations.
Now the idea is to stuff it in places
where mud would collect,
which means it's gonna be faster to clean the bike,
and the bike's not gonna get bogged down with heavy mud.
Now you can do this on your own bike.
It's quite cheap.
You can get this on Ebay and other auction sites like that.
And you can stuff it in places like this,
where rocks and other things can actually find their way in.
Quite handy stuff.
It's quite cheap.
It doesn't look the best but it means, for winter,
your bike might handle that a bit better
with a little less weight on it.
Dry lube.
Now it might sound crazy,
because we always recommend
using dry lube in summer conditions,
and wet lube in winter conditions,
but I actually favor dry lube all year round.
Now of course when it's absolutely hammering down
and I'm riding in the wettest conditions,
I'll always use the thicker wet lube.
But for most of the time,
I'll stick to dry lube.
And the reason for that quite simply
is less stuff is attracted to my drive chain,
which means it's easier to clean.
When I go for a ride, a typical Sunday morning ride,
I'll go out, I'll get covered in mud,
and I'll come back and I'll wanna clean
my bike as fast as possible.
I've got other stuff I need to do.
Now if my drive chain needs a full degrease
and clean because it's got wet lube on there,
with all the mud and muck and other stuff
that sticks to it, that could be a couple of hours
fully cleaning that bike.
If I use dry lube I can pretty much wash it off,
clean the bike, apply some fresh lube,
and go about my day.
Check it out, it's quite good stuff.
And the last one, a bit of a classic actually,
but it's always worth reiterating
is getting some skateboard grip tape.
You can get enough to cover a deck.
It doesn't cost a lot of money.
And share it around with all your friends.
And use this on your brake levers,
on your shift levers, on your dropper post remote,
any areas like that where you can struggle
for a little bit of grip.
Just bear in mind though,
if you use something that's too course,
it can actually sort of affect
the ends of your gloves.
It can sort of affect the fabric a bit.
But if you're more bothered about actually performance
then it's a really good little hack.
So there you go.
There's some winter hacks and tips for you.
Especially useful no doubt if, like myself,
you end up riding in mud and rain a lot of the time.
For a couple of more videos,
if you wanna beat the winter,
click down here and see what Blake and Neil got up to.
And for looking after your riding kit,
click up there.
As always give us a thumbs up if you love GMBN Tech.
If you've got any ideas, let us know in those comments below
and if you've got any better hacks
let us know those too.
In the meantime, click that subscribe button.
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