- It's time for Ask GMBN.
We're talking buying new bikes, fixing brakes,
buying dropper posts.
Chris, you ready for the questions?
- I'm ready as ever, Don.
What we got?
- Right, Mancave TV, good title, good name,
"Any tips on how to get into mountain biking on a budget?"
- I would start, probably,
by looking at some secondhand sites,
you know, eBay, Gumtree, even Facebook,
things like that, it's Marketplace on there,
loads of bargains to be had.
Start secondhand.
- Yeah, I would say I'd definitely start secondhand.
I definitely started secondhand.
Did you go straight in?
- I think I started car boot sale, actually.
Got a bargain from there.
My brother bought me a nice little bike,
so that's how I started.
It's also worth noting, on those sites,
obviously, you get a lot of stolen stuff on there.
- Yeah, you've definitely got to be careful.
- Quite a few ways of working out, was stuff stolen?
Just look at the condition of it.
Look at the other things they're selling.
Just try to send them a few questions
that might catch them out.
Ask them details about what drops on this dropper seat post,
little stuff that your average thief wouldn't know.
Just have a look, you know,
see if they're selling any other dodgy gear as well.
- If it looks too good to be true, it probably is,
but you can definitely get some cheaper stuff on eBay.
Right, Jammy Dodger 78, "I've got a Boardman Team FS Pro,
"and I was wondering what sort of dropper post to get
"seeing as it doesn't have one."
- Well, we had a little look 'round on Chain Reaction,
and we saw the Brand-X Ascend seat post for 110 pound.
That looks like a pretty good option to me.
- Yeah, I don't know much by them,
but if you want to go a bit more premium,
you can get Rockshox Reverb for 180,
or Crankbrothers Highline style, 170.
The Team FS Pro is actually what they call dropper ready,
so it's got the routing for the back of the seat tube,
so Stealth, and routing inside the bike.
It's 31.6 seat post, so you've got loads
of options out of that.
I would get Googling.
- To be honest, a lot of all the new seat posts out there,
pretty reliable these days.
There's not too much, just weight,
and if you set up differences on them.
- Yeah, absolutely.
There's a couple of things you want to measure
to try and buy the right sized post,
things like, how much drop can you fit?
Have a look at this video
where we give you all those pieces of advice.
The bigger drop posts aren't gonna fit
all bikes and all riders,
so you need to take some measurements,
and that is the length of the seat post,
but also the stack height
because you don't want that to be too large.
That would mean that a full extension
of our post, your saddle would be
in too high a position.
Yes, you could drop that saddle slightly into the travel
to get back to your normal riding position,
but that's not gonna be a great use of that dropper post.
This is a really important measurement to get
if you want the maximum drop post like I do.
Duncan is a very lucky boy.
He's got three and a half grand to spend
on a Santa Cruz Bronson C, so the carbon fiber frame,
but it's the Bronson 2, so the older model,
you know, the linkage that's the on the top tube.
He's saying, "Is this a good deal?"
- Three and a half grand is a lot of money
to be spending on a bike.
Didn't you have a look around,
and you managed to find the aluminium one,
the actual newer one?
- Yeah, there is a newer Bronson that looks like that,
you know, and they've all gone
to those links that are lower down in the frames.
You can get a new one of those
in the entry level, and the Santa Cruz are premium bikes,
and this is the alloy version,
it's three and a half grand, so same price.
The question is, would you, Chris?
I'll have you answer well.
Would you buy the new model, maybe a lower build kit,
or would you buy the older one
and carve them at a higher build kit for the same price?
- Good question, Don.
I'd probably go for the newer one in aluminium, I think,
'cause obviously, those guys are developing the bikes.
There's reasons why they change the rocker linkage,
things like that, and also, in the back of my mind,
lucky enough, I've been sponsored over the years,
and had those carbon bikes--
- You've never bought a bike.
- But I mean, I'm always cursing
if I get a carbon bike and drop it,
or something smashes against it,
you get that carbon damage,
and I'm always in the back of my mind like,
when you come to sell that bike,
no one wants to buy a carbon bike with a chunk out of it,
whereas an aluminium bike, you can kind of get away
with those scratches, and those dents.
- You want to learn how to treat your bikes
a bit better, Chris.
- I know, but easy come, easy go, Don.
- Carbon bikes are generally pretty reliable.
I wouldn't have any qualms over carbon
or aluminium, really, to be honest.
I would also go for the newer bike.
You could always upgrade it if you really wanted to,
but also think about resale price
if you come to sell it.
People want the newer bike.
Also, I have Googled it myself,
and I have fond this Bronson 2 slightly cheaper online,
so if you do want to still buy that bike, get Googling.
I would definitely check out the dealer
to make sure they're reputable first,
but yeah, I wouldn't say it was the best deal out there.
- It's a good deal, but not the best.
- Right, Pooh Bear, "How does Blake's Canyon Torque Pedal?
"I live in the UK.
"I've been told, UK riding, you probably want
"around 140 mil travel front and rear,
"but I'm planning on going to a lot of bike parks
"for some really heavy stuff,
"also want to save some money on uplifts,
"so be able to still pedal the bike
"to the top of the trails."
Torque's a 175 mil travel.
- 175 mil, so that's obviously quite a big bike.
We're talking close to downhill-style travel,
so anything, unfortunately, with that amount
of rear wheel travel isn't, probably, gonna pedal that well.
It's more, obviously, aimed at going down.
Not saying that it can't be pedaled up.
- Yeah, it depends.
I've got that Scott Ransom, so same travel,
and I've done big days on that.
They can pedal really well,
but it's definitely gonna be a lot more work
than a 140 mil bike.
- For sure.
- It depends how much you value the going down part,
and how much you don't mind
suffering a bit more on the way up.
- Yeah, try to work out which is more important to you.
- I'd try and demo one, if possible.
Give you a really good idea.
- Get it on a good climb.
- Ivan Halim, he's got two questions.
The first one is about his entry level
hydraulic disc brake caliper position.
"One pad is closer to the disc than the other,
"but it's working well so far.
"There's no rubbing whatsoever.
"I've tried to adjust it again, again,
"by pushing back the pistons,
"redoing the caliper position adjustment ritual,
"but the result is just the same,
"so one is pushing back out."
I've had this loads of times,
where they look completely off center,
but they're still pushing,
but one is further out than the other.
- Yeah, there's a nice little hack
you can maybe try for that one,
is getting that bike upside down,
have a little look at the caliper,
loosening the caliper bolts off,
and sliding maybe a small credit card
each side of the brake disc
so they're pushing, basically, back the pads,
and then resetting the caliper again,
holding the lever, cranking that caliper up tight.
You might find that that might centralize the caliper,
but it might be just a machining thing.
You might purely be out
at the maximum side to side movement on the caliper.
Some variables on that.
- I've definitely had it in the past
where they look not straight,
but they work absolutely fine.
I don't know if I'll stress it too much,
although you could reach the maximum on one piston,
and start wearing pads unevenly, I suppose.
Right, then another one.
Second question is about wheel flex.
He's got some WTB SX19 J-spoke hub,
so a standard spoke, what I would call standard,
running 27.5 with a 2.3 tire,
but he can push his wheel side to side
as much as two millimeters each side.
Should that happen?
- Could be maybe a little bit of play in the bearings,
something like that, or there is,
obviously, flex on the wheel, got central point,
and big spokes, and big tire, so it will flex a bit.
I wouldn't say any of my wheels are totally solid
when I've pushed side to side.
- Yeah, it depends what you mean by,
is it flexing, or is it clunking?
If it's clunking, I would say
it's the hub, more than likely.
Good way of checking your bearings
is by picking the back wheel up,
or whichever wheel it is,
and holding near that frame or the fork,
and just spinning it.
You might feel a bit of roughness.
Then, again, give it a wobble.
If it's clunking, that's probably bearings.
- Obviously, just make sure your axles
are nice and tight as well.
If it's your front fork, obviously,
make sure the axle's tight, and the rear as well,
it could be that too.
- I've had axles come loose fairly regularly
on the back of bikes.
- Definitely, especially the new through axle stuff,
but never on the front.
Never had a loose front one,
but plenty of rear ones.
- Right, but check out this video
on how to check out your mountain bike wheels.
- When I'm spinning the wheel,
I'm looking for that rim moving side to side or up and down.
Ideally, it should be completely true,
and not move up and down.
Again, this is a carbon fiber rim,
so they're not really gonna get too bent.
They can get out of true a little bit,
and that comes down to spoke tension.
With alloy rims, they definitely can get bent
a lot more, and again, if it's moving around too much,
that is when you need to start
taking a look at the spoke tension,
and trying to true that wheel back
to get it as straight as possible.
- Right, quick fire.
You ready?
- I'm ready.
- Evan McKill, "Hey, guys, do you know
"of any comfortable ankle braces for riding in?"
- Yeah, I think you'll find most
of the big protection companies, 661,
Space Brace as well, they all do
comfortable riding braces.
- I'll speak about BMX.
I've used a 661 after breaking my ankle.
It definitely helps, but I don't feel
like I need it anymore.
Have you used them?
- I haven't personally, no.
I know that guys, Pilgrim and those guys,
use an actual tennis, what's it called, Aircast?
Aircast, something like that,
they use tennis ankle protection things,
so a little tip from those guys.
- Nice.
Juhan Theron, "How do you guys deal with calluses?
"My hands are almost killing me
"after 15 minutes of messing about."
- Oof, I've got some pretty nasty things, calluses.
- They just get harder, and that's fine, isn't it?
- I usually get them that hard,
but especially if I ride trails,
you get super rock hard, so when you ride
and use gloves, it feels like you got stones in your palms,
so I actually, much to my wife's disgust,
get a pair of nail clippers,
and actually cut them off,
just nice and smooth, not too deep.
It's a technique where, you'll learn it over the years,
just trim them off in the bath.
It's really relaxing when I do it.
- Never had to do that.
Right, Stavros Konstantinidis,
"I found a bit of rust on my steerer tube
"caused by my stem.
"Is this super bad, or should I not worry that much?"
- What do you think, Don?
- I would say don't worry about it.
- No, I've had plenty of that.
It's obviously quite a trap behind that stem
for that water to get in, so just rub it off.
- Don't worry about it.
- It'll be fine.
- Nic MC, "How can you tell how much travel
"you have on the rear shock?
"Is it the same amount as your forks?"
- Couple of ways you could probably do that.
First thing I would do is just check out
the website for your bike, whatever the model is.
That'll be listed on there.
- Ask Google.com.
- Yeah, just type it in Google,
or the other way you could do it is,
just put an elastic travel band,
or elastic band on the rear shocks,
see how much it's actually--
It depends if you mean the rear wheel travel
or the shock travel.
- That's gonna give you the stroke,
not necessarily the bike travel.
- Yeah, maybe, if we're talking bike travel,
check out Google, but shock travel,
again, just put your shock in there,
and it should tell you the stroke length,
and eye to eye measurements,
and that distance, yeah, it's all on Google.
- Fineas Filipeanu, "What's the difference
"between dry lube and wet lube?"
It's a great chain lube.
- Sure.
Dry lube's obviously for the summer.
It doesn't pick up as much dust and things like that.
- It's much thinner, it doesn't last as long.
Wet lube is thick, sticky stuff.
- It obviously sticks to your chain.
It doesn't wash off when the conditions get bad,
and the rain, things like that as well.
Penetrative roll is not bad.
- The stuff gets stuck to it,
so it's not that great, but in the dry, it's good.
The wet, yeah, it definitely lasts much better.
Correct me if I'm wrong, we've got a video
sent in this week from Matt,
who's in Lysterfield, Victoria, Australia,
riding his Trek Fuel EX 7,
and he's asking us how he can get more height
and distance on this jump
Check that, Chris.
Let's have a look in slow motion.
Decent sized table top.
- [Chris] Yeah, it's a pretty good sized jump, isn't it?
- [Don] What do you reckon?
- I think, basically, really, like,
using the takeoff more than--
You know, you're just letting the takeoff do the work.
He's doing no work coming into the jump.
You really need to be pre-loading that.
Is it a full suspension bike?
It is a full suspension bike,
so really maximize squashing into that bike.
That first bike length or so
before you get to that jump,
squash that suspension in, pre-load it,
get ready to pick up off that face.
At the moment, you're just using
the face of that jump to push the bike up.
You're not doing any work before.
- Yeah, I would say even leave it a tiny bit later.
If we watch this in really slow motion,
you do pump a bit, but it's a early.
You really want to squash that bike into the takeoff,
and then it's gonna spring you up.
That's gonna help you out.
Also, when you're in the air,
it looks like you're picking up with your feet
to pick up the bike.
What happens with that is,
you're gonna run out of space.
You can see, you get quite low to the bike,
and then you're sort of limited.
That's how high you can go,
whereas, if you use that nice hop,
you use your pump, drive front wheel up,
and then stand up to pick up the rear wheel,
you should be able to make a bit more height.
Also practice your bunny hops, I reckon.
That's gonna help you out a bit.
- Another little one as well, technique,
is to look up when you're jumping.
Don't look down.
As soon as you take that jump up,
don't look down for the landing.
Look up, keeps that bike in a nice arch.
If you look down for the landing,
you'll just automatically drop into it as well.
Just pump, look.
- Nice one, never thought about that one.
Cool, Cheers, Matt.
Thanks for sending that in.
If you want to send us more videos, use our uploader.
We'll check them out and try and give you some help.
Right, that's it for Ask this week.
Don't forget to leave your questions down below.
We'll try and help you out next week.
- If you've enjoyed today's video,
you want to check me out smashing Blake Sampson
in our Trials Presenter Challenge, up here.
- If you want to see a How To Bunny Hop video,
hopefully, it's gonna help you with your jumping,
click over here for that one.
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