- Welcome to this week's Ask GMBN.
We have got some great questions.
We've got someone who know all the answers
and someone who's not sure.
I'm sure it's gonna work.
- I know everything man.
- Are you ready, - I don't.
- You don't, well let's try,
let's try and find out.
We have got a great question to start this week
from Tomi Saaranen who is a regular
commentator on the channel.
So thanks for another question Tomi.
He says I know this is the wrong place to ask,
but what tires would you recommend for snow riding,
not spike tires, it's usually pretty soft
and I need a ton of traction, 2.6, 2.8 width.
Any suggestions Neil?
- The biggest ones you can fit.
I did notice in the replies, there were more questions
and to get a fat bike but you don't want to get a fat bike
because of course, that's pretty specialist thing.
- Yes, yes.
- So you just wanna go as big as you can.
I've used normal spike tires, not with metal studs.
We used to call em' spikes, the old mud tires
you race downhill on.
They would dig in pretty nicely if the snow is hard
but if it's a bit soft you want a big fat tire
like a plus tire if you can fit them.
- Yup.
- You have to check what size your bike fits really.
- Yeah, I spend a bit of time riding plus when I came back
after my accident, that was what I had to start with.
And a plus tire I loved it, I absolutely loved it.
I thought it was awesome, it was a great feel.
Can be a bit vague.
- 2.6 again, a bit more standard.
Probably some might be as big as you can go to be fair.
- You can go down the spike route actually.
I've seen a few things in our hacks and bodges
over the last few years where
people have made their own spikes.
- It's just screws, hardware screws.
- Yeah, screws back through it, yeah.
- It must take a long time.
- Yeah, yeah but I bet it's great when it works.
- But it's not great when you bust your ass on a bad tire.
(laughs)
- AJ has replied actually.
We're talking about, do you remember,
we're talking about pins for pedals.
And he said that Crank Brothers pins are M30.5 thread.
So there's an answer for those people that were looking.
- Right.
- Trying to buy different pins for those pedals.
So you wanna get the right thread,
can't remember what it's called, measurement.
- Measurement, yes I've got you, I've got you.
- Noah S, what's the difference between,
oh this is a good one here actually so this'll test you.
What's the difference between
volume spacers and compression?
Often you can use both.
- You see compression down pin is winding down on that.
It's gonna make your fork or shock harder.
So harder to compress.
- Right.
- A volume spacer is gonna make it add more.
It's gonna reduce the air volume inside,
as can make that fork ramp up harder.
So the farther you're in stroke
the harder and harder it gets.
So you have nice supple first pin
and it gets progressively harder.
Linear the whole way.
Compression down pin is more linear I suppose.
If you put more down pin on it,
it makes it harder the whole way through the stride.
- You can use both.
- But it is two different things.
- Yeah.
- Yes it is two different things.
I get confused on suspension, I really do, I really do.
It's so much easier with motorcycles,
I understood it all.
- Oh, well we've done a video about confusing
mountain bike suspension jargon.
Check that out.
- And lockouts a sort of thing that you're gonna want
in your bike, for example if you ride up hills quite a lot
you don't want your suspension to be bobbing around
to your body weight.
So you whack that lockout on.
Now on the inside of the shock absorber
there are a system of shims that the oil flows through.
And the shims have different sized holes in them.
Bigger holes enable the oil to flow through faster,
smaller holes will flow through slower.
And when you close the holes, oil can't flow at all.
- Right, next question is from Izidor Cindric.
And he says, are any XC pros riding tubular wheels?
Oh, that's interesting.
- That's a good question.
I know Nino Schurter used to at the pro bike check
when gem year started.
He had those Dugast tubular tires.
- Yeah.
- I don't think he does anymore.
I don't think he runs those tires,
I think he runs different tires that aren't tubeless.
So I don't know, not many if there are.
- What would be the reason for running that?
- I don't actually know.
- So we're talking like tubs,
like there would be a tire glued on the rim.
- Well I think it's just more resistant to punctures
and probably lighter.
- Would it be lighter?
I find that hard to believe.
- I don't know why, it's a shame.
- It's strange, it's strange.
Does anyone know?
Tell us if you know.
Why would use tubs?
- I've heard Rob Roskopp over out of Santa Cruz
used to make his own with downhill tires.
It's really expensive.
You have to get a bit of whatever,
bottom half the tire so if it's stitched on
to your Maxxis High Roller or whatever.
- Oh my God.
- There must be a reason.
- Yeah, wow.
I'd like to know why that would be.
I've not had any experience with that in mountain biking.
And I've also seen people taking tubs off road wheels,
and thought, that looks like a nightmare.
- You have to glue them to your rim.
It's a pain in the ass.
- Anytime you've got to glue something,
not a good idea.
Are there any good questions coming in from you Neil?
- A Justin Roethke, sorry.
Should you clean brand new rotors?
Disc brake rotors.
- Uh, ah now.
I've got a bit of experience of both sides of this.
Because I've just got a new mountain trike.
Have you seen it downstairs?
It's sick, right?
And I've got a rotor I just cannot stop it squeaking, right.
And I want to clean it, but I sort of feel like
it's because it was cleaned at the store.
I don't know what to do.
- I would never clean a brand new rotor.
I would just get it dirty, get it really muddy
and all wet, and I'll bed it really nicely.
They can the powder to bed it nicely, and it'll work.
But if you get something on there
then you will have to clean it.
- See I don't know what to do.
What I always used to do on my Travis bikes
was to get them covered in mud,
and get them, squirt water with grit in it on purpose
and then they would work incredible.
- Dotty has that on video on how to clean your disc brakes.
- Let's have a look.
- Now the brake cleaner does evaporate,
so once you've cleaned one, and you're happy with that
just set it aside.
Your next step is to get the pads onto the block here
with the sandpaper already in place.
Give them a good rubbing down.
Just want to make sure there's no chance
of any of that residue still being on there.
And of course by doing this,
I'm gonna do the same to disc rotors.
Creates a surface that's gonna mount really well together.
- Next up, we've got a question from Daniel Wyn Thomas.
And he's saying, my dropper post sags a little
when I put my weight on the seat.
Is this normal or does it need servicing?
It's a Rockshox Reverb.
Thanks.
- That's the Rockshocks Reverb thing.
They used to do that, but now I think they have sorted it,
but it does need servicing.
- Yeah.
- And more reliable than they used to be,
but minus that, you sit on it, it drops it by an inch.
- Oh right, it's part of the sort of,
part of the makeup of that product.
- Completely fixable, the new ones are much better.
- Right, okay.
Next up we've got Munghean84.
With regards to the tire slash repair.
In AUS I have used a five pound note to retain
a tube short term.
I don't understand this question.
- Five dollar.
- Five dollar, that makes a difference.
- 'Cause they have those, in Australia they have those
plastic notes.
- I always see it, yeah right.
They're different.
- You can go surfing with them.
- Yeah.
- Chasing crocodiles with them, or whatever.
- So he's used that to retain a tube short term,
so like almost to fix, a cut in the tire.
- Yeah, I've done it with, I did it with a crisp packet.
When was that?
- What?
- Oh, went out to this bike park with crispers
and I was riding my cross country tires
and it was really slaty
and I put a massive slice in my tire.
Got a crisp pack and stuffed it in there.
Just so that you can put a tube in
and the tube doesn't get out of there.
- Oh, I see.
- Do anything, really.
- That's amazing, that's such a bunch.
Stuffing money or crisp packets in tires.
- Mungbean says it's good 'cause you'll definitely
be motivated to change it when you get home
'cause there's five dollars inside the tire.
- That's a good point.
That is a really good point.
I loved that question, that is amazing.
That was more of a statement actually,
is this is what I did.
- I think the Aussie notes are printed better
than most people's notes.
- Well we've got them in the UK now,
the funny plastic five pound notes, really weird.
They're really weird.
I liked that Mungbean, very good.
- So Phillip Schmidt is going on a flight soon
with his bike, and he's worried about damages
to his expensive baby.
Do you know any good travel insurance
that covers three and a half grand bikes?
It's just a one-way trip.
Thanks in advance.
- There's plenty of good travel insurance.
I would be more thinking about a really good bag
to put it in.
- That is what I don't.
- That solves the problem.
- That was gonna be my thing,
is learning how to pack your bike properly.
If you do it really well, it's really unlikely
to get damaged.
I don't know about bike insurance for that,
you know for an expensive bike like your ride
for traveling.
There probably are options.
Maybe if anyone knows, they can just comment down below
and they can help us all out.
- Yep, yep, yep.
- Know how to pack your bag,
and Dotty's got a video on that as well.
- Now there are other bags on the market as well
that offer similar principles,
but the thing I like about this particular bag,
is what's inside.
It's got a roll cage system on the inside
which protects your bike.
And the reason I'm telling you that now
is 'cause I'm gonna pack my bike into this particular bag.
And I'm gonna use the blocks that come with the bag
to protect the fork, the chain set,
and of course the back of the bike.
- Correct me if I'm wrong Neil.
- You are wrong, Martin.
But Alex has sent in this video
of him riding his bike in Malvern Hills
using our uploader of course.
He's trying to send a whip off a small.
- [Martin] Amazing, let's have a look.
Love a whip.
- [Neil] So try to get it bigger without casing the jump.
- [Martin] Ah, slow-mo coming in.
- [ Neil] Super slow-mo.
- [Martin] I like how he's got all his friends
lined up to get the shot.
Here we go, he's off!
Starting to, oh no he's gonna flat land it.
Bang.
Okay I've got some views on that, Neil.
- So I wonder if he's landing on top of the table
or if he's just flying, you can't really tell
from the video.
- No, I mean he's definitely landing on,
he's not landing in a down slope.
Which to do a really good whip,
you do need to land in down slope.
'Cause if you think about it as you come out the jump,
and you whip out like that,
a down slope's gonna mean that angle you're coming in at,
can be even more twitched over.
But if you're landing flat,
it's gonna go off in that direction that you're pointing.
Whereas you got a down slope,
it's gonna pull you straight.
'Cause all of the motion's moving
in the same direction as the jump.
- [Neil] I think that's how everyone starts
and you do a kick out, you land towards your bunk
and fly off that way.
- [Martin] Not good.
But you just get a feel for the movement
of moving the bike out,
but also the sort of reverse movement
of bringing it back in.
But it's practice.
It is if I say, find a hip jump as well with down slope
so you can turn into it and land better sideways
'cause that one's gonna work.
- And if you watch some of the guys do really big whips,
you know come really far out there,
a lot of the motion is in their body
rather than in the bike.
On that jump there you can see that
basically the bike's got the weight
of the movement and when he lands he goes one way.
But if you see someone doing it really big
the bike's being pulled along with their body weight
and their weight is actually over in front of them.
And that's what pulls them into the landing.
You've got to be pulled off straight down the trail.
- [Neil] Yeah, pulled off straight down the trail.
- [Martin] Being pulled off down the trail
is how it's gonna go down.
And, so it's good.
- There you go.
That's it for this week's Ask.
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