- Very welcome to this week's Ask GMBN,
where we try to answer your questions
that you've left below last week's video
or using the hashtag #askgmbn.
Doddy, let's kick it off.
- Yeah, so first up from Eric Thatcher.
Can you explain tire width?
The 2.3 seems a lot bigger than a 2.2.
- Well depends on the brand, they can vary massively.
I bet if you get your tape measure out,
they never measure what they say on the sidewalls.
So yeah, they can be pretty different,
but also, don't forget although it's only 0.1 of an inch
in width, the actual volume of the tire will increase
so it will look a bit bigger than 2.2.
- Yeah, sometimes you get them a bit taller than you,
- Yeah. - Some a bit wider.
So, you do get that effect.
- Definitely depends on the brand.
Joe Danny Dantjie, does incorrect frame size
affect your ability to do manual or bunny hop?
I find it pretty hard with my size large,
specialized cross-country pro bike,
and I'm 173 centimeters tall.
- Okay so, any long bike is going to be
harder to get the front end up
than a short bike, just for obvious reasons,
'cause it's going to be further away from you.
So, even if your bike is on the larger side for you,
perhaps if your front end is raised a bit,
so maybe a slightly shorter stem
or higher stem or a higher bar,
that could be a good way to help,
but I think, as you're probably going to say,
some of it's going to be down to technique, really.
- Yeah, I think you'd always be able to bunny hop any bike,
but if the wheels, the wheelbase is longer,
and you're stretched out,
then your ability to throw your weight around
is going to be compromised a little bit,
but you'll still be able to do it.
So, keep practicing, and here's a video
on how to help do a bunny hop. - Good luck.
- A bunny hop is an essential technique
you need to use on a mountain bike.
It's something that I'll use all the time
for getting over obstacles.
Something like a really slippery root or a rock section.
Rather than driving the bike into these things,
you start taking weight off the wheels,
maybe jumping that section completely
or maybe just unweight it slightly
so you're carrying speed over these edges.
Also, it's the key technique you need
to use to make height on a jump.
- Alright, next up is from Perking.
Can you make a video comparing fat bikes
with suspension or fat bikes without?
Alternatively, maybe you could just talk about them here.
- Yeah, I've never ridden a full suspension fat bike.
Probably feels like you don't need it,
you've got so much compliance in those tires
that it feels like you're making the bike heavier,
a bit more cumbersome, for not much reason.
- Yeah, I agree totally.
I think the only exception might be someone like Blake,
who wants to completely misuse the bike.
- (chuckles) Yeah, absolutely.
- I think he's hurt the forks on this one.
- Yeah, he has; I've never, have I ridden?
Yeah, I have ridden a fully rigid one,
and that's fine, completely fine.
So yeah, I don't feel like I would want
a full suspension one, anyway.
- Be a good excuse to get to ride them
into snow and sand, though. - Would be, yeah.
Pavel Zubov, is jumping on a 29er
easier than on a 27.5 bike?
Does it behave in a more stable way whilst in the air?
And which wheel size will be easier
to start practicing jumping on for a newbie?
- I would say 29s definitely feel more stable
getting them in the air.
They're a bit harder to sort of move around.
- Yeah. - But I think a 27 and a half
is going to be easier to learn to jump on.
- I think so; I think it's more wheels.
It helps you move around a bit more.
But a 29er, I do buzz my bum on the rear tire, occasionally,
and that's something you really don't want
to do on a jump. - Sure, yeah.
- But yes, they are a bit more stable.
- But that's a strength thing, as well.
It's gonna be easier to get a cheaper,
stronger 27 and a half inch wheel than it is with a 29.
So, in terms of how strong your wheel's going to be,
go for the little wheels for jumping.
- Definitely, get a bit more bendable the bigger they get.
Go on. - Next up is from Big Beechy.
I'm wanting to make my own bike den.
Do you think those rubber jigsaw mats
are worth the money or should I just keep concrete floor?
- Yeah, I like the mats; we were talking about this.
I actually use one of those turbo trainer mats
that I got as a freebie years ago.
- They're perfect, too.
- That goes in front of my work stands, for standing up.
- I think definitely have some sort of rubber mat
'cause you're going to be dropping stuff,
and it sucks, and it's going to be something you drop
and it roll off under a fridge or,
- In fact, I used to have a really horrible carpet
that I pulled out of the house,
when we renovated the house, and put it in to the garage,
but it had this paisley effect on it,
and if you dropped anything, - Couldn't see anything.
- It'd be really hard to find it on the floor.
- Yeah, I've just put rubber floor in mine, actually.
So, I'm a convert; I would go rubber floor.
If you want to see the sort of cool stuff
you want to spec out in your workshop,
all the extra spares you can keep
from previous bikes, have a look at this video.
So in the last mate to this video,
we checked out some essential spares
that I recommend that you have
alongside your basic toolkits at home.
Now this time, going to be delving, once again
into my little box of goodies,
and showing you all the sorts of stuff
that you should try and keep at home,
and start compiling alongside your toolkit.
So, you're going to make working on your bike
a lot better and a lot easier in the future.
So here are the best things
to set your workshop up like a pro.
- My next question comes from Elias Hill.
I'm 13; I want to get into slope style competition,
but there's no competition where I live in the U.S.
How could I get into it?
- Quite tricky one, quite specialist.
I reckon you got to probably go to a bike park.
There's got that sort of facility there to get riding
and meet some other riders who'd got that stuff.
Look on worldbikeparks.com.
There's quite a few options out there.
Don't know where you are in the States,
but one that springs to mind is Highland Bike Park.
They've got some pretty major stuff there,
and they do some significant events,
but you're going to have to sort of be
a bit more local, I think. - Yes, it's tough,
and you need foam pits and stuff like that,
if you're going to get really, - Skate parks, to be honest,
would be good for landing a lot of those skills.
- U.S. is so big; I don't know.
You might have to start traveling, so, who knows?
S P1 says, I'm wanting to sell my bike
to help fund a new one; it needs a bit of work
to get it running smoothly.
So am I best specifying this in the description,
when he's trying to sell it,
or stripping the bike down and selling the parts?
- It depends on if you want a fast sale.
I'd say give your bike a good cleaning,
a once-over, and just be honest about it in the description.
If it's got any scratches, just tell people.
It's a bike; they get ridden,
and you'll get a quicker, more honest, faster sale.
Make a bit of cash.
- Yeah, I've heard people can make more money
if you strip it down and sell it,
but then if you're selling a slightly worn part,
it's going to be more difficult,
so you might be better off selling it as one,
if it's a bit of an old bike.
- Yeah, to be straight up, get a shot of it,
and get a new bike. - Yeah.
It's the easiest way of doing it.
- MTB Dom says, I'm now 14, I love downhill,
but I can't attend many races due to my siblings.
I was wondering how else I might get
noticed by the big brands.
- I guess social media is a big one nowadays.
It's a difficult thing to build a big following,
but if you're doing cool stuff, making cool little videos,
Instagram is probably the biggest one now for pro riders.
- Definitely. - Get yourself out there.
Get a friend, maybe who's into filming,
to make you some really quality, cool, little videos.
Start pushing yourself.
- Yeah, just have a good attitude and enjoy it.
That will get you noticed.
- Plenty of people, like Josh Lewis,
who isn't, you know, he's a good racer,
but he's by no means winning races,
he's got a massive following.
- Think he's having more fun on a bike than anyone I know.
- Absolutely. - Yeah.
And people seem to love him for it,
including the Santa Cruz. - Yep.
Right, let's hit the quick fire round.
- Okay. - As quick as you can.
Adam Turner, can you please do a series on trail building
that includes how to build features and maintain them?
- Yes, we should get Jonesy to do that.
- That's a good idea; loves to shovel, that man.
- Nicolas MP, here in Florida, there are plans to make
downhill mountain bike trails on old retired landfills.
- Oh, that comes from last week,
we're talking about people that don't have
much elevation around them and how they
get into riding downhill, so that's cool.
- Wasn't Whistler built on an old landfill?
- Yeah. - It could work.
- A big old hill, as well, a big mountain behind that.
Feed Your Brain, should I buy a cheap,
aggressive hardtail and upgrade some parts,
or buy the frame and start building the bike?
- I would buy the bike, ride it,
and as you wear stuff out, start upgrading them.
That way you get to learn the bike
and what you want to change on it.
- Yeah, building bikes can actually take
quite a long time to stick out and to gather
- Tell me about it. - Back in bits.
Making sure bits fit the bike.
- Paul John Francisco, can I use a dual crown
suspension fork on a non MTB downhill frame?
- You can; we've seen that in the past,
people maybe building up a free road style bike
with like a 160, 180 mm travel bike
and sticking triple clamps on that.
I wouldn't deal in anything less than that,
anything less than 160, 170 mm.
- Almost more than you need to these days to boost.
- No. - Single crowns are good.
- Yeah, Lyrik or Fox 36, big burly forks, yeah.
Greyson Thweatt, is Blake going to Crankworx?
- Well I hope so, otherwise he's gone
on a really expensive holiday with the company credit card.
- I think they asked that one the very last week.
- Yes, he's there. - Now.
I'll do another one then, Brian Zandt,
hey guys, should I convert my downhill bike to single speed?
Derailleurs always break.
- That's a great idea if you're riding bike parks,
but as Blake found out last year in Whistler,
when he converted his, it's a real pain
when you got to ride anywhere
with a slight bit of incline. - Yep.
- It ruined his trip, actually.
- Did it? - Yeah.
Completely ruined his trip to Crankworx.
Blake did a bike check with Niko Vink.
He's got Gambler; it's single speed,
but that is quite a specialized bike, for riding bike parks.
- Bigman 101, can you backflip?
- I can, or I used to be able to.
- Never tried, probably can't.
- Right, correct me if I'm wrong,
it's a bit different this week.
It's another question about entering events,
but check out this video from Dylan,
who's in Hertfordshire, in England.
He's 14 years old; he's looking into
getting into racing, however I don't know
whether I should partake in Enduro or downhill.
I'm not sure which would suit my style of riding.
I love speed, jumps, and drops, but I think
I would be diving in the deep end
with downhill at my age; any advice?
- I think you need to try a bit of everything.
Have a bit of fun with it.
Learn. - Yeah.
- Learn about yourself, basically,
and you'll soon find out what you prefer doing.
- That's what I did, to be honest.
I love jumping, just like you do, Dylan.
Same age, I think I was 14 or 15 when I did my first race,
and I did downhill to begin with,
just 'cause there was a downhill race local to me.
It was just easy to do.
Down in Hertfordshire, south of England,
there probably are a couple of grass roots things.
- Yeah, be some stuff out there.
- Around possibly?
So just have a go, see if you can get your mom and dad
to drive you out there and just try a race.
You'll soon learn what you like to do.
- Yeah, you don't need to go to any
of the big sort of national events,
like regional and local events are actually better, I think.
- Yep. - Getting into it.
- Lot's of grassroots racing going on, so do that.
If you want to send your videos into,
correct me if I'm wrong, use our brand new uploader,
which I'll help you out and give you some advice.
If you're thinking about getting into events,
why don't you watched the video following me
around the recent Ard Rock Enduro,
click over there for that one.
- Yeah, and if you're specing out a workshop,
and you want to get sort of the basic tools and stuff,
click down here; it tells you everything you need
to work on your bike at home.
- Cool, as ever, leave your questions down below.
I will try to help you out next week.
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