You ever perform the same task so many times that you say,
"I could do that blindfolded?" Well today, we're going to put that to the test. I'm
here at Squatch Bikes in Brevard, North Carolina, and their bike mechanic, Pat:
We're gonna put a blindfold on him and give him a list of tasks and see if he can do it
blindfolded. Can you see anything? Not even a little bit? Okay, it's working.
So these repairs are going to start really easy, and we're going to ramp way up. In
this bag is a set of lock-on grips. Your first task is to remove the ones from this
bike and replace them with these. Okay, got it, don't need those instructions.
Okay, uh, this is coming off. The one difficult part is there is a left grip and a right grip,
so he's gonna have to get that right. And he's gonna have to get the grips oriented correctly,
and hopefully he's done it enough times to do it by feel. Let's see how he does.
I know they're Ergon grips, but I've never not visually paid attention to which one says
right and left. This feels right. If the bolt head was on top, it would stab you,
so it's got to go this way. Okay, so he is trying to figure out where the top
and bottom of the grip is. He's also going by the bolts to see where the left and right is.
See, there's the head of the bolt, and then there's where the bolt comes through the
clamp. That's all he can do. There's no other indicator on the grip. Okay,
finding the fitting is more difficult than I thought it
was going to be. Come on, this is going to look ridiculous. Oh, oh, I got you.
So Pat says he's done. I've asked him to step away, and we are going to assess the repair. He
got the right and left grips correct, but they're not right side up, they're completely upside down,
like perfectly upside down. And you can see on the grip, there is a little "up". Would these
work on a mountain bike trail and be safe? Yeah, absolutely, and the left and right is correct,
but the little design on the grip is not in the right spot, so I can't give this a passing grade.
How did I do grips wrong?
Alright, next repair. He's gonna have to replace the chain. Here is the paper bag. Okay,
inside the paper bag is a brand new chain. I need you to take the
old chain off and put a new chain on. Can you hold that for a second?
Alright. Oh yeah, he's serious. He's cutting the old chain off. That means he can't lay both chains
out on the bench. He has to determine what size the chain is himself. There's no other choice.
Rule number one of being a mechanic: never trust somebody else's work. Where's the bench?
Alright, good technique. He's smashing the SRAM box.
This is that cheap aluminum Kent bike, isn't it? It is. So this is not a cage
lock derailleur, is it? It is not a cage lock Sram Derailleur. correct.
How am I gonna know that it's on the last cog? So he's trying to make sure that the chain is on the
smallest cog on the cassette, and he knows that I might throw him for a loop and just set the limits
wrong. And so he's not trusting it. He's really trying to make sure it is on the smallest cog.
I don't have to cut it. I don't. I got lucky. So he's got to put this master link together,
and then put pressure on the drivetrain to click it together, but he can't see whether it happens
and he's got to do it all by feel. So he's got to be really sure. And [Music] yeah, I'm done.
Alright, you can step away, and I'm going to assess the repair. Where's that rock?
Alright, yeah, he did set the master link in place. It does appear to be the
right length. And you know what's really impressive? The way I would have done it
is I would have carefully removed the old chain, laid both chains out on the bench,
and ensured that they were both the same length, because you can do that by feel.
Now, because Pat is a professional mechanic, he refuses to do that, because if the last
mechanic sized the chain wrong, then it's sized wrong. So he sizes every chain on the
bike and actually uses his experience. This is an extremely impressive repair. So 10 out of 10.
So we're going to ramp things up a bit, and this one can get a little bit messy. What brake
bleeding entails is getting all the air out of the hydraulic brake system and just making sure it's
filled with fluid. And these are not any set of brakes that he would have ever worked on before.
So, come up here to the handlebars. Of course, you've got hydraulic disc brakes. I'm not going
to tell you which ones they are, but they do take mineral oil. You got to do a lever bleed,
that's it. So you don't want the lever pointing straight down because all the fluid will come out.
And so he's loosening the clamp to turn the lever up for the brake bleed. But then the next step
is a lot harder. He has to figure out where the bleed port is. Is it a metric, or is it a Torx?
No. Oh, this is a dangerous game. What are you... did you already break this? Do we know that the
fitting is good? It's good. Okay, it has to be a Torx. I don't even know what the bleed
port is. So he's gonna have to determine which wrench fits in there to get it off.
Get hit in the face with a handlebar.
Oh, you found it. That's insane. First, he figured out it wasn't a hex, and then he
got the right one, the T15. My mind's actually kind of blown. Don't lose the fitting, funnel,
and fluid please. Are you sure this is the same thread pitch? As the Shimano funnel? It's not.
He figured out that the bleed funnel didn't fit,
and he asked us for a TRP bleed funnel because he needs a little bit of a
bigger thread. That's something only an experienced mechanic is going to notice.
Okay, got that. Oh, too much. More is better than not enough. How close? I'm right up there,
aren't I? No, okay, that's enough. Space,
I feel solid. I know I'm getting bubbles out of it. It wasn't too bad to start with. [Music]
Done.
You are done? Okay, yes, I'm actually done. Alright, let's uh... [Music] That
was insane. First off, he did it successfully. The brake feels great. I saw bubbles come out of
the funnel. Probably the most difficult part was determining where the bleed fitting was.
Now, he did spill some fluid, and he did wipe most of it up. None on the rotor and none on the fork,
which is kind of miraculous. So I would take off points, but he determined that
the Shimano bleed funnel did not have the right thread and requested a TRP bleed funnel,
and these are Zoom brakes, and the thread fit. So I have to give him a 10. 10!
Oh yeah, done. Okay, so these are the handlebars. The part that they're attached to is called the
stem. That's right here, and it clamps to the steerer tube which is attached to the
fork. Now over here, you can see all these various spacers. These are stack
washers. I put all different sized ones in here purposely. I painted this one green. That's the
10-millimeter stack washer. I need you to reduce the stack height of the stem by 10 millimeters.
Yeah, okay. Then I have to straighten the bars too, don't I? Yeah,
you have to put it all back together like a professional bike mechanic. Okay. [Music]
How many points off if I strip out a bolt? Okay, so he's loosening the stem bolts. This is the
point of no return. Like the bars are going to fall out of alignment. He's got to put them back.
Five. Here's my 10. Yeah, he found the 10-millimeter washer immediately. I mean,
that should actually be no problem for Pat.
Oh, this is a terrible headset, isn't it?
Okay, so we put everything back together. You can
see he put the green spacer on the top. The bar is pretty straight.
I have an idea. Can I find a tool? Sure, I'm going this way.
Thank you. [Music] Guys, okay over here. I'm going behind the wheel stand. [Music] Alright I'm gonna
commit there, I'll never get it perfect, and it should be
rideable. Okay, so that blue thing, that's just a tool that's just made to keep your
handlebar straight. So if you're working on the bike, they don't move around, but
he's using it to align the bars. That's not what it's designed for, but pretty smart, honestly.
Okay, the wheel. Fork is on the right way. Okay, I'm done. Okay, step out for a second. I'm going
to assess this. Definitely identified the 10-millimeter spacer which I had painted
green. Yeah, headset bearings are perfect. Could it be more aligned? It's like honestly,
I can barely see it. Yeah, I have to give it a 10. You got it. Yeah, come take a look at it.
You can take the blindfold off and look at all your repairs.
It okay, it's this bike. It is the Kent Trouvaille. Okay,
is the chain sized right? That's cool. Yeah, and I got the grips upside down.
You see, it says up. Like, there's actually a lot. I couldn't see it.
You honestly got the levers almost perfect. Yeah, this one's high, but the bars are not straight.
They're close. This one's back. It's pretty close. It's rideable, right? It's rideable.
Okay, so we're done. So, pretty impressive. Yeah,
um, you up for a bonus round? What are you thinking? So, it's not on this bike. Put
the blindfold back on. Okay, back into the darkness. Okay, it's a fork isn't it? Okay,
you gotta drop the lowers, replace the bath oil, make sure all the levels are right.
Just wipe her down. Okay, so it's a Grip1 damper. So, I need Fox 20 weight gold and 5 weight Teflon.
If I break your fork, it's fine, right? It's fine. Okay, oh, this is going to be weird.
I have never swung a hammer with a blindfold on before.
Yes.
I have to put a bucket underneath it. Suspension service is not a beginner repair,
not by any means, and so this could get messy. I hope that bucket's there.
I hear bucket, but I don't think it all went in there. Nope.
Oh, they're so oily. Damper side, air side, fork arch. Now, I need oils. This is 20 weight,
which goes on the air side. The air side is the disc brake tab side.
It goes in and stops one finger.
Okay.
I think I'm done. All right, remove your blindfold. I didn't put the arch on backwards.
I was worried about that. No, you got it right. Definitely, oil all over the lowers and stuff,
probably from your hands. On the five weight, you went a little over. Okay, and that was a
quicker fork service than I've seen people without blindfolds do. Dude, I'm going to have to come up
with harder repairs for you next time. There's a next time. Do you guys want to see a next time?
So, there you go. I'm really, really impressed. Let me know if you want to see something like
that again, and I'll come up with some really difficult repairs. So, what I'm most surprised
about is that the easiest repair ended up being the one that he did least effectively,
which was the grips. He got them upside down. There's a little 'up' label on it, and you would
have to just install those same grips a million times to really know where it's supposed to go.
Everything else he did, not completely perfectly, but better than most home mechanics would, and
sadly, better than a lot of professional bike mechanics would have. I hope you enjoyed this
episode of 'Blind Mechanic'. I hope you learned something, and if you didn't, I hope you at least
found it entertaining. Thanks for riding with me today, and I'll see you next time.
Alright, one last repair. I thought we were done. Set both the front and rear
tire to 23 and a half PSI. 23 and a half PSI? Yeah, they're too low. They are at
23.5 PSI. Okay, why do I need a blindfold for that? There's no gauge on the pump."
18. 18? Ohhhh!