(downtempo urban beats)
- So I'm very lucky to have this guy with me.
For those of you who don't know him, this is Calvin Jones,
who's the director of education at Park Tool.
I reckon you could just call him really
the Oracle of Cycling Mechanics.
But today, well Calvin has been lucky enough
for you at home, or wherever you're watching this video,
to actually talk about the five most common mistakes
that cyclists can make when it comes
to mechanical problems or fixes.
The first one you said is people asking the wrong questions.
- That's right, you're not defining the issue for yourself
and especially if you're dealing with a professional,
going into the shop, going to your friends
with the wrong, this is a tick tick tick,
well it was really a clunk, clunk, clunk; it wasn't a tick.
But to be serious though you have to define what's going on;
you have to define what's, as we said,
the process of elimination.
The bottom bracket drivetrain is a classic case.
There's a creak in there, you go to the shop
and I need a new bottom bracket,
put a new bottom bracket in, so 150 quid later
you walk out the shop and it's still noisy.
Well it was the crank arm chainring bolt maybe.
We didn't define really what was going on.
So you have to eliminate different issues.
There's a subtle, maybe some subtle,
there's also a problem there relating to my second one,
lack of confidence, when we start doing what I call
the pasta theory: we're throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Let's put on new pedals; let's put on,
we'll just keep pouring some money, just keep pouring it in,
and eventually it's quiet.
Oh finally I fixed it John, it must have been
the crank, chainring, bottom bracket,
pedal, shoe, and it was my knee,
since I got my knee replaced now I'm okay.
So, lack of confidence, number two;
define it, get in there and do it.
- Yeah, solve that problem.
And then well we've got the wrong tool for the job.
Which is a classic we see isn't it?
And that is probably for me, when I see someone
using the wrong tool, it makes me cringe inside.
Oh it's horrible isn't it? - Yeah.
- It's horrible.
- And to be fair though, technology does move along
and we see this a lot, that
boy I had a bike in college and it was great,
and I got my job and career
and now I've got some time finally,
I'm going to get back into my bike
and I bought this nice, modern,
you know I got my Trek/Canyon/whatever,
and I'm going to get out my tools
that were good in 1980--
- Dusting off the cobwebs!
- Well this now is a 12-speed chain;
it's this thin not this thin.
So what tools used to work, okay,
well the stick and the rock is used, still today.
But a lot of the specialty tools,
there's a lot of new ones: bottom brackets,
this ain't your grandpa's bottom bracket anymore.
So, right tool for the job.
- Yeah, definitely, because you just don't want
to risk damaging the component, do you?
Because things get more and more fragile.
- Yeah that's a good point; well why is that?
If you're trying to design something to be lighter
it's going to be less and less material in there.
- [John] What about rushing around then?
- I would like to answer that John but I can't,
I've got to go, I've got to ride with the guys
in five minutes and my bike's not ready
so I've got to go fix my brakes.
- Wait, wait, wait; come on
Take your time.
- Why didn't I do this last night when you told me?
Yes, so take the time to really do,
if you rush, rush, rush trying to get through it,
the nice Band-Aid solution, all right,
we're going to take some gum, right,
and some baling wire and fix it, just for now,
and we'll get to it later; you won't.
You won't, so don't rush, and do it ahead of time.
We had a question earlier, what do I carry in my bike bag?
Okay I've got this and this and this.
I want you to carry the knowledge
that you've checked out your bike
and you've gone through it thoroughly,
and it's properly maintained.
That slips into your bike bag; it's very tiny.
It actually folds up very, very small.
So, take your time on stuff, read about it,
check the PDFs and the schematics, look at the videos.
The forums, maybe put those at the bottom,
be careful on the forums.
- Yeah, there can be some bad advice on them.
- Yeah yeah yeah.
But that could, also learning, don't do what that guy did.
And taking pictures of the assembly,
you know, what goes where, before you start.
Yeah, think about it ahead of time.
- Yeah, now I once took apart a Campagnolo Delta brake.
- Fun!
- Fun is one way to describe it.
I think somewhere on one of my social media profiles
I did actually upload an image of it
before, during, and after.
- Nice!
- And that's a classic case of those schematics,
those exploded diagrams of those brakes,
I could not find anywhere for the life of me.
So I had to make sure I took photos
along the whole step of the way.
- Excellent.
- Because there was no way I was going to rebuild,
I think there's four or five pivots inside of that brake.
- That's right.
- With old imperial-size Allen keys.
- Yes?
- Oh it was an absolute nightmare,
but I did it, because I took my time with it.
It took me quite a lot of time.
Your final one, well, go on.
- Not asking for help.
Ask other people, hold this, look at this,
get another set of eyes.
Ask a friend, get to a shop.
Take some classes; take some Park Tool schools.
Do the legwork; enjoy it.
- There's nothing wrong with asking
you know, one of your fellow cyclists
or someone in your club, anything like that,
if they've had that same problem and how they tackled it.
I mean we're not a bad bunch, are we, cyclists?
- No.
- I mean sometimes I even have
to go and ask Doddy from GMBN.
- Wow.
- I have to go ask him for help.
And it pains me, but I drop my pride,
I go over there and I ask him,
"Doddy hae you ever had this?"
- They're on a bike, they're in our tribe.
- Exactly, we're all in one, we're pals aren't we?
- All one with two wheels; ask.
- Never be afraid to ask, because we've been asked,
I'm sure you as well, you know, questions which people,
they get embarrassed to ask don't they?
- Mm-hmm.
- They always say "Oh I'm really sorry;
"this is a newbie question."
But everybody starts somewhere don't they?
- That's right.
- And actually, they're probably
the easiest questions to answer,
because they're quite simple or basic.
- But being fresh, coming in with fresh ideas
and asking those, those new ones too, it's good.
- Yeah it's great. - Bring it on.
- But anyway, those are Calvin's well,
five, biggest sort of maintenance issues
that people run into.
Your solutions really, for getting through them effectively,
I guess that's the easiest--
- Jump in the pool.
Get in there and get involved.
- Just get involved.
But, my one that I can really take away from there
is to use the correct tools, and also
just take your time with it, don't rush.
Because that's the biggest--
- When we say jump in the pool
it doesn't mean you go in headfirst;
you look, it looks deep enough, let's go.
- Yeah; maybe just put your toe in first.
- Yep, toe's good, and then follow along.
- Pretty soon you'll be diving. (laughs)
- That's right, backflip with John.
- But thanks so much Calvin for popping in
and telling us these bits and tips.
- Great to be here.
- They are absolutely great, and I'm going
to pick his brains so much so that I can bring you
more great content, as ever.
And also, give him a big thumbs up
in the comments section down there.
- Below.
- Yeah, below, as ever.
And also to check out the GCN shop
at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com
where we have a whole heap of goodies including,
we've even got a Park Tool pizza cutter.
And beer bottle opener as well, haven't we?
- It will open nonalcoholic as well.
- Yeah it will do that.
It will probably cut things other than pizza.
- That's right.
- I don't know what.
- A cookie dough.
- Cookie dough, there we are, yeah.
So thank you very much for viewing,
and now to check out another great video,
where should they click?
- Here. - Just over here.
- Yeah, right here.
- And I reckon that videos' going to be
checks to do before you go out for a ride.
- Okay, do 'em.