- Welcome to another Ask GCN-ything.
- That's right,
you ask us anything,
and we will do our best to answer it.
First up, Tom,
we got a question that's borderline awkward.
This is from Jeremy Emilio, who has asked
how to I get my sister, girlfriend into cycling.
Now the awkwardness is there for all to see.
Smale Rider points it out for us,
"Wait, is she both?"
To which Luciano Namo says,
"You need to figure out some things first, Jeremy.
Why are you dating your sister?"
And I don't think that's a question we can answer, Tom.
- It's okay, it's okay.
Because Jeremy did get back
to all of you concerned commenters,
and say "Nope, separate."
- That's a relief.
Alright, well, in terms of how to get your sister
into cycling, Tom, you've probably
got more experience
because you have a sister and I don't.
And yours is an exceedingly talented
and accomplished cyclist.
And she's also younger.
So you must have done something right.
- Younger and faster than me.
And has been for a number of years.
- I didn't want to point that out, but yeah.
- It's sort of a fact, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- How did Annie get into cycling?
I think Annie just got into cycling
because we got in cycling when we were quite young,
probably ten or twelve.
And it was just a family thing to do.
So if your sister is young enough
that you're still riding with your parents
or something like that,
just having fun on your bike is a pretty good way to start.
If they're a bit older
and you think that they just need to get into cycling,
I don't really know.
Cafe ride?
A cafe ride is a good way to introduce cycling to people.
- Yeah, I think, probably,
it's all about making it fun, like you said.
And then trying not to demoralise them,
don't take them up any stupid hills
and drop them and leave them on the side of the road.
Quiet roads, that's really important.
No one likes traffic when they're getting into cycling.
I don't like traffic now, actually.
But yeah, so there we go.
Hopefully those will help you out, Jeremy.
Alright then, next up, we've got this question.
Oh, I like it.
From Jukka Pakkanen.
Do you guys save your old beloved bikes?
What do you do with the old ones
when you decide to get a new one?
What do you do?
- If I own the old one, I'd probably sell it.
- Yes, you don't like saving stuff, do you?
- No, I've got one bike that I've kept.
I've got a couple of bikes
I've kept over the years
that I like riding now and again.
We're in such a fortunate position
with GCN,
with the bike partners,
that I haven't felt the need
to replace my own bike so regularly.
- Yeah. Well I've kept one frame
from my mountain bike days,
because the complete bike took up too much room.
And it's now technically out of date anyway.
But the frame is special.
And then I kept two bikes from my racing days,
just in case.
Basically, if I didn't get amazing bikes from GCN,
I've still got two of my own.
They're not beloved, as such.
Well, I do love them quite a lot.
- I wonder how Matt's getting on?
Because he found his 2000 Giro D'Italia bike.
Or, his 2000 Giro D'Italia bike was found
in a bike shop in Italy.
So he's after that.
That is truly a beloved bike
because of a lot of great memories attached.
- Probably not that many great memories from that race.
He had a pretty tough time with it.
- True.
- Yeah with the crash and the injury.
Alright then, next up.
Should I be worried about using
my carbon road bike on a turbo trainer?
Will the frame crack under a heavy load?
Basically, this is a common myth about carbon fibre frames.
That you shouldn't use them on turbo trainers.
The fact is, from what we can tell,
we've talked to manufacturers,
is that none of them seem
to say that your warranty is void
if you use it on a turbo trainer.
So that, to my mind, tells me that it's safe.
And then, if you try to actually look
for anyone who has experience of a carbon frame cracking
as a result of a turbo trainer,
you can't really find them either, can you?
- No, you can't.
I guess the concern probably comes from
having the bike fixed,
and then the sideways motion.
But I've never heard of it.
- There are many very old bikes
that have been on server trainer for long time,
and they are not showing any signs of stress.
Going back to myths about carbon fibre though,
we've got a video about that, haven't we mate?
- We have.
- It's there.
It's the seven things
you didn't know about carbon fibre.
A lot of misconceptions are laid to rest in that video.
Check it out.
(rock music)
(buzzer)
- The suitability of a component,
in general,
doesn't depend on the material.
Every part should be engineered
with a specific load case in mind.
Admittedly, there is a risk with carbon,
as with any frame material,
that you can push the limits of it
in order to hit a super light goal, for example.
But problems only arise
if it hasn't been engineered correctly.
- That is an absolute cracking video.
Next question comes in from Sam Running who says,
Does chain length affect the speed of your bike?
What do you reckon, Si?
- Well, we're talking tiny, tiny,
adjustments of speed aren't we.
Like, one or two watts really.
But it could,
if you get it vastly wrong,
it definitely could.
If it's too tight,
that it could potentially
put more resistance on the chain.
And then if it's too long,
there's more chain to increase drag.
We are talking tiny, tiny.
But basically,
you need to get it right for your shifting, principally.
And then, also, to stop your chain
from flapping around and being all baggy.
So yeah, get it right for those reasons,
rather than for making your bike quicker.
Alright, Tom. Can you answer this one?
When you all travel abroad to film,
this is from Ryan Donnelly, by the way,
do you bring a translator with you,
or do you just wing it and hope for the best?
What could possibly give you that impression?
- Well, Ryan, we don't travel with a translator,
we don't have an awful lot of fluency in languages
apart from English.
Some of you may debate whether
we're fluent in English or not.
We know a few key words,
but many of the places that we do go to shoot
receive a lot of English or foreign cyclists.
So the locals often speak English as well.
But, it's definitely worth learning
a few key words if you're travelling somewhere.
And I think with that,
we'll learn in this next video,
which is,
"Five Mistakes You Shouldn't Make
When You Go Cycling Abroad."
(funky music)
- If you're heading somewhere a little bit exotic to ride,
a little bit off the beaten track,
it's definitely worth doing your research.
Consider the local cuisine,
what are the roads like,
is there a hospital nearby,
is there a bike shop close to hand?
- Yes. Doing this will give you peace of mind.
It might relieve a bit of stress as well,
and it could definitely get you out
of a difficult situation.
Actually, this is not a bad rule to adhere to,
even when you're close to home.
- Right then, straight into another question.
This one comes from Tommy L3.
"Hey I'm finding riding a little bit boring now,
how do I get back that same motivation
and hunger for riding
that I used to have when I started?
Tom, what do you think of that one, mate?
- That's a difficult one, isn't it?
'Cause we don't know whether, Tommy,
you're getting kind of bored and demotivated
off the bat of riding every single day,
on the same roads,
or something like that.
I'd suggest,
if you are finding something a bit boring,
a bit demotivating,
take a break if you can.
If you have another means of transport to get to work
or something like that.
Take a couple of days off, freshen up,
and then see if you can find some different roads to ride.
I always found when I was a bit demotivated,
my favourite thing to do was
to throw in a gravel section
or an off road section
just to keep things fresh
and make things a bit different.
How about you?
- Well I find that sometimes,
if I don't really want to go for a ride,
for whatever reason,
if I force myself to go for a ride,
I tend to enjoy it when I'm out there.
So actually, as well as the whole,
listen to your body and your head,
and do what you want.
Sometimes, a little bit
of self-motivation
can actually work wonders as well.
But, not long term, I have one off day in 30.
Where I kind of think, well I don't want to go out,
and then I do it and have a good time.
That might work!
We also, surprise surprise,
have a whole video on the subject.
This is basically like relationship counselling.
Dan and I talk you through
how to spice up your relationship with your bike.
And, yes.
It includes dirty weekends.
(funky music)
- Riding solo can be great.
But it can also get quite boring.
After all, you've only got
your own thoughts for company for hours on end.
So why not try riding with others?
Now a lot of people choose
to just ride with one other partner,
sometimes you can go out as a three,
that can leave somebody awkwardly left out,
or you can choose to go out on a big group ride.
It's an obvious tip, but it really does work.
The time is going to pass a lot quicker.
- And also, it's not just about
getting to the end faster
it's also about enjoying
the process of getting there.
And so, you can share top bands,
and generally just enjoying yourself.
- Top bands?
- Well this question had a tonne of thumbs up.
So I think we should probably offer up an answer.
And it is from Free Wheeler.
Who's got 182 thumbs up.
"I think you guys should do a smaller
GCN presents challenge each month
where the loser then has to use a bike
for under 150 pounds for all of their riding,
GCN videos and riding on your own time,
until the next month's challenge
when they can hope to redeem themselves.
Thumbs up if you want to see this or similar.
182 people thumbed up.
And then, Free Wheeler offered
a slightly less punitive alternative,
Which was,
"you could also have a loser's jersey or loser's t-shirt."
Which still sounds pretty bad.
Personally, I would like to avoid
having, I think the challenge was a great idea
But I'd like to avoid riding that bike,
or wearing a loser's t-shirt for a month.
- Well, basically, losing a GCN challenge is bad enough,
let alone punishing us for a month afterwards,
it's like wearing a dunce's hat.
I, for one, would not be up for that.
Also, Tom, as we found out in that video we did,
about how much faster can you ride to work
on an expensive bike.
I'd have to get out of bed five minutes earlier
every morning if I wasn't able
to use my Canyon Aeroad to ride to work.
- True.
- Yeah. Alright. Last question.
This one comes from Big Dog.
Hey Big Dog.
"Hey GCN, my parents say I shouldn't,
but should I buy and do I need
electrolyte tablets and recovery powders,
I'm only 16."
This is a really, really, common question.
I'm going to split this into two parts,
if I may, Tom.
Firstly, I think you need to explain to your parents,
or get them to watch this video,
that actually many nutrition products
for endurance sport
are simply just normal nutrients that we eat,
so carbohydrates,
either in the the form of starch or sugar,
electrolytes which are just salts,
that we consume in our diets.
The reason that we put them in our bottles,
in our back pockets, in our bikes,
is because the demands that we place on ourselves
mean that we need to replace them more.
So when I was little,
I used to get splitting headaches
after I rode by bike in the winter
because I was dehydrated,
and I didn't know what dehydration was.
Actually, at the time,
I would seriously have benefited
from electrolyte tabs.
All it is, is a bit of salt in a bottle,
but it would have stopped me basically
getting hangovers from bike rides.
The one thing there's a little bit of caution on
is perhaps, recovery products.
Now, again, it's just normal nutrition,
it's just protein.
But, you may find that you just don't need it.
So rather than it doing you any harm,
all you do is excrete it.
And therefore you're just wasting money.
So, we have a video on the subject of recovery,
and there's a lot of
really straightforward
and practical advice.
Hopefully, that will help you out
with that particular question.
Oh my goodness, me!
Barry is not safe for 16 year olds.
I didn't need to see that.
- Oh God.
(funky music)
- Your body needs fuel for riding.
And primarily, it's in the form of carbohydrates,
when you're above 65% of your maximum heart rate,
and of course fat too.
Now, aside from very short rides,
pretty much every training ride,
you will deplete your energy stores in some way
when out on a ride.
- Right, well I'm afraid that last video snippet
brings us to the end of another Ask GC Anything.
If you have any burning questions
you want to ask about cycling,
let's steer away from that difficult relationship
question in the beginning,
then let us know either in the comment section down below,
very simply,
or indeed using the hashtag
#TorqueBack,
see what we did there?
on Twitter,
and various other forms of social media.
- And if you'd like to see some more content,
if you're stuck inside this weekend and still want to train,
why not train with Si
on the fearsome passage
out in the dotlets?
That video is right there.
- Be warned. That is a really tough session.
- It's a brute.
And, this is actually an increasingly
common mechanical issue for people.
If you would like to know
how to remove and replace a press fit bottom bracket,
not the easiest of tasks,
we've got a video for that too.
That's right there.
- And make sure you subscribe to GCN as well
before you go, if you haven't already.
To do that, just click on the globe,
it's entirely free.