- Okay, so it's time for Ask.
This is the section of the GMBN week
where we answer all your mountain bike related questions.
So don't forget you can fire your questions in to
ask@gmbn.com or leave them in the comments below.
- Alright, what we got Blake.
Fire away. - Well I've picked out a few
and I've got one from Thomas Twigg.
He says, he wants to start enduro racing.
He's recently bought a Cube Stereo 140.
- Good choice.
- It's 150 up front and 140 at the back.
Would this be suitable for MTB to start racing?
- 100%
- 100% yes, that is a great bike.
There's a lot of travel especially for all that
aggressive downhill racing and then going by what
it looks like I did a little bit of research,
you can do some pedalling as well up the hill so, yeah.
It's pretty good.
- Yeah, and of course it's an easy platform
to upgrade because it's the same frame
between all the stereo bikes
and it's just better componentry, wheels, and stuff on them.
- So you'll find the best way to save your money
and upgrade the bike is as you wear things out
then replace them with the next equivalent up,
so when your chain and cassette wear,
you can fit an XT one on there maybe
or XTL, whatever you want to do.
- Do the same with your tyres, once they're worn
you can improve it with some heavy duty tyres.
- And you'll find your abilities will start dictating
what you want to put on that bike as well.
- Yeah, yeah and if you've bought the Race
or the SL in that range, that comes with a two biop front
so that could be a good one to change out
and probably pretty, pretty easy one to change
you probably could change a sprocket in front.
- Yeah, easy as that.
Cool so we got another question here from Peter Czopek.
I think that's how you pronounce your name,
apologies if not.
I'm going to start riding dirt jumps.
Can you help me out picking a cheap dirt jump bike.
- Yes, well done, that's a good discipline.
I'm gonna start with checking out
the secondhand market because if you're gonna start
learning to do it, you're gonna definitely start
to break things.
Especially, when you're chucking it around.
Plus if he gets into it
and you find that that's not your thing
and you've spent so much money on a brand new bike,
you, you know, you haven't spent too much
on a secondhand one.
So I'd go secondhand market but there's a lot out there.
- That's a good chat, yeah,
the last time I had a dirt down bike,
few years back mind, yeah, I just bought a frame basically.
I bought a frame new but I got all the bits
secondhand for it.
- Oh, that's good. - Worked out real cheap.
- That is a good way of doing it.
- And I wasn't that fussed about the bike
you know it was good to go and ride it
didn't have to be too precious with it.
- Yeah, exactly.
But if you've got the money then I used to ride
for a company called Octane One,
sister in company to NS Bikes.
They do a good budget jump bike,
and it's strong and it does the job.
At the moment I'm running a Scott Voltage Wysed
and it's pretty good.
I do like it.
- Tidy.
- Right, next question coming in from Abhi Das is,
are direct sales such as Canyon and YT trustworthy?
I'm quite spectacle about buying online.
I prefer to get a bike from a professional bike shop.
- Well they're both professional bike brands
if you want to call them such things.
Yeah, of course they're completely reputable bike brands
to buy from the only difference with buying online is
of course you're not going to a physical bike shop
to get those bikes so you kind of gotta have a good idea
of what you want before you order them.
- They of course have valid warranties
just like any bike you buy in a bike shop
just a very different way of buying those bikes
and hence you do save a bit of money by going direct
but that's not for everyone.
- You know you gotta make that choice beforehand.
- But you can do your homework and then you can go out
and find out demo days and all that so.
So if you buy a bike in your regular bike shop you can,
chances are you can give them your passport
or a form of ID and take a bike for a test loop
before you actually commit to buying it
- Try it before you buy.
- Yeah, and to do that with direct sale bikes you actually
have to get yourself onto a demo days to do the same thing,
which I definitely recommend doing.
Trying two or three.
Get a ballpark idea of what you want.
But yeah, they're actually fantastic brands.
We ride Canyon.
Got lots of friends who ride YT.
No problems there.
Okay so next up, Ben Askham says,
I have a tubeless set up however it kept deflating
so I chucked a tube in it with the sealant
still in the tyre.
Will the sealant fix the tube as well?
Saves the stress of tubeless. (laughs)
- Well, first, firstly, no. - No.
- It's not going to fix it, you've just created
a real messy situation for yourself.
Cause that inner tube now is swimming around
in the sealant and at some point it's all gonna congeal.
- You're gonna have to change all that.
- If you don't want to set up tubeless
and you want to run inner tube in it
I suggest taking it all out, cleaning it,
and put it back in again.
One suggestion that Blake said earlier
was to put some sealant inside an inner tube
and you can do that if your inner tube
has a removable valve core and of course
the other option and probably the best option,
just going tubeless full stop is to do it again.
I'm just gonna throw you actually to setting
up your bike tubeless and show you all the tubeless mistakes
that you're going to encounter.
For your rear tyre it's actually worth putting
a little bit more sealant than you do in the front
just because you're more likely to burp that tyre
and the extra sealant's gonna help seal that.
You can obviously pour the tyre sealant straight
into the tyre and most people will do this,
it works fine however I'm going to show you the method,
installing it through the valve itself
once a tyre is already on and popped into place.
- Next question coming in from Letzrockitrite.
Is there a way to know if I have a tapered steerer
or a straight tubed without dissembling his whole front end
because he wants to buy a new fork.
- And he can't be bothered to look.
- Exactly. - Got it.
Yes there is.
You can look at the underside of the steerage tube.
Basically if it's got a big hole you can tell it's a tapered
and if it's got a smaller hole you can tell it's not.
- Just fat, Donnie.
- That's alright. - Pretty cold out there
for you to go out.
- It was cold, you should have gone you're wearing a hat.
- Yeah, hadn't thought that.
- Anyway, next question, whatdya say?
From The Sjialvi, what should my stem length
with a 720 stroke 740 mil wide riser bar be?
I'm currently running 680 mil bars with an 80 mil stem
and I want to change them.
- Well you don't have to really change it do you?
- No, I would say the wider bars you go
the shorter stem you go because the effect
of widening your bar means
you're gonna be leaning forwards more on the bike
so you want to counter that by coming back again slightly.
Work it, work ins or 20 millimetre lengths really,
but if you wanna know about bike set up like that
check this video right here where I tell you
all about the bar sets of RNMI.
Up front, I've got the high rise option
and a full 800 mil width bar.
Not everyone needs a bar this wide but I'm quite tall
and it just suits the bike really well,
having the bigger wheels.
I like the high rise option because I just I like the way
the bike feels like this.
I get my position further backwards.
- Right we've got one from Zedd JO says, loves the channel.
Thank you very much buddy. - Oh thank you very much, yeah
- He says, he's got a new bike
and it's all about his suspension.
Says, are you meant to use all of your suspension up front
and back because he doesn't seem to be using all of his.
- Well yes you should because otherwise you're not using
the full travel that's available to you
but you shouldn't be using it all the time
so you've got to get it set up right
so you want about 25% to 30% of that available travel
and a sag and that will mean that hopefully
on most of your rides you'll be using
nearly all of your travel.
Saves that little bit extra for his real big jumps
or those accidental moments where you hit stuff a bit hard.
So yeah you do want to be using it
because you've paid for that travel so
- Exactly.
- You want to be using it mate.
- Gotta use the whole thing.
- My go now.
- Your question, yep.
- This says, SE Evidente, I've recently got some new
disc brake rotors size 180 front and rear.
I was told I made the wrong choice by the mechanics
at the bike shop because both front and rear disc brakes
are of similar size.
They suggested I go for 160 at the rear, and keep the front.
Why should my rear rotor be smaller?
- Well because you're not necessarily using your rear rotor
as much as your front cause all your weight's
if you're braking really hard and you got a big,
you know all of your weight is gonna shift forward
so it's gonna put a lot of stress on a smaller rotor
that you would have and it could heat up really fast.
- Yeah, well that's exactly right, you know, you,
when you're breaking hard on a bike
the front end is the one that's weighted
that's why you skid so easily
because the weight is off the wheel
so you simply don't need as much braking power
to have the same effect on that.
Sometimes you might want to have 180s front and rear
if you're riding a lot of downhill riding
because you do tend to run the back break quite a lot
I think when you're at bike parks and stuff.
But them telling you you're wrong,
well technically they're wrong because it's up to you
what you want to ride and it's got to suit your riding
but a lot of bikes do tend to have a smaller disc
at the rear and the bigger at the front and that's why.
- Next question coming from H, just H.
- Yeah, H.
- The letter H.
Says I'm a high school student, amateur XC rider.
I'm currently riding a 2015 Trek Superfly 8,
9.8 size XL, your favourite size.
- Tall guy, yeah.
- Must be tall like you.
He's considering a dropper post.
Well, 100% go for a dropper post on that.
- Don't considerate it, get one.
- Yeah, exactly, a lot of these big XC racers
in the World Cup, they all, they coming down
to like dropper posts, especially for those descents.
Not necessarily dropping like 160
but they only dropping like 110.
Just enough to keep that saddle out of the way.
- I would go as far as saying the taller rider you are
the more impact on your riding a dropper post has
so you think the shorter rider, their centre of gravity
is nearer to the ground so you're gonna be more stable.
You, like me, I'm really high and quite far away
from the bike so the more I can lower my centre of gravity
the more stable I am.
It will definitely improve your descending,
it will make you feel more in control, more comfortable.
- I couldn't recommend them enough.
Obviously there is a weight penalty.
- Yeah, he does say about weight, adding weight
or should he train without it.
- I think the riding attributes you'll get
from a dropper far outweigh the weight penalty.
So try it, you can always sell it,
because everyone wants dropper posts, you'll sell it easily.
- There you go. - That'd be my recommendation.
And yeah if you want some advice on how to choose
the right dropper post, check this video out.
- My preference would be for the biggest drop possible
that fits on that bike, however,
some cross country riders will go for the smaller drops
like the 100 mil just cause they don't want to feel
like that seat completely disappears.
They keep it up near that good patterning position
most of the time but can get it just out of the way
when they need to.
And they are slightly lighter, however, like I say,
I'd rather go for the bigger drop post
so my seat gets right out of the way.
- Right, Quickfire round Doddie.
I'm gonna be reading them to you so you,
- Quickly. - Quick, I'm gonna try to be
quick you know, I'm not real flustery yeah.
- (laughs) Alright let's go.
- Alright, you ready, starting with
Evan MTB, can you see more,
can we see more videos of Martyn riding?
- Yes, we're taking him out soon
we've just got finished fixing his bike.
- There you go.
Clappy, are the spokes in carbon wheels also carbon?
- Not as far as I know.
- Okay we got Darxide Pryor.
Pryor?
- Settle, you can read it, that'll do,
yeah, that's fine. (laughs)
- (laughs) We've got one from this mate your boy says,
can I use 120 travel rear shock on a 100 travel frame.
- If you had 120 mil to travel shock
you'd have a lot of wheel travel.
I think you mean the shock from 120 mil travel bike,
probably not because the length of the shock
would be different.
- No.
- So, no.
- Jack Strutt DH.
Why are Hope Green pros only?
PS I am a regular to the channel.
- They're green to identify who's a pro riders running them,
I guess, and to make you want them more.
I certainly want some.
- Spectre Fade, could you do a video on a camera men,
camera man riding the bike so we can also see
whether they can shred or not?
- I reckon that's a pretty good idea,
what do you reckon Tom?
- Tom behind the camera is an absolute shredder.
- Yeah, there's a few shredders in the office.
Maybe we will. - (laughs)
Aris Amellal.
This is brilliant.
(hosts laugh)
- I hate reading names man.
- You're the one who wanted to read Quickfire.
- I hate reading names.
Aris Amellal, is it okay to use two fingers
on a mechanical brake lever unlike a hydraulic one?
- Yes, use as many as you need to
although I'd recommend two or less.
So, one finger is the ideal
because it gives you a nice strong hand position
on the bars.
- Okay, there you go.
Elon, so last week I chatted with the Don himself
and asking him about his height.
I'm actually, he says I'm actually five foot ten.
- Is he?
- He's lying.
You didn't speak to him did he?
- No. - That's just a fake account.
- He's short.
- He has a fake account, he's lying.
Right, we got one from Joram Vahl.
Can Doddy do whips, tables and table tops?
- I could used to do really good tables,
that used to be my thing.
- He can still do them. - Haven't done one for years.
- You can still do them.
And he can whip.
- Ish, yeah.
- That was Quickfire round, done.
That was quick.
- Oh so now it's time for Correct Me If I'm Wrong
and it looks like we've got some viewer corrections.
- (laughs) Yes, we have a few.
- Okay so Erik Joosten says, cold hands.
Your body shuts down the blood flow to your hands
when you're not up to temperature for riding yet.
Once you've done your warm-up slam your arms
around your body as if you hug yourself,
like this basically to stimulate the blood flow.
Keep repeating that with force
and you'll feel the blood starts flowing back
into your hands.
Once you've done that, they shouldn't get cold anymore.
- Shouldn't get cold anymore?
- Yeah, that's great, I'm gonna try that
- I'm gonna definitely try that.
- It's pretty cold here at the moment.
Doreen Green says, you're always saying
about supporting your local bike shop
then we ride around with Canyons etc.
It's a bit hypocritical.
Well alright, so I see where you're coming from
but you got to bear in mind that most bike shops
nowadays thrive on labour from your service
more than selling the actual bikes
and we always use our local bike shops
for doing that stuff.
So yeah, I understand you're point of view
but you also gotta kind of get with the times a bit
because not everyone buys bikes in their local bike shops.
We choose to support our local bike shops.
Blake's is on the Isle of Wight, mine is in Bath.
In fact I've got another one in Brathering Avon
and we do go to those regularly and spend our money there.
- Make T's and do everything.
- ProBro18, is that a GCM bowl?
Unbelievable, I hope not.
- Where? - Where?
Okay so now it's time for the actual
Correct Me If I'm Wrong.
And, dear GMBN, I am Nico from Belgium
and I'm trying to roost some berms
but I can't quite get it better?
Here we go. - Alright, let's
take a look at it.
- Oh dude that's like perfect technique.
It looks like you're doing it
a little bit early in the turn.
Where you're pushing in hard
and your back end is skipping out nicely.
I think you've got that great
but maybe do it a tiny bit later.
See, it looks like the turn is a bit looser
just above where your wheels have been.
- Just above it, yeah.
That's good technique.
I would, well it is a bit wet,
so you're not gonna get the ultimate roost.
You're not gonna let that tyre break away
from that dirt because it's too muddy
and your wheel's kind of sticking into it.
So on a dry day you're definitely gonna get a bigger roost
and the way you've got it going on there,
definitely gonna have a recipe for a bigger roost
but you see all those leaves,
to make it extra exciting chuck all those leaves in there.
- Good for the show.
- Break it all up, move your camera to the,
right at the exit of that turn to give it
a bit more of a close.
- See that's got some - Closer view
- Roost flying up. - He has got roost
but it's real sticky isn't it?
- Wouldn't take a lot to get that really cool.
- No.
- Don't forget to keep sending your questions in,
send them to ask@GMBN.com.
Of course you can just comment
in the comments below basically.
If you want to see a video on all the types of greases
to use and lubes and where to use them on your bike,
click over here.
- Yeah, and if you want to see an epic grind
where Doddie and I take on Alicante click just over here.
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