(objects colliding)
- Expect the unexpected.
Okay, it's a bit of a cheesy saying,
but it's one that I like to live by, and in this video
we have five hacks for a trouble-free ride.
They're all pretty small and simple things
that you can easily take with you,
but could mean the difference
between being able to ride home
or having to call a taxi, or even worse, walk.
So, let's get underway.
(chill music)
Number one, emergency lube.
Stop sniggering at the back, I'm being serious here.
If you go on a ride, and there's
an unexpected torrential downpour,
it can sometimes wash all of your lube off your chain.
Or if you're on a really long, wet ride it can happen too,
and then you're left with a really loud, squeaky chain.
But we've got a solution.
Now, if like me you love sushi, I love sushi,
then you always get these little soy sauce bottles,
and these are great for filling up with a little bit of lube
that can easily fit into your saddlebag or even your pocket.
And then you've always got some
if you need to just apply a little bit mid-ride.
And if you don't have that and you need
another little way to do it,
then olive oil works pretty well.
So if you find a cafe, then maybe ask them
for some olive oil.
Next up is gaffer tape, or electrical tape.
Now when I ride, I always take a bit of tape with me.
Not a full roll like this, that's a bit unnecessary,
you're never going to need that much tape.
But a section of it that I like to wrap around
something like my mini pump.
And even better, another way you can do it
is actually wrap it around a CO2 canister.
Then it serves a double advantage
because it acts as insulation.
When you set these things off they get pretty cold.
Now, why would you carry tape?
Well, there's loads of things you can use it for.
If your bar tape comes undone and need to secure it,
or if you've got a loose cable
and you want to just tighten that off against your frame
or maybe you want to patch the inside of a tire with it
or maybe your shoe ratchet system's broken
and you want to just bodge it and secure it
so that you can get home.
There's loads of uses for tape.
As I said at the start, expect the unexpected,
and a broken chain is certainly something
that will catch you off guard when you least expect it.
So taking a quick link is a really good way
to quickly reconnect a broken chain and get you home.
But quick links can be quite easy to lose
and they're very small and can easily fall
out of a saddlebag.
So a good place to put it, top hack,
is on your keyring, on your keys.
Because you always have your keys with you.
And that way it won't get lost.
This next hack is a favorite of Jon Cannings.
Your bar ends and also your stem are hollow,
and this means they're really good places
for storing emergency items,
or items that you want to keep hidden.
Jon likes to put some money in there
so that if he bonks on a ride and has run out of money
he can get some food at a petrol station.
And the way he does it is he takes
a small little reusable bag that is
recycled from some other purpose like this,
stashes some cash in there, and then puts it inside.
And you take the bar end plug off,
or if you've got a stem and you want to put it in there,
you can just remove the stem plate and then you can see
it's hollow on the inside of the stem there
and you can easily stuff something inside.
It doesn't have to be money, it could be anything else
that you consider an emergency item.
And lastly, don't just chuck your old
worn out tires in the bin.
Instead get a pair of scissors
and cut some sections of rubber out of them
and put those in your saddlebag.
They don't take up much room and weigh next to nothing.
They're really useful for plugging big holes
or slices that you can get in your tire.
You put then on the inside and it stops the inner tube
hemorrhaging through as you inflate it.
I hope you found these hacks really useful,
and if you have, then give it a thumbs up
and subscribe to the GCN Tech channel.
And also let us know your own hacks
in the comments section below,
and we may make a video on them in the future.
And to watch another video, why not check out
How to Index Your Gears, down here.