- No matter how good you are at maintaining your bike,
or even how often you do it,
occasionally, you're still going to make mistakes
in working on your bike.
And all too often, they'll become exposed
when you head out riding,
hitting the trails at the last minute,
or even putting your bike on the back of the car.
So here are some of the classics on how you
get around them.
(upbeat music)
And the first one we're going to look at is something
I very nearly just did myself and that is putting
and that is pulling that front brake lever when there is
no wheel in the bike.
And of course, what that means is that your break pads are
going to push together, clogging the wheel in your bike;
straight away you've delayed your ride.
So I'm just going to pull the bike out and show you
a couple of ways around this and what you should be
doing to avoid it.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, so I've taken the bike out of the back of the car
and as you can see in this case
these break pads are really close together.
So what you need to do is pry them apart.
Now there's a couple of different ways that you can do this.
Now the first option, this is the Park Tools PP-1.2
and the job of this is to solely push those pads apart.
Now if you do have one of these or get a similar tool,
the important thing to remember is it is clean
and it has no grease or oil on it, you don't want that
anywhere near your break pads.
All you do is simply push it in between the break pads,
give it a whittle until its sent home towards the back
of the caliper there, and what it does is it pushes
the pistons back into place, and as you can see now it is
wide enough apart so that the disc rotor can
slide back into place as it should be.
However, you might not have one of those tools,
or perhaps you don't feel that you need all
those tools in your tool kit.
The other solution is a simple flathead screwdriver.
Now the wider the head of the screwdriver the better,
because it's going to do a better job.
Same thing applies, just essentially to wedge in there
and pry them apart.
But make sure there is no oil or grease on there.
The same action applies.
Takes a little bit more care to do with a screwdriver
than it does with a dedicated tool there,
but you can achieve the same result.
And there we go so,
ready for that disc rotor to slide back in there,
and then the wheel will go right in.
Now how do you get around this
and stop this thing happening in the future?
Best way to do this is with a bleed block.
So, depending on what brakes you have, you can get a bleed
block, which has a space at one end for when you're taking
the brake pads out to bleed those brakes,
and at the other end is a pad spacer.
So the sole job of this is literally to slide in between
those brake pads there, and act basically to take the space
that the disc rotor would.
And what that means is if the brake lever is actuated
in the back of the car, or wherever it is,
what's going to happen is your brake is going to work
against this as if it were a disc rotor.
No problem.
Before you ride, simply slide it out, put it somewhere where
it's not gonna get too greasy, put your wheel in place,
and off you go.
Now although most brakes sets do come with these,
and they're easily obtainable for your local bike shop,
you might not have one to hand.
So in which case, any old bit of cardboard will do.
In this case, from an inner tube that I carry with me,
I've kept the packaging.
Same thing, you can fold over a couple of times,
and that will act nicely as a pad spacer
whilst you're transporting your bike.
(upbeat music)
- So now you have sorted the brake problem out,
it's time to put the wheel into the bike itself.
Get that to go right in.
Now of course, I need to put my quick release axle in place.
Now this is something we see people struggling with quite
a lot, because sometimes they're a bit sticky,
they don't quite line up, they don't really go into place.
So how do you sort this sort of thing out?
Simply put, you have to maintain these just like you would
any other part of the bike.
They've got moving parts, they have a cam.
So as long as you keep these nice and clean,
you apply some spray lube to those moving parts,
a little bit of lube or some very light grease,
like a spray grease, just on the axle and take the excess
off, is enough to help it pass through the axle itself.
Then of course you have to make sure that you
do up the lever into the correct orientation.
Now there's a few different ones on the market.
This is the Fox QR15, I'll demonstrate with this one.
I'll also show you with the rear one I have.
Now this particular one is clean, I've just given it a wipe.
But what you do want to do is make sure that
that cam itself has been lubed, so it does move freely.
Slacking through a few times, and then of course
wipe off the excess.
Now you might just want to put a bit on the axle itself.
Again, you don't want too much on there,
just run enough on there so it can pass through
nice and clearly straight through into the bike.
As you see, that slides in much better.
A little TLC goes a long way with any mechanical part.
Now of course, doing the lever up in the correct
orientation is really important.
With the QR15 one, the lever should be pushed down at
this stage, and there should be between one and twenty
millimeters between it and the fork.
That is fully closed, so that's a safe position.
With the Rockshox Maxle the safe position is actually
following the fork along towards the back of the bike.
Now it's important to make sure that you have your specific
lever in a correct orientation.
If, for example, you're using a Rockshox Maxle and that
front lever is facing forward,
A: it probably won't be secured properly,
which means it could come undone.
And B: probably worse still, is the fact that it could snag
on any bit of terrain, like some brambles or something,
and pull itself undone, and just by riding will unwind
itself and you wheel could come out.
So, obviously, it's for your own safety as well as
the performance of the bicycle to make sure that your
axles are installed correctly.
Give them a bit of love, give them a bit of lubricant,
make sure they're the correct orientation,
and they're secured to the bike.
Now this particular rear one is a DT Swiss.
It screws straight into the frame.
As you can see here, the lever is not in the best position,
so you pull this out and you can reposition it, so it's in
the correct position.
Obviously it depends on your preferences.
I like mine to actually face backwards because they're away
from any sort of chance of being knocked and
unwound on that bike.
Some people will prefer them inward to keep them
nice and neat.
Of course it's more important with the front one,
because you really don't want that to come undone.
But there we go. So just make sure you look after those
axles and keep them lubricated
just like you would any other moving part.
(upbeat music)
Another classic is if you're changing your pedals before
you ride, perhaps from clips to flats, or vice versa.
All too often I see people that have bikes upside down
like this, and they go to undo on the Allen key
and it slips, smashing knuckles into that chainring.
Don't do that.
Cause if that's a really tight fit and you've got to put
a lot of work into that, what do you think is gonna happen?
Not nice.
So use your weight advantage.
Put the bike rubber side down,
and stand over the bike itself.
Now you want to put the Allen key into the back of the pedal
there, and simply lean down on it. You can hold to opposite
crank and you can undo that pedal nicely.
And then all you've got to do is put the back of it in,
and just back it out.
Now as well as not actually thinking about what you're doing
when you're undoing the pedals, a lot of people actually
forget which way round you tighten them,
or which way you undo.
Easiest way to think about this is with rubber side down,
both pedals tighten towards the front of the bike,
and they loosen towards the rear.
Keep that in mind and you'll always be able to get your
pedals on and off correctly.
But on other thing just to add on there,
is if your pedal threads are dry and your pedals are
tightened, they're gonna be extremely hard to get off.
So do yourself a favor, put a little smidge of
grease on those threads.
Not too much, just enough to give it a lube,
and then you'll tighten them up,
and they're easier to undo next time.
(upbeat music)
- About to hit those trails, and of course you just want to
put a bit of lube on your chain before you go to make sure
everything runs nice and smoothly.
And one of the choices lots of people have is some sort of
spray lube like this one.
Now I also often see people aiming that spray
straight at that rear cassette.
Of course your disc rotor is right behind there,
and if it's windy you're gonna get a mist of oil
traveling around the bike there.
So just do not do this because that oil,
when that gets in contact with that rear disc rotor,
it will definitely contaminate those pads.
And your brake will either howl and won't work,
or it just simply will not work.
So if you are one of those riders that like to use a
spray lube, just think about it before you start spraying;
is it windy?
If it's windy, more than likely you're gonna get a mist of
lubricant going places you don't necessarily want.
So, the first thing I would suggest is get some shop towel,
and stuff it in the way of your disc rotors.
Make sure that if you insist on spraying anywhere that's
gonna get that, that is gonna catch it.
But of course, your bike might not have disc brakes.
Your bike might still have rim breaks.
If that's the case, then you're gonna need to put some
shop towel just to protect the rims from that spray when
you spray the chain.
Now the best place to spray your chain
is at the bottom here.
Just gonna demonstrate to you how I would spray my chain,
protecting that rim.
Cycle the chain backwards, little bit of spray just directly
onto the bits of chain length that you really want to
receive that lubricant.
The inside of the link is what contacts with the chainring
and the sprockets in the back, so that's where you
want to be applying that lube.
Now you just want to run the chain around in that shop towel
afterwards, so you just don't draw any excess dirt and grime
to that chain while you're out riding.
Now the best solution really, especially for the back of
your car, is always gonna be an oil that you apply
drop by drop straight into those chain links.
It's a lot less messy. You end up using less lubricant,
because you're not having to over spray anywhere
and you really can't get it exactly where you want it.
And it's the safest option for not getting any anywhere
near your brakes.
(upbeat music)
- Now there's a few last things to do before you
hit those trails.
One of them is pumping up your tires.
Now I've seen it a million times where people,
a little hasty, they jump in to inflate their tires with a
mini pump, they put the connector on and they damage
the end of the valve core.
Now sometimes if you're in a bit of a rush you can end up
damaging valve cores when you're going to inflate them.
Now this particular pump is like a mini track pump,
or mini floor standing pump in the way it
has a chuck on the end there.
So this is actually a fairly safe one in order to use
before you go hit those trails.
However, not all mini pumps are like this.
Some of them, you can add the actual part of the pump itself
directly to the valve.
And quite often you see people, when they're
pumping vigorously, damage the end of the valve.
Now if that happens, you're more than likely gonna end up
with bent valve core, which renders it useless for putting
air in and of course taking air out again.
Which is really bad, because it's one stage away from
actually snapping, which means the air
is gonna come rushing out.
So something you definitely wanna consider doing
is getting yourself a valve core remover.
For the obvious reason that you can get those valves out
of the actual valve stem.
So this is a damaged one, which is no longer good to use.
But thankfully, I keep a couple of spares.
These things don't cost a lot of money.
It's worth having a few in your tool kit.
Keep them alongside a valve core remover,
and it means that you're not gonna have that
problem stop you going riding again.
Now whilst on the subject of valve cores, it's important to
always make sure that your valve cores are nice and tight.
And the reason for that is A: obviously you don't want any
air to escape from there, but B: a lot of pumps actually
screw onto the valve stem themselves,
and if your valve core is loose when you unscrew them,
you're gonna undo that valve core at the same time.
Now what is the result of that?
(loud air hisses)
Now as I explained, this particular pump has a
separate hose, which means once it's attached,
moving the pump around isn't going to affect the actual
valve core.
But if your particular pump attaches directly to the
valve core, make sure that you actually support that
when you're pumping.
The reason for that is, there can't be any flex in it,
and therefor you're least likely to damage that valve core
and more importantly lose all the air out of it in one hit,
rendering your ride a bit of a pain to start with.
So there we go.
My bike is safely together, out of the boot of the car.
Nothing is wrong with it, it is ready to ride.
All I've got to do is chuck on my trusty gym going gear,
and go for a ride.
If you want to see a couple more useful videos,
click down here for five hydraulic disc brake setup hacks.
And if you want to see how to overhaul your clipless pedals,
that's both Shimano and Crankbrothers of course,
click up there.
As always, click on that round globe to subcribe.
We have new content for you every single week here on
GMBN Tech.
And if this video's been helpful for you,
we'd just like you to give us a thumbs up.