Alex Paton: Welcome to this week's GCN Tech Clinic where, as always, we answer the questions
that you've submitted using the #ASKGCNTECH. I guess we'll dive straight in and get started
on our first question. This comes from REUVENFG who asks, "Hey, Ollie,-"
well it to me, unfortunately "-in terms of track cycling, I quite often see black straps
over the track rider's shoes, Why do they use these, and surely they can't stop if they
crash or their cadence just gets too fast?" A very good question actually, and something
that I've wondered in the past before because you can see some of the sprint riders, particularly
on the track, really strapping their feet in tightly to the pedals. The reason behind
this is because the sprint riders develop so much power, and they particularly pull
up on the pedal as well in the upstroke of the pedal revolution and this just helps lock
their foot into place because they develop so much force, that they can sometimes overcome
the spring mechanism within the pedals and their foot will just come flying out. It can
lead to quite a big crash on the track, especially at some of the speeds that they're riding
at. That tends to be why they do that. I have also, in the past, seen crashes on
the track where riders has been sliding along and they're still attached to their bike for
that very reason of the straps are holding their feet in place. They've eventually come
to a stop and you see them unstrapping their feet and well go and attend to their wounds,
which is never great to see. Anyway, that's the reason behind it.
Our next question comes from Alien Sweetheart, a very interesting name, thanks for that.
They're asking, "Should the rollers on my chain move freely, or should they be rather
stiff?" They've been using the wax-based Squirt Chain Lube for the last few months and have
only recently cleaned the chain with warm soapy water. They did notice and as they degreased
it, they have a new sound of the chain rollers rotating as they were cleaning the chain with
their fingers and wondered whether that was okay because now they seem to spin really
fast whereas before, they didn't really seem to.
The reason behind that is because the wax-based chain lubricant, as you say is quite dry and
hard to the touch, which means the rollers won't tend to feel particularly free when
you try and move them with your fingers, but it does serve a really good purpose when there's
a big force applied to the chain when you're pedaling. That offers really low friction
and protection against wear. Whilst it can seem counterproductive because when you got
a completely clean chain with no oil or wax on it, you can feel the rollers and they rotate
really freely, whilst is great when you're just turning them with your fingers, as soon
as you apply any force or load through the chain, the roller will actually apply a great
bit of friction to the rest of the chain and wear prematurely. Also, increase the resistance
and drag that's coming from the chain. You don't want that because it's only going to
slow you down. Applying a little bit of oil or wax to your chain will reduce the friction
and make your chain last a little bit longer too, so it's a bit of a bonus all round.
Next in, we've got Krishna Akkaram. It says they've got themselves a new gravel bike last
summer, but then kind of realized that they like riding on the road too. Although they
know that they can ride their gravel bike on the road, they're thinking of getting a
road wheelset, so that's tires and wheels. Is there a resource where they can find what
wheels will fit on their bike and will they need to get new disk rotors for this wheelset
because they have got disk brakes on their gravel bike? Good to hear that you've been
enjoying cycling, gravel riding as well as on the road too. It's good to know that you're
enjoying spending time on the road because it's great fun, isn't it? That's what it's
all about. Swapping out some wheels to have a dedicated set of wheels with road tires
will make your road rides seem a lot nicer and a lot faster. In terms of the compatibility
of that wheelset, you're going to just need to check on the manufacturer of your bike's
website because normally they will list the specifications of each frameset and you're
going to need to know the type of axle it takes, the width of it as well as the diameter
of the axle itself. It will tend to be if you've got disk brakes, it will use a through-axle
system and then you'll need to know the spacing and then the size of the axle too.
In terms of the disk brake rotors, well, if your bike's got disk brakes as you say, you
are going to need to buy an additional set of brake rotors because they'll need those
to go on to your new wheels, but new wheels don't tend to come with disk rotors included
on them because they come in a variety of different shapes. Well, they're all round,
so all different sizes. You need to check what size brake rotors your bike has got.
The most common sizes on a gravel bike are either 140 millimeters or 160. Double-check
those axle widths and double-check the rotors and you should be sorted in no time at all.
Next question in is from Timothy Tanyael who asks, "Hey, Alex and Ollie, my cleats bolts
are seized up." The more power he applies to unscrew them, the Allen key seems to just
drill the bolt around it off and has ended up with a disfigured hex-shaped Allen key
bolt, which has no longer got any grip and he's really struggling to undo them. He's
got sort of two questions here. First one, are there any tricks to unscrew the bolts
at this point? He says he's managed to unscrew one of the bolts, but the screw hole is now
damaged and he can't seem to put a bolt back in its place. Do we have any suggestions on
how we can fix this? A good question. It is very annoying when
the cleat bolts seize into place on the shoe, it can be very frustrating. I've had that
in the past on a couple of shoes before. My best advice is that if the bolts have started
to round off, you've got a couple of options, you can try to get a Torques Piece that might
be able to fit into the rounded Allen Key hole. Sometimes you can get a slightly bigger
one and then if you bang it into place, it will sort of stay in place and you might be
able to just get enough grip to undo those ceased bolts. If you're still struggling with
that, you're going to have to go to a bit of a last resort and end up getting the drill
out and drilling the heads off of those bolts, which is far from the ideal thing of what
you want to be doing, but that is a surefire way of getting those cleats off of your shoes.
Once you've got those off, you are going to have to be careful as you're drilling it,
so you don't cause any damage to shoes as well.
Like you say, the retaining nut that's inside the shoe, which the bolts would normally screw
into, can be damaged as well and these are possible to be replaced. Some shoe manufacturers
will supply some extra inserts when you buy the shoes new, which you can switch out quite
easily. It's just a case of taking the insole out of your shoe, finding the type that it
is, and then just taking it out and replacing it. It's quite a simple process. You just
need to check what type of insert your shoe's got and if you can get any new ones to replace
it. Once you can, it's just a case, put those in place and when you put your new cleats
on, make sure you apply some grease to those bolts and then next time you shouldn't have
the same problem again. Next in, good question we've got from IJUNZY
CREATIONS. They always put their chain on the small chainring and smallest cassettes
whenever they park their bike or keep it away for a while. They say that's so that their
rear derailleur spring tension is preserved making the spring tension last longer, is
there a logic sound or are they just wasting their time? That's a good one. I have heard
that before. I've got to say, it's not something that I've ever done in the past. The logic
behind it is that by shifting into the small chainring and putting the derailleur into
the smallest sprocket that you're removing all of the tension from the springs in the
derailleurs and the mechs to make sure they're not left with tension on them over time. The
theory behind this is that it could weaken the springs and the tension that they can
hold the chain under. Whilst I do understand this, I'm not too sure
I'm convinced by this because I've not seen any evidence or testing or research behind
this to show the springs degrade over time. I think if you believe in it, and you've got
the time and you remember to change the bike into that gear as you leave it, that's great,
but if you don't, I wouldn't sweat over it, just leave it be, I'm sure everything will
be fine. Onto our final question of this week's Tech
Clinic, it comes from Ruben de Ruiter, who asks, when they get out of the saddle, especially
when accelerating at low speeds the rear wheel hits the brake pads on their bikes. Says they've
got direct mount brakes, they've got carbon wheels which they claim should be very stiff,
but perhaps they aren't. Should they adjust their techniques somehow or what do we think
the cause is for this is? It's quite a common problem this, just having
the rear wheel rub slightly on the brake. It's particularly common for taller and heavier
riders, a little bit like myself. You can quite often find as you're riding out of the
saddle, the little bit of flex in the back wheel, and the frame, it can just cause the
brake to very slightly rub. The first thing to check is just that your rear wheel is secured
properly into the bike, just double check that quick release is nice and tight and that
the wheel is sat straight in the dropouts of the bike, that'll be the first thing.
Then you can check that the caliper is centered correctly. You can look to see that the gap
between the brake pad on each side of the wheel rim is equal. You can adjust that because
that could be the reason behind it. If you've done those, you could also check that your
back wheel isn't buckled, it could be that you've got a slight buckle in the back wheel
and that's just tucking up against the brake pad as you get out of the saddle for example.
If you've checked these things, and they're okay, it could be that your rear wheel has
just actually got quite low spoke tension and that's causing it to have a bit of excess
flex it wouldn't normally have. If that could be the case, it's worth heading down to your
local bike shop and just asking them to check that out for you. They might be able to offer
some good advice, and if it is that, there'll be re-tention the wheel for you.
I hope that gives you a few good points to work your way through that because it's a
very frustrating problem to have and it can be quite tricky to sort out, so fingers crossed
that sorts that out for you. As I said, that rounds off another GCN Tech Clinic for this
week. I hope they've been particularly helpful for the guys that have submitted their questions.
As always, please do keep the questions coming using the #ASKGCNTECH. I'll keep an eye out
for some good ones and pick them out for next week. Thanks very much. See you later.
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