(swooshing)
- Welcome back to the GCN Tech Clinic,
where we help answer and solve your bike problems
so that you can get back out on your bike again,
riding and enjoying the sunshine,
or the rain, depending on where you come from.
Anyway, let's start then, shall we,
with the first question this week,
and that is from Anton Litvivstev,
who says, "Dear Jon, it's me again with the question,
"Can I use Force 1 levers with an
"XX1 rear derailleur?"
Now hi, Anton.
I actually like your idea here.
A little bit of a hack or a bodge to do something,
I don't know what.
Sadly though, you cannot,
because the road one by 11 components
use an exact actuation cable pull ratio,
and the mountain bike version
uses an X actuation cable pull.
So I'm afraid there are two different amounts of cable
being pulled there from the actual gear lever itself.
So that hack or bodge that you were planning
is not going to work, I'm afraid.
Next up is a question from Liam Sangaku,
who is a very popular commenter on the videos.
And Liam asks, "Should I grease my quick release skewers?
"Will it allow my wheels to roll smoother?"
Right then, Liam, so if you were
to grease your quick release skewers,
I'm afraid it won't make any difference
to the actual rolling resistance of your bicycle.
The reason being, nothing actually turns on them, per se,
because all they're doing is a very important job.
But what they are doing is actually holding
the axle in place into your drop outs,
then in turn, the actual hub
bearings are turning on that axle.
Now, a way in which you could possibly apply some grease
to those quick release skewers for benefit
is to actually try and reduce any creaking or clicking.
Because in the past, that has been known
to cause a few problems there.
But if you want to make sure
that your wheels are rolling smoother,
basically you're gonna have to look at the bearings.
That's where the rolling resistance
differences are gonna come from.
Now we've got a question from VELOBAR+,
who asks, "My rear wheel has a DT Swiss hub
"on which I can change the end caps.
"Now I use five-millimeter quick release axles.
"If I were to change the end caps to use 10 by 135
"quick release axle, would it still fit in the frame?"
Right, so to just to let everybody know out there,
those DT Swiss hubs, basically you can change those end caps
so that they're compatible
on different styles or different widths of frames.
So it's a really, really versatile hub.
Now, without knowing the exact model of that hub
that you've got, I'm afraid I can't answer that question.
But essentially, I don't see a problem
with you actually being able to do that at all,
providing, of course, that your hub
is able to accommodate that 10-millimeter axle.
Now we've got a question from Greg Brown,
who asks, "What's the best way to clean
"brake tracks of carbon wheel sets?
"Not just road grit and grim," grime, I think they mean,
"but brake pad residue."
Right, Greg, well, you are gonna need
some of that good old fashioned Jon Cannings elbow grease,
which people have asked in the past where they can
buy it from, but I'm afraid it's not for sale.
The best thing to do here is get yourself
a bucket of warm, soapy water,
remove the wheels from the actual bicycle itself,
and then with a sponge, simply apply
a decent amount of pressure onto the brake tracks
of the rims to remove any of that residue.
There's no easier method, not that I know of, certainly.
And whilst you're at it as well,
actually clean out those brake pads too,
because sometimes they can get
a little bit gummed up with road grime.
And also some of those compounds of brake pads
do actually melt down a little bit,
and sometimes they can block up
the grooves that are inside of the brakes.
Next up we have a question from Marwan KMS,
and I love this one.
"I don't know if I must use #askgcntech or #hack/bodge."
Well, just use #askgcntech, then I'll be able to help out.
"But I'm quite tempted to tape
"my helmet vents to get some aero gains.
"I know some rider did it in a time trial a few years ago,
"and some triathletes are doing it too."
Is it UCI legal, what are my thoughts about it?
Yes, the old taping up vents trick.
Well, I'm afraid it's not allowed by the UCI.
There's actually a rule against that.
So there we are.
It could mean you would get a little bit hot-headed
if you were to tape up those vents,
but more importantly, you could land yourself
in hot water too, if the UCI were to catch you.
Now, I actually tried to make a helmet cover
about six or seven years ago now, using some fiberglass.
And embarrassingly, the results are onscreen right now.
It wasn't a particularly good effort, I must say.
But hey, I had some spare time on my hands
so I thought I'd do it.
And I actually never used it in a race either,
so it was basically a Saturday afternoon
not very well spent.
But yeah, you cannot do that
if you are gonna race in a UCI race.
Now Shriram S asks, "Awesome show, daily viewer."
Wow, what's not to love about that?
"What do I need to upgrade
"from Ultegra Mechanical to Ultegra DI2?
"My bike manual says it's DI2-compatible."
Right, well, you are gonna need DI2 levers,
DI2 cables, a battery, a junction box.
Get yourself a charger too, that's pretty important.
Now, I made the change to DI2 many, many years ago,
and I've never looked back since.
Absolutely love it, so good luck with that one.
Next up is a question from John Rodgers,
who asks, basically they're following up
to a speed sensor question a few weeks back.
"Do you really need one at all?
"Is speed from GPS as accurate?"
They had one before and now they don't,
and their Garmin still reads speed.
Right then, John, well, you don't need one, per se,
because you're right, your GPS unit is obviously a GPS,
and it can track your speed.
However, sometimes accuracy is not as good as it could be,
particularly if you're riding under thick tree cover
or around tall buildings or even through a tunnel,
because obviously, in a tunnel you're not gonna be able
to see those satellites with your head unit.
So just bear that in mind.
And then interestingly, if you have a non-direct
drive-style turbo trainer,
you could attach that speed sensor onto your rear hub,
allowing you, basically, a cheap way into Zwift.
So there we go.
Next up is a tire question from Leigh 350.
"Is it okay to run a 25 tire up front and a 28 at the rear?
"I will soon be replacing my rear tire
"and would like to try a 28,
"but don't need to replace the front yet."
Hello, Leigh, 25s, 28s, why?
Are you a touring cyclist or a mountain biker?
I jest.
These width tires basically have become
super popular over the last few years.
And indeed, you can run a 28 on the back
and a 25 on the front, no problem at all.
This is actually something which I do in the winter.
Just bear in mind though that you do need to make sure
you've got enough clearance with your brake caliper
as well as your frame, to run a 28-millimeter tire.
Recently I did try and fit a 28-millimeter tire
into a fairly recent racing frame,
only something which is three or four years old,
and it wouldn't clear.
So there we are, just bear that in mind.
But hopefully you'll be good to go
and get a little bit of extra comfort.
Next up is a question from Ciprian, who asks,
"How do I true my tubular wheel, which has inside nipples?"
Ciprian, the art of wheel truing,
something which can sometimes go horribly wrong.
It certainly did for me, the first time I ever tried.
I was 14 years old, and basically, I destroyed a wheel.
When my dad got home from work,
I'm surprised he didn't kill me,
because yeah, I wrote off a perfectly good wheel.
Anyway, I will explain the basics of this.
You are gonna need to remove that tubular tire,
which possibly you had to wrestle on in the first place.
Maybe get a little bit of glue.
In my case, I used to get it everywhere.
Then you are going to need to find the offending spoke,
or however many there are, and then basically,
you're gonna need something like this, which is a spoke key.
But it's different to what we normally find.
This one has got four sides inside of it.
And basically, that will attach then
onto an inverted spoke nipple,
in some cases, that you simply tighten or loosen.
Now, it's not always four-sided.
Sometimes they can be a hex shape.
It all depends on what type of wheel you've got.
If you're totally unsure, I would advise
visiting your local bike shop,
who will certainly be able to help you out
with any sort of wheel building
or wheel truing problems you may have.
Because it's not that easy, believe me.
Next up we've got a question from Toasty Bear,
who does like to write into us with a technical question.
Now Toasty says they took apart jockey wheels
on a fairly low-end Shimano system,
as they were feeling a bit sluggish.
They admit then, it was actually off a mountain bike.
So they could've asked Doddy for help,
but they've come to me, that's always nice.
Only to discover there was no bearings inside.
It simply rotates under a metal cap.
"Is it common, does it really make that little difference?
"And if so, can I just buy a replacement
"jockey wheel as an upgrade?"
Right then Toasty, so just to clarify,
some jockey wheels, or pulley wheels,
do come with cartridge bearings fitted,
whereas others resemble what you've just talked about there.
So it's simply a bush which goes inside
the center of the pulley wheel,
then has a metal cap and attaches into the derailleur cage.
Now, on yours, sometimes they can get a little bit gunked up
with road grime and oil, that sort of thing.
But they're pretty simple to clean.
So you simply pop them out, give them a quick rubdown,
add a touch of lubricant before reassembling
and then putting back into the bike.
Whereas the cartridge bearings,
well, they're not really that easy to service,
but they do offer performance gains.
So that's why we tend to find them
on the higher-end components.
Now, you ask me if you can, in fact, buy a replacement.
You can.
A cartridge bearing jockey wheel or pulley wheel
will fit exactly the same way
in which the current one you have does.
So it's really a case of,
if you want to spend that little bit extra
to have a little bit of a marginal gain.
Final question this week is from Mark Evasion,
who asks, basically they're telling me,
they're looking to keep gradually updating the drive train.
They've got Ultegra 6800 rear cassette
and a long/medium cage derailleur.
Can they use Dura Ace 9100 semi compact with it,
plus Ultegra 8000 front derailleur?
"Sounds like a bit of a bodge, but the 8000 front derailleur
"is much cheaper than Dura Ace, for a similar spec.
"Oh, and I've upgraded the levers to Ultegra 9070, cheers."
Hi Mark, yes, yes you can.
So go out there and enjoy the ride.
Now, I hope that you've enjoyed this week's GCN Tech Clinic.
Remember to leave me your technical questions, problems,
and queries, anything which is preventing you from riding,
or maybe you're thinking about a cheeky little upgrade.
Leave them down there in the comments section for me.
And remember as well to like and share
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Give it a big thumbs up.
Share it with a friend if they've got
one of those problems we've just tackled.
Hopefully they won't have an excuse anymore.
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