- I am very excited to present this week's Ask GMBN.
So excited that I got ready to ride
in my race top, Doddy.
Are you ready to answer some questions?
- Oh yeah, definitely.
- Let's get stuck straight into
what you guys have been asking this week.
Dave Barrett is starting us off with,
is it goofy to wear his full face helmet
when doing normal trail riding?
- It's all up to,
It's relative isn't it?
It's nice and safe.
- It is nice and safe.
I always think wearing a helmet of any kind,
good idea.
If you've only got a full face,
that's the helmet to wear.
- Yeah, you might get a bit hot, but,
- I guess there is a level that you come down to,
depending on the bike,
where it can start to look a bit odd.
If you're on a cross-country rig,
it can look a bit weird.
Not saying it's a bad idea,
but it can look a bit weird.
- Safety first, though.
- Safety first.
We're gonna go with that one,
it's the right answer - Just leave it there.
- But, yeah.
There's a limit,
there's a limit.
Favou Rick says,
is it possible to enter an amateur downhill race
on his 160 mil travel enduro bike?
- Course it is.
- That sounds like the perfect bike
to enter on, yeah. - No brainer.
What did Sam Hill ride at the World Champs?
In downhill?
- Yes yeah, I think exactly that.
- It was a 165 mil enduro bike.
Yeah, so. - Not bad, not bad.
And he did alright.
- He did do alright, didn't he?
He did fairly alright in the EWS as well.
Henry Currier says,
how do I get the best GoPro helmet shot
facing at him?
- Oh, that's like a Blake special, that is.
- It's a Blake special.
- What's he call it, the unicorn?
- The unicorn, yes.
He's got lots of different devices.
I would recommend,
it sounds so simple but it does work.
You can just literally plant it straight on the bars
in front of you,
just zip tie it on. - Guaranteed.
- Gaffer tape it on.
Gaffer tape's what I'd use,
and that works really well.
Got any clever tips, Doddy, for that?
- Yeah, use zip ties.
They're better.
- Zip ties,
Zip tie king.
Yuan Lu says,
"Can I ride my gravel bike at a bike park?
It's got 42mm tires but no suspension."
- Yeah, it's probably not gonna feel too nice
but yeah, you can ride that in a bike park.
- Yeah, it could do a bit of damage
- You might have Pac-Man wheels
at the end of the ride
A-Line has been ridden on a gravel bike,
was it a gravel bike or a road bike?
- He was on a cross bike.
- Cross bike.
- Yeah, Yoann Barelli.
- Yoann Barelli.
He's done it,
and Sam Pilgrim of course,
when we gave him a road bike,
- Poor bike - he did a little bit of
trail riding himself.
Let's take a look at Road Bike Party 3
- Rad video. - where Sam Pilgrim
went nuts.
(upbeat rock music)
Okay, a couple more questions
for you here, Doddy.
This one's bang up your street.
Matt Woodward's asking,
he's a pretty lightweight rider,
130 pounds,
he can't keep the fork pressure low enough
without it sinking into the lowers.
- Okay so he's diving quite a bit.
- Yeah, so would air volume spacers solve this?
- Yeah, they definitely would.
It's gonna make it a little bit more supple
in the beginning of his travel,
would stand up in the middle of the travel,
which is what you want.
Obviously it is gonna make it more resistant
to use all of the travel.
That's the whole point of them,
to make the fork feel progressive.
Definitely try that.
- So literally what's going on
is he's such a light rider,
he's dropping the air so low that
- That he's using all of the travel too easily
Yeah, so, definitely gonna help.
Well worth a try.
- Well I hope that works out.
Michael Stenhjem says,
"Winter is knocking on the door here in Minnesota"
Here too.
- Might be a bit colder where he is.
- Might be, yeah.
Might be a real winter.
Is there anything he could do
to winterize his bike?
Funny he should ask.
- Well, we have.
We have literally just put a video up
on winterizing your bike.
So, check it out.
- For us here in the Northern Hemisphere,
winter is coming,
and these are a few tips
to keep your bike running sweet
and hopefully get it through winter
in the best condition possible.
(jazz music)
Bearings take a lot of work in winter
with all the wet and the grime getting into them.
So things like your headset,
your full suspension pivot bearings,
and your bottom bracket,
could really do with being cleaned and greased.
I know many of them are sealed,
however, just getting a fresh layer of grease
over the top of that seal
is gonna hopefully stop water getting past that seal.
- Ronald Rice, Ronald Rice, Ronald Rice, like ice, Ron.
That is a song I just made up
out of Ronald Rice's name
who's asking this next question.
"My daughter wants to know
if you could spotlight some female mountain bikers."
She's twelve, loves us guys here on the channel
and the channel itself,
but she wants to see some female riders represented.
- Oh we definitely need some. - We've got Annie Last
coming up in the near future,
gonna be doing some stuff with us.
Obviously silver medal at Worlds
in cross country - I heard that Tahnee Seagrave
might be coming to visit us as well.
- Tahnee Seagrave, World Cup,
no, not World Cup champion,
Nearly.
Nearly World Cup champion.
And, hey, you know who I thought of,
who's just retired,
Manon Carpenter. - Oh, Manon
Be great to get Manon involved.
- Manon?
Where are you?
- We're waiting for you.
- Yes, Manon would be good.
We're gonna try our best.
I'll see if we can get some
female racers on the channel.
Uday Patel says,
"I would like to know if I can
convert my mechanical disk brakes
to hydraulic disk brakes"
because he needs more power
to perform stoppies, Doddy.
- Not unless you're a magician, no.
- It can't be done.
- You're gonna have to buy some new brakes
if you really wanna have hydraulic brakes.
You can get conversion kits
on some cross bikes
so you can run a hydraulic caliper
with roadie style brakes
but, you know,
on road bikes it doesn't really matter.
- No, no.
- No, the answer is
save up and buy some hydraulic brakes.
- You've just gotta be harsh with the answer.
It's a no.
- Okay, no then.
- James Thomas.
"Would I be better off buying a full-sus MTB
with 120 mil travel front and back,
or going with a hardtail with 140 mil up front?"
- You haven't really told us much about,
or anything
about where you ride - That's all you get, Doddy
you're gonna have to answer with just that.
- Okay, well based on the fact,
I'm guessing you're on a budget,
I would go for the hardtail with the up to 140 fork
cause it sounds like
you're gonna get more bike for the money.
- Yeah.
- Boom. Done.
- Ben Hensley is asking,
he lives in Kitzbuhel in Austria,
and while there's plenty of fun to be had
in the summer and autumn,
winter is off limits,
even to a fat bike,
even if you put studded tires on,
it cannot be done, Doddy.
- Oh, okay.
- So he wants to know,
is there anywhere in or near Europe
where he can go for some cheap winter riding?
- Loads of places, yeah.
I mean, the immediate place this brings to mind
is southern Spain.
- Yes.
- You're always guaranteed like great weather down there
loads of good destinations.
Malaga, Alicante, places like that.
- Yeah.
- There's various, sort of,
mountain bike tour operators down there
offering everything from XC
to sort of downhill-based holidays.
Check out Roost.
Also check out Switchbacks.
There's a whole bunch of different companies around.
- And so is it bike park stuff
or sort of pretty natural trails?
- No, natural sort of trails
you don't have to ride bike park stuff.
They're guided so you could say
that they might feel like a bike park
cause you know where you're going.
- Well, Ben, Coming from Kitzbuhel in Austria
where you're gonna have a bit of a bike park feel,
some really cool set up stuff there
going over to more natural trail
down in southern Spain I hope,
let's take a look at
bike park versus natural riding.
- Perfect link.
This is what mountain biking
is really all about.
Look at the views.
It's not all about man-made trails.
Getting out there,
winching yourself to the top
and earning that descent,
and then riding miles of single track.
That is real mountain biking for me.
It's not all about bike parks, you know.
Whoa, whoa, whoa
- Get outta here, Doddy.
Bike parks are obviously the best.
Tons of jumps,
you're shredding with your buddies,
you've got bars,
you've got everything.
And, wait.
Why pedal up when you can catch the gondola all the way
and save all your energy
for shredding down the mountain?
- Steve JJH is asking,
he can't get his manuals dialed.
He's blaming his 29+ bike
even though he knows it's his technique really
- Oh, okay.
- Can a manual be done on any bike?
- Well technically, yes.
- Even an e-bike?
- Yes.
- I'm still reading from Steve here,
have you guys done it?
- No, cause I've not spent enough time
on an e-bike to be honest
but we're gonna do that definitely.
- You can manual any bike.
If a bike's got two wheels and handlebars,
you can manual it.
- Maybe not a tandem.
- Except for a tandem.
- Or one of those weird
cargo bikes. - I was just doing
the calculations there
and I thought, no,
tandem ain't gonna work. - Those weird cargo bikes
might be a bit tricky
with a back end that's about three foot long.
- Some bikes you can't do it on.
Some bikes.
Most bikes you can do it on, though.
- But you can definitely manual 29+.
Definitely - You know it's you, dude.
You know it's you.
- Practice makes perfect.
- Patrick Van Der Akker says,
oh this is a sad story.
The paint job on the top tube
of his alu Trek Stache is seriously delaminating,
and unfortunately outside of the guarantee period.
His local bike shop is saying
it's because of the sweat
creeping into the cable holders
and the consequent rust.
Is that a load of BS or not?
- Yeah, total BS.
Okay, right, so the only reason
that sweat would do that sort of damage to a bike
is if it's,
well basically a bike that's on a turbo trainer
so it just sat in a static position
and sweat's hammering off you basically.
I've seen a lot of corrosion damage on bikes from that,
but no, it just sounds like you've got
an unlucky bike with paint that's
started flaking
- Well he's asking here,
Can we do a how-to on painting your bike
and paint repair?
- Do you know what,
I was speaking to my mate Ali from Fat Creations
- Yes.
- Really cool custom painter.
And actually we were speaking about
doing something similar like this
cause he says it's the biggest question
he gets asked actually,
just about repairing chips.
And so, his theory on this
is there's a really quick and easy way
to do this yourself,
and quite cheap as well.
So you go down to your local DIY shop
and take your bike with you,
and get them to mix up like a little pot of paint,
a little sample,
so it won't really cost you anything,
to the color of your bike.
Just tell them you like the color of your bike
sort of thing.
Take that paint home
and get some 600 wet and dry paper,
so sort of very fine emery paper,
and you just want to scrape off the flecks
with a fine screwdriver,
obviously careful not to cut yourself or your bike,
get rid of those bits,
then with the wet and dry
put a bit of washing up liquid on it,
which apparently helps it cut the paint a bit better,
rub it down until you've taken the edges off
so it's nice and feathered,
drip on the paint
and sort of wait for it to dry,
and when it's smooth,
sort of smooth it down even afterwards,
and then nick some of your other half's
sort of lacquer stuff they use on their nails
- Nail varnish.
Yeah, yeah. - That's the one
Yeah, and then when that's dry
you can polish it up.
- Genius.
We've gotta try that - and that's his tip.
Yeah, I've got a chip on my own bike
so I'm gonna try that exact thing.
But let us know if you do it
cause it'd be really cool to see.
- We're gonna do exactly that video.
That one's gonna be a lot of fun.
Ryan Ostiguy says,
is there any benefit in running an 11-speed chain
on his one by 10 set up?
- No, none.
- That was simple.
Could've put that in quick fire round, couldn't I?
- We could've done
Stick to 10-speed.
10-speed's cheaper as well.
- Tobias Lawson-Dick says,
"I know the benefit of having the rear mech clutch on,
what are the benefits of having the rear mech clutch off?
- Well two.
One, it makes it easier to remove your rear wheel,
cause you can move the mech out of the way
and you're not fighting that clutch,
and the second one is,
on certain suspension designs,
the clutch can actually
act like a low-speed compression damper
and actually hinder the suspension.
We're talking, like, a minute amount.
But someone who's very tuned in
to the way a bike rides
might be able to feel that on certain bikes,
like exaggerated single pivots.
- Yeah, I bet that feels horrible.
- I know a few people who could tell day and night,
but most people won't notice that.
- Okay, Andy J says,
"Can you do a video on how to make
no-bake energy bars?"
- Nah.
- Well, We're not a cooking channel,
but, but, right
- We have got something similar.
- We have tried to make some energy bars,
so take a look at this.
- So today, in a first for GMBN,
and myself actually,
we're in the kitchen.
We're with Tim Morris of Podium Catering
who looks after Atherton Racing at the World Cups,
does their breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
so knows how to fuel the top World Cup riders.
- We're making cranberry granola bars today.
- Cool, so they're something you can
chuck in your pack for big long rides,
something like that?
- Excellent, yeah, just like that.
And super easy to make as well.
- Quick fire is the most difficult bit
of the show for Doddy
because he hasn't got time to think.
I think that sounds safer.
Let's just get into it and see what happens.
Jim Bain says,
"Can Neil flip?"
- Yes.
- No he can't.
- He can.
- He can't
Zach Sigouin says,
"Is Martin's chair tubeless?"
- Yes.
- "Does he have any bike hacks on it?"
- Yeah, you've got some handlebar tape on there.
- Yeah, I've got handlebar tape
on the metal bar thing
makes it feel like dropper bars.
What's weird is I had to ask you that question
and I'm in it,
I did it.
Torsten Davis says,
"Would anything bad happen to my hardtail
if I put a 35 mil stem on it
with a Renthal Fatbar?"
- No, it might feel a bit too short
if your bike's, say, got a much longer stem on it.
- I think it sounds fine.
- Yeah, sounds fun.
- I've heard of much weirder things than that.
Martin Cantwell,
"Will ye ever give the Red Bull Foxhunt a go?"
- I know Blake wanted to do it
and he kinda got shot down
cause someone else wanted to do it
and it never really happened in the end.
So, maybe.
- Little bit of GMBN infighting there.
Kerry Perez says,
"Why do you guys dislike/hate bar ends?"
Well would we say hate? - We don't.
- I don't think that I hate them.
- I used to love bar ends.
- I mean I love driving buses.
I love it
- When I started mountain biking,
everyone had bar ends
and 18 inch wide handlebars.
- Yeah, bar ends can look cool on the right bike,
but now I think
- It's only him that doesn't like them.
- It's just it's like driving a bus.
- Well you used to ride trials
with a stem about that long, so
You're not one to talk - You shouldn't listen to me.
Don't worry about what I think.
Right, let's get into Correct Me If I'm Wrong.
So, some sort of suitable drum roll buildup
is required. - (imitates drum roll)
There we go, how's that?
- Actually, we've gotta come back
to a question from last week.
We're not really correcting us,
but it was a little bit more information
on what we were talking about
in terms of prescription goggles.
- Oh, yeah, okay.
- Now, Israel Zenteno sent in, said
you can get stick-on lenses for diving goggles.
It's quite common apparently.
And he said this would surely work
in the same way for riding goggles.
So, if you're out there
and you're looking for prescription goggles,
- That sounds like quite a good idea
- Look into the diving world
because apparently they've got a solution for it.
So, great to hear that,
thanks Israel.
- Good tip.
- Right, our Correct Me If I'm Wrong this week
is from Cameron Ravenhill,
doing a huge drop down some stairs,
he's asking how he can improve it.
It's a big old huck, this.
You're gonna like it, Doddy.
Boy, he goes for it.
He really does go for it.
He's got his friends out watching,
here he comes.
Crack.
- [Doddy] Oh my god.
I don't think he did anything
to lessen the impact there, did he?
- I think if we just see that slightly slower,
- It looked like he picked up as he went off that as well.
- Yeah, he really does send it there
and he slaps the front end down.
He really does.
So as he comes in,
I mean how many steps is that?
It's getting onto 15, is it?
He really hucks up,
look at the height.
Whack.
- Yeah, that's not gonna do your bike too much good.
- He's a bit off the back.
- But, at the same time it's pretty cool
that you're even jumping those stairs.
- Yeah, but how can he do it smoother?
- Go a lot faster.
- A bit faster,
I think bring the back end up when you're in there
- You can place the bike on the ground a bit better.
- (imitates landing sound)
Like that.
Rather than just a
(imitates motorcycle sound)
It's like when you're on a motorcycle
you're really grabbing some throttle at that point.
- It also looked like,
it's hard to tell from that angle,
it looked like there was a grass bank to the sides.
So if you go really fast you can sort of
air to the bank.
- Absolutely, that's a good idea.
- Have a look at it from a few different angles.
- Right, so that's the end of Ask this week.
Thanks for watching,
why don't you get involved
in the comments section down there,
throw us a question for next week,
or hashtag "askgmbn",
or you can send us an email,
ask@gmbn.com.
That's where you throw your questions.
You'll be on the show next week.
Doddy, can you throw these guys to another video
to keep them involved in GMBN?
- Definitely.
Check out Nico Vink's Scott Gambler
Fest Series bike right here.
Sick bike, that is.
- Yeah it's a lovely bike,
lovely bike.
Great rider too.
I'm gonna throw you to two crazy guys
trying to do trials.
Our trials challenge where I set
- Definitely gotta be crazy
to do trials. - Doddy versus Blake.
Actually they've got some trial skills
so it's worth clicking on.
Doddy's actually a lot better,
but Blake kind of cheated.
But it's worth a watch.
And hit the globe there to subscribe,
and of course, only one thing left to do,
give us a thumbs up like
because, well, we like them.
- Yeah, we like the thumbs up.