- Today, we're gonna play a prank on a bike shop,
or more specifically, an unsuspecting bike mechanic.
We have an absolutely ridiculous bike,
a professional improv actor,
who's playing a clueless consumer, and he's gonna come
in with a bag full of confounding bike parts.
Let me show you what we've got here.
(upbeat music)
This bike is about 30 years old
and depreciation has not been kind to it.
Even in great condition, we got it for $60
on Facebook Marketplace, the geometry is way outdated.
You'll find parts on it that don't even exist anymore.
And it came from the days where
if your seat post was too low, it would crash
into your rear suspension to put any real money
into this bike would be irrational,
but our clueless consumer absolutely loves this bike
and he wants to do some serious upgrades to it.
(light upbeat music)
This is SRAM AXS, a wireless shifting system
that you would only find on really high-end bikes.
In fact, just this derailleur is $400.
This chain is $95, and we have a few other parts with it.
Now because this bike is so outdated,
none of these parts would even fit on it.
And if you wanted to install them,
you couldn't even buy adapters that would make it possible.
It'd be like installing a heat-seeking missile
guidance system on your lawnmower.
So we contacted Wheels Manufacturing for some help.
They said, "Hey, this sounds really funny.
Our R and D team would like to help you out.
We're gonna build up a wheel and we're gonna fabricate
a special axle on a leave that's gonna make all this fit.
And then we're gonna package it up
like it's an actual part that exists."
And so our clueless consumer is gonna walk
into a bike shop with this $60 bike
and $1,000 worth of state-of-the-art parts.
(light jazz music)
- Can you install this shifter?
(light jazz music continues)
(screen whooshing)
(light jazz music continues)
(screen whooshing)
- So this morning with permission from the owner
of the shop, we hid cameras all over the place.
We have one over the work stand.
We have one at the front door and our clueless customer is
gonna be wearing a hidden camera as well.
I think he can pull this off, let's go drop 'em
off at the bike shop. (light music)
(pensive music)
(bell chiming)
- [Pat] How's going it man, I'll be right with you.
- Hey. (light upbeat music)
(Customer sighs)
- [Customer] All right, so I want these on this bike.
- [Pat] Let's take a look, let's see what you got.
(pensive music)
I see what you're intending to do here.
Come meet me back over here. (pensive music continues)
Okay, first things first, let me measure this hub here.
(inquisitive music)
That's really strange, do you have someone
that like custom-modified this hub?
- [Customer] I just asked around,
I called so many different shops
and one of the shops sent me this.
(contemplative music)
- It might work, the defining factor is gonna be
if this wheel fits in that frame.
This is what's called a thru-axle wheel.
This is 100% not a thru-axle bike,
nor was it ever designed to be a thru-axle bike.
It can't be converted to it, so if this happens to fit
in those stays, the bolt-on axle
that you brought me may work.
12 by 164, so here's how, here's how we'll do this.
We'll do an initial diagnosis just to see
if I can physically get the wheel in the bike.
- [Customer] Okay.
- If I can do that, then I'll call you with the price
to get everything installed and running.
Let's see what you brought me crank-wise.
Those will technically work, yeah, I mean,
I mean the, it's an interesting upgrade.
- Oh yeah. - Yeah, let me grab your info.
I'll see if I can fit that wheel in there physically today,
and if I can, I'll make it work.
- Sweet. - Let me grab you over here.
- Pat is being so professional.
I think when the guy walks out
is when Pat is gonna say what he really thinks
about this. - Okay.
I'll call you with my findings here later this afternoon.
- [Customer] Thank you, sir.
- [Pat] No problem.
- [James] Take care.
- Thanks. (pensive music)
- [Pat] There might be something going on here.
- [James] Something going on?
- Like, like maybe it's cooler than I think it is
'cause like, Walmart bikes emulate bikes from the past
that may have been really sick when they came out,
I don't think this is one of 'em.
The only thing that throws me for a loop is the fork.
I'm gonna look that bike up there might be something
going on here, they call it Rock, Rock what?
- [James] Rockpoint Motiv, 1994.
- [Seth] Dude, you slayed the objective.
- Oh yeah, he was down for it.
- [Seth] What, did he make any faces?
- Oh, he did, when he looked at the,
when he looked at the wheel, he said,
"Did you get this custom fitted?"
- [Seth] Pat was being super professional.
He immediately knew, he's like, "If this axle fits,"
he's like, "What the," he's like--
- This would work.
- [Seth] I can only imagine what he's saying right now.
(light jazz music)
- There were many things I was thinking I might do today,
this wasn't one of them. (light jazz music continues)
So I'm not kidding when I show you.
(light jazz music continues)
Why, why wouldn't it work, I don't know why it would work.
(laughing) It's totally gonna fit.
It's not unsafe, it's built right.
Okay, I will make this work, somebody with a machine shop
got a little crazy here, oh baby.
Dude, I think we're gonna clear.
I can't believe this is gonna work.
Someone's tried to make this work.
Every box is open and like the chain already
has one of the links taken out of it.
It's got a $90 chain on a $90 bicycle.
It works, you wanna call him and ask him and about grips?
- So everything looks like it's gonna be working,
but you'll need new grips because the front of your grips
integrated with your grip shifter.
- All right, that's perfectly fine.
- And then bar ends, do you wanna keep the bar ends
on it or do you take those off?
- Yeah, keep 'em. - Keep 'em on.
- It looks like it's gonna be working here pretty
soon, so we'll give you a buzz as soon as it's done.
- Alrighty, thank you so much.
- We can start heading there, I think.
- AXS on a Walmart bike, it's bolted on
and it works, I'll take it, oh God, it feels so wrong.
- Then you can be like, so while I have it here,
can you guys swap the spokes from my front wheel
to my back wheel and vice versa?
If he takes you seriously, then I'm running in.
(phone trilling)
Okay, there he goes into the shop.
(light music)
- Oh man, look at that. (light music continues)
- [Pat] What's up, dude, how are you?
- [Customer] Pretty good, how are you?
- Intrigued, did you buy the wheel as a whole
or did they build it for you? (customer sighing)
- [Customer] Man, it's been so long, I don't even remember.
- Okay, the axle that you brought me fit,
so the new hanger is on there, I have your charger bits,
don't forget that, but it works!
- [Customer] Mind if take it out?
- Okay, he's taking it outside.
(light upbeat music)
- [Customer] Ah, that is a nice bike.
- Yeah, this is an interesting,
interesting unit, where'd you get the AXS Kit?
It's just, I don't mean to pry, it's just such a--
- No, you're good, I have this friend back home
and he does a lot of biking, and he just gave me a bunch
of links to a bunch of like different websites.
One thing though, could you re-thread these
onto the back one and then the back one--
- [Pat] What are we talking about?
- [Customer] These, could you re-thread the spokes?
(pensive music)
I just want 'em back there, you know, switch 'em out.
(Pat stammering)
- [Pat] They're the same spokes.
- [Customer] Oh look, there's my friend.
- [Seth] What's up, man? (Customer chuckling)
(Customer laughing) - I knew.
(all laughing)
(upbeat music)
Are you surprised that I made it work?
- Dude, I'm not surprised you made it work.
You wanna see where all the cameras are?
- I saw GoPros all over the. - So there's one up there.
There's one to the right of that sign.
- I don't know how you could have kept
a straight face through any of that.
We have like three or four customers
that are just about like your age looking
to just walk in with GoPros on their head.
- Wheels Manufacturing made the custom thru-axle
and everything on a leave. - Yeah.
- And then--
- I thought thought that was a bit fresh-looking.
So I've learned my lesson with assuming what other people
are doing in a retail environment,
I don't say things to anybody anymore.
They just say, "Can you do this," and I go.
- This--
- [Customer] A paper bag, (laughing)!
- A liquor store bag with AXS in it,
it's like someone's already monkeyed around with this.
- Dude, look at this bike, it actually looks pretty
freaking cool back there. (rhythmic upbeat music)
I'm sure many of you have experienced
the prima donna, pretentious mechanic
who is just better than you from the second you walk
in the door, that's kind of the opposite of what Pat did.
And we knew that once we picked up the bike,
we could be a little riskier and so we tried to break him
with the moving the spokes from the front to the rear wheel.
I'm sure you have questions about this bike.
Where did we get it, how does it ride now
that it's been upgraded, we're making a behind-the-scenes
video with tons of extra footage and tons of information.
So if you wanna see that, make sure you're subscribed.
I hope you learned something today and if not,
I hope you at least found this very entertaining.
Thanks for riding with me today and I'll see you next time.
(rhythmic upbeat music fades)