- In the long-term, your mountain bike is always going
to suffer some battle scars from when you're out riding.
Whether that's just rocks flicking up
and hitting your paint work, the unlucky crashes,
putting your bike in the back of the car, up lift trucks,
all that sort of stuff, it's gonna take it's toll
on your bike finish.
So what you really want to do is look after this
with some protective film.
Today, I'm gonna be putting some
on Neil's bike, which is brand new.
So, get it start off on a good foot here,
make sure it looks nice and good from the start.
But you don't have to have a new bike to do this.
You can do this on your bike you've already been riding
and just ensure your paint finish looks as good
as it does now until the day you want to sell it.
(firey crackling and explosion)
So, tools for the job:
Firstly, you're gonna need a frame protection kit
of some kind, some rubber mastic tape, electrical tape,
cable ties, bike cleaner, isopropyl alcohol, scissors,
and, if necessary, a hair dryer or heat gun.
First things first, you're gonna need some sort
of frame protection kit.
There are various different ones available on the market.
From the basic ones like this that come precut
for various sections of the bike.
Or you can get yourself some 3M heli-tape, which comes
in sheets like this or in rolls,
or you can go for a full-blown kit made by someone like
Invisiframe that do them custom made per bike.
Of course, we've just gone for the easy option here
because it's nice and cheap, affordable, easy to apply.
So, before you get carried away sticking the stuff on,
you want to make sure your bike is completely clean
in the areas that you're gonna put the tape in place.
If your bike is made of aluminium, you want
to make sure the frame is warm.
So keep it inside overnight beforehand,
or, if necessary, heat up the sections
of tube just with a hair dryer.
No need to go over the top.
This is purely just to to help the adhesive
on the stuff stick onto the frame properly.
It's less of an issue with the carbon frame just
because the material's got a warmer feel to it.
So because we're not using an entire frame kit,
we're using just selective little patches,
we want to make sure we get them
in the right places on the bike.
So what we're looking for here are likely areas where rocks
and stuff are gonna sort of contact when they fly up.
Areas where the cables are gonna contact the frame
when perhaps the suspension moves or the handlebars turn
and other areas as well.
The toptube, which is a good classic
where your knee pads rub on the tube
and just sort of dull the finish down.
So we're just gonna look at the dressing though.
So we're gonna start with the toptube first.
Look at the toptube here on Neil's bike.
I've got the longest section in the kit.
The main area I'm focused on is actually the sort
of grey section here between the curve on the seat mast here
and the curve just on the underside of the toptube.
So what you need to factor in is the fact
that there is a curve in the frame.
So that's gonna make it difficult
when you're making a good contact for this to stick to.
So I'm gonna trim this accurately so it just falls short
of here, because it's never gonna really see much sort
of use and just to make sure it wraps on the underside here.
So to do that, a stencil is a good idea.
So I actually made a bit of a paper stencil a second ago.
It just lines up along the top here
and it roughly follows the shape that I intend to cut to.
And that covers that main section the toptube area
that Neil's gonna rub his knee on and that sort of stuff
when he's out on the trail.
And also it doesn't interfere too much
with the lines of the bike.
So I've used the stencil just to sort
of cut the shape roughly how I want it.
Something that's just important to remember is
when you're cutting this yourself, don't leave
any square edges because if it's gonna lift up anywhere,
that's where you're gonna snag it.
So just cut small, round ends in just to help it stay
in place whatever the weather.
This particular kit you just fit on a clean, dry tube
and you just sort of push the air bubbles out by hand.
But some kits like the 3M stuff, a lot of people say
it's best to wet fit them by using some sort of like shampoo
or detergent of some kind.
You mix the water, you spray on, you float the kit around
until it's in the right place,
and use a squeegee to gently push the sort of moisture out
and it helps it stick in the perfect place.
Again, don't need to with this particular one,
but just make sure whichever kit you buy,
you just follow the right instructions for that.
So it's really important just to make sure you just get this
on as best as you can so it stays
on your bike for as long as possible
and, more importantly, it looks really good as well.
You don't want to be drawn to any sort
of bubbles in the sort of plastic.
So, I'm just gonna start up towards the headtube end,
just by sort of the carbon side here.
Just gonna peel back about an inch of this
and then just get this centralised.
Now I'm not gonna do the side straight away.
I'm just gonna do the top
and I'm gonna curve it around afterwards.
Just gonna make sure I get it as lined up as I possibly can.
Of course, doing it with these kits is a lot cheaper
and a lot easier to replace when they go wrong.
If you invest in one of the full-sized frame kits
that cover everything, you really need to take your
time installing these and they can take a couple of hours
with some of the more fiddly frame designs.
What we're doing here on Neil's bike is just covering up
just one of the two areas that he tends to sort
of get a bit knackered on his bikes.
I've noticed from previous bikes.
Now, you just want to to take your time
and make sure it's going on as smoothly as possible.
No air bubbles.
It will continue to look good for quite a long time.
It's a good idea to do this
before your bike does get too nasty and dented and dinged.
And you'll barely even know that the protection is on there.
And it is a good idea to do this indoors just to make sure
that the adhesive stays nice and warm.
It's gonna give it the best chance
of bonding properly with your frame.
So, up on the front of the headtube here,
this is obviously the business end of the bike.
You've got the cables and the controls.
So, on Neil's particular bike he's got a
dropper post cable and his rear brake cable coming
out of the right side of the headtube here.
Just his internal routeing here.
And you can see under full steer and lock they kind of rub
on the headtube here.
So we just want to make sure it's protected underneath
so it doesn't get scuffed and lose its paint.
And also the same for the other way around.
So it's his rear shifter cable.
So I'm just gonna make a marker here
on where we want the protection to be.
Again, you're gonna cut this to sort of fit
so it looks as neat as it can possibly be.
Get it in place.
You just want to peel this off to the halfway point.
So I can make sure it lines up
exactly where I want it to.
Gonna work my way around just like I did
with the one on the toptube.
So you can obviously see it up close,
that's one of the negatives with anything like this.
But it's a frame protection kit.
You're gonna be thankful for it in the long run
when you don't start losing your paint work.
Now, on this particular frame,
it's got some downtube protection on the bottom
where rocks fly up, but nothing on the top part of the tube.
Arguably, you won't get any rocks flying up
and damaging your tube in this area, but if you do uplifts
on your friend's pickup truck, when you lean the bike
over the back, it can make a nice, handy pad here just
to stop your framework being dulled down by the pickup pad
that sits over the back.
When you're installing this on the downtube here,
it's important to just take
into account the curvature of the tube.
Again, just like I did with the top tube.
I've noticed when I turn the front to the side
this whole area needs protecting.
It's roughly from the edge of the foreground downwards.
So this is actually the perfect sort of length
and it folds just off of this up.
I noticed that it's actually sitting almost perfectly
on where the grey meets the orange.
So make a nice line so hopefully it will blend
in well with the frame.
Now I know from measuring this up, I've got to go
about two mill below this line
and it's gonna line up perfectly.
All right, so you can slightly see the edge,
but once it's been ridden a bit, you never can notice there.
And more importantly, if he does put his bike on the back
of his mate's pickup truck, I know he's got one
and he's probably watching this video,
it will sit on there nicely,
it's not gonna wear his nice little paint finish away.
Okay, so Neil's bike's got internal routeing
on the downtube here and just where the cable exits,
where it joins the seatstay here
and goes direct to the rear neck
it can sort of rattle around, just sort of contact
with the seat tube there.
And the same on the other side for the disc brake rotor.
So, I'm just gonna put a little piece on the underside
of here just to make sure that the paint finish stays
as good as it can for as long as possible.
There are some preshaped sections here
that are ideal-sort-of-sized.
So, just taking one of those, again I'm just gonna use
a piece of backing that I've already used
on the back here, so when I get all those
off my thumb on there.
Obviously, the smaller pieces on this,
you can see them a bit more.
If you ride Clifton, you'll probably find
your feet don't sort of move around too much.
But I do know that Neil likes to ride flat pedals quite
a lot, and one of the things that flat-pedal riders tend
to do is move their foot position around low.
So you quite often get bits of seatstay and chainstay
with paint sort of just rubbed off on their ankles.
And it's not really a bad riding thing,
it's just the fact that you're moving
around in quite an aggressive way.
So I've got enough here and in a real good size just
to protect the seatstay on Neil's bike.
So I'm just gonna cut a strip here to do both sides.
And same thing as with the other sections,
you just want to make sure they've got rounded edges
so they got the best chance of staying on
for as long as possible.
Again, you can see that there's a piece in place,
but at distance you're never gonna know.
And if your heels do rub just on the seatstays here,
you're not gonna be losing any paint.
Next up, I noticed on this Nukeproof bike
it's got really good chainstay protector here
that extends all the way along on the back side here
where the chain contacts rub by the chainring.
So that is fantastic.
But I also noticed there's nothing on the underside here.
I'm gonna clean the inside of that,
and I'm using this magical tape from 3M.
So this is a rubber mastic tape.
So it's an electrician's tape by trade,
but it's actually one of the best things
in the world a biker can own.
So, it's basically self-amalgamating tape that sticks
on anything and provides really good protection
for your frame.
Although, the chain tension's really good these days
with a clutch mech.
I know how Neil rides, so I'm just gonna put
a little bit extra on the underside here.
I know he likes a silent bike as well,
so this will make it stealthy.
Gonna do this all in one here.
So I've already cleaned this.
It's just gonna sit on the underside like so.
You'll especially notice the effect of silence
in your bike like this if you ride a lot of rough, rocky,
and fast trails and you've got your chains slapping around.
You actually need to check it first
to see if your chain's still on 'cause you make your bike
that much more silent, it's kinda spooky.
So there you go.
Using the bare minimum, cheap sort of frame protection kit
managed to give Neil's bike a good bit of protection
around the headtube from cable rub, downtube if he chooses
to put it on the back of a pickup, toptube here
from his knee pads, that's one of the more crucial ones,
and, of course, for other cables and stuff.
And then using the rubber, managed
to just sort his chainstays and seatstays out.
So, it's a really good little way of protecting your bike
and making sure it stays looking better for longer
and, of course, quieting it down as well.
Hopefully it's been useful for you.
For a couple more videos, check up here
to winterize your bike, that's protecting your bike
for winter and all the nasty stuff that happens.
And for ten cable tie hacks and bodges,
particular favourite, click down there.
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