Fall is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere, which often means the best dirt and weather
of the year.
Let’s kick off the season with 10 bike hacks and tips that you can use to save money, be
prepared, and have fun.
Have you ever used duct tape to make a temporary repair?
Eric Porter did when we were far from civilization, and I noticed that he had it wrapped around
his pump.
This is a great way to make sure you have tape with you.
I prefer the one inch Gorilla tape personally, but you could use any width or brand.
Just carefully spool some duct tape around your pump, and be sure not to get any wrinkles
in it.
This way, if you’re storing the tape outside the sticky part doesn’t get contaminated
by dirt or water.
You can forget it’s there until you need it.
For a quick and dirty bike wash, you can use a garden sprayer.
I got this one for $10, and customized it with some of that duct tape.
These sprayers are powered by air pressure, and are far from powerful, but with the help
of a brush you don’t need a fire hose to touch up your bike.
This is a fairly popular trick, and for good reason.
It’s inexpensive, easy to carry, and effective.
If you’ve ever gotten your shoe laces tangled up in your drivetrain, well, you’re not
alone.
Double knots help, but why not give yourself an extra layer of security?
Just pull on a lace further up the shoe, and pass the loops underneath it.
This hack is tried and true, effective, and free.
Now for some tire tips, starting with this little hook that you’ll find on tire levers.
No these are not for hanging the levers on your tool wall although you could.
The hooks are actually designed to hold the lever in place on your spoke.
When removing tight tires, many people will start with the first lever, hold it down,
and then insert a second lever to pop off the bead.
It’s much easier this way with your hands free.
I was very surprised to find out how many people didn’t know this.
Of course with tubeless tires you should try to avoid using levers altogether, as they
can damage the rim tape and mar up the bead.
Here’s how to work your tires by hand.
First of all notice how tubeless ready rims have an indentation in the center, with flat
areas on the sides for the bead to sit on.
The trick to getting the tire off by hand is to push both sides of the bead to the center.
First deflate the tire and pop the bead off by pulling it hard towards the center.
Once you’ve done this all the way around, you can pull back the tire and grab it with
both hands, pulling it over the side of the rim, and pushing it down using your body weight.
If you’re having trouble, double check the bead to ensure it’s centered in that little
valley in the rim.
Once you get the first part of the bead over the rim, the hard part is over with.
To mount a tire by hand, start by locating one side of the bead in the center of the
rim.
Work your way around the tire, constantly checking to ensure you’re keeping everything
in the center.
I cannot stress how important this part is.
You’ll reach a point where it’s a lot more difficult.
Use both of your hands to gorilla the tire on, pulling towards you in a rolling motion.
If you’re not sweating, try harder.
Once you’ve popped the bead over the rim, you can start working on the other side using
the same process.
Soapy water can help make this easier, but I just did it dry.
Now that we have our tubeless tire mounted, I’ll give you one final tire hack: Setting
the bead with a hand pump.
This is gonna be a bummer.
Remember those flat parts on the edge of the rim?
That’s where the tire bead makes its seal.
Normally a blast of air from a compressor or floor pump will force the bead outwards,
but you’ll need to this manually if you want it to seal with a hand pump.
Grab a handful of tire and try to pull it up and on to the side of the rim.
Do this on as much of the tire as possible on both sides.
Keep attempting to pump up the tire, until the air you’re adding exceeds the air leaking
out.
If it doesn’t seal, keep on working the bead.
Give it hell with the hand pump and don’t stop until you hear the magical sound.
This demonstration was done totally dry, but adding sealant beforehand can help quite a
bit.
Either way it took me about 45 minutes, so it only makes sense in an emergency situation.
That’s enough tire stuff for now.
Tailgate pads are a great way to carry bikes on your pickup.
In fact, I’ve gotten 8 on mine.
But when you’re only carrying one or two bikes there’s a better way: A mini tailgate
pad made from high density foam.
This will cover less of your tailgate and retain the use of your backup camera, which
gets covered by other pads.
They sell this foam at home supply stores in the flooring department, and it’s pretty
durable.
Just measure from the edge of your tailgate to your backup camera, cut the foam to size,
and make adjustments as needed.
This does a great job of protecting your tailgate, and rolls up to the size of a yoga mat for
storage.
If you carry your bikes using a hitch rack, you may notice that it wobbles from side to
side.
This is because receivers are designed for strength, not precision.
But you can reduce the slop with shims made from aluminum cans.
Just cut some pieces out with a shop scissor, and lay them inside the receiver with lips
on the edges for retention.
You can experiment by folding them over for a tighter fit.
If you have access to different thicknesses of sheet metal, you can definitely make something
nicer than this, but in a pinch it’s a pretty effective hack.
With action cameras coming in more shapes and sizes than ever, we’re placing some
huge demands these little mounts.
Especially when leverage is involved, tightening the plastic screw just doesn’t cut it.
The answer?
Carbon paste.
Carbon paste is simply an abrasive compound that increases grip, and you might already
have some laying around.
Apply it to the joint on your action camera mount and install it as usual.
The little grains in the paste will bite into the plastic and reduce the chances of it moving.
Since carbon paste isn’t permanent, you can unscrew your camera mount and use it again
like normal.
Filthy trail dogs belong in the back seat, but sometimes they don’t want to be there.
So today we’ll make a pup jail out of cargo net, a bungie cord, and some plastic clamps.
Just cut the cargo net to size and fold it over the bungie, using zip ties to secure
it in place.
Now you can hook the bungie to your headrests, and clamp the cargo net to your seat back
pockets.
With enough determination, Drama could probably power through this thing, but I left him alone
with it for long enough to satisfy my curiosity.
He didn’t bother.
This is going to be great for when he’s messy or drooling, but I’ll probably still
let him ride shotgun most of the time.
Hopefully you found some of these hacks and tips to be entertaining or useful.
If you want me to make more videos like this just give it a like and share it with a friend.
Better yet, give me some suggestions below, and maybe you’ll see them in a future video.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.