ten ride cycling hacks you need to know number one
instead of buying disc brake cleaner buy some isopropyl alcohol which is almost pure alcohol
you can get for about seven pounds for a bottle like this this is a liter it's completely safe
to use on your discs and braking surface if you have rim brakes too it's quite aggressive
i would recommend wearing gloves or keeping it off your hands for any extended period of time
because it will dry out your skin but if you put a little bit of this in a squirty bottle you can
spray it direct on your discs and then use a clean cloth to wipe them down it will then evaporate
after a few seconds a little goes a long way i've had this for about a year i've only used that
cheap effective carb drink mix using a carbohydrate drink you're able to fuel
with carbohydrate without having to eat food which is very convenient if you're doing a race
or a hard session pre-mixed stuff is very convenient but expensive and you can mix something
pretty similar for a fraction of the price it doesn't involve this but it does involve a bead
on one scoop of melted extra powder which you can buy on most websites that sell supplements to gym
goers is 100 carbohydrate tasteless powder you can get a big bag really cheap one scoop of that
in your bottle followed by either a pinch of salt or a pinch of electrolyte powder also available
on supplement websites top that up to taste with some fruit squash or cordial the important part
here is fructose so you want one that's no added sugar that'll mean that the sugars from this
the fructose will absorb in a different part of your intestine to the sugars from the maltodextrin
fill the rest up with water and you've got yourself cardboard also bear in mind that the
primary electrolyte that you lose through sweat is sodium so using a pinch of salt instead of the
fancy electrolyte powder will make the drink even cheaper and do the job almost as well before i'll
go for it sweet if you've got a big hole in your tire and you're scared that the inner tube might
puncture straight away if you put a replacement one in then you might want to use a bar wrapper
or a sweet wrapper or a gel wrapper as a boot to put in between the new inner tube and the hole
you can adjust the total reach of your bike for free by just rotating your handlebars loosen both
of the clamps that are attached to your shifters by peeling back the rubber hood and using usually
a five millimeter allen key to undo them depending on how much you want to move these you might have
to unwrap the top bit of your bar tape then undo the bolts on the front of your stem so you can
rotate the bar for the shortest reach most bars can be rotated to be level at the end of the drop
you can put a spirit level on this to check it obviously this can change depending on the shape
of the handlebar but worth noting that lots of bikes come supplied with handlebars rotated
in an odd way it's worth experimenting finding what works for you but it's a brilliant way to
adjust your reach without spending any money whatsoever if you have misplaced or do not have
a tire lever like this one you might want to use a spoon like this one use the back of it exactly
in the same way if you have carbon rims you might want to use a plastic spoon less likely to damage
the rim it works so well you might be best off first though checking if you can get the tyre off
without any tyre levers at all a lot of tires you can do this with depending on the rim combination
you want to go around the whole tire push it into the channel which is down in the middle
of the wheel to release all the tension that the tyre has built up and you should be able to
pull it over the edge of the wheel and wrestle it off just like that i always prefer doing it
this way because there's no risk of you damaging a wheel even with a plastic tire lever it can happen
grease those moving parts this isn't really a hack because it's just your dumb thing but a lot
of people overlook it and it's always the cause of creaks on a bike which can get expensive if
you go to a bike shop to get it diagnosed always grease surfaces that are not designed to move
past each other big pot of grease like this will last you a lifetime of regular use this one i've
had for about 10 years and you can see inside there's loads and loads left and it's not that
much more expensive than the little pot you can get most common causes of creeks on bikes that
you can solve by greasing them are headset bearings through axles quick release skewers
and the surfaces in between your chain rings where the bolts go in all of these are easy
to access and worth checking before you take your stuff to a bike shop washing up liquid is actually
a great degreaser way stronger than you think if you use it right on your chain and cassette
you can get things looking sparkly add this to some warm water and use a rough brush to
apply it scrub your cassette and make sure your chain is going round and you'll soon have a very
sparkly drivetrain using just that you'll be 90 of the way there if you want to use some further
stuff like gt85 or a stronger degreaser that's the time to do it and then make sure you dry it all
off and add some chain lube that's a really easy and quick clean don't underestimate very liquid
if you're worried about your bike's paintwork then car shampoo is an excellent way to clean
it and much cheaper than bike specific products if you're going to do this make sure you use a
sponge not an abrasive brush depends on which bike i'm cleaning whether i use washing up liquid or
car shampoo but car shampoo is definitely the less abrasive one and doesn't contain anything
that's going to scratch up your paintwork leave a reach adjustment you can actually
adjust how far away your levers are from the handlebar so the pivot point inside the shifter
most shifters if you peel back the hood you'll be able to find a very small allen key hole usually
two or three millimeters and you'll twist this either way depending on whether you want to make
the leap further away or closer brilliant if you have very small hands or very big hands bear in
mind your brake caliper might need to be adjusted if you're using cables after doing this use soapy
water when you're seating your tyres loads of tyres and wheels these days are tubeless ready
which usually means you have to pump them up quite high to get them to seat and pop into place most
tire and room combinations will seat before they reach unsafe pressures but sometimes they need a
little helping hand some soapy water applied to the rim and the tyre with a brush makes things
slide much easier and your tyres should pop on with much less pressure that marks the end of 10
cycling hacks that you need to know put your hacks down in the comments if you have any suggestions
and share them with this community please like comment and subscribe and i'll see you guys soon