- Triathlon requires a lot of care and
with that it means a lot of maintenance and
that's before we even start on ourselves.
But over the years I've learned a number of
ways to make that maintenance just a little
bit quicker, easier, and sometimes cheaper.
So here are my top seven maintenance hacks.
(suspenseful music)
(upbeat techno music)
These little wipes can gently clean a baby
yet somehow they can make a bike look like
new again.
It blows my mind.
So much though that I now travel with a
pack everywhere I go now with my bike.
But I'm not suggestion you always clean your
bike with baby wipes or antibacterial wipes,
but they do do a remarkable job of getting
your bike looking sparkly and clean within
seconds without having to hose your bike down
or fill up a bucket and drench your bike.
(upbeat techno music)
I am always buying electrical tape.
I'm not totally sure where it all goes but,
I clearly use a lot of it on my
triathlon maintenance.
You can mark up your saddle height in case
you need to remove the seat post when you travel.
Re-fix your bar tape if it comes loose,
and even stop your valves from rattling.
Just apply a strip around the valve by pushing
it down onto the valve so that it punches
through then stick the rest of the tape to
the rim so the valve is secure.
(upbeat music playing)
Cable ties or zip ties are another item
I've always got in my kit bag and
they've saved me a number of times over
the years.
It's actually amazing how many things they
can fix.
I've heard of people using them to fix helmets,
to fix bike computer mounts,
to attach spares to their bikes and
even to work in the place of bolts.
Personally I use them all the time to attach
a standard bottle cage and bottle
between my aero bars.
That way I can just pick up a standard
bottle from one of the aid stations and
replace my previous bottle.
Now I do understand there are brands that
make well designed versions of this but
this is quite a nice cheap and fairly
reliable alternative.
Another place that I used to use these
cable ties for was on my saddle.
Now I am a big fan of split nose designed saddles
but I did find with some of the older,
previous designs that they were just a little
bit too wide so I used to attach a couple of
cable ties around the nose around the rails
towards the nose of the saddle.
That way it just pull in the nose just a fraction
to make it a little bit more comfortable.
(upbeat music playing)
Right back to cleaning the bike.
Yeah it's a common theme but this time
we're taking a look at the chain.
Now to get the chain thoroughly clean,
I would always recommend using a tool like
this one from Park Tool.
But I understand you can't always travel
with one of these or you didn't always have
one of these to hand.
So another good alternative it to use
two toothbrushes hopefully old ones that you're
not planning to use again and then use that
good old electrical tape to tape them together
so their bristles are facing each other.
Then all we need to do now is apply a little bit
of de greaser to your chain,
use your new tool,
and there we go simple as that.
Probably should have asked Heather if I
could use these first.
(upbeat music playing)
Okay bar tape.
It wears out over time and if you're using
anything other than black it will likely look
quite grubby eventually.
But there is a good alternative and
no it's not electrical tape.
It is skateboard grip tape.
Okay hear me out on this one.
This is focused more towards those
that are riding on TT bikes where we're not
putting quite so much weight through our hands,
and we're actually tucked into those aero bars,
particularly for race day we're not going to be
using those base bars or the bull horns
quite so much and actually quite a lot of
pros are opting for this now because it's
slightly neater and actually slightly more
aerodynamic and personally I think it looks
really cool so a small saving,
but it's something.
(upbeat music)
Right then.
It would appear that some people need a
little bit of help when it comes to
removing race numbers from the bike helmet
and from their bike.
I appreciate it's a cool bragging right
but honestly several months after the event
isn't the greatest look.
So let me share a little bit of advice.
Firstly you obviously want to see if the
number will quite easily peel off.
Obviously that's your first point of call.
But if it doesn't you want to avoid using
any solvents on your bike helmet or
on your frame.
So how bout using some electrical tape?
Yep it's another use for that trusty old
electrical tape.
You can apply a few layers of electrical tape
down onto the seat post, frame or helmet first,
then apply the sticker on top of the electrical tape
so all you have to do at the end of the race
is peel the electrical tape off.
Pretty smart hey?
(upbeat music)
You know all those old race tshirts that
you collect over the years.
Well here is a good use for them and
for some of the old rags that you collect
in your house.
You can use them as bike cleaning rags.
Just simply rip them into pieces and
then you can use them for cleaning your bike
and your chain.
But a cool hack you can do with them is
for cleaning your cassette.
If you'd like to quickly clean your cassette
on the move without fully removing your cassette
then you can just apply a little bit of
de greaser to the edge of your rag and
then slot that between the sprockets
of your cassette and then just slide it around
as you move the cassette and
you'll have a nice clean cassette ready to go.
Well there are my seven maintenance hacks
and I hoped you liked them and uses for
electrical tape and to be honest
I'm only just scratching the surface with
my uses for this.
But do let me know if you have any other uses
for electrical tape and any other maintenance
hacks in the comments section below.
If you liked this video,
hit that thumbs up button and if you'd like
to see more videos from GTN,
just click on the globe and subscribe.
And don't forget you can get hold of some
of our GTN kit by heading on over to the shop.
If you'd like to see our drive train maintenance
video just click up there and
if you'd like to see our ask the pros video,
we ask them whether their preference is traditional,
or modern designs with the bikes and
you can see that by clicking down there.