- Hello, and welcome to another Ask GCN Anything.
This week is a special, maintenance themed episode.
You can tell that, because of our change in location
and also because I'm wearing an apron.
Oh yeah, that means it's business time.
Not like that, that would be weird.
Okay, first up we got a question
sent in from Andrew Reitsma about lubrication.
So, he says "Hello from down under."
Hello.
"How often, in kilometres, should a chain be re-lubed
"in dry weather? And, should it be degreased
"every time prior to lubing?"
Wow, that is an absolute can of worms
to get things kicked off with.
A lot of people have very strong beliefs
about looking after their chains and rightly so,
it's an important part of the bike.
But, I think it's also possible to overthink things.
In terms of trying to eek another couple
of hundred kilometres of life out of your chain,
maybe it's not worth getting obsessed about.
But, there is definite do's and don'ts here.
I would say as a rule relube your chain
if it's starting to get dry and noisy
but otherwise, I wouldn't bother.
And then in terms of degreasing,
I'd look to see what the kind of condition the chain is
inside the links, so, between the rollers.
'Cause that's where a chain will get worn
and if it's full of grit and sand and things like that,
that's the point at which you wanna clean it
until it's sparkling like new.
Definitely worth thinking of what kind of degreaser you use.
Don't use any really abrasive, acidic, or alkaline solvents.
Then, that's not very good for the life of your chain.
Most manufacturers would say definitely steer clear.
But, a normal bike-specific degreaser will do the job nicely
every once and a while.
But there are no rules because at the end of the day,
where you ride might be different
to where I ride in the dry.
And you know, like I said, it's impossible
to put an exact number on it but hopefully that helps.
And if nothing else, there should be some good comments
in the comments section down below.
Right then, next up.
We got this one from TomKrouze.
Cool name, Tom.
"What is actually the benefit or importance of stiffness
"on a bike? When, why, do I need a stiff bike?"
Well, that is a very good question actually.
People generally think that a stiff bike is important
for power transfer, so you press on the cranks
and all of your power goes straight to the back wheel
because the bike's not flexing.
However, that ignores an important point which is
that generally energy will not be lost in that system.
Obviously, energy can't be lost
it just gets transferred somewhere else.
So, theoretically if your bike flexes
this wasn't gonna give you that energy back somehow.
So, that is point one I guess.
But, stiff bikes do certainly feel better
on the power transfer.
But actually, what I think is that stiff bikes
really give in terms of handling.
So, I think a stiff front end on your bike
is a very good thing for making a bike feel great
when you're going round corners.
But, it's certainly not important.
You can ride very fast on a very flexy bike.
Okay, next up we've got Haziq Annies,
"Is a bottom bracket interchangeable?
"Can a 24 mil crank spindle fit
"in a BB30 with some adapters?"
Yes, it can.
You've actually got one here, I think.
There ya go.
So, FSA make little adapters.
So this one goes from
a BB386EVO
bottom bracket,
or
yeah.
And it will go down, this is specifically for Sram's GXP,
so that's a 20 something mil spindle, I think. (22mm & 24mm)
Have a look online, you can definitely get adapters
but you can't necessarily adapt all bottom brackets
to fit all types of crank.
So, proceed with caution.
But, yeah, definitely you can do something.
Okay, next up we got this one from Patrick Joseph.
"Almost every bike shop tells you to bring your new bike
"back after a few weeks to retune the gearing,
"is that just an excuse to sell you more stuff?"
No, it's definitely not.
Cables, we say that they stretch, the cables themselves
don't stretch but all the housing
and stuff can compress down
and that can make your gears just a little bit out of tune.
And so all the bike shop needs to do
is just tweak the barrel adjuster
but it's definitely something you can do as well at home.
We've got a great video on the subject.
And in actual fact, we're going to play a bit of it now.
Now, if you derailleur doesn't sit exactly beneath each cog
in turn when you're changing gear,
then the gears are not indexed.
Which is at which point,
then they're gonna be working badly.
And it's the process of indexing to correct that
and to move the derailleur into the right place.
You can micro adjust it very simply.
Okay, we've got a really good question
left under last week's YouTube video.
This one from leecbracing,
or lee cb racing, I'm not sure which.
Anyway, they've asked,
"Why do pros sit so far forward on the saddle?"
Mainly, it's because when you're riding really aggressively
and really fast on flat roads,
you naturally wanna get really low.
And by getting really low, it means that your hips
will rotate forward and therefore, to stay comfortable
and to keep getting the power out,
you will naturally want to slip further forward as well.
It's actually not a new thing, it's been around
for an awfully long time and it's actually the reason
why we have the phrase, on the rivet.
Which is a nice bit of cycling trivia for you,
it comes from when saddles used to be riveted
and people would slide forward on the seat
and literally sit on the rivet at the front there.
The one thing that is new actually now,
is the fact that positions are getting lower
and more stretched out at the front
so saddles are going farther forward
and they're also angled down.
And Matt did a really, really great video
at the recent Tour of Dubai and that one is gonna play
just in one second, worth checking out
to get a bit more information.
- The pros are renowned for their aggressive,
slammed, riding positions but of late
there's been an increasing trend towards the extreme.
(mellow music)
Now, when you consider that my bike is pretty slammed
and by that, I mean, there's a big differential
between bar and saddle height, the same as when I was racing
and compare it to the extremely aggressive position
of Johann van Zyl and you will know what I mean.
Now, we talked to a few riders about why they seem
to be taking things, position wise, to the extreme.
- Well then, quickfire question round now.
Always probably the slowest part of the entire video,
but as ThatsSoNathan commented last week,
"Average speed definitely doesn't matter
"during the rapid fire question round."
So, thank you very much for that Nathan.
Question number one though, Liam Bradley.
Yeah, he's got an issue with his rear wheel.
Sometimes when he pedals it works fine and he moves forward.
Other times the pedal arms just spin
and nothing happens, what's going on?
Well, that is quite a common complaint,
if your rear wheel is getting really old
and it's the free wheel.
So, the bit that sounds really nice
and clicks and it actually allows to not pedal
and coast and then also pedal.
Basically, they can get a bit jammed up with gunk
and general crap over time and so, the little springy bits
that actually allow you to coast
stop springing basically, in a nutshell.
It could well be that you can fix it.
So you really need to check out your manufacturer's website
and see whether they've got any instructions on there.
But, there is a chance that maybe your free wheel
can't be fixed and therefore it may well be terminal.
So, definitely check online first.
Most of the free wheels that we've got
in GCN bikes here, I think can be fixed.
So, hopefully, hopefully you will be in luck.
I'm sure you will be.
Okay, we've now got one from oreosaysb00,
that's a weird name now.
"Why do pros race with 25c tyres
"if 28c tyres save you two to three watts per wheel?"
Now, someone's already very good at answering this.
Lennart Meinke, who said,
"It's a little bit of aero and lots of tradition."
And I'll tell you what,
that's actually not far from the truth.
Sometimes it takes a while for scientific thought
to actually filter down into the Pro Peloton.
Because at the end of the day,
how something feels and what people think
is also really, really important as well.
And, a lot of pros feel that 28s are slower than 25s,
even though maybe the data says something different.
Having said that, 28s are little bit heavier than 25s
and they are less aerodynamic.
Clearly, there's more surface area
to break through the wind.
But I suspect that we will start seeing pros use more 28s,
particularly, as wheels get wider as well.
So, that obviously offsets
some of the aerodynamic disadvantages.
Now, following on from that we got a question
from Amaury, here, who has said they've just got
a new Canyon Aeroad for fast rides, they will be fast.
What do you recommend for tyre sizes, 25 or 28 mil,
Continental GP 4000sII?
Well, given what I've just said,
28s do fit very comfy in there
and if you ride on particularly really poor, abrasive tarmac
then running 50psi in there, will mean
that your bike rolls like a magic carpet
and you will go very, very fast indeed.
If however, you are riding on super smooth tarmac
and aerodynamics are everything and your average speed
is super high, then you may still wanna go with 25c.
But, I definitely would go with the 28c
on there, that's for sure.
Okay, we've now got a series
of questions all linked together as well.
Dan Fish, unfortunately, has just broken his collarbone
and he wants to know how he can use his turbo trainer
to keep the fitness that he's got,
despite this period of convalescence.
So, definitely can with a turbo trainer
and you don't even have to spend all that long in there.
Have a look through the GCN archives, the training sessions.
And if you did maybe one of our 20 or 30 minute sessions
every other day, you will probably find actually
that you will keep your fitness.
It's incredible how little you need to do
in order to stay fit, even if it's a bit harder
to get fit in the first place.
But, one thing I did notice in the weekend Stephen Cummings
won the British National Road Race Champs
and the British National Time Trial Champs,
having not raced for ages 'cause he'd got really bad
injuries after a crash at the Tour of the Basque Country.
And he, did all of his training on Zwift actually,
almost right up until the nationals itself.
Including, some pretty punchy rides at four hours plus.
So, if you've got that option open to you
with a smart trainer or even if you haven't,
all you need is a couple of sensors
then maybe Zwift could well be your answer
with a broken collarbone,
like so many pros are doing at the moment.
Linking on, neatly, to the next question
which is sent in by Sanresh Shedekar,
who's saying that his FTP on the road is 245 watts
but on Zwift his FTP comes down to 205 watts.
He suffers a lot, can we tell him why?
What should he do?
Well, there are various different reasons why your FTP
is generally a little bit lower inside.
But one of the big ones is actually heat,
because our bodies don't like getting too hot
and without the cooling effect of the wind
even with a really good fan in front of you,
you will still find that your FTP
probably comes down a little bit.
So that will be the reason why.
You can try and train in an air conditioned place,
with more fans, that'll certainly help matters
but as long as you train
and test yourself in the same environment.
So, always test it outside or always test it inside,
then actually it's not a problem
if its always 35 watts lower inside.
It's just, you know that it's cause you're hot
and so you can just leave it at that.
But, final linked question, are you ready for this?
Okay, B. Ryder says, "We've all heard of altitude training,
"is there such a thing as heat training?"
Yeah, there is.
Yeah, you can train to get better in the heat.
So if, for example, you live in a cold and wet country
like England but you are training for an event
that's gonna be in a nice, hot sunny country.
Then yeah, actually it's a really good idea
to get a little bit of heat acc limatisation before you go.
And you don't need to do all that much.
So, back when I was racing I got told
to do some turbo training, not intense,
but just riding but in a really hot, humid room.
Maybe even your bathroom.
I believe Matt did it in his garage once.
And as long as you really start to get a sweat on,
you do that for an hour a day, everyday for five days
before you travel, that should get you heat acclimatised.
So, there you go, heat training.
Right.
How was that for quickfire, then?
Probably not terribly quick,
but hopefully the questions got answered alright.
And I guess that's the point.
We could always rename it, call it something different.
Next up, we've got a question from Gabriel Blanchfield.
He's got an odd creaking sound coming
from his crankset area.
There's no visibe damage, the bike's well maintained,
and only occurs when he's in the big ring.
I feel for you, because tracking down creaks on bikes
can be a frustrating process.
Handily, Lasty's bike is hanging just next to me.
So, if it creaks when you're in the big ring
then it could well be because you just put more torque
through the bike and that's why it's creaking.
It could well be your chain bolts
so I'd suggest that you have a look at those,
make sure they're all tightened up properly.
Although, they don't tend to make a creaky noise,
they tend to make like a clicking noise.
It could well be your bottom bracket,
but before you go down that route and get all cross,
then I'd suggest that you actually check out a video
that we've got about how to track down creaks on your bike.
From that video, we then had to go make four more
because there's so many different permutations.
Such as, for example, I had creak that happened.
I was sure it was coming from my crank sets
and every time I got out of the saddle
and it turned out it was my front quick release.
I kid you not, but there you go.
Much easier to deal with than a bottom bracket.
Anyway, the video is gonna play just now, have a look.
A clicking, squeaking bike is deeply annoying
and it can generally ruin your ride.
No bike is immune from the curse,
even top of the range super bikes are susceptible.
Now, as well as ruining your ride
it can also be a sign of something much more serious.
For example, when carbon is damaged and in danger of failing
it can make an almighty creaking noise.
So, it's always a good idea to pay attention
to the sounds even if you can actually
put up with the noise.
Random Bike Trips sent in a really good question,
under last week's show.
"What is the ideal position or angle
"to set your handlebars at.
"You see some that are at a slight incline
"and some that are angled downwards."
Well, a lot depends on the shape of your handlebars
but also it's personal preference.
And actually, it can change over time.
Mine certainly has.
On Lasty's bike here, is an integrated handlebar and stem.
So he actually has no choice and so you can see
that Trek has decided that that is the optimum angle.
And actually, I'd go for that as well.
Two things you probably want to look at.
Firstly, the angle of the handlebar next to your brakehood.
So, do you like it to go down
or do you like a smooth transition?
Most people tend to go for a smooth transition now.
The other thing is, can you hold the drops comfortably?
So, that bit there has to be an angle
that's comfortable for your wrists.
So, generally you don't want too much bending of your wrists
'cause that would be uncomfortable for long periods of time.
Either way, up or down, so kind of generally
you want your wrists in a neutral position
and then, for it to feel nice transitioning
from your handlebar to your brakehood.
We have a video on this subject
that hopefully will give you a little bit of information.
I'd check it out now, if I was you.
The first point we'll cover is handlebar width.
Now, road handlebars typically comes in sizes
from 38 to 46cm wide.
And typically, you would choose your handlebar
based on your height.
Except that height doesn't really have anything
to do with it, it's actually the width of your shoulders.
So, traditionally you would choose a handlebar
that is the same width as the distance
between your AC joints.
That's the knobby bits in your shoulders there.
So, that when you hold your handlebars in the drops,
your knuckles are just outside the line of your shoulders.
Okay, well hopefully I've answered your question.
If I haven't got around to answering yours this week,
then obviously make sure you stick it
in the comments section down below again.
And if you've got a new question entirely
or you're new to the show then submit your questions
in the comments section down below,
or on social media using the #TorqueBack.
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