- We all love a good hack and bodge.
There's loads you can do on your e-bike
be it on the side of the trail or at home
in your workshop or your garage.
I've got a few favourites.
I'm gonna run through them today with you.
(cheery electronic music)
A good bit of maintenance for your e-bike
is replacing those gear cables.
Especially the inner gear cable.
It's the smaller one out to the two.
It can become a bit of a nightmare when it starts to fray.
More familiar looking down at a real raliance
in that frayed inner cable hanging out of it.
A nice way to smarten that up is just pinch that cable,
and actually wind it around, nice clockwise,
pinching it as you go.
You'll find that all those frayed bits of the inner cable
will actually go nicely all back into one.
You just gotta put an end cap on it
and it's gonna stay smart for ages.
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We're okay if you're using a zip tie on our e-bikes.
I know I am, I use them to hold on mud guards,
cable guides, things like that.
We've all probably experienced being cut by these zip ties
when it comes to picking that bike up or riding.
A nice little hack is get to your bathroom,
steal a set of the nail clippers out of there.
When it comes to cutting those zip ties,
it just allows you to put a nice curved end on there,
not a razor sharp edge.
That way you're not gonna cut yourself.
It's a nice little hack.
(cheery electronic music)
So I've got a nice little hack for you
if you're a full face user out on the trails
and you like to ride in a lot of mud.
Doing a bit of recycling here, got a bit of maxis packaging,
basically a big flap.
You can make even a mud guard out of this.
But a nice little hack is tying it to the visor
on your full face helmet.
Just adding that little bit more
to the front of it.
Basically all its gonna do is extend that peak
and when it's really muddy you've got all
that mud flying down,
usually hitting you in your goggles.
Adding that extra bit of cover is gonna stop
all that mud raining down here.
It's gonna keep your goggles nice and clean
next time you're out for a ride in all that slop.
(cheery electronic music)
So I've just swiped this off my boss's desk.
It's full of cool things, like even just like a paper clip.
We all know when we're working on that drive chain
of the bike, we're trying to join that chain up,
can be pulling on the derailleur, things can fly around
when there's not a lot of tension.
What this does is just makes a nice little third hand.
So basically you can slide those two hooks
between the links.
Slide the other one through.
You can hold that chain nice and together,
leaving your hands free to work,
putting that quick link back in, work on your derailleur,
just things like that.
Just relives all that tension out of that chain.
I spend many minutes of my riding trying, messing around,
trying to join up chains.
Quick link is meant to make your life a lot easier,
and sometimes it does.
Obviously with this little third hand hack makes it easier.
But a nice little hack could join in that chain quickly
rather than trying to pull it apart.
To join, just pedal it around, see the quick link's here.
Just gonna watch it go to the top
of the chain.
It's gonna make a little noise as it goes through
cause it's not connected properly.
All I'm gonna do is just hold that back there,
push that crank just like the back brake's on,
and you'll hear it crack together once it's done.
You ready?
(bike cracks)
There you go.
That saves you messing around trying to join that.
And that's nice,
joined together.
Pedalling nice and smooth now, happy days.
(cheery electronic music)
Everyone loves a good takeaway now and then.
What they do come in is these nice little containers.
Basically designed just for you to chuck in the bin after.
What they do double up as
is a nice little parts washing bin.
So you stick any part you've got in there,
get your de-greaser,
soak it totally in there.
Leave it to soak, get it to work on it on a stiff brush.
Get it all cleaned up, it's not flying everywhere.
Once it's all nice and clean,
give it a good soak off.
And you can just chuck it in the bin once you're done.
(cheery electronic music)
It's a really nice way of recycling those tyres,
making them more use for e-bike
once they've perished or split,
is by making them into a down tube
or battery cover protector.
Basically cutting a bit of section out of the tyre,
adding it to the down tube
just protects that down tube from getting rock strikes,
things like that.
It's just gonna add that little bit more protection.
Let's take a look at how we do that now.
So all I've done is just trim that tyre down
nice and short bit of section.
And that's just gonna add that to the down tube
covering that battery.
And zip tie that on.
And anything that basically fires up off that front wheel,
be it rocks, things like that.
It's just gonna add that little bit more protection
to my bike.
(cheery electronic music)
One thing I love doing is keeping all my old
broken bike parts in my workshop at home.
My wife often asks me what the hell am I gonna do
with all my old stuff.
The answer to that is, you never know when you're gonna need
a little cable clamp, a pivot bolt, things like that.
For instance on this mech, the jockey wheels
are nice and fresh.
On this one, they're all worn out.
So I can replace these jockey wheels with this one.
Put this one in my riding pack,
and I've got a fresh new mech,
well a half fresh new mech, ready for when I need it.
One that's gonna work on my bike.
Making one out of two broken parts.
Always a good move,
you never know when you're gonna need it.
(cheery electronic music)
So we all love putting stickers on our e-bikes, I know I do.
Some of you might have bought a new one,
and had some manufacturers stickers,
warning labels, things that you can peel off
if you so want to.
Sometimes they leave a horrible sticky residue,
so as soon as you're riding or any dirt will
just stick to them.
So I suggest just squirting a bit of WD - 40 on there.
Rub that down nice and gently.
Obviously just be just really careful
not to contaminate anything like brake pads,
things like that and just go careful with it
cause it's obviously very flammable too.
A nice way just scrub that stuff in.
Let if soak if it's really stubborn, work away,
I guarantee you that gunk's gonna disappear.
(cheery electronic music)
So inner tubes, loads of hacks and bodges
that we can do with a faithful inner tube.
Don't see so many of them around now,
a lot of guys are running tubeless.
But I guarantee your new bike
will have tubes in from the factory.
So whip them out, covert them into tubeless,
and you've got loads of these
just lying around doing nothing.
So, some I prepared earlier, we can use ...
Basically cut in the valve and the lockering
out of the old tube.
We can create out own tubeless valve set.
Basically you don't need to go buying
expensive tubeless valves.
Just cut that out, place that in your valve hole,
in the rim, there you go.
Cheap valve, tubeless valves.
Number one we can create just by snipping
it round in short sections, loads of little elastic bands.
Things you can put in your riding pack,
on your bike, just hold things on.
Little tiny ones there.
Any thickness you want, just obviously cut it
to how you want it.
And obviously we can't be without the chain protector too.
So, on the back of the bike the chain's gonna
be flapping around creating a lot of noise
on that chain stay.
Just adding a small bit of inner tube,
zip tying it around that chain stay
is gonna quiet the back end of that bike down dramatically.
(cheery electronic music)
We all know that feeling of working on your bike
trying to undo those rounded out bolts
can be a bit of a nightmare.
If you've got the right tool in there, but it's simply
isn't undoing, it's just getting no purchase
on that bolt whatsoever.
What I do suggest you find is a torx key.
Obviously a torx key is a star style key,
so you've got a lot more purchase in to the metal,
a few more contact points than the regular alan key.
Just ensure it's a really close fit.
You might have to tap it slightly to get it in.
This one is actually pretty good fit.
I can feel straight away I've got more purchase in there.
Hopefully using this torx key,
is gonna give me that bit more purchase.
Yeah, there you see, it's just gonna undo ...
Once you've got that undone,
just spin it out, and work on your bike
with a smile on your face.
(cheery electronic music)
So I've been working on my bike all evening,
my hands are all covered in grime.
All I'm gonna do is get a bit of hand cleaner on my hands
and all you can do is add a little bit
of salt or sugar to that mix as well.
Just a tiny little pinch
just makes it more of a grinding paste.
Obviously if you've got any cuts or things like that
just be aware that it's gonna sting a bit.
But just get that worked in.
Nice!
Give it a good work in,
add a little bit more if you don't feel you've got enough.
Just keep an eye on that ...
oil on you hands I can feel that nicely grinding in.
Just to burn all that oil off.
Rinse it off.
(water splashing)
And there we go.
Nice clean hands, and I don't have to buy
a load of expensive specialist hand cleaner.
So there you go, that's some of my favourite
workshops, bodges, hacks.
I've always got trail side hacks and bodges as well.
Getting you out of trouble on the side of the trail too.
If you haven't checked out that video,
that one's up here.
I've also got how to winterize your e-bikes,
that one's down here too, a real cool video,
getting that bike ready for winter.
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Drop us some comments on all your hacks and bodges
in the box below.
And we'll see you in the next one.