- Whilst working on mountain bikes can be
quite straight-forward at times,
some jobs can become a little bit tricky.
So here are six straight-forward tips
to help you on your way.
Which way do your pedals tighten?
This is something some of my friends struggle with.
An important rule to remember
is pedals always tighten to the front of the bike
and loosen to the rear.
This is so they can't loosen when you're pedalling.
Now, pedals these days tend to be tightened to the bike
with an eight millimetre Allen key,
or sometimes a six.
But more traditional pedals,
which you might have in your bike,
will require a 15 millimetre pedal spanner.
So this is the best way to put your pedals on and off.
One of the best tips we can offer
about removing the pedals from your bike
is to actually use your body weight
to remove those pedals.
So you wanna do this with a bike the correct way up.
Quite often see people in a carpark struggling with a bike,
up-sided on its handlebars and saddle.
Now you can remove pedals like this quite happily,
but occasionally if you've got a stubborn pedal,
and your pedal spanner or your Allen key slips,
your knuckles are gonna be pretty close to, however,
hitting the bottom bracket shell,
or actually hitting the chain ring.
So if you do it this way,
the worst that's gonna happen
is you'll just slip past that.
So it's quite an awkward position to get in.
But leaning over the top tube,
you wanna grasp the left-hand crank with your left hand.
Locate the Allen key into the back of the pedal,
and then firmly push down.
And you can release it.
And it's a case of just
fully unthreading the pedal,
and removing it from the bike.
Now if your bike doesn't have pedals that use an Allen key,
you're more than likely gonna be using
a 15 millimetre spanner.
So this is a traditional pedal spanner.
You may or may not have one of these.
And the advantage of using a spanner over an Allen key
is you do this all from the outside of the bike,
rather than having to reach under the bottom bracket shell.
So you can push down on the back,
just like you would with the Allen key on the inside.
And also, the handy thing about this method,
for tightening the pedal,
is you can actually just cycle the pedal backwards,
and that will tighten it all the way up.
Nice little technique.
Whilst disc brakes are very powerful and efficient,
they can occasionally rub.
And not only is it annoying,
you don't really want this to be happening.
So just gonna show you
the easiest way to centre your disc brake calliper
over the disc.
Take a five millimetre Allen key,
loosen the pinch bolts that hold
the calliper onto the bike itself.
Then, whilst grasping the rear brake lever,
just rotate the wheel forward a tiny bit,
and then nib the bolts back up.
And that's usually the best way to just centre it.
Just under these bolts,
just loosen them slightly,
just couple of turns,
so the calliper is free to move.
And you're grabbing the brake lever,
rotate the back wheel forwards.
Or the front wheel,
depending on which one you're working on.
Till it's tight.
And to nib the bolts up.
This method is usually best and the quickest way
to get rid of a rubbing disc.
However, if it is still rubbing,
you may have a bent disc.
So that's something you need to consider.
And also, you can do fine tuning from above.
So what you're looking for is some fresh air
between the rotor itself and the pads.
And you can just adjust one bolt at a time
and move the calliper.
If it is still rubbing after that,
then it's likely that you might need to bleed your brake.
Whilst there are a lot of manufacturers that make forks,
the two biggest, RockShox and Fox,
you'll see on most bikes.
Now RockShox have their own Maxle system,
as on this bike here.
And Fox have the QR15 system, made by Shimano.
So we're just gonna show you how to use both of those
for the safest position.
So this is one of the original Maxles.
And you still see a lotta these.
This particular one is a 20 mil.
But they're often seen in 15.
So there's a flange on the top here,
so when you tighten it into the fork,
use that flange to
secure it, and you pull the lever down.
So on the more modern versions of these,
there's a two and a half millimetre Allen key head
in the end,
for adjusting the tension,
to keep that quick release lever tight.
On this particular one, an original,
you actually adjust the nut on the end here
to do the same thing.
Ones you'll commonly see these days,
are the Maxle Ultimate.
Now these don't have an external point of adjustment.
But on the inside there's a spring.
And actually if you grip this,
you can change the orientation of the lever,
like so.
So what you're looking for when you put your Maxle in
is tightening it until it locates the threads.
You spin it tight.
And then adjust the lever.
And what you're looking for is a firm feel
that you can feel in the palm of your hand,
but not too tight that you're struggling to tighten it.
And note that the lever is in the forward position here.
This is not what you want.
If you hit a bit of branch or something out on the trail,
this could flip open.
And then the vibration out on the trail
will undo it naturally.
And suddenly you end up without a front wheel.
Not good.
So what you wanna do is remove the axle from the bike.
And then, you can press the end of the axle,
and spin the top cap around.
And you line it up with these.
To change the orientation of the lever.
So on the Fox forks, you see the QR15 system
developed by Fox and Shimano.
Now this is a bit more simplified.
You got a simple act sort of thread on one end,
for the lever with a cam on this end.
And to adjust the lever position,
or the orientation,
I spin the fork around.
You see there's a captive nut here on the bottom
with some numbers and little locking plates.
So you simply, with a two and a half mil Allen key,
undo this little locking plate,
and you can rotate the captive nut.
And what that does is it allows you to tighten the lever
in the correct position.
Again, just like the RockShox fork,
you don't want the quick release lever
to be facing out the front of the bike.
'Cause you don't want it to snag and accidentally open.
Facing up, inline with the fork, is the best
and safest way for this.
So removing the rear wheel from a bike
may sound very simple,
but a lotta people make some little mistakes with this.
So I'm gonna show you two methods.
One with SRAM and one with Shimano.
So starting off, you wanna make sure that
your drive train is in the smallest sprocket in the back.
So you want the chain to have
the minimum amount of tension on it.
And this makes it easiest to remove the rear wheel.
Secondly, with Shimano,
you wanna make sure the clutch is off on the mech.
So as you can see, there's an off position,
which is the lower position.
On, just for demonstration, is up.
So as you can see here, this is a Shimano mech,
and they've got the clutch on them.
The clutch is used to put tension on the lower cage.
As you can see, it's quite firm with it on.
And when it's off,
relatively simple.
So it's important to make sure you've turned this off
for removing the wheel.
'Cause you want the minimum amount of tension on the chain,
just to make sure the wheel drops out nice and easy.
So with your transmission in the smallest sprocket,
the chain's nice and loose, your clutch is off,
you're ready to take the rear wheel out.
So it's as simple as
removing your rear wheel axle,
pulling the rear mech down.
This is why you wanted it loose.
And out goes the wheel.
Now, it's also important to
remember why you've done this,
for installing the wheel.
So it becomes a lot easier to line the chain up
on a smaller sprocket,
than trying to guess where it would be
if the chain was far higher up the block.
So, the same process for the SRAM mech.
Again, make sure your chain is in the smallest sprocket
for the same reason.
We want it to be nice and slack.
The SRAM mech has a clutch,
but it's a bit different to the Shimano one,
in the fact that you can't turn it on and off.
So, as you can see, there's a lotta chain tension here,
so it makes it hard to move the jockey cage.
But SRAM mechs have a little lock,
just here.
So what you wanna do is pull the cage all the way down,
and you push the lock button.
And it actually holds your mech in the position
with the chain nice and loose.
Another thing that crops up is
the correct adjustment of your seat collar.
So you see a lotta people hanging off their Allen keys
tightening these up,
but they don't need to be that tight.
So firstly, you don't wanna over-tighten them,
in this case, on a carbon frame.
'Cause you're gonna actually crack and damage the carbon.
And secondly, it's got a dropper post switch.
It's very common these days.
So you don't wanna over-tighten it
'cause it can hinder the use of the dropper post itself.
So, the two things that you wanna adhere to
when you're tightening a seat clamp,
and that is using a torque wrench.
And using some sort of grease or assembly compound.
So finally, the last little tip is
to keep hold of these little spacers.
So these would've come with your bike when they're new.
Hopefully you still got them.
If not, it is worth getting some.
So what they're for is to put between your brake pads
to space them out.
So these can actually be used,
if you've actuated your brake
with the wheel not in the bike,
so the pads are stuck together.
Bit better than using a screwdriver to pry them apart.
And also, if you're travelling with your bike.
So, let's just say you're taking your front wheel off
and you putting your bike in the back of the car.
You can use this to stop that happening
by just squeezing it straight in between your pads.
So your brakes will be perfect
when you instal your wheel again.
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