I use dial calipers as my chain checker tool. 1) Open the caliper to 5.6 inches/142.24mm. 2) Insert the inside caliper between the chain rollers. 3) Extend the calipers and record the measurements: New chain= 5.715 inches/145.161mm 1/2% stretched = 5.745 inches/145.923mm 3/4% stretched = 5.760 inches/146.304mm 1% stretched = 5.775 inches/146.685mm Note: This measures across six links. If you want to be extra sure, measure a few spots on the chain that don't include a quick-link.
My daughter has to do a 5-minute presentation for her university collage class. She was practicing all night for it. I hope her presentation goes as well as yours has. Thank you Olie
Do NOT lube the chain right before you go for a ride. The lube will leak out of the rollers whilst you ride, and the lube will attract dust and dirt, making the chain crunchy in a few miles.
Great advice. I have made a couple of these mistakes over the years. The time you put into these videos saves countless hours of grief for so many of us that watch them. Thank you.
2:38 yeah i noticed that when i was riding my bike in winter when roads were salted to keep ice away from roads. basically every bolt on my bike was rusted after that so i invested in stainless bolts. they are great and also fairly cheap.
I concur. I've bought stainless replacement bolts for nearly everything on my bike. the one exception being the bolts that fasten the rear rack to the dropouts. I put stainless bolts there once, and months later, I heard a strange noise coming from the rack. Looking around, I saw that the right side was loose and the bolt was nowhere to be found. I replaced it with a carbon-steel bolt at home (and the left side, too). But nearly everything else - including derailer adjustment screws - are stainless bolts.
1:20 Since I'm screwing around with developing tolerances for something I'm designing with this going in the background, this was said backwards. Low tolerance is what you want in your tools (smaller window of acceptable dimensional range before quality control throws it out), high tolerance is cheaper because the larger window you can give manufacturing, the easier the part is to make, fewer parts get rejected, and usually the faster it can be made.
Keep bikes in the garage/indoor to avoid exposing them to rain and sunlight. I never spray water on my road bike. I wipe it clean with a slightly wet cloth. If a bolt show rust, apply little grease on the bolt. My 16 years old road bike looks new.
Yes, making a change before an important ride is a big mistake. After I make any change bigger than changing an inner tube, I ride the bike around the block. Then I ride it for a couple of miles. Then I hope I have time for a longer ride than that before the big ride, especially if the big ride will be with others. I don't want my problem to become their problem. Once I made the mistake of installing a suspension seatpost. That seems pretty foolproof, but it didn't allow me to install the saddle low enough. My 100 mile ride had my saddle too high. I agree about good quality tools. They are actually a good value. However, I have installed headsets without proper tools. I guess I don't recommend it, but I haven't caused any damage to anything. Maybe I'm lucky that way. I agree about a proper bike stand. I regret all the years I spent without it. That and a proper floor pump.
Back during my bike shop days, one of the things I hate to hear the most is customers wanting their brand new bike or build ready for a maiden ride that's at least 100 km long. When I switched my frameset at home, I took it for a shakedown ride that's only less than 30 km short because I wanted to make sure everything works as expected before I take it for actual rides.
Jeesh just buy the Park cable cutters, i've used them sooooooo many times changing shift cables on my bikes, my kids bikes, neighbors kids bikes.. Just awesome quality. 7 years later, still ticking.
Away from your event countdown, periodically check that all of your bolts are tightened to spec., especially your pulleys, cable clamps, and brakes. There's nothing worse than an epic ride becoming a nighttime hike-a-bike and/or call of shame.
Another tip, and probably a matter of what terrain you're biking on.. But as one who loves riding on more forest trails than asphalt ones - I find cleaning the rotors with a decent brake cleaner helps out. Every now and then even take out the pads and clean them aswell.
You should buy a bigger rotor, purely for the fact you'll need an adaptor to screw into your post mounts. The calliper then screws into the adaptor. Reason: You don't wear out the threads on the post mounts as you are regularly screwing / unscrewing into aluminium with a steel bolt.. i.e the expensive bits! Adaptors are cheap. Frames / Forks aren't!
I have followed Gcn since I started cycling around 2 and a half years ago and I have followed most of the videos and I have saved tons of money to the point I have taken my bike just twice to a shop which leads to another tip... if you do not like or enjoy or actually get a specific task done not that refined then take the bike to a shop... in my case anything related to internal cabling routing I avoid the swearing hours and just give it to me once ready😅
You can cheap out on some tools but only on those that you yse rarely and dont handle latge forces on small areas. Also cheap doesn't always mean low quality. Swapping outer usually is not necessary on every cable change. It handles less tension and wears significantly slower and with intenally roured stuff changing both can significantly lengthen maintenance job. I usually go 2 cables to one housing change. Torque wrench is a godsend and even cheap ones are better than by feeling. One thing I'd add investigate any creaks. Most of the time is something just got loose and eill just increase wear but sometimes ots something as critical as a crack. One more thing. Tru to Keep your bike tools together and organised. Theres lot of speciality stuff on bikes and it's terrible when you have to di maintenance before a trip and can't find a specific tool.
The amount of bikes I see around NYC that have huge areas of rust or rusty bolts is devastating. Granted most of the bikes I see like that are older steel fixed gear or single speed bikes, but it still hurts me.
I think you're wrong about outers! They do outlive a few inner cables. Flushing the insides with the straw of death might be a good idea. The hardest working piece of cable is the short bit near the rear derailleur, replacing it will probably improve shifting even with the old outers under the bar tape.
Having mentioned being careful not to overtighten carbon parts by using a torque wrench Ollie, you forgot to mention using carbon paste to help stop slippage. An otherwise perfect piece, go to the top of the class 😏.
Carbon or assembly pastes in general also allow you to tighten with less torque. The specified torques are often maximum values and not recommendations
Use a bike stand clamp from the seat tube, never clamp from the top tube: absolutely correct, but why showing then a snippet (starts at 2:22) of washing a bike clamped from the top tube 🤔
Bike and car mechanic with bikes best tip don't use a torque wench the torque always seems off if you don't know what tight enough is dont touch your bike.
Yes, it works fine. The salt from sweat is sodium chloride largely which is simply table salt, so will taste indistinguishably. There are traces of potassium and magnesium which are in any case healthy and won’t alter the flavour with such small amounts.
NO MAJOR SURGERY THE WEEK BEFORE AN EVENT. And that is anything more complicated than tires, tubes, lube. And even with that I want two rides on them, minimum.
The vast majority of seatposts are designed to be clamped anywhere throughout its length, so if they can hold the concentrated compression force from a seatpost clamp, they can withstand the more distributed compression force from a workstand's clamp. Darimo, MCFK, Schmolke are some of the brands where their seatposts are not meant to be clamped on workstands because they're only reinforced in a certain area for the seatpost clamp. The rest of the seatpost is too weak for compression forces. Always check with the manufacturer.
Agree with everything in video but one there is no data that putting the top tube of danger if that truly is the case, then why do you and everyone else at GCN sit on the top tube.
Can you work with Chinese manufacturing and put together a kit for home DIY bicyclists that would allow complete bicycle repair and maintenance. Go with the best price for quality. There are a million of us out there who would buy this kit.
No two bike builds are identical, so the best way to go about it is to configure your toolset based on what your bike needs. No single kit can work on every single bike build all the way. For example, my bike will never use cartridge BBs, so I'll never need a crankarm puller.
@@yonglingng5640 If I am thinking of buying a Trek Émonda ALR 5 www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/road-bikes/performance-road-bikes/%C3%A9monda/%C3%A9monda-alr/%C3%A9monda-alr-5/p/41426/?colorCode=red_reddark or a Trek Checkpoint ALR 5 www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/road-bikes/gravel-bikes/checkpoint/checkpoint-alr/checkpoint-alr-5/p/35172/?colorCode=white_black or a Domane AL 5 Gen 4 www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/road-bikes/performance-road-bikes/domane/domane-al/domane-al-5-gen-4/p/41395/?colorCode=black What bicycle tool kit would you recommend for best value for quality?
@@danstenis660 None, you need to configure your own set since you want to be able to maintain the bike completely. My toolset is completely self-configured. I buy what my bike needs.
Pure bollocks. Have you ever seen Sam Pilgrim's bike maintenance videos? Have you seen how cleverly he sands the freshly cut steering tube of his new FOX fork worth billions of coins?
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
Are you doing any of the mistakes Ollie mentioned? Let us know👇
Wanted to say be awesome for a video of bikes of different budgets and say like cost to maintain over 5 years or so of each
I use dial calipers as my chain checker tool.
1) Open the caliper to 5.6 inches/142.24mm.
2) Insert the inside caliper between the chain rollers.
3) Extend the calipers and record the measurements:
New chain= 5.715 inches/145.161mm
1/2% stretched = 5.745 inches/145.923mm
3/4% stretched = 5.760 inches/146.304mm
1% stretched = 5.775 inches/146.685mm
Note: This measures across six links. If you want to be extra sure, measure a few spots on the chain that don't include a quick-link.
Si promised me WD40 was the best thing ever for chains! I've still got hundreds of cans of the stuff!
@@JoolsBurke well it's better than nothing
Just once after listening to Si recommended WD40 on the Drive Train / Bike Clean.
Do not leave your bike outside. Even if it doesnt rain it will become lonely and feel very sad. Always let your bike sleep in the bed with you.
Mine kicks in the middle of the night though. Gotta crate train it
I tried and got oil all over my sheets. Now I just hang it above the bed on the wall. He's happy, my bed is clean and the wall is properly ornamented.
It will become stolen
@@nagylevi3827belt drive is the answer.
Gotta get it a nice pillow though can't let it suffer
Most important tip-don’t be afraid to learn how to work on your own bike. 😊
*unless it's carbon. Then be very afraid. Carbon is unforgiving.
Up!
My daughter has to do a 5-minute presentation for her university collage class. She was practicing all night for it. I hope her presentation goes as well as yours has. Thank you Olie
Hopefully she did well man!
@@Diego.fromheaven Yeah, she did great! thank you
'Collage' is being taught at university now??? ....... as if there weren't enough useless degree courses???
Do NOT lube the chain right before you go for a ride. The lube will leak out of the rollers whilst you ride, and the lube will attract dust and dirt, making the chain crunchy in a few miles.
And don't lube it like in this vid. You are wasting half the bottle.
Only each individual roller needs a drop.
@@philipcooper8297 is this for wax emulsion, or oil-based lube as well?
Great advice. I have made a couple of these mistakes over the years. The time you put into these videos saves countless hours of grief for so many of us that watch them. Thank you.
Maybe your best video ever. One more: know when you're in over your head.
Awesome video. Anyone thinking about working on their own bike should watch this.
2:38 yeah i noticed that when i was riding my bike in winter when roads were salted to keep ice away from roads. basically every bolt on my bike was rusted after that so i invested in stainless bolts. they are great and also fairly cheap.
I concur. I've bought stainless replacement bolts for nearly everything on my bike. the one exception being the bolts that fasten the rear rack to the dropouts. I put stainless bolts there once, and months later, I heard a strange noise coming from the rack. Looking around, I saw that the right side was loose and the bolt was nowhere to be found. I replaced it with a carbon-steel bolt at home (and the left side, too). But nearly everything else - including derailer adjustment screws - are stainless bolts.
Be careful of galvanic corrosion when mixing metal types e.g. stainless bolts into a mild steel frame
1:20 Since I'm screwing around with developing tolerances for something I'm designing with this going in the background, this was said backwards. Low tolerance is what you want in your tools (smaller window of acceptable dimensional range before quality control throws it out), high tolerance is cheaper because the larger window you can give manufacturing, the easier the part is to make, fewer parts get rejected, and usually the faster it can be made.
How about just using tighter and looser?
Good stuff and a must view for all newbies. How about a 5 min special on disc brake cleaning and care?
Keep bikes in the garage/indoor to avoid exposing them to rain and sunlight. I never spray water on my road bike. I wipe it clean with a slightly wet cloth. If a bolt show rust, apply little grease on the bolt. My 16 years old road bike looks new.
Yes, making a change before an important ride is a big mistake. After I make any change bigger than changing an inner tube, I ride the bike around the block. Then I ride it for a couple of miles. Then I hope I have time for a longer ride than that before the big ride, especially if the big ride will be with others. I don't want my problem to become their problem. Once I made the mistake of installing a suspension seatpost. That seems pretty foolproof, but it didn't allow me to install the saddle low enough. My 100 mile ride had my saddle too high.
I agree about good quality tools. They are actually a good value. However, I have installed headsets without proper tools. I guess I don't recommend it, but I haven't caused any damage to anything. Maybe I'm lucky that way.
I agree about a proper bike stand. I regret all the years I spent without it. That and a proper floor pump.
Back during my bike shop days, one of the things I hate to hear the most is customers wanting their brand new bike or build ready for a maiden ride that's at least 100 km long.
When I switched my frameset at home, I took it for a shakedown ride that's only less than 30 km short because I wanted to make sure everything works as expected before I take it for actual rides.
Every GCN video should follow this sense of urgency!! ❤
Jeesh just buy the Park cable cutters, i've used them sooooooo many times changing shift cables on my bikes, my kids bikes, neighbors kids bikes.. Just awesome quality. 7 years later, still ticking.
In addition to use on my bike I use my Park cable cutters for braided picture hanging wire when I frame my wife's paintings.
bearing drift/press hack: use studding and some washers, super cheap vs brand name presses esp for a job you'd rarely do
Away from your event countdown, periodically check that all of your bolts are tightened to spec., especially your pulleys, cable clamps, and brakes. There's nothing worse than an epic ride becoming a nighttime hike-a-bike and/or call of shame.
Another tip, and probably a matter of what terrain you're biking on.. But as one who loves riding on more forest trails than asphalt ones - I find cleaning the rotors with a decent brake cleaner helps out. Every now and then even take out the pads and clean them aswell.
You should buy a bigger rotor, purely for the fact you'll need an adaptor to screw into your post mounts. The calliper then screws into the adaptor. Reason: You don't wear out the threads on the post mounts as you are regularly screwing / unscrewing into aluminium with a steel bolt.. i.e the expensive bits! Adaptors are cheap. Frames / Forks aren't!
Ollie, this video is gold
I have followed Gcn since I started cycling around 2 and a half years ago and I have followed most of the videos and I have saved tons of money to the point I have taken my bike just twice to a shop which leads to another tip... if you do not like or enjoy or actually get a specific task done not that refined then take the bike to a shop... in my case anything related to internal cabling routing I avoid the swearing hours and just give it to me once ready😅
There are rumors that Ollie recorded this video shortly after cycling 100km because the tank was still full of energy. xD
You can cheap out on some tools but only on those that you yse rarely and dont handle latge forces on small areas. Also cheap doesn't always mean low quality. Swapping outer usually is not necessary on every cable change. It handles less tension and wears significantly slower and with intenally roured stuff changing both can significantly lengthen maintenance job. I usually go 2 cables to one housing change. Torque wrench is a godsend and even cheap ones are better than by feeling.
One thing I'd add investigate any creaks. Most of the time is something just got loose and eill just increase wear but sometimes ots something as critical as a crack.
One more thing. Tru to Keep your bike tools together and organised. Theres lot of speciality stuff on bikes and it's terrible when you have to di maintenance before a trip and can't find a specific tool.
Wanted to buy a copy of the GCN Maintenance book. But I’m not about to pay $49 delivery cost to Australia for a book that costs $41!
Another winner Ollie, good work. A chain checker is a crackin' investment.
Yup, got over 10,000 MI on my 105 cassette. Just keeps going! Gone thru so many chains though lol.
Park Tools needs a better QC on the T handle Torx tools, but their hex T handles are a pleasure to use.
I removed the bar tape from my indoor bike - no salt problem, as it has nowhere to gather! One quick wipe at the end of the session and that's it.
holy sh*t, never tought about the salt from my seat. Thanks for the tips
Parktool are brilliant but Unior and Teng make high quality tools also.
Super informative video there Ollie! - Ta v much 👌🚲🧠
GCN Tech - "Caffeine Bomb Edition"
Love it!
ugh... you might be making me repaint my pinarello in that new metallic/satin blue. looks too good...
Nice one Ollie.
Very well done, as usual! Thanks!!
Headset bearing must be keep an eye as well. I could suggest that once a month cleaning is enough.
me too when I was 16. by 17 I had been working on bikes for 11 years
Solid recommendations, as always!
Thanks, Darby. Good advice
Always take a couple of pics before diving in.
I know this because I didn't .
nothing like an unplanned jigsaw is there?!
The amount of bikes I see around NYC that have huge areas of rust or rusty bolts is devastating. Granted most of the bikes I see like that are older steel fixed gear or single speed bikes, but it still hurts me.
Excellent video, I agree with every word!
I think you're wrong about outers! They do outlive a few inner cables. Flushing the insides with the straw of death might be a good idea. The hardest working piece of cable is the short bit near the rear derailleur, replacing it will probably improve shifting even with the old outers under the bar tape.
They always snap in the shifter, so suggest that's the hardest working part..
Having mentioned being careful not to overtighten carbon parts by using a torque wrench Ollie, you forgot to mention using carbon paste to help stop slippage. An otherwise perfect piece, go to the top of the class 😏.
Carbon or assembly pastes in general also allow you to tighten with less torque. The specified torques are often maximum values and not recommendations
Super useful material !!!
Rim brakes for the win 💪
Disc is way better.
Realistically, unless it's obviously damaged/rusty, a cable outer can last 2 or 3 inners.
Solid advice
Wish you’d have done this video in the style of ‘Wear Sunscreen’ by Baz Lurhmann 😂
Do not do anything ever to do with your tubeless tyres on your best rug!
Use a bike stand clamp from the seat tube, never clamp from the top tube: absolutely correct, but why showing then a snippet (starts at 2:22) of washing a bike clamped from the top tube 🤔
I think it might be the editor's fault.
use a dremel to cut cables and housing
Bike and car mechanic with bikes best tip don't use a torque wench the torque always seems off if you don't know what tight enough is dont touch your bike.
0:49 haha is Hambini watching 😅
"If you dont respect the bike , then the bike doesnt respect you." (Jason Statham).
after removing the excess salt from under my bar tape, is it ok to put it on my fish and chips?
Yes, it works fine. The salt from sweat is sodium chloride largely which is simply table salt, so will taste indistinguishably. There are traces of potassium and magnesium which are in any case healthy and won’t alter the flavour with such small amounts.
What’s that Orbea?
Delivery of the book is super expensive. Any sources for it in Germany?
I don't think Ollie would approve of the Bikehut 30pc Bike Tool Kit I got for £50 at Halfords
How do you clamp a Giant TCR?
Don't work on your bike when you're having a bad day. Cleaning is okay, but not replacing cranks, tires, or other stuff. 😉
What’s that thing called that stops the handlebars moving about when it’s in the workstand?
A flop stop
is it true that some bikes e.g. trek bikes require less maintenance ?
im gonna use all these tips to pretend I cycle to have something to talk about with my colleagues after their weekendrides.
I always clamp my bike on the top tube. There's no way my work stand can clamp with enough force to deform it.
NO MAJOR SURGERY THE WEEK BEFORE AN EVENT.
And that is anything more complicated than tires, tubes, lube. And even with that I want two rides on them, minimum.
Do you know if the peatys foaming degreaser is strong enough to remove the factory grease from a chain before i use squirte lube on it?
Peattys recommend their solvent degreaser to get the factory grease off
@@jonandclareraymond6737 hm they said on a other video the foaming normal degreaser should take it off
Should be marked as ad?
Well done 😂
I use the "tube of death" to spray dry PTFE spray everywhere......my bike hasn't died yet.....😁
is 42cm aero handlebar better than 36cm round bar?
I doubt so because your frontal area is larger than if you're on 36 cm handlebars since you're not required to squeeze your arms closer together.
@@yonglingng5640 thats fair enough
Is it safe to use a bike stand with an aero carbon seat post? #askgcn
The vast majority of seatposts are designed to be clamped anywhere throughout its length, so if they can hold the concentrated compression force from a seatpost clamp, they can withstand the more distributed compression force from a workstand's clamp.
Darimo, MCFK, Schmolke are some of the brands where their seatposts are not meant to be clamped on workstands because they're only reinforced in a certain area for the seatpost clamp. The rest of the seatpost is too weak for compression forces.
Always check with the manufacturer.
Agree with everything in video but one there is no data that putting the top tube of danger if that truly is the case, then why do you and everyone else at GCN sit on the top tube.
A clamp is not the same as sitting down on it.
2:22 shows bike clamped at the toptube, continues with " never clamp at the toptube" 🤣. Do as I say, not as I do I guess 😅
ah! you found our deliberate mistake!
Watching you clean an already clean cassette at 3:10 hurts my feelings...
L' incessammente publicité en bas de la vidéo, masquant également la traduction illisible. Désabonnement immédiatement.
Use gloves on the indoor trainer. These gloves absorb most of the sweat.
02:23 what was that????🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Brought to you by Parktool......
100%
Great tips but all seems to boil down to "spend more money"
I already failed I’m doing my maintenance while watching this video 😂
Can you work with Chinese manufacturing and put together a kit for home DIY bicyclists that would allow complete bicycle repair and maintenance. Go with the best price for quality. There are a million of us out there who would buy this kit.
No two bike builds are identical, so the best way to go about it is to configure your toolset based on what your bike needs. No single kit can work on every single bike build all the way.
For example, my bike will never use cartridge BBs, so I'll never need a crankarm puller.
@@yonglingng5640 If I am thinking of buying a Trek Émonda ALR 5 www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/road-bikes/performance-road-bikes/%C3%A9monda/%C3%A9monda-alr/%C3%A9monda-alr-5/p/41426/?colorCode=red_reddark
or a Trek Checkpoint ALR 5 www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/road-bikes/gravel-bikes/checkpoint/checkpoint-alr/checkpoint-alr-5/p/35172/?colorCode=white_black
or a Domane AL 5 Gen 4 www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/road-bikes/performance-road-bikes/domane/domane-al/domane-al-5-gen-4/p/41395/?colorCode=black
What bicycle tool kit would you recommend for best value for quality?
@@danstenis660 None, you need to configure your own set since you want to be able to maintain the bike completely.
My toolset is completely self-configured. I buy what my bike needs.
@@yonglingng5640 Would love to see a video of your bike tools.
So... yes. I was about to inster bearings with a hammer 😬
So don’t used air compressor oil for brake fluid 💀🙈
Pro tip: spend a lot of money. :(
Pro tip:take it to a bike mechanic
@@Rayy690 A bike stand is not going to crush an alloy top tube. Some bike mechanic lol.
If you’re worried about your bike getting scuffed you should consider a new sport 😅
Pure bollocks. Have you ever seen Sam Pilgrim's bike maintenance videos? Have you seen how cleverly he sands the freshly cut steering tube of his new FOX fork worth billions of coins?
"ten years"!!? hehe, Ive repaired bikes for probably 50 years but not much of the early experience is relevant nowadays. :-)
10 years seems like a long time when you are 20 years old....😁
Average Joe bike mechanic doesn't need park tool a setbif Stanley allen keys or torx keys will do the job for much less
Where is the Pinarello 😂 bait switch
" always clamp from the seat tube" Err, seat POST.
Best advice is don't go to a bicycle shop 😮
A blatant ad for park tools from start to finish. £££😂
bro you said in 5 minutes, not 5 minutes and 21 seconds. lol jk
Actually, the timer is incorrect. Intro is 3-4 seconds long and timer got past 2 seconds only. HMMMMMMM)))
his new bike is too big
Only Park tool ads. Do not watch it.
Looking at your previous exploits at cycling weekly, most of your advice will be obsolete in 10 years
first like
🥇
Liar !! with the 100 cuts and the multiple recordings, it took you more than 5 mins ... probably 30-60 mins :P
Here is how to maintain your bike explained in only five minutes: Buy this huge book on the topic. That is just plain cheating! 😂
People who dont know what there doing
don't, the're, yes, a lot of people don't know what they are doing!
Or even they’re doing.
Priceless.