(funky music)
- Right, welcome to a special
edition of Ask GCN Tech.
I'm joined by, well,
to be honest with you,
I thought he was a mythical character
that didn't exist outside of the interweb,
or whatever you wanna call it,
Mr. Calvin Jones, the
Director of Education,
I think I've go that right.
- That's right.
- For Park Tool.
A guy who, well, I'm
getting goosebumps, really,
just sat next to him,
because he's taught me a lot in the past.
I've been looking through
his little manuals.
And well, welcome.
- Thanks, thanks for being here.
Bath.
- In Bath, yeah.
So, we asked you to submit
your questions for Calvin,
and, well, we've picked
out some absolute crackers,
haven't we?
- Yes, crackers and cheeses, actually.
- Yeah, what a way to start.
- That's right.
- We do like a pun.
So, first one is actually
from Cheesus Slice.
How do you remove and
cover scratches and chips
in your frame, and how long did it take
to grow the mustache?
The last question's about 62 years now.
So for the first question
though, that's a really good one.
A lot of people, my bike is actually,
it's maybe not my first child.
It was a piece of jewelry.
It's a bike, can we say
that here, it's a bike.
- You can, yeah.
- Bikes are for riding,
bikes are for riding,
we're gonna go with that.
- Generally.
- Yes.
So yes, you're gonna
get some scratches on it
and sometimes, oh it's unfortunate,
but you know, you've got scars.
Like I've got a hacksaw mark here.
I've got a knife wound over here.
- I think you've lost some
skin off the knuckles.
- Oh the skin, early on, yeah you bet.
Callouses.
Be proud of your scars, be
proud of the scars on your bike.
So, are you gonna match the color?
I've got the hot fuchsia.
Am I gonna sand it down and feather it?
It's gonna look like
you're trying to match it.
So don't match it, get a sticker on it.
You've got an ugly stain, trust him.
You're no longer stained.
Yeah, it's covered up, so
you're making a statement.
Political, animal, botany, take your pick.
- Right, next up Charlie Knight.
How important is it to use a torque wrench
when installing components?
Are there any components
that you fit looser
than you would expect to
when you use a torque wrench?
- With the torque wrench
you are tightening by hand.
What's important to
understand, is what's going on.
What's happening when
you're tightening this?
It stretches.
I'm very pleased to be
here in the UK, in England.
It's the home of giants.
Some of the, my favorite, my rock stars.
James, James Young, Young's modulus.
What a great guy, he rocks.
He taught us about stretching,
about the ratio of stretching.
When we tighten this
bolt, watch carefully.
And when there's audience, did we see it?
- Just about.
- Yeah, it was, when you tighten it,
you're giving the bolt a wedgie.
It's getting longer, okay.
Just a little bit, and that pressure
of trying to come back together,
it holds that joint tight.
So what are we saying?
This can achieve that.
Turning it with the hand
wrench also achieves it.
Generally, as a rule of thumb.
Little bitty screws, people
tend to over-tighten.
Great big ones, people
tend to, under-tighten.
Crank arm bolt, tend to be too loose.
People put them in too loose
and some of the stem bolts, too tight.
- One area actually, which I
think people often over-tighten
even smaller than that,
has to be the rear derailleur hanger.
- I wonder here, because
remember, viewing audience,
when you're putting that
wheel in, clamp it in,
or through axle, tightening it down,
that's also holding it tight.
So you don't need killer torque on that.
A rule of thumb.
Any fastener, however,
you want it as tight
as the weakest link in
the joint will allow.
The weak link determines the tension,
determines the tightness.
- There we are, well
I hope that's helpful.
- Are you with us, Charlie?
- Yeah, I hope you still are, Charlie.
Now, Stefano Savastre, I hope
I've got your name right.
What do you reckon it is, Savastre?
- Yeah, we'll go with that.
- How do I fix spoke noises?
When I pinch them together they
make a sound like they pop.
Help.
- Yes, help.
- You know,
when you squeeze them together.
- Yes.
- Make a little bit of a.
- So, don't do that!
Don't squeeze them.
So, next.
No, let's be nice to him.
So, typically noises are gonna come
from things moving against one another.
We've got our little friends
the cicadas in America,
the crickets, that rub their legs.
They're making noise.
So your cranks creak, your wheels creak,
something is moving against something.
And looseness, typically looseness.
It's often a sign that your
spoke tension is too low.
If you notice it when you
ride, that's one thing
but if you're just squeezing 'em
and then when you ride there's nothing,
then don't worry about it.
- The Phat Cyclist.
This is probably the question
which everybody out there
wants to know.
- Yes.
- Why are bottom brackets so confusing?
- Oh boy.
- We've already spoken
about this off camera.
And well, we nearly came to blows.
- We have to go to another
famous bike mechanic.
Rodney King saying, why
can't we all get along?
What can't we all get along?
What's wrong with the
threaded bottom brackets?
So we used to have this.
This is a bottom bracket on a stick.
I hope our viewers will--
- Titanium, as well.
- Yes, that's right.
- It's lightweight, isn't it?
- It's the heaviest of the
light metals, excuse me.
So the threaded ones.
What's wrong with this?
I'll tell you right now.
Teenie weenie, what a cute
little bottom bracket,
oh it's so teenie weenie.
We can't have big tubes coming into this.
So now we've gotta have
our big, wide tube.
There's not enough surface area to weld.
This is where the big
ones started to come from
and the wide ones.
Threads are fantastic,
for taking things apart
and putting together,
that's what it's for.
Welds are trying to make two
pieces one permanently, right.
No one would say, unweld
this and put it in.
But now, what we're seeing
of course, is the pressed.
This is a pressed bottom bracket
and this is the fun thing,
do you speak English?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Do I speak it?
- Well, we kind of, there is a little bit
of an issue here, isn't there?
Because you say aluminum, I say aluminium.
- Yeah, so what's so wrong with that?
We don't even have the same language
to talk about bottom brackets.
- No.
- Okay.
So you just told me about a pressed,
what was your bottom bracket?
- BB86.
- BB86, what does that mean?
- Exactly?
- 86, 86 millimeters wide, okay.
BB30 is, hmm, 30 millimeters wide, no,
that's the diameter of the spindle.
How about a PF41?
That's what this is, folks.
PF41, what is that?
Pressed fit, 41 millimeters diameter.
PF42 would be the same as a BB30.
So we, in our own industry, on the inside,
we don't even know how to
talk about things, okay.
So bottom brackets are confusing.
- On your favorite bike,
what bottom bracket do you have on it?
- Oh yeah, my favorite bike
would be, the BSC threading.
Oh, this is even better.
So we have, we sometimes call
this, is this in English,
are they bottom brackets?
- BSA threaded, yeah.
- Yes, that's right.
And then, what about the old Raleighs?
They're made in England.
Are they this threading?
No, it's a 26 TPI, not a 24
TPI, what's up with that?
- And then there was French threading.
- There was French threading.
- Italian threaded.
- And Swiss threading.
Difference between French and Swiss?
- No?
- There is.
- Is there?
- Yeah, yeah.
The Swiss have the left-side
thread on the drive side.
See, so even back when we
thought we got along, right,
we never get along.
- It's never that simple, is it.
Next one, and this is
something which I think
real pedantic road
cyclists such as myself,
are so, so passionate about.
Please, please, please, this
is from Christopher Evans.
- Three, three pleases.
- Three pleases.
That's why Christopher
Evans got his question in.
Please, please, please.
How to set up two sets of wheels,
each with centerlock discs
but different brand hubs,
without having to realign
the caliper each time?
Because I know what's happening.
He's either getting, well,
his disc didn't align,
does it, in the caliper.
Or it's getting that really annoying
rubbing noise that you sometimes get.
- Right, I have one set
of wheels, it's fine.
I switch 'em around, okay, so
we have our nice wheel here.
So what we're saying
here, there is a standard.
There is a standard that
the hub, this plane here
where it attaches to the fork,
and then the plane that
the rotor attaches to,
there's a set difference, okay.
So as we like to say in America,
this ain't rocket science.
But it is.
Even the Hubble Space
Telescope had issues.
Manufacturers are a little bit
off on that tolerance, right.
They're actually allowed to be.
They need to be, alright.
If you want to keep the price
of this hub below $10,000
you want to have some tolerances there.
So you throw on one rotor,
with some tolerances,
on the hub with another tolerance,
you get tolerance stacking.
We're stacking our tolerances.
Throw it in the bike.
Maybe it's rubbing this side a little bit.
Then you put in another set,
now it's rubbing this side a little bit.
Okay, what to do?
That's the explanation.
Who cares, what do we do?
This is a six bolt.
Sometimes, you can shim it.
There are actually
little shims underneath.
You want those pretty tight of course,
but it gets really
tricky when you are here
with the centerlock, do not shim this,
no bubblegum, not beer can, don't do it.
So what to do, what to do?
On some axles, okay, if
we have a threaded axle
we can manipulate the distance
from the axle end to the rotor.
That would be possibly an option, okay.
But sometimes, please, please, please,
sometimes there's no good answer.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
If it's through axle,
cartridge bearing here,
we're looking at machining one
or getting a custom end cap
that would interchange
the tube to be nice.
So, yeah.
- Yeah, I guess the
easiest thing to do really,
is probably just realign
those calipers, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- Right, here we go.
The Dan.
I hope this isn't my colleague Dan Lloyd.
How do you stop squeaky cleats?
Tried all the videos regarding
to this on the GCN archive
but to no avail.
So I've failed miserably
there, with The Dan.
- I think we can say Jon,
video guy to video guy, watch it again.
- Try it again, you obviously
didn't watch properly.
- Watch it properly.
Put the beer down!
I think something's moving here, right.
That's right, that's right.
So loosen and make sure we're
good and greased under here
and there can be cases,
plastic to plastic.
Is it a tick or a squeak?
If it's actually a squeak,
it's probably the plastic to plastic,
that's a different sound that you get.
Sometimes a shim,
a really thin plastic
shim between the two.
A gasket, you're creating a gasket
to help reduce and stop that squeal.
Good example, going back again
we talked about the creaks
before and the cricket.
You have cricket, it's
driving you crazy at night.
Take some grease, put some
grease between the wings
it'll be quiet.
- (laughing) Very quiet.
- It's vegan grease.
It's going to be quiet for a while
but it's going to wear out.
So that's why a more
permanent solution is better
but I'm gonna say, if you
truly have tried everything,
and torqued everything tight.
Not just torqued it with
the torque wrench, but tight
and there's still some
movement, a gasket under there
'cause you won't hear it,
it might move a little bit
but you won't hear it.
- Now Lagerwal.
People say my legs look thin.
So should I shave my legs to
make them look even more thin?
- That's interesting.
Your pistons there, we're
gonna call them you pistons
'cause remember, the bike
doesn't stop at the crank.
It doesn't stop, it goes right on up
to the top of your pointy little head,
Lagerwal.
- Yep, Lagerwal.
- So you're contracting those muscles,
you're driving those pistons down.
They should be considered part of the bike
and they should be kept clean,
which is one of the real
reasons to shave your legs.
We talked about paint finishes
before, and paint by the way,
if you keep a frame clean,
it stays cleaner longer.
Dirt loves to stick to dirt.
Dirt loves to stick to
hair, so that's one reason.
And to make them even look more thin,
well be proud of who you are.
Be proud of who you are.
All body types are loved and welcome here,
for the most part.
- 100%
and should he shave or wax, do you reckon?
Or--
- Strip, strip, do the strip.
- You do the strips?
- Yeah, screaming.
More pain, if you love the pain
we would do the wax and strip.
- There we are, wax and strip.
David Kourin.
How can you tell when a rim is
worn out or needs replacing?
- That's a fun one.
There's two different types of wear
and I bet our good friend David here,
are we a rim breaker?
- I reckon David's a rim breaker, yeah.
- So he's an old timer like me.
So what we're saying is,
we're breaking with our rim
pads up at the rim surface
and if you're getting abrasions there
you're gonna wear that out eventually,
and the simple method is to
take any kind of straight edge,
a tool with a straight edge.
We lay it up on our rim,
and if it's a concave.
- I was looking for one.
It's just behind you here we go.
- So if we have a flat surface,
we'll see that they meet
and there's no daylight but oh,
if it's a dish now I'm getting daylight.
If you can see daylight,
if it's dished at all,
if you can feel the rim
with a dish, out of there.
And of course the EU, I'm
allowed to say that here?
- Yeah.
- The EU is saying that if you
must manufacture a wear mark
in the modern rims,
there will be a teenie
little hole or a line,
and if those lines have disappeared
or the hole's disappeared,
get out of there,
'cause eventually, it's
gonna blow the rim out, okay?
So that's one type of wear.
A rim needs replacing if
it's bent beyond rideability.
So the spoke truing can do some good
in making our wheels straight
but if you physically have bent the metal,
to where it can't come back,
you've exceeded the elastic limit,
coming back to our good friend James.
And it's not repairable.
- Yeah, likewise you hit
one of those potholes.
And once it happens.
- I was just riding along!
- Our favorite quote, man.
Just riding along, and it happened.
Niemann Pest, or nye-man Pest?
How important is frame facing and reaming?
None of my local bike shops
have the necessary tools.
The head tube ends on a
traditional lugged frame
I recently purchased are
not perfectly parallel.
- Perfect, we seek perfection
here at GCN, right?
- Yeah, 100%.
- Or close enough.
Basically, is it rugby?
I know they do this, I'm so American.
No blood, no foul?
Pretty much, yeah.
- Yeah.
- If the headset adjusts nicely,
if the bearings adjust nicely
and smooth, ride the bike.
- Ride the bike.
- So we're talking about the
surfaces of the head tube.
Let's take a bottom bracket.
Here we go, come back up again.
So this surface and this surface.
If we extend this with the
ruler and another ruler,
on a bad one you can actually see
the two parallel lines converge, yeah.
That's not good.
A bearing would be sitting crooked in here
and it would bind and wear
out sooner, absolutely.
But if it adjusts nicely, spins nicely
with no binding and
grabbing as it goes around,
it's close enough.
- Al Rad Hi.
I want to avoid rim crack
and hub flange crack.
Is it always better to use spoke washers
and/or nipple washers to
make my wheel more durable?
Now spoke washers and nipple washers,
you don't see them very often anymore.
- I love the old school.
Old school's teaching you.
- These questions, yeah.
- Okay grandpa.
- I'm amazed. (laughing)
- Where's the corking question?
When are we gonna talk
about corking our rims?
So what he's saying, he's
talking about at the rim
and he's trying to avoid point loading.
Point loading, so if we're
pulling here with tension, okay,
so we can use our kilogram
force or maybe 1000 Newton pull,
pretty tight spoke.
If we can spread out the
load there with a washer,
it's gonna be nice.
If you see rims that are eyeletted,
that's what they're doing there.
Helping spread out that load
and you can do it even
further with a washer.
That's good.
But the number one thing,
don't over-tighten.
Don't over-tighten, that's what, yep.
- So I'll let you into
a little story here.
Why I became so interested
in bike mechanics.
It was an Easter holidays, back in 1994.
I was at home, had a bike.
My rear wheel had a very
slight buckle in it.
So, went into my dad's
toolkit, got a spoke key,
started to try and and true up a wheel
for the first time ever.
That wheel became so out of true
by the time my grubby little
hands had done their work,
you couldn't actually remove
the wheel from the frame.
Because it was that badly out of shape.
- And that's the beginning
of the career we have now.
(Calvin laughing)
- Exactly.
And anyway, long story short,
my mum didn't say much.
All she said to me was, wait
until your father gets home.
My dad came home.
I had to face the music, I explained it
and surprisingly, he didn't
kill me, and I asked him,
once he'd just sort of
scratched his head a little bit,
I said dad, why have you not told me off?
And he said well, when I was your age,
I did exactly the same thing.
And the next day, once I'd
undone all of the spokes
and got the wheel out, I
learnt how to build wheels.
- That is a really important
story, our viewing fans.
We learn more from our failures
than our successes, okay.
Sometimes those failures
can be quite expensive.
Mister carbon rim.
But they're still important to remember
and that's the sign of a good mechanic.
You're gonna log that up here and remember
and remember, and add that
to your database, right.
You're building your own cool database.
So yeah.
- How did you
get into mechanics, by the way?
- It's almost a similar story.
So I was on a bike and it
was at this hardware store
and it was a Clubman.
Started on that.
- Are they from Austria?
- Austria, oh yeah.
- I had one.
In 1992 I had one too, yeah.
White with green headbands.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
so the first week I had it,
it didn't shift anymore
and the shifter was
sliding down the top tube.
It was sliding down.
And I tightened it, and
it was still sliding down
and, I'm gonna take this back.
And I made my parents drive me to the shop
and I walked into the mechanic
and this is not working,
this is sliding down,
this needs to be fixed,
and the guy looked at
me, looked at the bike,
looked at me and he says,
you put a pop can under
there and it'll fix it.
And I looked up at that guy and though,
I can do their job, I can do this.
And--
- It went from there.
- It went from there.
- Blimey.
The next question.
We've already answered this, Steve J H.
'Cause he asks, Mr.
J., were you a mechanic
who realized he had a gift for teaching--
- No.
- Or an educator first
with an interest in bikes?
So I reckon, Steve J H, he thought
you were a lecturer at
Harvard or something like that
and you thought, I've had enough of this.
- It's similar--
- I've had enough.
- It's a similar story.
I went to school, I went to college.
I got my double major, and
economics was one of my majors
and I had some professors
and they were really good.
I wanted to teach, I wanted
to go and get my Masters
and get a doctorate, right.
And I worked in a shop, always
worked in the shop there
and it was just too much fun.
So never got the degree,
worked for the national team
and Barnett Institute and then Park Tool.
So it just, life takes you.
You don't know.
- Carson Jones.
I'd like to know what Calvin would include
in a well-stocked saddlebag
that perhaps most riders
don't already include.
Are there items you find
helpful or essential
that are often overlooked?
- Oh boy, that is a really good one.
That's a good one, because
first, who are you?
Who are you Carson?
Well, so we can assume Jones, right.
- Possibly, yeah.
- But what kind of
things do you want to do?
So, are you the type of person
that's interested in me, me me.
Well then you're gonna be real minimalist.
Well, everyone first has
to start with a multi-tool.
The multi-tool that we recommend is.
- Is mine.
- Yeah, so if you see
Jon grab his multi-tool.
So of it's a screwdriver, a T25,
the usual right, that's nice.
Your tire levers are nice.
A little boot for the ripped tire is nice.
Tubeless people, some of the patches,
good luck with them, we'll
see how they play out.
All those type of things--
- Oh, the plugs.
- The plugs, that's right, or a porcupine.
- Worms or something.
- Yeah, a worm porcupine quill.
So, what I'm saying is, if
you're just concerned with you
there's only so much.
But what else is out there?
Do you carry a chain tool?
You should inspect your chain before
but I always carry a chain tool
because I want to help other people.
If you're a mechanic, that's
the difference between
you being a mechanic and
really being a true mechanic.
When I ride with Jon, if he breaks down
I want to help him, alright.
So he breaks down, right.
Some riders, drop the hammer, baby.
Jon's down, let's go, let's go man.
Leave that guy.
Me, nope.
Hey, I can learn something here.
He broke something, I'm gonna stop.
So, some M5, M6 bolts, some
nuts, some wire, zip ties.
Check around for the list but first start,
I would recommend, how do you want to be?
Is it just you, right,
or are you gonna think
about other people for once?
That's what, think about
others, help others.
- And always carry some ID
in your pocket, as well.
Always carry ID.
- That's a really good point.
And the cellphone thing is good too
and I'll tell you one thing that's good,
for some pictures and for some learning.
Before you fix your
cassette that fell apart,
let's take a picture of it.
And we'll put it on Instagram
and people can laugh at us.
(Jon laughing)
- Final question we're onto.
James Hodgson.
Is Jon going to be growing a big mustache
for the momentous occasion?
Alright, thanks James.
No James, we've had this
momentous occasion planned in
for months now, probably
coming up to a year
and I haven't shaved in a year, so.
- Well we have some supplements
on TV, late night TV,
I think there's some
supplements they talk about
that you can probably take Jon.
- Oh, the old hair growth.
- Yeah, the hair growth.
Testosterone substitutes,
that type of thing.
- Yeah, I'll give them a go, yeah.
- Okay.
- Just overdose on them.
- Well, that's mustache doping, so.
(Jon laughing)
We're not gonna let you
into the competition, so.
- Shucks.
Right, anyway.
It's been absolutely brilliant
and I can't thank Calvin
enough for coming in
and help answer some of your questions.
And he's gone into depths
which, well frankly, I couldn't
because I don't have that wealth
of experience and knowledge
and I'm worried what he's gonna do
with that hammer right now.
But anyway, as ever, thank you so much.
It's been an absolute pleasure.
- It's been great to be here
and I was only disappointed
that this wasn't the tool
that you immediately went and got
when that wheel was out, but.
(Jon laughing)
- No, no, the hammer, I only
use that to remove, well,
remove pressed bottom brackets.
- Often, yeah.
- Get them out with that.
- Thanks.
- It's a pleasure.
And that's it but remember
to like and share this video.
Leave us your questions
down there in the comments
for your, well, your technical problems.
And who knows, I have had
to in the past actually,
refer to Calvin for a couple of them
and I'm sure I will too in the future.
Just to get that definite answer.
And remember as well, check out
the GCN Shop at
shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com
where we have a whole heap of goodies.
We don't have any stickers like this
but well, you've got something else
to spend your pocket
money on in there too.
And now for another great
video, click just down here.
- Here.
- Here.
