Hot Outdoor Recreation Posts
How To: Put the pedals on your bike
Installing new pedals on your bike is one of the simplest types of bike maintenance you can perform, but doing it properly is important or they are likely to fall off while you are riding. Not good. This video will help you attached pedals correctly and quickly, avoiding accidents making sure that your feet have an ideal surface to apply their force to.
How To: Remove or install a cog set on your bike
The cog sets are the iconic pieces of the bike on the wheels with all their delicate layers of gears. This video features detailed instructions from a professional bike mechanic on how to install or remove a cog set on a mountain bike. This is useful if you want to clean your cog set or have purchased a new one that you would like to install.
How To: Perform a pad replace on Avid caliper brakes
Replacing the pads on your bike's brakes is a crucial and reasonably easy part of your bike's maintenance regimen. This video features detailed instructions on how to replace the pads on Avid caliper brakes, ensuring that even in a wet environment your bike will still stop when you want it to.
How To: Overhaul and Hayes caliper brake and re-set the piston
Hydraulic brakes are the new kid in town in the world of bike brakes, but their simplicity and functionality make them a good choice if you want to upgrade your brakes. This video features a professional bike mechanic explaining how to overhaul a Hayes caliper brake and reset the piston on it.
How To: Put new pads on a Hayes caliper brake
If you mountain bike, and are lucky enough to live somewhere that has enough water to support civilization without major civil engineering, then your brake pads are probably going to wear out a lot faster than your dry-climate comrades. Fortunately for you, this video features instructions for how to replace the pads of a Hayes caliper brake for a mountain bike.
How To: Replace the Pads on a Hayes Sole Brake
Hayes sole brakes are a very popular type of bike brake. Then, you probably already know that if you are watching this video. It features a professional mountain bike mechanic explaining how to quickly and easily replace the pads on your beloved Hayes brakes, ensuring a lack of fade while braking and making sure that your bike will stop when it has to every time.
How To: Set up an international standard (IS) brake caliper
Installing and maintaining properly functioning brakes is one of the most important mechanical parts of keeping your bike working safely. This video features a professional bike mechanic setting up an international standard, or IS, brake caliper on a mountain bike.
How To: Install tubeless tires on a mountain bike
Using a tubeless tire system on your mountain bike is a great idea. It decreases the number of parts on your bike that can brake, which is good news for any rider. This video features a professional bike mechanic installing a Stan's Tubeless system on a standard set of bike tires. There are other systems that you can use, but you'll have to find another video to learn how to do the install if you don't use Stan's.
How To: Cut and install SRAM Avid Juicy brakes on your bike
Being able to stop a mountain bike abruptly is crucial to your continued survival if you ride. SRAM Avid Juicy's are a popular type of high-performance mountain bike brakes. This video will teach you how to install and cut said brakes on your bike, as long as you have the proper tools. It features many safety tips for keeping your corrosive brake fluid from damaging all sorts of other things, from your bike's paint to your eyes.
How To: Adjust the front derailleur on a mountain bike
Unlike rear derailleurs, which are very complicated and come in at least two very different styles, front derailleurs are pretty standard across manufacturers. That means you only have to watch this one video to learn how to adjust them! It features a professional mountain bike mechanic walking you through the adjustment process. This ensures proper shifting and chain flow, which will keep you on the bike and riding smoothly.
How To: Install a square-taper bottom bracket and crank
Back in the day, all mountain bikes had square taper bottom brackets and cranks. Modern bike makers have moved away from this style, but some still prefer it. This video will teach you how to install a specialty square-taper bottom bracket and crank on your mountain bike.
How To: Do an overhaul on a Shimano free hub
Bicycle equipment company Shimano is the father of the free hub. This video features a professional mountain bike mechanic walking you through the process for overhauling a Shimano free hub, ensuring that your wheels spin as freely as possible and that your rides will be as easy and fun as the terrain and your effort level will allow.
How To: Do an overhaul on a Mavic free wheel hub
Overhauling the wheel hubs on your bike is important to ensuring proper wheel spin. Proper wheel spin means you get more power out of your pedaling. This video features a professional bike mechanic explaining how to overhaul the free side of a Mavic wheel hub. Keeping the hub clean is vital to making your rides as fun and easy as possible, so don't skip it!
How To: Do an overhaul on a Mavic wheel hub
The wheel hub is the center of great wheel performance for your mountain bike. This video features a professional bicycle mechanic explaining the process for overhauling a Mavic wheel hub, installing a new bearing and cleaning all of the parts, ensuring clean spinning for your wheels and a smooth ride.
How To: Determine why your bike chain is skipping
If you bike chain is skipping, and you aren't sure why, you could have a worn-out cog issue. This is especially likely if you cogs are substantially older than your chains. This video will teach you how to assess your cogs for wear. which will help you determine whether you need new ones or need to take other steps to get your bike riding smoothly again.
How To: Install a P knuckle while overhauling a derailleur
The p knuckle of the rear derailleur is a small part that regulates the tension of the chain running over the derailleur. This video features a professional bike mechanic installing the p knuckle into a rear derailleur during an overhaul of the derailleur. This is an important piece of maintenance even for new equipment, so take note!
How To: Get your rear derailleur into a high normal standard
Most rear derailleurs (read: not Shimano) are high-normal, which means that they shift into the highest gear on the bike by default. This video features a professional bike mechanic walking you through the process of adjusting the rear derailleur and its cables into a high-normal setting, ensuring crisp shifting and a more successful ride.
How To: Adjust cable tension, jockey wheel, derailleur hanger
THere are many parts of the rear derailleur on a mountain or road bike that need frequent adjustment to function properly and give you proper performance on your rides. This video will teach you how to adjust the cable tension, the jockey wheel, and the hanger of the derailleur, ensuring that the whole system is functioning smoothly and that your bike will work as well as possible.
How To: Put the replacement cable in a rear derailleur
The cable that connects your rear derailleur to the shifters on your bike may seem too long, delicate, and complex to fix yourself. You may be right, but if you have some bike maintenance experience and want to try then this video is for you. It walks you through the whole process of replacing the cable in your rear derailleur. It is a long process, and elaborate, but will dramatically improve your shifting performance if your cable is old and worn.
How To: Adjust the adjustment screws on low normal derailleur
Adjusting the rear derailleur on a bike is an important way to fine-tune your bike's shifting performance, but is complicated and can vary in method and effectiveness depending on the brand of derailleur. This video features instructions on how to adjust a low-normal rear derailleur using the adjustment screws.
How To: Adjust a rear low-normal derailleur
Most rear derailleurs are high-normal, which means that they default the chain to high gear. Shimano derailleurs, however, are low-normal, defaulting to the lowest gear on the bike. This video details how to adjust a low-normal derailleur into normal cable tension. This works very differently than on a normal bike, so make sure you pay attention!
How To: Install the Rear Derailleur on the derailleur hanger
The derailleur is an important, albeit French, part of most modern bikes. This video features a professional mountain bike mechanic demonstrating the installation of a rear derailleur on a mountain bike. It is a short video, but detailed enough that any DIY bike mechanic should be able to do it themselves.
How To: Use a Cyclone tool to clean your bike chain
Cleaning your bike chain is an arduous but necessary part of regular bike maintenance. The Cyclone chain cleaner, or any of its competitors, make the process a lot easier to do without taking the chain off the bike. This video features a professional bike mechanic demonstrating how to use one such product effectively, saving you time.
How To: Remove your bike chain using the master link
Taking the chain off of you bike for cleaning is an arduous task, especially since you usually don't explicitly have to do it. It just seems like a good idea. That's because it is. This video features a professional bike mechanic detailing the process of removing a bike chain using a master link in preparation for cleaning. Most modern chains have a master link, so you should be able to do this yourself.
How To: Clean a bike chain off the bike
Having a clean bike chain is vital to the proper performance of you bike, mountain, road, or BMX. This video features a professional bike mechanic walking you through the process of cleaning your chain when you have it taken off of the bike. He recommends a modern biodegreaser, but if you want to give your work some old-school flair you can use diesel fuel like the old European pro teams. The environment will hate you for it, but it works.
How To: Illuminate a stiff link chain on the trail
Does the chain on your bike skip? One common reason for this to happen is stiff link chains. This video features a professional mountain bike mechanic demonstrating how to illuminate, or make loose, stiff link chains if you get caught with them out on the trail. If you don't do this, and your chain skips enough, it's going to come off and you are going to stack, so make sure your bike is maintained properly!
How To: Install the chainring on a mountain bike
The chainring is without a doubt the most intimidating part of a bicycle. It looks like a ninja star from hell, and working with it can be difficult. This video features a professional mountain bike mechanic demonstrating how to install a chainring on your bike yourself. If you ride a lot, this is something you are going to have to do eventually, so learn it now, and don't get you leg stuck between the chainring and the chain! Painful.
How To: Remove a non-self extracting crank from mountain bike
If you are unlucky enough to have a bike whose setup does not features a self-extracting crank, then this video is for you! It shoes you how to remove a non-self extracting crank properly as part of you normal bike maintenance. Never envy the self extracting crank kids again after you learn how to take off you non-self extracting crank yourself easily.
How To: Fix a loose bearing square taper
If you have a more old-fashioned mountain bike, you may be familiar with the loose bearing square taper system of bearings. This video features a professional mountain bike mechanic demonstrating the process of overhauling a loose bearing square taper, giving new life to that old bike that made you fall in love with mountain biking in the first place.
How To: Install or remove an Octalink-ISIS cartridge
This bike maintenance video features an experienced bicycle mechanic removing and installing an Octolink-ISIS cartridge from the bottom bracket of his mountain bike. You need some specialized tools if you're going to try this bit of mountain bike maintenance yourself, but doing so will save you time and money on going to the shop, so try it!
How To: Do the backloop trick in kiteboarding
In this tutorial, learn how to do the complicated kiteboarding trick - the "backloop". This trick requires super upper body strength to pull off. If you think you've got what it takes, follow along with pro Mathias Wichmann as he shows you how to soar.
How To: Do a "313" kiteboarding trick with Mathias Wichmann
In this clip, learn how to do the super cool kiteboarding trick "313". This move is taught by pro Mathias Wichmann and is definitely not for the faint of heart. So, if you think you can handle it, check it out and start flying!
How To: Set up the rear suspension on a mountain bike
Rear suspension bikes are the bikes of choice for most hardcore mountain bikers. This video features a professional mountain bike rider offering a quick tip on how to set the rear suspension of your bike properly to give it the right amount of travel and maximize its effectiveness.
How To: Do a Hasselhoff trick while kiteboarding
In this clip, Mathias Wichmann shows you exactly how to do a Hasselhoff on your kiteboard. This trick is pretty intense and definitely not for beginners but if you have been kiteboarding for a while and are searching for a new trick - check it out! This is super cool and will gain you a ton of props and applause from anyone watching.
How To: Make a cheap bike light mount out of PVC pipe
In this clip, learn how to make a fast, cheap and super easy mount for your your bicycle to display safety lights. Wearing bike lights at night will help you stay safe in the dark and if you want to avoid the cost of getting lights custom fitted, this hack is perfect for you. All you will need is some PVC pipe and some grip tape (like the kind used for tennis rackets). Follow along and get started. This mount is flexible and fits most standard lights or flashlights.
How To: Tie the traffic jam trico cluster for flyfishing
In this clip, learn how to tie up your bait like a pro. You will get step by step advice on tying a traffic jam trico cluster for flyfishing. If you would like to catch the big guys, you will need to use this tutorial to get started.
How To: Do a flair on your BMX bike
In this video, learn how to flair on your BMX bike like a pro. A flair is a super cool trick that you will have to practice a lot to get right, but this clip will start you off on the right foot. Follow along as Collin shows you all you need to know about flairing on your BMX.
How To: Do a hitchhiker trick on your BMX bike
Check out this video for a step by step tutorial on how to perform the very cool hitchhiker stunt on your BMX bike. In this clip, Rad Dad shows you how to combine a bunch of different tricks into one - the hitchhiker! This is a pretty advanced move so you will need to be familiar with steamrollers, double footed steamrollers, half hikers and karl kruisers.
How To: Install or remove the FSA Mega Exo system
The FSA Mega Exo is a sophisticated integrated spindle external bearing crank. Like most elaborate bike products, it has several of its own quirks that make installing it different than installing any other similar product, like the Truvativ GXP. This video demonstrates the installation of the FSA Mega Exo system, listing all of the tools your will need and the step that you have to perform to integrate this high-performance part into your biking life.
How To: Fix a loose bearing on Shimano Octolink bottom bracket
This video will help you perform a rather elaborate piece of bicycle maintenance, overhauling and fixing a loose bearing in a Shimano Octolink pipe spindle bottom bracket. It is a long, complicated process that requires some specialized bike maintenance tools, but if you have these and are ready to increase the amount of maintenance that you are performing on your bike yourself, this video will walk you through the process in great detail and at a manageable pace.