Secrets To Truing Wheels, Optimizing Handlebar Height, The Best Tasting Sealant? ...Ep. 119 [Podcast]

Today on the podcast, our head mechanic Trevor joins us as we full on nerd out on tons of tech related questions courtesy of all you listeners out there. Tune in as we go over everything from how to properly bed in your brakes to diagnosing creaks, the best tasting sealant and everything in between. 

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 ladies and gentlemen welcome to episode 119 of the MTB podcast presented and hosted by worldwide Cyclery I am Jared I'm Liam I'm Trevor ladies and gentlemen you heard that right today we have Trevor our head mechanic in the California shop here on the podcast to shed a little bit of wisdom Bike Tech stuff we're going to talk about a bunch of different stuff today aren't we Liam yes

our upcoming Italy trip we were leaving in a couple days for um what we're going to do to set up our bikes for that trip and we're also going to talk about a bunch of Bike Tech questions that we received from the listeners and also we're going to get a little bit of insight on to what Trevor has been writing lately and kind of setup is going into that as well let's do it yeah let's do it um Trevor we'll use this anyway I was just gonna say Jeff is absent from this episode as he's already in Europe Italy with his family he is doing family stuff hopefully having a great time and not working at all but um I've already gotten a couple emails from him so I think he is definitely working he's always working he's always working but yeah let's get into it Trevor what uh what are you writing right now um right now I'm riding a Yeti SB 140. uh we did a custom build at the shop which was super awesome with all the new latest and greatest SRAM Rock shocks components so I did a full SRAM RockShox build with the purple 140 frame which was pretty cool to do super high end and been riding that for the past couple months and it's been awesome I've been running that and I've also been riding a Crestline RS 7550 nice which has also been super fun so getting a little analog action getting a little e-bike action so a little bit analog analog yeah Amish bikes

I have customers tell me that all the time and I think it's hilarious awesome well you've been racing bikes actually both uh acoustic and non-acoustic for years now yep um and you as well Liam um yeah well let's see what else what else we got here why did you pick the 140. I picked the 140 because um mainly I just wanted a bike that could kind of do it all um I feel like the 140 is uh kind of blurring the lines between a lot of different bikes and you can really make it excel in one different area based off of your setup which at least me and Liam are really in tune with like getting a very unique setup to kind of enhance a certain style of riding and that's been that's been super fun to to play with and experiment as we're able to we're uh we're pretty lucky here to test some different stuff here and different tire setups wheel setups brakes all that stuff and it's really cool to be able to fine-tune different aspects of one bike you know yep totally um you just got back from Big Bear yes last week yes or something like that yep I took a uh I took a day trip up to Big Bear to Snow Summit and I rode the 140 there and I was a little bit at first a little nervous because it's like oh it's a 140 bike but I have a 160 lyric on it and I put um downhill tires downhill Wheels inserts nice and uh just for stability and it made the bike super fun uh probably the most fun bike I've ever ridden at Big Brand I've ridden a big bear a lot nice and I was I was really happy with that it was it was really fun I feel like Heavy Wheels and Tires help in the downhill scenario a lot it makes such a big difference going from like light wheels EXO casing tires to like a double Downer and downhill entire setup and totally changes the bike so when I originally built the bike I built it with yeah EXO tires and bird Wheels which is great for at home riding local Trails super lightweight setup low uh low rolling resistance um yeah it gets up to speed fast and it's really fun but as soon as I would take it on something a little gnarlier where I'm going to be pushing it at more of like a race Pace it started to become a little like unnerving it felt like I was under biking a little bit and yeah so I'd wanted to experiment with that with some yeah heavier Duty DT Swiss built wheels and Dyno casing tires and it completely changed the way the bike rode and honestly inspired confidence which I was really happy about yeah totally like one of the last things you want when you're riding your gnarly stuff is feeling like you're going to break your wheels or like flat your tires exactly and when I put the downhill setup on I could push harder than I wanted to and that was really awesome I also put big rotors on it 220 rotors we'll probably get into this later with some questions but yeah that whole aspect of changing around bike setup on the Fly for a specific trailer specific ride yeah is one of my favorite things to do totally nice well that's kind of a good segue into like what we're gonna do to stop our bikes for this trip yeah um so where you guys going we're going to the dolomites little town called corvara um and uh gosh I don't even know exactly what part of Italy technically it is but a little north of Venice I guess in the dolomites yeah um which we're flying into Venice and then we're we're heading up there but um yeah I mean I guess I'm not really doing anything uh too crazy in particular bike set up like it got double down retire uh Maxis aggressor and then an EXO plus Max grip ask the guy on the front um and I'm just gonna make sure my like suspension's all totally dialed in you know yep like just feeling good although it's feeling pretty good right now so you know 10 year what bike are you going oh yes forbidden Druid foreign

out there um but yeah I've written it a little bit lately and just been dialing it in and like getting more used to it and and I'm loving it um but yeah you know I thought about doing like an insert here and there but like I don't really ride inserts that much so I don't want to change anything too crazy and you have the Crank Brothers synthesis carbon yeah and like those are good wheels so you don't necessarily need inserts on those They Ride pretty good so yeah what about you Liam I'm bringing my Revel rail29 uh that I've kind of been riding all summer I have a lyric on that on the front at 160 and then uh yeah I'll do EXO plus ask in the front double down dissector in the rear uh XC coach core inserts front and rear on those so nice sounds like a pretty good setup yeah it's good um setup yeah good old Mountain setup but Double Down rear so I can I don't know what exactly we're going to be riding on there so I'd rather just have the protection for sure um and then inserts to say my Alloy rims from denting or pinch flatting and yeah to ask out front kind of just anytime I want to bike with you know decent amount of travel just the ass guy lives up front there's really no other point to run a different tire yeah for us especially out here so agreed yeah you're what like 150 pounds right or like around there what kind of pressure do you typically run um on this bike I'll run like 22 22.5 in the front and like 25 in the rear nice so

similar actually yeah maybe a little bit more like uh another one or two PSI on the front and rear you know but I do like a little bit lower pressure I just feel like I like the way the bike rides and like the the grip and traction you get and like compliance you know over rocks and roots and tips I don't really know how many roots or whatever I don't think there's much Roots but for me if you're riding trails that you don't really know riding in a little bit lower tire pressure helps with attraction and then you don't know the trail so you're not like pushing into stuff as hard and have like the chance of like Rolling Tires or like you know having issues I guess the issue would be like Jared and Whistler he didn't know the trail and he pulled up for a gap and came about six inches short on the Gap yeah like right on the knuckle like right at the top of the landing yeah had a wheel issue and there happened to be a rock there too which was perfect yeah and that's not the rim was like

always better to be little if you don't know where you're going at least or the Train's always better to be over biked over tired yeah all that stuff just to better be safe than sorry right for sure yeah I'd say properly tired and piked yeah we're not bringing the downhill bike to a cross country course yeah or even downhill casing tires to go pedal no it's like yeah yeah that would be gnarly EXO plus Double Down is a pretty solid combo so yeah I'm not too worried about that I think if you're if you're running a downhill casing tires on a trail bike you should probably only be racing or doing shuttle laps yeah somewhere where you're not gonna be pedaling at all or if you are pedaling you're going to be racing so it doesn't matter as much totally and uh just to be because yeah no one wants to Pedal that around no no yeah super inefficient we have yeah it's not the most fun ever yeah no like that one time in Sedona earlier this year except for those shuttle laps that was super fun when we're shoveling that trail yep we saw what Waits then it pays off it did it was amazing I was like this is the best yeah didn't it didn't yeah we saw Wade Simmons on a on uh what was that trail called um it was the shuttle Trail oh man I forgot what that trail is called too I'm playing on it right now but uh yeah we saw Wade Simmons there and he was like you guys shuttle in that thing he thought that Liam was Remy Natalia yeah which uh I couldn't really see the correspondence it was to be fair it was like seven in the morning yeah um well uh first he goes are you Remy remember tell you and then I was like what like almost taken back maybe slightly offended yeah and then he goes oh no you guys are guys from worldwide yeah and I was like it's such a weird segment to like recognize me for him yeah and then know exactly who we were yeah I was like whoa yeah yeah cool dude that was a trip but it was cool though that trail is super fun gosh yeah I can't remember the name of it I feel like it was a one word like just boom but whatever he'll figure it out yeah it's like the only full shuttle Trail in Sedona yeah someone in the comments leave that below because uh some people will know that for sure yeah up by the airport road we went up Airport Road park at the vortex and then we went from there shuttle down to like yeah I forgot what it's called we'll figure it out well should we jump into some questions what do you guys think yeah beautiful let's get some questions let's do it all right boys why is it so important to bed breaks in properly how and when do you do it so you want to bed your brakes in as soon like when you're building up a bike everything's brand new if you go to break your bike it's not going to do anything there's no friction there so you need to have your brake pads the brake pad material be bedded into the rotor to properly do it from what I know is to go in a straight line go up to speed Sprint your bike in a parking lot and hold the brakes down evenly and then go kind of do a slow walking speed and then let off do that pretty much as many times as you can we're we're pretty lucky here at the shop where our shop is on a hill so I just pedal up to the top of the hill and then with each break while betting the brakes going down the hill it's much easier that way yeah because it's pretty exhausting to do it in a parking lot you're constantly sprinting and not sprinting yeah but it's really important to do that so your brakes are grabbing evenly and you won't warp your rotors and do any bad things if you don't do it properly your brakes are going to make horrible noises and they're not going to work as good as they can and in my opinion brakes are the most important thing on the bike to stop you in time that's how you go fast these two can slow down fast yep and uh yeah you gotta gotta Bend those in not many people realize that but it's a very very important thing to do yeah so essentially just transferring the material from the brake pad to the rotor evenly it's way more important when both are brand new uh especially the rotors brand new if the rotors used and you're putting new pads on the braking periods like in half maybe even a third um and usually at that point like it goes pretty quick but yeah when stuff's brand new like I think it's super important to do that so yeah and if you're putting like new brake pads on an old rotor you don't have to as long as it's the same compound you don't have to do it as it's not as important to do it because the brake pad material is already on the rotor but it's still important to get that initial service off the brake pad I've heard there's some little tips that you can do where you can actually wet your brake pads and rub them together and it kind of gets that initial surface off of there interesting put them put them in and it kind of does that process for you of getting that first little like glazed layer off of the brake pad not necessary but little tip to speed up the process little drops of water and then you kind of rub them together really seen like World Cup mechanics exact stuff but interesting yeah they probably don't have as much time to do that kind of stuff exactly and honestly it's a big effort to bed the brakes in properly like let's say you're a mechanic at a World Cup and you your athlete wants the brakes to work on the run immediately as they've been doing like chat like shuttle laps or laps in the course they want it to work as good as they can right away yeah you need to make sure that break is bedded in and if you've ever bedded a break and it takes about a ride sometimes to get them really working good totally um so that could be tough for someone in a World Cup environment yeah and you don't want your Rider to like going down with no brakes you're like sorry yeah I've shuttled I've shuttled Crestline before with the Buddy and he didn't write his brakes in and he was like oh screw it I'm just gonna bed them in while I go on the Steep down the trail but the Donald Trail you're getting the bridge as hot as they can get pretty much and yeah your brakes are not gonna work as good as they'll ever work with that pad and rotor combo in that scenario I would have ridden the road down yeah and got a proper bed in got the next shot your whole day is going to be better yeah yeah yeah and like the life of your rotors and pads that too yeah so a lot of noise comes from bad betting so yeah I was gonna say is there anything you can do like if you improperly bed your rotors and pads in like retroactively can you fix that somehow if you're looking to take some drywall screen to them both both it depends how long they've been going and like I don't know how bad it is but yeah you can take some drywall screen to it evenly sand the pads I usually use like a figure eight pattern on a flat surface and then rotors you kind of like spin the rotor in the in the bike but have no pads in there okay nice do that and then clean them both with some alcohol so cool just get a fresh surface on the pads basically your friend yeah for a friend yeah get a fresh surface or as fresh as you can and yeah that's your best bet nice yeah cool all right noted awesome how about next question leave you want to read that yep I'm wondering if you have any tips on setting bar height I was feeling light in the front wheel lately and dropped to my bar a few millimeters and that seemed to help any rule or thumb any rules of thumb or tips and tricks that have worked for you all right it's kind of personal preference and trial and error yeah unfortunately I was gonna say it's it's uh it's very personal yeah yeah what what works for some people doesn't work for others um I'm a pretty consistent person I run five or ten mil under my stem and if it's a trail bike or like bigger travel bike I usually run a 35 mil rise bar if it's you know lower trail bike or an XC bike I run like a 15 or 20 mil rise bar and that's just kind of where it is it depends on the bike as well I was gonna say because some head tubes are way taller than others some are short did you over Fork the bike from what it has came with um and and also your terrain yeah are you riding like I know Jordan where I was talking to Jordan he's like dude every month I keep bumping my bars up he he moved from SoCal to Bellingham so everything up there super steep the more local Trails he finds the steeper they are and he just keeps bumping his front end up bigger rise bars more spaces under the stem adds you know 10 mil and four travel um so it does depend where you're at um yeah they probably uh you know have a lot a lot less like off-camber well I mean we don't have any like proper berms anywhere in this County so he's probably like yeah I can you know yeah they've got catch brooms and stuff everywhere like properly built trips it really is like personal like I wouldn't be afraid to experiment because and don't be ashamed if you think it's not the normal thing to do because what's normal might not be good for you yeah um like take an example of Dakota Norton he's Racing for intense and he's got the biggest stock I've ever seen in my life I think he just got six places or something at the World Cup he just he just killed it so yeah true or he qualified six at least and um yeah for me personally I'm a pretty tall guy I'm pretty lanky I've got long arms long legs and I like a higher stack when I first built that Yeti I just rode the normal Trail One bars no ride or the mid-rise ones and um they were good but I felt like I was hunched over too much and I didn't enjoy that as much I felt like the bike felt small for me for that and so Liam gave me a set of the high-rise bars and I put that on with the big stack and it felt much more comfortable for me also with bar roll like the standard is to kind of have it in line with the fork offset and personally I like the bar roll to be up I don't know why it just that's how I feel comfortable riding and maybe it's something I've gotten used to and that's just what works for me it might not be might not work for everybody you know so I wouldn't be scared to experiment in general like if you're the higher your stack height is the higher your bar height is the better it will be for Steep riding and the opposite of your lower level lower stack it's going to be better for just normal XC trail riding or not as steep riding but again that's super personal still and you just need to experiment and just do one change at a time and you'll be you'll be good to go eventually yeah yeah the nice thing is if your bike has some spacers above or below the stem it's free to try so you can just add some on top add some on bottom go out for a ride take no go do the same Trail make a change yeah you know when I'm sitting on my bike I'm not scared to take out the multi-tool and change the stack height or the bar roll because that is something you can do instantly that will change your writing experience pretty dramatically um at least on the downhill yeah I was gonna say also like putting your borrow a little bit more forward probably might help you put more wheel or weight on the front wheel too right um also I was wondering like if you've experiment with you know your spacers and like your your bar rise is there like a tangible difference for instance like if you drop your you know your stack by like 10 mil um or for instance if you raise your stack by 10 mil versus putting a 10 millise bar like is that basically doing the same thing or almost but not really almost um technically as you add spacers under your stem you're actually shortening your reach we're only talking like maybe two or three mil for like every 10 mil of spaces under your stem so it's not a huge deal but say you are trying to eke out more reach of your bike or it's a little long you can like make an adjustment for that but we're only talking a few millimeters so yeah um for experiment's sake it's almost the same um just you know moving up and down and say you did move it up a bunch but you're like oh you know that felt good but I do want to get a 35 millise bar you can put it back down get 35 millise bar and you'll probably have like a very similar feel nice yeah also if if something I've learned in the past like uh most bikes that I've ridden in the past have been extra large bikes and since working here I've been sizing down a little bit to large bikes so from reach numbers to from five to five ten all the way now to like 475 485 which is a pretty big difference and at first I felt like oh wow I feel cramped I'm this is pretty small I'm so used to this huge reach and I would say just just uh give it some time because um it takes a while to get used to a bike and just trust it a little bit and get used to it and it might be much better for you actually totally um I was racing our Crestline e-bike the RS 75.50 and it's uh the rh3 which is 475 reached which I was pretty nervous about for reach because it's so dramatic than the other bike I was riding it was a 510 reach and I actually ended up loving it because of how small it was the smaller e-bike was fun to move around and once your body gets used to it and you feel comfortable and natural on it it actually can be a huge Advantage um and so my advice is maybe don't stress as much about it and just try and figure it out try and get used to it nice yeah something like on paper might not feel the same in the real world yeah it's easy to it's easy to get worried about numbers yeah um but you just need to ride the bike totally yeah agreed stop being a head case right totally all right next question what is the best way to oh wait no I skipped one I'm sorry if your bike mechanic insists on working on your bike naked should you be concerned no not at all you need all of the the movement and stuff not to get caught like you know you get a tool cut on your shirt you know that's a big deal so yeah naked's the way to go I think the key to being a mechanic is being relaxed yeah you need to you need to you need to be relaxed so you can think good you know yeah I mean I don't know if I would feel as relaxed if I was completely naked oh that's how I feel the most relaxed maybe maybe by myself yeah but uh will it be weird if you know like we were just all here and you're back there naked yeah but I mean if it was like pretty often you were just like in your garage wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've seen here honestly you're right oh man that's awesome all right a practical question what is the best way to eliminate random squeaking and creaking noises all right favorite yeah Best Thing uh this is my job my bike people come in my bike's creaking I gotta fix it right so take a job number one thing I always say and it's honestly proven is just wash your bike very well do like a thorough job of washing your bike don't watch it too well where you're blowing out the grease and all that stuff that'll make your bike Creak even more but do a thorough job of cleaning your bike make it nice and shiny a clean bike is a happy bike and a quiet bike degrees um drive train you should drive train lube it up light degrees yeah don't go too hard but lube it up like just do a thorough job make it proper maybe we should do a video about that in the future but because it's super helpful I've had people come to me in the past and they're like oh Trevor my bike is creaking what do I do have you cleaned your bike now so clean your bike and then go to ride it and it's going to feel brand new or most likely if there's an underlying issue then there's a an underlying issue but it could also be from lack of cleaning and riding over and over and over again at the very least like before before we ride it like Luber chain cleaner seals make sure your bike isn't super muddy before you write it and it'll be much happier that way nice yeah and then from there if you're still having actual creaking squeaky noises uh first is crank some bottom bracket it's just what collects dirt the most is close to the ground and it spends all the time so check that then from there uh you can kind of eliminate whether it's coming from the headset or the rear end um if you can do that uh I just start checking like shock mounts that's a good one make sure your axles are tight especially rear axle that causes creaking and squeaking um but yeah I just say do one thing at a time go on test ride and see if it works you can do little things like eliminate where a possible cause of a creek would be like for example if it's a drivetrain issue or you could eliminate a drivetrain issue if you take the chain off and try to try to spin a wheel or try to spin a bearing or spin the crank set you can eliminate that with the chain on or off and you can move the seat up and down you can check for play in the shock you can apply the front brake and move the headset just little things to kind of diagnose where the actual Creek is coming from and that'll be your best bet to know where to attack the problem and then go from there nice process of elimination process of elimination goes a long way I like it how about this one man can you use P instead of sealant and also which tire sealant tastes the best chairs tire sealant tastes the best

that is disgusting um you could use PSIs heal and I don't think it'll work yeah it might not seal it won't seal anything yeah and then if you get a flat ear screw yeah you think beans pee would work um probably not but I bet you hear hairballs would yeah it makes the two

whenever I change it's higher and they've used PD sealant that stuff smells a little interesting yeah same with like the Finish Line stuff it maybe uses like a veneer or something but the Finish Line looks like cookies and cream it does and the PDS looks delicious as well it looks uh it looks great but that's like the blue yeah and it's got like little sparkles in it little Flakes and stuff that sounds good and same with the muck off muck off one is very similar yeah maybe I would imagine Berry flavors yeah exactly and it's it smells different than a normal sealant yeah um that's the I would that would that would probably taste the best yeah the other stuff maybe that works a little bit better like orange seal I don't know if that tastes good either you might know you bloop retired the other day did you get something you got some in your mouth oh man I probably did yeah but I don't think it tasted very good well yeah I don't think I'd actually taste any sealant just for a uh disclaimer maybe just like a little bit on your pinky like a you know like a little bit like that because if it will seal a tire it might seal some other stuff that's true yeah only way if I'm tasting sealant is if Jared blows up another tire in my face we're stealing some tires right all right this is a long one this is a long one um I'm currently in the process of warranty frame replacement on my current carbon MTB due to a crack I'm a little worried about building out and riding the replacement frame and having the same thing happen again met some local Riders who have also had the same thing happen from the same manufacturer should I look to get a different bike now that I've seen multiple instances of frame failure from this company costs will play a big factor here considering I'll have to buy a new frame and some new parts for both the bike and get the replacement bike in sellable condition that's a tough one man um I well I can understand I think I guess the first part though would be how is the crack happening is it like a little stress track that happens and then the company takes care of you really well um are there any catastrophic failures to be noted because like you know the end of the day we are riding carbon or alloy bikes um and they will they do develop cracksuits which is what happens yeah you know obviously you don't want that to happen um but it does sometimes so that'll be my thought is like is this a little crack that you know I notice you know every two or three years and then the company is really cool and takes good care of you if so I wouldn't be nervous at all about riding that I would just write it um if there's some big catastrophic failures of friends or on the Internet then maybe look to get a different frame and good news is there's a lot of frames on sale right now a lot of parts on sale right now so it's true there's a lot of really good bikes that's a really good time to buy a new bike it is yeah yeah I mean I don't know I kind of in the same boat like if it's something that is going to you know were you safety wise then I would probably look into another bike and just like you don't want that you know in the back of your head all the time right like whoa if I case this jump is my like fork in my head tube gonna snap off for sure um in which case like you know I don't know I would I would probably like warranty the frame and then sell the replacement frame Keep Your Parts get a new frame you know do that kind of deal or Build It Up with Your Parts sell it and buy a whole new bike and just like start from scratch um but yeah I guess that's probably what I would do yeah what do you think I agree with both of you I think if I think cracks and stress fractures happen on frames all the time it's just a thing yeah if it's a if it's a catastrophic failure and you don't trust it anymore get a get a new warranty frame from the manufacturer and I would just have the shop Swap all that stuff over for you and then sell the bike and then get something new get something fresh just because it's worth it yeah to do that I don't think it's worth it to get a frame and put your old Parts on the old frame I don't think that's necessarily worth it yeah but also at the same time like I would be grateful that you're you have a warranty if you bought it if you're the original owner of the bike yeah um yeah most manufacturers are pretty good about that process and they will help you out much as they can because they want you to be happy and um and and yeah I wouldn't stress too much about that it's just part of the part of the process yeah I guess it depends on the warranty right how bulletproof is your warranty yep exactly so another key point about buying a bike new is so you can get that warranty and it plays a big factor in trusting the bike and being able to push the bike as well and without having to worry about cracking it for sure nice yeah well it's that time how about an ad ad from our sponsors and now a word from our sponsors hey this is Craig federie from Apple I'm here to let you know last week at Apple Park we had our worldwide developers conference and we're really excited about our New Vision Pro we are looking for developers to help create the world's first augmented reality mountain bike game if you're a developer and intimately familiar with wearing a VR headset while riding your mountain bike please email me at Craig apple.com thank you and now back to the show you know this question I uh I could have asked but I didn't because I could use the knowledge what are the secrets to truing a wheel oh there are secrets that's it's it's a dark art what is the secret star story tell me I want to know what's up did you learn any secrets Trevor when starting here well to be fair and honest I didn't I can Tru I could true a wheel pretty good when I first started working here but I did not know how to build up a wheel from scratch um the previous places I had worked other people kind of took care of that for me so I never had the opportunity to really learn and Liam is a master wheel Builder so I got to learn from him and that was great and through through practice of my own wheels and a bunch of customers Wheels I feel very competent competent in it now competent and confident um things I have learned patience is your friend and also you really have to feel out what the wheel is doing there's no like there's no trick to it there's you have to like understand that if you do a certain movement on a certain spoke that it's going to affect something else and you have to do one thing at a time and then eventually you have to be patient and it'll add up to a more true wheel um also sometimes it's better to not have a wheel true but to have a wheel strong um we did a wheel today actually where the wheel was was pretty beat and it's going to be raced and it's much better at least for an amount bike Enduro like competition it's better to have a strong wheel with even spoke tension than it is to have a true wheel with uneven spoke tension because the TR the wheel is just going to get untrue or the the tension is going to be lost almost instantly so if you have a wheel that's going to be strong and even tension on both sides it's going to stay that way for longer as far as Secrets go yeah I'd say for me secrets is really uh de-stressing the spokes a lot especially building a new wheel I am not that heavy I will literally take the wheel put it on the ground and walk on all the cross members of the spokes flip it over do it again and then in the stand a couple times I'll just grab pairing Spokes and just squeeze them together and do that on every single one all the way around and that really helps spokes kind of wind up when you when you turn the nipple sometimes so that helps them unwind um and kind of get you to where you're like truly at where sometimes if they wind up it might seem like it's untrue and then they actually unwind and now you're back to being out of true and you just lost spoke tension so yeah I feel like it's very important sometimes I'll get wheels out of a box for a manufacturer and you go to ride it and they're just pinging all over the place and it's because the wheel hasn't been properly de-stressed yeah that's something I learned from Liam it's just literally like put on like soft hard surface and and literally just walk on it and sometimes I'll be doing that as I'm building up a wheel and someone comes back in the shop and they're like what are you doing yeah doesn't that isn't that bad for the wheel but in reality the stresses you're putting on a wheel when you're riding are much greater than just standing on the wheel yeah and it really makes this the wheel or those spokes sit in place and be where they be where they're supposed to be so you can get a more an accurate true yeah the guy who taught me how to build Wheels did that uh and mostly on BMX wheels but he was probably 220 250 pounds wow and he would just grab a wheel and just walk on him BMX wheels he would like actually like weight them and like bounce up and down on all this cross members but build strong Wheels I learned how build strong wheels and yep yeah it's important there's a lot of there's a lot of tips and stuff on YouTube which I've also used and Sheldon Brown has an amazing website about that as well he's real real nerdy yeah Sheldon brown yeah if you're getting confused go to Sheldon brown and read thoroughly and you can figure it out yeah nice um and that yeah that helps a lot too but yeah just being patient I would say and having the right tools having a tensionometer really helps too to get the right tension on the wheel is super important but yeah again if you're on a road bike yes you want your wheel to be true and if you have a dent in it probably replace the rim if you're on a mountain bike there's going to be dense in it and it's never going to be true again if you have a dent like it's just not going to be true so focus more on getting an even tension on the drive and non-drive side and then you'll be the Cherry from there nice help yeah I would say patience is like the key for sure it's so easy to be like working on a wheel and being like Oh I just did that wrong screw this I'm taking it to the bike shop it takes it takes a minute and you have to fully commit to it when you're when you're working on it because you have to focus um but it's worth it yeah or in my case I'd be like screw it I'm having Trevor do it yeah yeah nice those are some good tips all right how about this one leave me on read that one what is something that people spend a lot of time tuning and adjusting that isn't actually that all that important I don't know man I'm a nerd I think everything's important I think tire pressure is important bar height like we talked about suspensions extremely important yeah yeah I would say be consistent with your writing so for example have the same setup every time you ride so get a digital tire gauge and check your PSI and both your tires every single time so make sure you're consistent with that check your air pressure and your fork and your shock to make sure you're consistent make sure your shifting is always good like just make sure your bike is always working good I would say that's the most important thing so that you don't have to spend time tuning and adjusting and you and if you do want to change something you can change it because everything else is the same if you make one change you can feel that more if everything is always the same right it's like if you go from one bike to another bike you can be like oh my God that was amazing but even though it had maybe has like a bunch of different parts or tires and stuff it's like well can you really attribute what was amazing you know like dial in what exactly you're feeling I do have one thing though that has held up rides mostly welding gravel rides but someone's power meter doesn't work and they hold up the whole ride because they're trying to spin their power meter backwards to have it connect to the computer that's not needed I would have 100 agree with that I never used one so there's something yeah that you don't need to tune and adjust yeah tuning and adjusting I would say just try to be responsible and if you're showing up to a group ride make sure that before the group ride try your best to make sure your bike is running optimally and then you want to have to do that as Trident would say stop faffing stop faffing about stop laughing about mate yep nice I like that that's all good advice all right next question listening to the podcast in Liam's Downieville recap Hugh mentioned he wrote a forecaster 2.4 looking for a fast rolling but still grippy front tire for my salsa Spearfish that I ride like it's a trail bike question how does the forecaster combine or how wait same question right how does the forecaster compare to the Xylitol and dissector as front tires I'm most concerned about pairing faster along with good cornering in Midwest hard pack and loose over hard um and also how does this tire fit into the Maxis lineup of grip and speed Etc I think he answered his own question I think the forecaster would be a great option yeah to be honest yeah yeah I really like the forecaster um comparing to the Xylitol and dissector uh I think the forecaster has more middle transition knobs so it's got that kind of third knob that helps going from straight up and down to kind of sideways to folding um especially over the dissector which is missing that knob which I feel is a little bit drifty in that middle kind of transition spot but then the dissector side knobs are ever so slightly bigger than the forecaster so you might have a better hookup when you do commit to that full lean but I don't like that Jiffy feeling up front I prefer to have the forecaster up front over the dissector this is I've never ridden a Zion until up front Jeff has I know he liked it but When comparing the Xylitol to a forecaster dissector the Xylitol rubber compound in a trail casing currently is not as soft as Maxis so that's something to consider and if you're in mid Midwest loose over hard rubber compound goes a super long way um the I know Continental is working on getting the super soft compound onto the trail casing tires I just don't know when that will be available yeah that would be a killer front tire yeah yeah with a faster rolling or put the regular harder compound xinatel in the rear yep yeah once that's how that would be a really cool combo but um yeah for now I mean it's really hard to beat Maxis rubber I think continental and they're downhill super soft is getting super close to competing with Maxis um on that level but Max's trail tires have a have a bit softer rubber so yeah I think you should try out the forecaster especially if he's he's uh saying he's lives in the midwest he's riding hard pack over loose or loose over hard pack which is what we have at home here yeah in Southern California and um I think for a trail bike that would be a great front and rear tire honestly yeah because it's fast I ran in front right on my 120 for a bit until I went to uh icon rear to make it faster I think what he should do is he could put a forecaster in the rear to get some good rolling speed and uh with still a lot of grip and then maybe even try this on it's all the sector in the front so you have a little bit more cornering knobs and that would be Trevor's suggesting mix match tires yeah that is that is kind of a No-No as well I'm going to do that from time to time but um yeah we still can't get you off the ass The Forbidden one day the Kool-Aid will run out of his veins yeah gosh that is the forbidden combo right there yeah sometimes you just gotta run what you got yeah oh there you go nice all right how about this one after years of riding a bike with Shimano brakes XT I have a new bike with SRAM brakes gtrc I'm having difficulty adapting to these brakes they just don't feel right strong enough biting enough I don't know the words I want to make them work do you have any tips for making this transition should I consider some adjustments keep riding them until they feel better and I figured out or just swap them out PS Bean rules Pet Rocks drool TPS that was me not Jared ppps seriously we all love being the cat

well look at the next one we'll read that later all right so I've I've answered for this so first of all the g2s will most likely come with Organic pads so the first thing I would do is swap those from metallic pads those will give you a much bigger a much better bite they'll last longer better in wet weather and I just think they're better all around so that would be the first thing to do to get them working more powerful next thing to do would be bigger rotors if you need them if you're burning up your small rotors then they're not going to stop as good as you need them to so definitely get bigger rotors if your terrain requires that if it's Steep and then also just make sure your brake is set up correctly so make sure that the rotor is in the center of the caliper make sure Pistons are moving freely and make sure that they're hitting the rotor evenly so that the rotor is not warping from side to side that'll make the biggest difference in your lever feel no matter how good good your bleed is if it's if you're if your pads are not hitting Center on the on the rotor then your Brake's never going to feel good so make sure it's just set up proper take it to a bike shop and have them have someone who knows what they're doing set it up and um that'll be your best bet and if you do set it up that way I guarantee you they'll feel just as good as xt's totally I'd say setup would be first and then do the other things true yeah yeah for sure yeah because you can still get away with small rotors and organic pads if your setup is good yep for sure totally and uh but at the end of the day it is preference and you know I do know a lot of people that swaphouse fan brakes for the Forbidden s breaks so yeah um also that little trick that you have with like slightly advancing the pad closer to the rotor um could help you know make this guy's issue of them like not feeling bitey enough or like yeah maybe they're just having them on the RCs there's a reach adjust as well which helps true yeah if you advance your Pistons a little bit more they might rub a little bit which is not the end of the world but your lever feel will it'll grab sooner um so you really have to make sure that your your rotor is not warped and you really got to make sure it's Center as well to make sure that you have the best opportunity for it to be grabby like that um to at least for your lever feel but yeah just making sure everything's Center and your Pistons are moving freely are going to be your biggest help nice there you go that's a good tip Liam you want to read this one uh I guess so um I have a dilemma I'm back into mountain biking after 20 year Hiatus I have bought a mid-range bike now looking to upgrade to something more top shelf I'm looking at the following Yeti SB 140 lunch right transition Smuggler at Santa Cruz Hightower I love pedaling for the downs and all-round show with tech jumps and flow what would you choose from these three cheers Garth P.S being for president yes says I'll show you have a president uh prime minister prime minister that's a good question I'm the Prime Minister yes

um well uh uh we're a little biased here Yeti SP 140 lunch ride is a sick bike it's really good all-around like Trevor is already saying in this episode works for a lot of stuff it definitely pedals probably the best out of those three I haven't ridden the new transition Smuggler so I'm not sure but I have ridden around the Santa Cruz High Tower the newest one as well um the Hightower might be slightly more like it has a softer suspension feel it definitely likes to you know quote unquote plow a little bit more it doesn't climb as well as sp-140 and it's a little bit more relaxed seat position than the sp-140 ESPN 40s climbs gray super upright C position um yeah another one I might throw in there oh is a revel rel29 oh um it's a little bit more travel in the rear than those but I ride mine with a 160 lyric and I've been riding it you know me and Trevor been riding his zone is 140 I'm a real two nine June 20 mile basically XC rides um super fun pedal's great it's I'd say the rail 29 like Shines on Tech single Track Climbing like it just rear wheel never leaves the ground it holds traction super well Espeon 40 has a really stiff platform feeling so you know rips up fire roads and doesn't feel like it Bobs much um so yeah from my experience I would say the sb140 lunch right as well which is yeah what I'm riding so maybe I'm a little biased but for the flow and the jump it really does excel in that because it is a very stable platform I would say it's not as good as just smashing on techy Rocky Trails but it does it just fine maybe not as good as a Smuggler or the high tower but if you're looking for a more all-around bike to do everything I think the yeti is better for that personally and then again you can change different settings on your bike to really make it excel in one area totally um yeah kind of like you said I might also be slightly biased because I just had an SB 140 lunch ride but um from those three I would probably pick that kind of like echoing what Liam said that's probably the best pedaling bike and also very well-rounded um I have not ridden the new smug I wrote the previous Smuggler but um yeah I mean I've had a few yetis so I just really like them so it's kind of hard to say um but yeah for if you're pedaling up for the downs I mean rail T9 would also be a great bike like you said Liam I mean yeah or forbidden Druid or forbidden Druid throw another wrench in there because I love that bike and it's really good too um yeah gosh Trevor you want to read the last question yeah sure we moved we recently moved into a new house and we were trying to decide what mountain bike features to build in our yard our old house had a small pump slash jump track wood and drop multiple kicker ramps teeter-totter wow I'm jealous of that right I know right we have a smaller yard now with a small elevation drop an adjacent pond our kids um all love to ride what features would you suggest building to have a mountain bike fun at home I don't know man it sounds like we should learn from you I know pump track wouldn't drop kickers I can kind of relate to this in my house we uh me and my roommates we built a pump track in our backyard which is super fun takes a lot of work as I'm sure this guy knows he's had a pump truck in his backyard but what I would do if he has a small yard with a little bit of elevation drop try to build maybe a dual solemn track oh wow if there's enough elevation drop that would be fun or maybe just like a downhill flow Trail into a pump track would probably be your best bet nice and just make sure everything's all the rollers and stuff are spaced out for what biker riding because the mountain bike is going to be much longer than a BMX bike right for sure so make sure that works um but that would be your best bet I would say man I just stumbled across Tyler McCall's yard today on Instagram he's got like trails in his back all night well no he's just got properties in inversion right yeah yeah they are so sick I was watching that and I'm like whoa that's like like proper dirt jumps in his yard um and they looked really clean and I was like I'm jealous I really want yeah dirt jumps in my yard you know who else has a six setup is Reese Wallace oh yeah I mean he's got land land that's like like Tyler McCalls look like it was a normal neighborhood yeah I just had sick dirt jumps WoW race Wallace has like acreage yeah yeah yeah where I just had like an Invitational there people will session and stuff that's so awesome yeah that's pretty much living the dream right there you got all your all your stuff to have fun right at home don't have to go anywhere and just go in the backyard and to raise your kids riding bikes like that just instead of being inside just go outside and have fun and put on the bikes for a little bit get their energy out a little bit keep them off the tablets that's got to be the best way to do it buddy Santa Barbara has he has he has a decent amount of land um I would say maybe five acres if I had to guess so it's definitely not the norm uh but he has two flow Trails a set of pretty decent dirt jumps in there they're all table tops but like um like my buddy brought an excavator up and helped him dig the dirt on them that's how big they are sick um it's like uh it'd be like going to Sky park that's how big the dirt jumps I'm sorry he's got like a four or five pack um and then at the bottom he has a properly built pump track uh that our Buddy Marshall built in his yard oh for sure so he's kind of got it all

yeah definitely dialed for a uh a yard setup that's pretty cool that's what I'm talking about gosh I wish we could have that out back right here I know that would be nice we need we need a Jeff we need a pump track at worldwide yeah yes we do I went to visit specialized headquarters one time and they had a concrete pump track which was pretty cool but wow you could get hurt pretty good on that too you definitely can yeah I know uh Santa Cruz has a pump Tracker Santa Cruz has one as well yes yeah that one's pretty fun out there that's pretty sweet and Jeff step up your game too yeah Jeff come on in what are we doing over here what the heck man nice well that pretty much wraps that one up we got a couple of notes from the previous episodes you guys answered my tire pressure question back two or three podcasts ago and I thought I would give you an update I bought a high quality 30 PSI analog gauge to really look at my pressures Game Changer my floor pump gauge was off by about 4 PSI so when I thought I was running 2325 I was actually running 1921. I'm currently running an accurate 24.5 26.5 and it is a world of difference in really improving my ride I love it love it he's got some 0.5 yeah love that also I took a vacation a few weeks ago wore my Kettle tomfoolery pants on the plane going to and from the destination after 12 hours they were still comfortable and the pockets were perfect for keeping my passport and phone safe these are definitely my go-to travel pens from now on awesome that's awesome we'd love to hear that we all wear Tom Fuller pants most days at least when it's uh not 100 degrees at home yeah seriously they're awesome all right I actually have been really liking the vent pants for traveling yeah me too because like take off here it could be 75 wherever you go it might be different temperature and they have the side zipper pocket which I can put phone in the front wallet in the back passport on the side and everything's zipped up and second pickpocketed not getting pickpocketed nope so that's awesome pants are bad as well for that I wasn't event shorts but I don't like to fly in shorts yeah I have to say what what about his uh tire pressure gauge that's got to be the best upgrade or accessory you can buy for any kind of biker probably the cheapest it's probably the cheapest and it's the most um important I would say um let's say you're like I've had this experience where I'd be lazy and don't check my tire pressure for a ride and then on our super Rocky Trail and end up denting my rims and because I'm lazy and I'm like oh yeah this is 25 psi but it's probably like 15 psi and with like an insert and it still will Dent your rims yeah and if you just like check that every single ride you will benefit from that and yeah again your setup will be more consistent and you can see if anything else is different about your setup that you can change maybe and yeah I recommend that to everybody so definitely the best investment you can I think I have three Tire gauges that float around I've got one in my van slash travel toolbox they're the same thing one obviously in my garage and then I have another one in my kind of uh riding bag my duffel bag that I put gear in so I always have one on me no matter what yep you can find a pump but using your and they're all the same brand too which is important like they're all the same Brands so they're all you know probably relatively within a half PSI or two accurate so yeah because you people who are using a floor pump to gauge the pressure on their tires it's really never going to be accurate well first of all you're never going to be able to tell exactly what PSI it is and then you could be off like 10 psi yeah if you're if it's not a very good pump or if it's an old pump or whatever so just to have that consistency if you're using different pumps is good I mean I live in a house with four other guys or three other guys that all ride bikes I'd say the most common question before right is hey man where's the pressure gauge because we're always we're always checking it you got one yeah you got a pressure good oh it's in my truck you know yeah seriously I mean it's funny because my floor pump at Home is like it feels like it's getting worse and worse over time like the actual pressure gauge on it and I feel like it's got to be like at least 7 PSI off now but it really is like so easy to just be lazy and be like Oh squeeze the tire it's probably fine just go out for a ride but you're right that's exactly when the bad things happen like you break stuff or you get a flat whatever um but yeah nobody's not good to check the tire pressure PSI from your hand you know yeah like me and Liam tried it the other day and we were both off yeah yeah I mean I mean Trevor and Jeff yeah we all guessed and we're all off yep yeah so they're never going to be that good no scientific like calibration that you have on your hand that's just the best thing to do is just check it even if you think your floor pump is accurate just get another thing to cross check it and also make sure your your valve cores are clear of sealant too yeah that'll be a big thing it'll still be fairly accurate but really not 100 and that's the number one thing that gets clogged is valve cores no matter what so always carry a couple of those at your house and replace them when you need to and that'll make your life much easier as well nice that's a good tip all right last note last note Dairy Farmer here cow tipping is a myth you cannot tip a cow at least not by yourself or without the use of heavy equipment also cows don't die if they're just on their side it is a good way to tell something is not okay with a cow if they have trouble getting up and down basic Mobility also cows account for more deaths simply because humans interact more with cows more chances for accidents to happen don't fear cows just respect them drink more milk eat more cheese cheers maybe not the last part you are lactose intolerant aren't you yeah and then I don't know no I'm just well at least now we know cow tipping doesn't kill Talent it doesn't kill cows I know that's nice yeah it's funny because like don't don't tip cows over anyway oh yeah you might get like how pissed off if you're yeah that's how you don't mess with animals that you know don't deserve it cows are nice yeah and also I'm pretty sure that came from Weaver cows if you tip a cow they die because they can't get up so that from the start was probably 100 inaccurate because it is from Weaver

oh my gosh that's hilarious I know it's funny because after we talked about this I went like searching for videos on cow tipping a line and like there's not something you couldn't find any he was confident enough to know is true though or to believe it was True Believer and make everyone else believe it was true whatever is you know what is it uh never in doubt always wrong never in doubt always wrong

man yeah oh that's hilarious uh well that just about wraps this one up that was fun yeah that was really fun Trevor thank you so much for joining us it was an absolute pleasure I'll be back yes you absolutely will if Jeff allows it if Jeff is not up to us yeah well you know actually you know what we'll see if Jeff is allowed back because oh yeah we have a majority right here I know like that's right that's what I'm talking about yeah that was fun that was that was just like a normal normal conversation in the shop right now yeah it's always even a green over there thumbs up for Louie well everybody all right thank you so much for listening we really appreciate it thanks for watching if you watched what uh do you want reviews still um if you want to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform whether that's Spotify or apple podcasts uh write a review screenshot it email it to podcast worldwidecyclery.com and we'll give you a 15 gift card to the website that you can use on any product you like let me know how I did and let Trevor know how much you love him and we love you too cheers everybody thank you