Mountain Cog
Mountain bike podcast that will make you laugh and learn. Featuring a wide range of passionate guests. Available everywhere (Apple, Spotify etc).
Mountain Cog
106 - Bike Shop Secrets: Can I ride it? Chain Stretch. Cassette Wear. Quick Links. Dropped Helmet, and Carbon Frame & Component Damage.
Rider safety takes precedence in this essential bike shop secrets episode, where bike industry veteran Dane Higgins addresses the critical question every mountain biker faces after a crash or component failure: "Can I ride it?" Learn the definitive protocols for assessing carbon frame damage, from the professional coin tap test to identifying dangerous stress points that require immediate replacement versus repairable damage. Understanding the difference between cosmetic carbon scratches and structural compromise can literally be life-saving, especially when dealing with handlebars, steerer tubes, and other critical load-bearing components.
Mechanical reliability directly impacts rider safety, making proper chain and cassette maintenance more than just a performance issue. This episode reveals how worn chains on new cassettes create dangerous skipping conditions during hard efforts, potentially causing crashes during climbs or sprints. Additional safety topics include quick link failure modes and reusability guidelines, proper helmet replacement after seemingly minor drops (4-foot falls can compromise protection), and the heat-related degradation affecting both safety equipment and carbon components in desert riding conditions. Emergency trail repair techniques using duct tape and zip ties provide backup solutions when mechanical failures occur far from help.
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it's too long. Wait, wait, yeah, baby.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Perfect. How are you doing today, buddy Good?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I'm good.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:We had an interesting weekend I don't even remember it. Well, we had Just a Maker and the Cali Rado Kid out here in Tucson. That was fun.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You know as cool as they are. Yes, and hopefully we can maybe talk them into coming on the podcast.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:We've already agreed to it, so they better hold us up on that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, and as awesome as they are and I don't want to discount that they're cool and they brought a ton of people out to the SDMB workday, yep. So if for people who are, listening that don't live in Tucson these two YouTube celebrities. You know cycling celebrities, instagram influencers, whatever you want to call came to Tucson and then we kind of put it out there that they're coming and we got a ton of volunteers showing up at a trail day because of them, I think.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, they came out to a trail day and they shot some content and that was super cool. We had lunch with them. That was super cool. But you know what?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I got from that. I still just really enjoy going and looking at that trail and thinking I helped that trail.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Right, I was telling that to people Like there were some folks out there it was their first dig day or their first trail work day, and I was like every time you ride this trail, you're going to look at that section and be like I did that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You're going to be like I trimmed that bush. I did that.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Or that cactus out of the way, or I had cholla in me at this spot. I was like, so focused on getting stumps out because I keep hitting stumps on my bike. That my hands. It's what it's a tuesday. We did that saturday. My hands are still sore, oh really. Oh man, I'm swinging the mcleod and the pick and all that stuff.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, it was fun. There was another guy wade I met, uh, so he's just moved to tucson and he's stoked and so hopefully we're going to go ride and show him some tucson trails. So and it was fun, it was we saw what's wade's last name holland and he is also an influencer. Yes, yeah, I've been watching some of his videos. I gotta say I haven't. I didn't know much about him, but his videos are hilarious super cool.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, he's like like the king of stoke or something I can't remember what his.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:His outfits crack me up and he showed up just on brand. Like he was totally wearing like yeah he fluorescent colors. Oh yeah, he had the party shirt on, so yeah, but yeah, hopefully, hopefully he'll come hang out and we'll go riding or something and then, yeah, then we went to lunch and then Sunday I had my daughter's team party for her Nika team. That was really fun and then we got to go ride that was cool.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Got to see Regan and. I see my wife offered to give Jilly some coaching if she's interested in it, so that'll be cool if she takes her up on that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:A good weekend, that's for sure. There was a lot of volleyball and other kid family stuff going on this weekend too. That's why I couldn't remember when you brought it up. I genuinely can't remember.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And then you had the bike swaps, oh yeah, and then the bike swap too, yeah, so for people that don't live, and Cyclovia.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, oh and Cyclovia.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, jesus.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, that was a packed weekend, so I hope your town had as many bike things going on as ours, because it was pretty amazing and the weather was amazing.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I spent a lot of time editing that Norco podcast.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yes, yeah, I just listened to that today and I was pretty, I actually I really enjoyed it, you know. So, yeah, I, I, I, I can't wait to hear people tell us how they like the technology stuff, all the technical stuff.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I don't feel like it was too over anyone's head.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:No, I don't know, it was a little over my head. Yeah, I, you know, I I like it too, because we did get into having them kind of explain some of these terms that I think are out there, and I think a lot of people hear these terms and they kind of just don't really digest them and they just need a little bit more info.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And should I test you? Do you remember? Yeah, what's the anti-squat?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Anti-squat is, uh, in the drive train sense. So it keeps it from the pedal Bob, pedal Bob and the bike from basically when you pedal it doesn't yank the drivetrain forward.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So anti-squats pedal bob. What's anti-rise?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:that's your braking brake jack. Yeah, brake jack, so you don't uh, when you put the brakes on, it doesn't lift the back end and flip you over the bars and we were talking in that video about floating disc brakes yes, that's coming, and nico malali just put our video out last night, yeah so I've seen, uh, sham has a patent that they are putting out there.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I don't know if I got a, so you're going to start seeing those. In fact, when those guys said I think you're going to start seeing, I'm like, yeah, I already saw the patents, it's already going to start coming. It's um, they're really working lately, from what I Faction is also Faction.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah. So Faction did that floating disc brake for Nico Yep, and I think you're going to start seeing that a lot to kind of allow for some of these more fluid suspension designs that have big drawbacks, you know, like, for instance, they don't have a good anti-squat. I'm still wrapping my head around. Anti-rise. Anti-rise.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Anti-squat would be pedal bob.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:No. So what I was getting to is that there's some suspension designs that kind of move the rear axle away. Yep, they cause a lot of anti-squat issues because as you pedal it kind of breaks it forward. So then you're seeing the idlers come out and fix that the high pivot idlers and then you're also having these smooth suspension designs that aren't allowing for the brake to be isolated, and so they, if they put a floating disc brake on there, it gets rid of that and so it takes the brake away. The other interesting thing that I found out this weekend I was looking into basically I was listening to a podcast about chain feedback. So like a big thing on the world cup is these O chains.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:That's funny. I went down the O chain rabbit hole this morning, yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And so there's a couple of companies. There's one that's coming out with mass dampers uh like a tuned mass dampers for bikes, and that's a what's a mass damper? So it's basically God man. This is going to be way over my head as far as technical, but it's a movable weight. It kind of like a weight kind of suspended so that it can help resonate at the same frequency that the suspension is and it helps control the feedback yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And it's really crazy, but they've been using it on the World Cup scene for a while now and now they're starting to get to where they're putting it in the front, in the middle, in the back of the bike. A lot of the World Cup bikes are putting added weight.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So they're actually building in designs where you can add weights to the bike at certain places.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, it's hilarious. Were you going down the same? Yeah, yeah, so maybe our googles are linked or something that's okay um, but uh, the but the um. The one of the guys from ah god, it's not huck norris rim rim pact is one of the companies that are doing the mass dampers and they were talking about a new type of a chain dampener. Basically that's not a no chain and basically a similar to. There's a STFU. Have you seen that?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Shut the front door. Yeah, yeah, exactly, shut the front up.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So the big thing is to get rid of that chain. Uh, influence on the bike.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So you want to know something that's crazy. What's crazy? Um Turner's bike? Uh, turner's bike, he's got a pivot switchblade. Yeah, uh, of course, nine year old. Who's spoiled Um on his cause? I couldn't get coils light enough for him, I barely got them light enough for for Jilly, so his suspension is so soft. Every time I pick it up in the garage to load the bike I can just barely push it and it pushes down. And something that I noticed that I don't see being addressed is that when I push his back end there is a noticeable breaking force, and can you guess what it is?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:The chain.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It's the chain, it's the clutch. So as I push down on the back end and it yanks the clutch forward, it has to break it loose. And because his suspension is so soft, right you know for such a light rider that, uh, you notice it, whereas on you know a bigger bike for a 200 pound rider. You're not going to notice it as much. But but it was kind of crazy to me to think that nobody's kind of addressed that interesting.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, I wonder.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I mean, I guess the o-chain would probably address that as well yeah, I guess yeah, because it would let it tug back a little bit. But every time he cycles that suspension, that clutch is going to get activated yeah, that's interesting. And now he's got old speed, uh, old 11 speed, shimano or shram, sorry shram. So who knows?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:yeah, that stuff's garbage.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So don't start um but uh it. To be fair, I have no idea what condition this is, because usually the kids bikes get like my old throwaway stuff, because they, you know, like it's a good thing they don't listen to this podcast, right yeah? Oh, yeah, oh, they know, they know they're like this is dad's old stuff. But you know they've got rental bars, you know they've got like a WT. Oh Turner's got carbon fiber rims with DT Swiss hubs. Nice, the kid is spoiled. Yeah totally.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You get them on like a regular nine-year-old bike. He's going to be like what the hell? This thing costs less than $10,000?.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:He's stoked when he gets three inches of air. He does, he does it's super cool, so we were doing bike shop stuff again, yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So you guys have responded well to the bike shop episodes the bike shop secret episodes. So I've got another list of stupid questions that a home mechanic has had, another list of, you know, stupid questions that a home mechanic has and I've showed them to Dane briefly, but it's mostly going to be off the off the, off the cuff and just see what he comes up with Shoot from the hip, shoot from the hips, okay, so, uh, let's see, I replaced the.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I checked the chain on Lacey's uh cross country bike. Okay, it's a Scott scale, okay.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And the a Scott scale. Okay.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And the chain was worn out Okay. So it kind of didn't pass the test. So I was like, all right, I got to replace the chain. And I was taking a look at the cassette and it looked okay. But I was like now I just heard you in the back of my head Like if you replace the chain, you should replace the cassette. So you in the back of my head, like if you replace the chain.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You should replace the cassette, so I went and bought a new cassette okay, and a chain, and while I was there, I got a new derailleur too. Okay, what about the front chain ring? Front chain ring was a oval from absolute black and looked like it was in a really good shape, okay, you couldn't even see anywhere, anywhere on the front is it, it's black.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I'm guessing so it is yeah, and so you didn't see the little white you know, worn off aluminum.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I didn't see anything that would suggest, hey, I need to do this, and I kind of did like a ghetto fit check or whatever, and everything seemed fine.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Okay, so what's the question?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So the question is do I have to do our listeners? Do we have to replace the cassette when we replace the chain.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So, man, this is different time periods in my life. I've had different answers.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:What's your answer right now and then what it used to be.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I'll give you all three, because there's three different time frames. Okay, okay, so back in the day, like around when we had 1920. Yeah, like back when. Yeah, before there was light, before we had power, yeah, before there was light, before we had power. But no, campy was a drivetrain, that I mean. Their cassettes were remarkably expensive compared to everybody else. Campagnola Campagnola this is on the roadside and because of that, everybody developed kind of a habit of measuring your chain and replacing it more often so that it doesn't stretch. So these are terms that I'm gonna have to explain. A lot of people know these, but I'm gonna kind of explain what they actually mean. Please do not everybody does yep, um. So when the chain stretches, um, it's uh. What the mechanic will tell you is all, the chain is stretched, you need a new chain. Well, if you put a new chain so back then the cassette was so expensive Mechanics would tell you to change your chain, change your chain. They would just push change your chain. You need to change your chain.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:All the time, even if the chain wasn't like technically worn out Just a little bit, in fact.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:We had gauges that kind of told us a little bit versus a lot stretched. So the idea was, if you change your chain more often, you will have less stretch, and that will cause the cassette to last longer, and so you wouldn't have that big expense. Okay, so then fast forward to a nine speed, 10 speed, shimano era, like when they just dominated. Um, cassettes dropped down to like 50 to 80 bucks and the chains were like 30 bucks, and all of a sudden, changing your chain three times to save an $80 cassette was more expensive. And so, as a racer, uh, I developed an idea that just wear them together, just wear them into the ground together, you know, and then, um, replace them both together. So now fast forward again to the 2020s, you know, or 17s, or whenever Eagle started coming out and the cassette started to jump in price again. And now we're back at that kind of. You need to try and keep that chain life, uh, and minimize how much it stretches, because you don't want to have to buy a $300 cassette on the regular.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So you're recommending today to now. In my particular use case or my particular example, it was too late. I'd already let the chain go past its life.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So I got questions for you. So, um, cause I got to explain chain stretch and I got to give you the spiel that I give everybody in the shop Go it, because this is like a touch point or a peeve of mine, you know um I thought it might be yeah, so um, uh, how did you check your chain? Like, what method did you use to check your chain?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:so I have two different tools. Okay, I have the old, and I don't know how to explain it, but they're both park tools. I have the old tool. That's little and has two kind of pokey. Yep, that one, right there, okay.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So what is? What is that tool? This is a CC dash two chain checker by park tool.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:But someone told me that there that tool I think that someone was Dane Higgins told me that that tool was not as accurate as the big, long one. That's like a ruler with three things in it.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, so I did both.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:That tool said the chain was still good.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:The other one said the chain was worn out and significantly worn out and that one you kind of you capture two of those tongs. Two, yeah, it's got two that are close together and one that's down at the end, and then you dip it, yep, and if it dips all the way in it's worn out and it dipped all the way.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:in didn't even come close to touching yeah, and so that's called a go no go gauge. Yep, so, and sometimes they'll have a little step on them. Yep, uh, and the step will tell you like it's almost gone yeah, you got 25 left or something, yep um, my favorite is the blue one, the cc, uh, dash two, the little one, yeah, the um.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:The problem with this one is there's numbers on it that mean absolutely nothing. Uh, so like when you this is the if for people listening, this is the park tool. That's like a little blue one with two little pins that you put in the chain and then it's got a sliding gauge that as you move it, the pins get a little farther apart, yep, and when they push the chain farther apart, they tell you how far it's worn. So the reason that this one is not accurate is because different chains have different inner diameters and also it doesn't account for the rollers. Actually it pushes them apart and it doesn't give you the same reading because technically you've got to have some under tension, like the first one and the last one kind of need to be at different tension. I'm explaining this wrong, but when you get the three-prong one that looks like a ruler, what that does is it loads that middle prong.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It loads the roller different than this one does, gotcha, and so it's a little different and it's supposed to be a little more accurate. Okay, the problem is it's a go-no-go, so you have no idea where you're at in between.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And that one actually gives you a….
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:This one does, it tells you, you're like 50%. Yeah, but the numbers lie, because if you put this one onto a new chain, the zero will not actually be displayed. In fact, a lot of times it'll be at 25% or even 35% worn, depending on the brand of the chain. And so the reason I like this one is because I do it so often that I've developed a feel for what a new chain is going to read and what a semi-worn and what a worn out chain.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And this one, when you get off the scale, we call it off the scale. We know that you're past just a chain, but if I see it at the like, 70% or I might say it's good, but keep the cassette.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Swap the chain, but keep the cassette.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It gives you like a sliding gauge of how much where you've got. So, okay, okay. So the chain stretch, you know, is a lot of people hear that term from a bike shop guy and they're like oh, my chain stretch, your, your chain has not stretched, the metal does not stretch. There's it's. That's not what's happening. So what's happening is there's wear. That's happening.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:That causes the rollers to wear on the outside and on the inside, and so they now migrate back and forth and they can actually migrate enough to where they start cutting the valleys between the teeth on the cassette to a different width. And so what happens is they're kind of doing this very slowly, like the grand canyon over time, and as they wear that that uh chain, uh that cassette, tooth down and kind of make it narrower and make that valley bigger because they now have more slop, because the inside of that roller has worn and even the, the pin is even worn too, yeah, all of these tolerances kind of stack up and so you can actually take a chain, because those pins are wearing too, and the inside roller on the inside plates will actually get ovalized and you can put it on the table next to a new one and it'll be longer. So that's why it's called chain slack, chain stretch, because it is actually longer.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It could be that was my next question, yeah I was like wait a minute you're saying it doesn't stretch, but I checked them in the whole one was longer the metal's not stretching, it's not like you're putting it on a press and like yanking it and deforming the metal as far as like stretching. What it's happening is you're putting it on a press and like yanking it and deforming the metal as far as like stretching. What it's happening is you're wearing the inside tolerances to ovals and bigger, bigger, uh, bigger IDs, inner diameters which allow each link to have a little bit of play, like maybe a half of a millimeter or whatever. It is Tiny bit. And then over you know 126 links. That adds up that over you know 126 links. That adds up that adds up to a much longer chain.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You know what Claude says.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:What is Claude Exactly?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:what you said, no way it did. It says what's really happening is where between the internal components of the chain yes, the bicycle chain stretches. They're not actually stretching in the way fabric or rubber might elongate. It's almost like you could have been, claude, no way, no way, no way.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So I like it when I know my shit you pretty much always know your shit dude.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:This, though, is a hot button for me, because what is the most common thing that we see that happens to customers with chains is they go into a bike shop. Whether the bike shop employee or the customer brings it up, somebody brings up putting a new chain on, because that's kind of what they're used to hearing Do a tune-up and I'll do a new chain on, because that's kind of what they're used to hearing. Uh, do a tune up and I'll do a new chain. Nobody has this conversation that you and I are having. And then they now put a chain that has none of that slop, and those pins are at a very precise distance from each other.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They don't match up with the cassette is now got these big, huge valleys and now the rollers don't fit into those valleys correctly because they're not worn together, they're not a married couple, that's what I call it Like. It's like that chain and that cassette got married and so now when that happens, you basically there's not as many of those teeth are engaged with the rollers and you can pop them over when you put loads on it. So basically, imagine you're on your I don't know 22 tooth I'm making that up but in your cassette, let's say you're in your 22th cog and it's really worn, but your chain's new and the rapid chain is usually only about a little over half, so you're not getting 20. Let's say you're getting maybe 10 or 11 clogs and maybe only five of those are actually engaging deep into the valleys and the rest aren't.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And now you put a load down, you go to stand to get and it pops like crazy. You get that pop, you know, and if you're standing and sprinting it can flip you over the bars Like it can be actually dangerous, dangerous. And so, like our teams, we would always replace you know those um, not every race, but it was always safer to have a new chain and cassette than to risk that, because if you're sprinting at you know 200 watts or whatever those guys, 500 watts or whatever those guys are putting out, it can flip you over the bars so, just like marriages, every couple years you probably need a new one.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You need to get, you need to trade in, you need to. Well, and if you don't want to die together, yeah, you need to replace the female.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, my marriage my marriage analogy gets a little weird, cause I always tell people I go, if you split them up, they're not happy. But who knows, maybe they are. But um, and you know, when you split them up and add a new one, you know that's younger, you know nobody's happy and maybe they are, I don't know, depends on if you're in. La or not.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Oh Jesus, All right, let's stick with chains. I've got a couple more chain questions Okay.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So wait, I have to finish your question, Sorry. So here's the hard part, and why history has taught me so much. As the cassette price gets higher, I am more careful about how much time I keep that chain on the cassette, because if I let that get to a point where I can't just put a chain on, I have to buy a cassette, and then you're looking at a four or $500. Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Well, three or $400.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, If you're running, you know a $75 SLX or Dior cassette, you can wear that stuff together. I mean it's not that big a deal, it's not a big cost. But man, some of this stuff is $400 to $500 for a cassette and it is so much cheaper. Even to put an $80 chain on that a couple, two or three times is still cheaper than a new cassette. And there are companies this is one thing that the new generation of chains are is starting to actually address and so this is it got really bad with 10 and 11 speed because they kept getting thinner and thinner and thinner to fit more cogs on the rear, but they weren't really addressing the wear issues and so now they would wear faster and faster and faster.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Now that the stuff's expensive, one of the big companies that makes the big gears that we can't talk about because you get all triggered. So that company has put a big effort into durability, and so here's the crazy thing about those we're seeing durability issues in a different way. So on a SRAM system, the Eagle systems, we didn't see as much chain stretch. The Eagle systems, we didn't see as much chain stretch, but we would still have shifting issues and what we were finding out is that the chain wasn't necessarily getting too long.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:The durability was still pretty good on most of the Eagle stuff, but what it was doing is getting really side to side flexible. And so then what happens is when the derailleur is shoving that that chain over, there's so much play side to side that it doesn't push it enough to grab the next cog and you would get shifting issues. And so now Abby tools actually has a chain checker, that for side to side board. Yeah, we call it deflection. And so now you can actually start to look at deflection. So that's a whole nother thing I love this shit, dude.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:One question and we're 23 minutes in it's, it's a yeah, it's a big topic, because this is the thing that it's a consumable item.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's expensive. You want to make sure you're taking care of it, right, I see?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:a lot of fails at the professional bike shop level, where this conversation doesn't happen with the customer and then their bike comes back with a fresh new chain on it and an old cassette and they go out in the first ride. It's popping and skipping and that customer lose all faith in that, in that shop and the shop I mean, if they don't take the time to just make, make that that little time, to have that conversation with the customer and let them know, because sometimes customers fight us hey, you may need a chain and cassette. Oh, no, I don't, you know, just do the chain. Okay, we actually make notes in our shop.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Hey, customer was warned, or or or informed, yeah, and then, uh, refused new cassette, and then, that way, if he comes back, you know, but just by having the conversation with them and saying, hey, man, this could happen, the customer is much more likely to go. Shit those guys were right, you know, and and come back knowing that that you know he's, he's going to get help, you know, and that we didn't screw up. And so that's a simple conversation that I urge all bike shops to have with their customers.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Right on. So summarize all that If the chain still got some life in it, the more life it has, the better chance you have that you don't have to change the cassette.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Is there any visual things you can see on the cassette? It's hard to tell.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:No, I even asked. So there was a whole year that I spent diving into this and dealing with it. No, I'm not kidding, of course you did, going to manufacturers and trying to figure this stuff out.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:There was a tool called the Roll-Off Cass cassette checker, which is a chain, and it's basically meant to help you check that, and some people still use it. But the idea is to try and figure out how to check if the cassette's good, and there hasn't been a real good. I have not seen one because these cassettes a long time ago in the late 90s, became computer designed uh, shift ramps, and so when you look at a brand new cassette, I've had people bring them back and go. This is worn out and there's nothing wrong with it. Right, because it's got all these bevels and some of the teeth are it looks like sharks.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yes, and wait a minute. Shark used to be shark. Tooth was bad on a cassette. Yeah, they.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They're not consistent because that's been designed to shift and lift, lift the chains better and so, um, because of that, it's very hard to tell the where sometimes they're. If they're really bad, you can tell, because you can look at that valley is so wide, um, but if it's in between it's really hard to tell. So if you buy a new bike or, I'm sorry, if you buy a used bike and the guy's like, oh, I put a new chain on it, you may just have to try and figure it out by your ride. See how it's shifting. Yeah, don't go race it right away, but that's the number one thing. People put new chains on all the time and they don't change the cassettes.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Okay, next topic, still related to chains. Okay, lacey, I put a new toolkit that mounts to her bike. It's actually made by Crank crank brothers. Okay, it's a combination water bottle holder. It's got a bunch of cool tools in it and everything on the side.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It's kind of all integrated and then there's, if you put a water bottle.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So it's really cool, but it it it's got a spot to put a quick link. Yes, and I had run out of spare quick links, so I opened a new chain. Yep, I took the quick link out, I put it in lacy's bike and then a couple weeks later I'm like shit, I gotta use this chain. Yeah, so can I reuse the quick link? Can you reuse quick links or not?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:okay, I understand that it's one-time use we're not going to go into the 20 minute answer. Um, used to be you could, because they had a lot bigger and thicker material right. The new ones are so thin, uh, and so precise that most manufacturers will say that they're not reusable. Um, from a practical standpoint, uh, when I'm dealing with my own bikes, not customer spikes cause, with customers, we want them to be safe, but with my kids I don't care. Um so um, well, they weigh so little that they're not going to yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Well, and so because of my knowledge, uh, I will make a judgment call and if I feel a positive engagement and I feel that quick link is making a positive engagement I will reuse it. So the the manufacturers are deathly afraid of you reusing it and it popping loose while you're riding, and they don't want that to happen. And they it. They're not that expensive and their philosophy is just get a new one. You know it'll be safer, it'll be stronger, you'll have less problems. If that thing comes open while you're riding, it could cause you know all kinds of problems.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:All kinds of problems.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So so the the, the corporate answer is get a new one. Um, the bike shop answer is we're going to put a new one on your bike. Um, the Dane at home, uh, using using his head is I'm going to feel for that positive engagement. If that thing goes together and it feels super loose, if you can take it apart without a tool, that's a problem. Do not use that thing. But if you're feeling like a good click into place, or if you have to hit that crank to get it to pop that thing into place, then you're probably okay. I'll save a lot of my old Quick Links and use them as my spares.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Okay.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Because I know that they still got one or two uses in them Just to get you home. Yeah, It'll get me home yeah. Uh and I'm not going to use it for my main. It'll be an emergency one. So, um plus, it's easier to get on the trail.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's a little bit easier to put together Some of the new ones are a nightmare to try and get them all like they're. They're so tight instructions that I've seen online but there's there's a number of YouTube videos out there about like how to get a quick link to engage and disengage on the trail using the bike, using the cranks, there's all all different. Using shoelaces, I've seen a bunch of different methods. Were you on the couch next to me? I think I was in my underwear.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, it was perfect. Um, but yeah the um, but yeah the um. Uh, I will say that, having a set, we do we sell those wolf tooth um, they're uh quick link pliers, yeah, and they've got a tire lever built in and they'll hold your quick links. Okay, it's a cool little piece. It's. It's kind of cool. I mean, if you're into tools, that's one of my favorites. Uh, it pulls them apart, puts them back together, holds the quick links tire lever. It's cool. It's it's not, you know, heavy. So, uh, I like that one. Uh, so that tends to be one of my favorites.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I don't carry anything with me. I do use at home in my home mechanic shop.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I do have like the park ones and I was so stoked when they redesigned them to be able to go open and close because it used to just be closed. How mad were people when they just had the closed one or the open one, you know, and they're like God damn it, I just ground mine down and made that tool so of course you did.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Did you let them know?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:No, no, that was before I was into Instagram, so I wasn't tagging them on Instagram about stuff. So but uh, I think by the time I released this one have heard in the park episode already, because in that episode was it in the episode or after the episode where you gave them a design.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I think it was after I told them about the the cube. The cube, yeah, I think it was after the episode, though, oh really, I can't remember. Maybe it was during. That doesn't matter.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, dane's a, a honorary, I guess, engineer for, yeah, tools if you, if you check out the, is it my instagram or was it? Yeah, I think it was a my Instagram because that is a suspensions Instagram, you'll see me convert the park tool that's cool, all right, one more chain question.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Okay, I have run into this a few times and I just ran into it recently. I got two links your links should move kind of freely, yep and I got like some sticky links, yeah, so what do you do about?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:sticky links. So, and I got like some sticky links, yeah. So what do you do about sticky links? So, most of the time so back in the olden day you used to push and pull the pins or you would use a pin to connect the chain and you could get a sticky link because that pin either wasn't in correctly or it was over to one side or too much. So if you've got an 8-speed or a 9-speed bike, even some 10-speeds, you may have that issue. But at the 11 and 12, they pretty much got into quick links and so that's not an issue. Most of the time we see that because you've hit a rock with it and it smashed the links, the two links. This was at the quick link, At the quick link.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:At a sticky link.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Like the quick link was sticky. Yeah, sounds like you put it together wrong or you had the wrong one.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, it was a 12-speed SRAM chain and a 12-speed SRAM quick link. Are you sure there's no dirt in there? I did so. I'll tell you what I did. Okay, and I got it to work.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You can tell me how bad I screwed it up. I rock it forth, I rocked it back and forth. That helped a little. Yeah, then I took a little tiny flat screwdriver, uh-huh, put it in there and just ever so carefully stretched a little bit and then got it to start moving.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, that's probably fine too. It's weird that it would do that it was the first time I've ever seen it yeah, so um, from a like a you know, technical standpoint, it shouldn't do that, but real life stuff like that happens yeah so, um, and who knows you know if one of those quick link studs is just a hair shorter than the other, or something like that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:But, um, what we see a lot in stick sticky links is the um two links that are overlapped. Get smashed on a rock on your chain ring and then they get pressed together, yeah, and then you'll hear them click that's as they go around, yeah, and if they're really bad they can jam your derailleur and stuff, and so that is very difficult to fix.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:In fact, in when we were doing neutral support at a race in tucson here called the tucson tenor, um we, uh, we had a customer not a customer, he was just a racer uh, come up, and he had done that and we ended up getting him a new chain because we couldn't get it to not did you change?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:did you change the cassette?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:no, and in fact he was. He was really bummed because the bike was new, so we were pretty confident that it was, he wasn't going to have a problem. But it's funny because he came back and I think he had a uh, he broke his pedal and then he also had like had no sealant in his tires and I saw a couple of different times.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, this was the same race. This guy did not maintain his bike at all.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I saw him at the bike swap and he's like yeah, I just sat in a chair and watched the rest of the race. He's like I was done.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You should have him come down. I thought it was hilarious.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So and he goes hey, I'm doing the whiskey, the whiskey race in Arizona, in Prescott, prescott, prescott, prescott, prescott, prescott, prescott.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Prescott, prescott.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Prescott. For those of you who don't know, there's a certain way that you say this name, prescott, but it's not spelled that way.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's spelled like Prescott, prescott, prescott.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So but anyway, this big race, he's going to that and I said, come by and we'll check your bike out and make sure it's good.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, it's going to be a little tough to get neutral support out in the whiskey?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, right, yeah, because it's not a loop, it's a 50 mile or 25 mile depending on what you're doing Roughly All right.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Another recent thing that I experienced on the trail was a broken spoke oh gosh, and what I did was wrapped that broken spoke around.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Another spoke and rode home. Yeah, that's pretty much all you can do Now. There used to be and I think you can still get them these Kevlar replacements which were kind of cool. They were just kind of a piece of Kevlar and you could… Like glue it together almost Not glue, it's like a Kevlar replacements which were kind of cool. They were just kind of a piece of Kevlar and you could Like glue it together almost Not glue, it's like a Kevlar strand and then you could tie it. Oh, I got you.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:If you had enough, you could tie it to both and maintain some tension.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It really depended on where it broke. So a lot of spokes will break, in most cases at two places. They'll break where the threads end, because that's traumatic. Being threaded is traumatic to that steel and that's a weak point and it's a stress riser.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:This is another aspect of nipple management right now?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yes, exactly yes. I know a lot about nipples, but nipples don't break spokes, it's the spoke that actually breaks itself. Yeah, and then the bend, the J bend, the j bend is the other one. So again, when they turn that metal it heats up real j bend is where it fits into the hub yeah, and some of them are straight pull for that reason.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So because you don't have the weak part yeah, yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And then the other thing obviously is a rock strike or something happening to the spoke then it could happen anywhere yep, yeah, it can happen in the middle.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So these little kevlar ones were really cool because you could put them on. So you know, I think they're still out there and if you're a bike packer or if you're somebody who does these long Epic rides, those would be something to definitely invest in. But for most of us that are on like an hour to two hour ride, you could ride out on that. Just be easy on it, because aluminum once one spokes missing that support on that rim is a little bit softer and you can develop a flat spot.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So interesting, all right, so I did okay. I did okay on the twisting the spoke around. Another spoke.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, got me home dude, that way it's not flopping around or stabbing you. You're not sitting there in the, you know, trying to pull the cassette off, to try and pull the spoke out, or anything like that.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Oh my god, so I can't imagine trying to pull a cassette off on the trail. Uh, sometimes they fall off sometimes. Well, yeah, if they're not tight, I've had that happen yeah, if you got a dt swiss with no o-ring I can't tell you how many times lacy's come back and she's like my bike's shifting like shit and I go and I like wiggle her cassette, I'm like your cassette's loose again.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Was the cassette loose or was there axle cassette?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Oh, what hub? Uh, good question, this was on her. It was the stock Scott scale wheels that came. I think there were synchro rims and I don't know if the hub. I think it was synchro labeled, but I don't know who actually manufactured the hub, yeah, that's it's weird.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:To have cassettes come loose on the regular, that's that's weird. So she rides a lot, though, I know, but that lock ring goes at a certain torque, yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So I feel like you need to give it a little oomph a little oomph yeah I uh, I think it's like around 40 psi or 40 newton meters is the torque setting for probably it's probably written on it. I just have a certain amount of degrees after engagement that it is I gotta tell you it is fucking hilarious watching, like if you could compare and contrast how I work on bikes and how you work on bikes, like you set up Lacey's fork on her, on her switchblade.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, a couple of days ago. Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And you like push it twist, push it twist, just do it real quick and you're like I need needs a little more air and you're done. That would have been like a two hour process for me measuring, looking shit up and you're like that doesn't feel quite right, let's do this.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Hi, you know, uh, we were talking about consumer direct on one of our podcasts and get that, and that is one of the things that on one, I truthfully I forget that we do you know. So I worked on my uh, uh, washing, no, my dryer, uh, one day. And you were like looking shit up and it took you a long time it was like two days, my entire weekend, to try and fix this stupid thing, because I didn't want to spend the $75 for the house call or whatever, and I'm just thinking to myself.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:you know, I could have been riding both days and just had a guy come out and spent the 75 bucks done it in half an hour and I wouldn't have had two days missing out of my life.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You know, and that's the problem, though, as I did the same thing, I was like looking up stuff, trying to figure it out two different runs to the part store, cause I got the wrong part. You know, they weren't open on Sunday, so then I had to still go back Monday, so it was really three days, you know. But, um, but yeah, it's, it's funny how we are. I mean, I like to fix stuff, so there's nothing wrong with it.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It feels manly to say like my fridge broke and I fixed it. Yeah, it totally does.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:But at some point, like I don't change the oil in my car because I could, but I don't want to crawl under there, get the bloody knuckles, get all dirty, have to deal with everything, I'd rather drop it off, which is funny looking at you right now, all dirty covered in oil but I'll drop my car off, I'll take the bike off, I'll go for a ride for an hour and then I'll come back. It'll be done, I'll have a ride and it costs me like 30 bucks, you know, and I.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You know, there's a certain point where you get to where your time. I used to spend an entire day cleaning my own car because I had all this time and no money. Now I'm angry if I have to spend 10 minutes of the car.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:All right. Next question Um, I've had some lessons from some folks that are more gravity oriented. Okay, to help me improve my gravity skills. And shout out to Lacey who, when I talked to her about coaching jelly, I was like listen, woman, you have to. I didn't actually say woman, I probably did, but she knew it was, it was. It was with good intent, but I'm like you are so good at this and I'm not, you have got to coach me as well and I can handle it.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Like you can come out and tell me what I'm doing wrong and I'll listen and I'll. I won't get mad at you and I need to learn from you. She knows this stuff. Teach me how to do it. So I'm stoked. So shout out to Lacey for agreeing to coach me.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:We'll see how that goes. We'll see in three months if we're still married. Right, I have no doubt.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:We've been through much harder things than coaching on mountain biking. And I am actually very humble about that, but the homegrown folks, tara over there, which we've had Tara on on a past podcast. I don't remember the episode but the great, great.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They actually took Jess and the Colorado kid out this weekend up to uh up to uh bugs up to bugs and they got, they got caught in a storm. Oh yeah, that's right, it was snowing up, yeah Super funny.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:They don't tighten their or they keep their shifter and their brake levers a little bit loose, not loose where it's like rattling around, but loose enough to where you can actually like physically move it with your hands. And the perspective there, they told me, was so that when they crash it doesn't break the lever off, it just shifts the lever.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So what are?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:your thoughts on that recommendation.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:That's an old moto trick so that again, again, when you crash you don't break something off. We used to do that on downhill bikes. So, um, again, you know, uh, grain of salt with what I'm saying, but we did that with our downhill bikes. I still do it to this day, like I don't have them super loose, but I don't focus so much on making them super tight either. You know, um, uh, it's, it's pretty good. I don't knock on wood. There's wood here and I'm knocking. Hear me knocking.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Um uh, I have not broken a brake lever so but I definitely had my happening. I definitely had to happen tomorrow.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I definitely had my brake levers like cockeyed. You know when I get up from the ground.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So do you keep yours a little loose, or no?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, I do. I just don't go to town on them, you know, and so I don't make them loose. So the loose is a bad word. Uh, I would say not. I don't yeah, Well, because it's not.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:they're not loose, they're very solid you know, and they don't move under normal. But you could. If you put enough pressure just with your hand, you could spin them.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I have to hit them with my palm to move them, so I can't just push them down with my fingers. And that's probably if I had to give somebody some sort of guidance on how to do this at home, I would say you should not be able to push them down when your hand is on the grip with your fingers. You should not be able to push them down. They shouldn't be that loose. You should have to kind of hammer them with your palm to get them to move of course we do recommend following the manufacturers.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yes, yeah, suggested the other thing is carbon makes it a little weird because, uh, you don't want to be scarring carbon, so each circumstance are a little different. Downhillers and most of my downhill bikes usually have alloy bars and not carbon ones, but I still do it on my Enduro bikes and they're carbon Interesting. But yeah, it's just the amount that you tighten them. You just don't go to this huge, super tight spec to where they don't budge, because then you're breaking bars too Right on man.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, I would say that's. If you're going to do it, do it safely and make sure that you're not dumb.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Don't be dumb, don't be dumb, don't be dumb. That's our advice. All right, uh, next question. Okay, I uh, as you know, for whatever reason, like to experiment. I found the for the perfect pedal. Like, I just love these, these HT, they're nylon pedals. They're somewhere around $50. Yeah, we sell them Um big. They got big big platform works for my feet. They're super light.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They're inexpensive.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, every time and for whatever reason, I keep buying different pedals to try, and then I try them for one or two rides. I don't like them and and this happened with the Canfield pedals great pedals.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Lacey loves them. The platform's not big enough for my foot. That's basically not much I can do about that. They got the q factor really narrow on it yes which causes, even though they have a big platform, it causes you not to have as much foot room, correct?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:and, and I was a little bummed because on the spec sheet, yeah, they measure out about the same size platform, but on those, because the q factor, like you said, the they're actually a little closer to the spindle or they're a little closer to the crank, and so I just didn't have enough room for my feet. Yeah, anyways, every single time I get a new set of pedals, I get a bunch of replacement pins with the pedals, and so here's my question have you actually ever replaced the pins on a set of pedals?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, I got two stories. One it's a ridiculous story, um, so I am a weight weenie, which I shouldn't be, because if I just don't tell me you're taking pins out to reduce weight. No, no okay but, um, I bought the lightest pedals on the market, like at the time they were hts, coincidentally shout out to ht and I don't remember what they are, but they're magnesium.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And then, in order to make them, they had titanium spindles, and to make them as light as that, to claim the lightest, they, the pins were alloy instead of steel, and so, uh, they were set. Screw they were. There were button head screws that would go through, so the button head would stop and you'd have the exposed thread on the other side, and so these were just little alloy button heads.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And they probably wore out in like five rides or something.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So I have a knee issue. One of the reasons that I do ride e-bike more often is because I have knee issues and I've had it. I don't know where it came from, I think El Tour, so road riding did it to me but this knee issue causes my knee to kind of move in and out as I ride, which causes my foot to turn, so I basically it's like I'm, you know, going pigeon toe, you know was it? Was it, um, uh, the ski term pizza?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:French fries, you know, so my my, my feet are doing that while I'm riding, and so when I'm in clipless it hurts my knees because I can't get enough float Right. So all this I found out because of these pedals, because I would start riding them and by the end of the ride I would almost be slipping off of them Because that movement was snapping those things off. Oh, my gosh, yeah, and so I'd come back and all the button heads are still there, but the spikes are gone.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, no-transcript.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yes, that's the weird story, that's the crazy story. So now your poly pedals, it's what we call them. They're poly plastic, polyurethane. Those are the ones that I have the most problems with, not because I ripped the the the spikes out, but because they loosen up. So I have to go through probably every two months, and tighten them.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I've had to tighten them, but I've never actually replaced them.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:No, though, different ones are better than others, and so, like I have a set of um oh geez, I have so many pedals, I have have some 2000 from 2012 inner bike. Uh, crank brothers would do these laser etched uh commemorative pedals for inner bike. They do them in a certain color and they would have the date and inner bike on them.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:and I have a couple sets of those and, um, one of my downhill sets is, I think they're the mallets with those pins, yeah, and those are set screws where they have the Allen wrench in the set screw, yep, and so you hit a rock with that.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And that interface is gone. You can't get the Allen wrench in there. Exactly yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So I shy away from those when I'm buying them. So I usually, if I'm looking at a pedal, I usually have kind of a life in them and I don't really tend to reach that life where I'm really putting a lot of pins in it. If it gets to where I need to do a lot of pins and I've just really scraped the shit out of them on rocks, I'll just get a new set of pedals, um, but they're getting pricey now. You know, like they're 100 to 150 for alloy and I sometimes just want that color, so you know.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So I've actually been buying a lot of the poly pedals. A lot of the pro riders are using them too, uh, because they tend to glance off rocks, uh, so instead of an alloy, which will kind of curl up the aluminum on the rock and then create more of a dam and slow you down more, uh, the polys will just shear off and just kind of shave a little poly off as you hit the rock, yeah, and so, um, the only thing that I'll warn you with the polys is that the pedal bearing quality is lower. So I mean, they're not cheap pedals because poly is that much cheaper than aluminum. It's because the rest of the pedal is not super high quality either.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Oh interesting, and so that's the only drawback. But at $50, you can get three pairs of those to 150 pair of alloys yeah so if you are somebody who are hard on pedals and tired of spending money on them, I would say go for it, get the polys. But if you don't really scrape your pedals a lot in your bike, you want your bike to look pimp.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:The alloys are going to be cooler the hd pedals I use are some weird number. It's like pa8, something it's a, o e something.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I don't know what. I think it's alloy something, I think myrp, which is the poly ones probably oh yeah, the poly, yes, yeah, yeah so anyways, I'll put a link in the show notes and I have m e or m a, I can't remember. So the the light ones are magnesium.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So oh, right on, yeah, I'll. Uh, I'll put a link in the show notes. I want some titanium, ones titanium, because titanium sparks oh titanium sparks, oh, interesting.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I don't think I've seen titanium pedals. I mean, I think that would be excessive and probably super expensive but it would be super expensive. It'd be awesome, cause they would spark every time you hit it. You can start lots of fires that way.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Not a good thing for the desert. Not, let's, let's not do titanium pedals. Maybe that's why they don't make up is because they spark. All right, all right, um, next question. So was riding with my buddy the other day and we're in the garage, whatever before the ride, and his chain was like just bone dry and I understand that like, and this is not. He doesn't use wax, so let's take wax off the table for a second I understand that all waxes or just the dipping wax?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:all waxes. Take all waxes off the table for a second. I understand that it probably the answer probably really depends on the type of lube that you're using. But I'm like, how frequently do you lube this thing? And he's like I don't know, as soon as it starts making noise, maybe once every two months or something, he rides quite a bit, yeah so so here's my question like how often should you lube your chain with non-wax chain? I know it depends on conditions, yeah, depends on the type of lube, but like yeah, here's the disclaimer.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Keep in mind we're in the desert, uh, we have very little uh liquid, no rain. None of us are hardly ever riding in any moisture, so this will be skewed towards that. So, for all you guys in the pnw or ladies in, uh, boston or wherever where you actually have water, uh, this doesn't increase the frequency a lot, yeah, so, um, so, wet lubes in general actually do better in those environments, because the wet lube doesn't get washed away as easily, right, um, but uh, in our desert, uh, probably, if I compare it to, so like dry is every around 50 miles, so that could be two to three rides for somebody, and then a wet may be twice that.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So 100 miles.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, but what it is is it's harder for it to come off, whereas the dry lube actually actively falls off of your chain because as debris sticks onto it it gets heavier and starts to come off and so, uh, it's a shedding type type concept versus the lubricating like liquidy. You know stuff, you have to wait for that to seep out, you know can you over lube a chain?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:oh, absolutely, oh my god, yeah, get crazy. Also, if you mix them I don't know if people know this, but if you mix a wet and a dry, you'll get the gunkiest, nastiest stuff and it'll build up It'll. Uh, there's awesome pictures on the internet of police that are like you can't even tell they're police because there's so much of this gunk, you know, Um, so they don't mix well.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So we always ask customers you know, what lube do you use? Or, for the most part, we can actually feel the chain when we're working on it and kind of have a good idea of what, what lube they're using. Um, not exactly, but whether it's wet or dry and uh, and so we can kind of appropriately loop their chains.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So I saw this random text in a group group text chat that some of my old buddies have and it just said randomly, with no context FYI, toothpaste does not make for a good lube. This was not in reference to bicycles.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Toothpaste is a polishing compound. Just so you know. It is not a lube. Did you know that WD 40 is not a loop? What is it? It's a water displacement, interesting, yeah, so wd-40, uh, is a water displacement yeah and so, uh, will it make stuff not squeak as much?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:absolutely, because it has some properties of that, but it's actually not a lube. So so when the wd-40 started making bike lubes, I had a very hard time with that because I knew they were making an actual lube, but naming it wd 40 was very counterintuitive. So, and some people will probably message us saying that they love wd 40 bike lube, um, but doesn't wd 40 actually make lubrication lubricating products now, like the brand wd 40. Yeah, that's what I mean. They make bike lube, so they make actual bike loop now.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So yeah, so it's different than there.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It's, it's the same company, but yeah, it's just. It was weird, cause I've always I was always taught, you know from friends, you know this is not a lubricant. So, and doors and stuff like that, I love that triflow triflow is a wet bicycle loop. Yeah, and like a lot of old people will remember the three-in-one oil or something like that or uh. Another one that actually, uh, bike people use is t9 bioshield. Yeah, so that's a really popular one too, oh interesting.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I think that I think that's used for guns too. It's all kinds of stuff.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, it's kind of crazy, so interesting people stick anything on their bike chain and make it fly.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Okay, uh, next question. I guess I keep saying next question, yeah, cause I got a bunch of questions here. That's correct. Um, a lot of carbon bikes these days and I have a pet peeve about carbon chain stays, cause I've had bad luck with carbon chainstays and or seat stays, either one, really. Uh, just a rear triangle in general, and when we had the carbon fix guys on they were like, yeah, those chainstays go a lot, they do a lot of carbon repair on chainstays, so I think that they I think bikes should my my personal on with support, with no data to support this opinion, is that bicycle brands should be making the rear triangle out of aluminum instead of carbon. But, um, as you know, when we were up in at the Windsor trail is that right Outside of Santa Fe, yep we discovered late that Lacey had cracked her chain stay on her pivot on her switchblade.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Uh yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And her pivot switchblade, which we think. Well, there's a debate on when this happened. One person thinks it happened during the ride, one person in our family thinks it happened during transport in a shuttle situation. We don't have to get into specifics there, but there's different opinions. So here's my question if you do have carbon damage on your bike, whether it's on a rim or a frame or a handlebar or whatever like, how can you tell?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:is it safe to ride. So if it's on a handlebar, it's not safe, okay. So I just crashed hard on my bike. Yeah, that crash shook you up, man. Yeah, I did with my brand new one-up uh bars and I scarred the top of them. It's not super deep, but I'm not going to ride them. They're going to go on the wall. I and I already pulled them off the bike.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So any damage to a handlebar your advice the way that I ride.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Now I will tell you that and I am saying this jokingly, but I'm saying this with seriousness my kids bars are carbon and they have marks on them. I got them from my buddy. Um, I think they're superficial. They have like on them. I got them from my buddy. I think they're superficial. They have like a clear coat issue where clear coat is kind of flaking and stuff. And I know that they're strong, they're Renthal, they're super strong bars. I know that at their weights and the way they ride they're going to be fine. The way that I ride, one layer of carbon missing from that bar, especially since I'm riding a bar like a downhill bike and the bar is probably rated for trail. Uh, I'm just not going to take a risk.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, and so I used to have envy downhill bars on my downhill bikes and same thing. I got a crash and I put a good two to three layers of carbon gone in the scratch and to me that's. I mean there may only be, I don't know how many there are, because one of the things about carbon is they compact it, and so it could have 30 layers, but it's still really thin.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:But two to three layers is just enough for me to wear it, you know we're going to have some carbon experts that are going to write us up and be like you guys are fucking wrong.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Well, whatever they say, they won't be able to argue that if you damage your carbon handlebars, you do not ride those there you go, because that's the front of the bike. It's a pretty definitive super high. Even even if they're fine, it's not worth the risk. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's just not worth it. It's I, you know you're what? 160 bucks for a if that thing breaks.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And I had a buddy who was a weight weenie and he bought one of these chinese aftermarket stupid light bars off of aliexpress or whatever and was at the uh race in the white mountains um, the tour, the white mountains, and that bar broke on him and sent him to the ground and and it wasn't worth saving that 20 grams or 30 grams that he saved, it just wasn't right. So, um, so what about on a frame? Uh, so frames. Same philosophy in our, in our shop, where, if it's anywhere near the front of the bike, the, the steer tube or the head tube, where we recommend not fixing it, but, um, as you go to the back of the bike and any kind of like not fixing it.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, not fixing it yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Okay, Just not, not, not, not riding it but not fixing it.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Well, so yeah, so like, uh, like, I would never even fix carbon bars, I just wouldn't do that Okay. Um, on bike frames, though. There's some really good, talented um uh carbon repair facilities all around the country, you know, and these, these uh facilities have been fixing carbon for a long time.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:If some guy has just taken super glue in his garage, that's not quite what I'm talking about. We're talking about professionals who are actually staking their reputation. Have a business. If it's your buddy who used to fix boats doing it, I would be careful. I would I always kind of weigh that with….
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Not the same structural integrity in a boat that he needed a mountain bike.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Well, and, and you know, I mean there is some, some differences in the materials. You know the the the pivot, bernard Kerr crashing out on that pivot prototype, but that was a adhesion issue between carbon and aluminum.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And that was professionals who are building this things, building these things that at the top of the had they found something out with that? They found out. Maybe either they made a mistake or their material wasn't at the same spec that it should have been Something in the curing process.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:something, something went wrong.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So you want a professional doing this, but we have a one in town. That's great. There's a couple in Phoenix that are great. They're all over the country yeah, get one with a good reputation.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, go to your LBS and ask them what they recommend.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:But we tend to not favor anything near the front the head tubes because, again, lots of stress, and my philosophy is if something breaks, what happens? So let's say, your chain stay or your seat stay, break after you've had it repaired, you skid out. Let's say, your chain stay or your seat stay, break after you've had it repaired, you skid out. Most of the time the bike comes to a stop it doesn't flip you over the bars, it doesn't separate and send you face first. You're basically maybe walking out, and so I kind of look at that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Other things aren't practical. So like bottom bracket areas sometimes get tricky because there's a lot of torque and a lot of different energies going all different directions. And then rims I've had good and bad luck with getting carbon rims fixed, because it's a thin area that holds pressure so it has to hold basically tension and it has to be impact resistant and so that gets weird too. So carbon rims are a little weird fixing them too, because at first, when they first came out, we were fixing them. Now I kind of favor the companies that have lifetime warranties.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So if you crash on a trail and it doesn't disable your bike, take the headset out or take something in the front of the bike. Like you did something. I'm trying to get you to give a specific answer, which is what you did with Lacey's chain state at determine whether she should ride or not, and we determined at that time that she should not? What was it that you did to kind of?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:check that part. So one of the really like old school ways is to take a nickel out and just tap the carbon. And if you're tapping the carbon and or you're pushing on it and it's got deflection and it's obviously softer in that area, it's definitely cracked.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So softer. And then the nickel or some kind of change tone. You can hear the tone change.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:As you're tapping, You'll hear a tone change. Those are big indications. Now, on her bike, I feel like she could have ridden out.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I just would have told her not to hit the jumps and uh we were at this, we hadn't gone up yet Remember, it was in the parking lot Before we started, and so we're like, eh, let's just take each.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I think she took and also that's a personal choice, like I feel like if something goes wrong on my bike I can come to a complete stop and safely there's other people that will not have that Like me. Yeah, and so like you want to do it within your comfort zone. Right so uh, but if you're in the middle of a trail and you need to get out, so on the wall behind me, which nobody can see on the podcast.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:But all I see is Shimano.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Josh can over here above my computer. Uh, there is a chain stay, uh that. Uh, justin broke on his bike and it has a stick duct tape to it to hold it together.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So do you see that? Yeah, that's how he got home, that's how he got home.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:That's how he got home.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You guys had duct tape out there on the trail. No, he does?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:He puts duct tape around his pump.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Oh cool.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So he's always got a little duct tape going, and so, yeah, his pump will always have this band of duct tape around it so that he can use it whenever he needs it, and obviously at work he needed it at least one time. Yeah, yeah, he splinted that sucker and wrote it, so you know there's nothing wrong with that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So it's amazing Zip ties, duct tape and I don't know. This is an old school trick, but we needed it at the tenor Having a replacing your bottle cage bolts with SPD cleat bolts so that if you lose one of your SPD cleat bolts, you have a spare.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Oh, interesting, and they're the same thread pitch oh interesting.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So that was an old school trick. So your bottle cages would have cleat bolts holding them.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Interesting. Yeah, all right, a couple more here, okay, and I think we've timed the number of questions appropriately to the amount of time Nice, we're doing good, all right. I was getting ready for rather day and it had taken my helmet off the rack and my helmet slid off and I set it on the top of my car and the helmet slid off the car and crashed on the ground.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Okay.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And so I'm like, oh Jesus, Because I've always been told one crash and you're done with your helmet. Yeah, so does that include when I drop my helmet from about four feet in the air onto concrete? And I know you're going to err on the side of caution?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:here. No, I'm going to give you the full answer, remember just like I did before I'll give you the corporate answer, which is if that's taken an impact, it's lost some of its impact.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:resistance it's not as safe.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And it's not as safe. That's the corporate answer.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Damn it, I need a new helmet?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, the more practical answer is that you know, if you don't feel like it took a big bounce and it didn't really take a big hit, you're probably okay. You definitely want to inspect it and look inside, make sure there's no cracks in the foam, whether or not you can see that.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Or to see the foam's compressed or anything like that, yeah exactly.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It's hard to see that on the outside? Yep, I got hard to see that on the outside. Yep, I got you um, and then um, that is just you dropping it right, which doesn't have your mass in it, and so it's good chance that it's okay.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Okay, um, if it's a super light roadie helmet and maybe hits the right way, it could actually do some damage, because those things are are minimal to keep weight down and high flow of air, and so they're not designed maybe to take an impact a certain way without something inside of them you know. So you can actually uh hurt them, and so you, you want to use a good uh judge judgment and not let your, your wallet, be the deciding factor. You need to let your, your self worth and your safety be the deciding factor.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's probably worth just explaining. Make sure that our listeners understand that like these helmets are kind of like styrofoam inside and they're actually designed to compress and that's what takes the impact. And if you compress that, you know if you compress that styrofoam now, if you crash again, it's not going to be able to compress as much, and so your level of protection of that helmet is decreased.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, and then the big thing that people don't know about in a lot of cases is that they have a shelf life. That was my next question. Yeah, so helmets, styrofoam breaks down, gets brittle, starts to decompose. Believe it or not, you know, even though it takes forever, it'll start to get brittle and it'll start to get less elastic, yeah, and less cushion and more, you know, crumbly and so um, so obviously less ability, less able to, yeah provide its protection exactly, and so most manufacturers will, in the literature, tell you roughly its age.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It used to be three to four years. It's there's some processes they do where they build the plastic into the foam now, and so in mold is what some of them call it.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:But, basically, the plastic is no longer just a taped on cover, which it was for a long time. It's now part of the helmet and that's made their lifespan a little longer, Okay. And then there's also different circumstances. So when you crash on your helmet, the hardest thing is to know if that helmet has compressed and won't be safe again. And if you were to crash in a similar way which, believe it or not, we tend to crash the same way. We don't tend to crash in a different way every time. We tend to make the same mistakes, and so if you crash again, will it protect you? And so you know. I would say the biggest thing that I see people do that they shouldn't do is don't use your wallet to decide that. You know. Don't be afraid to get a new helmet. Some companies will have crash replacement policies where they give you a discount. There's a couple companies that will just replace the helmet, which is awesome.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So that tells me that they got a huge margin on those helmets. Well, it also can afford that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It also says that they want to break that barrier of you not being safe.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You know that's cool. There's probably a liability like reason that they do that too.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It helps them for the most and it's also a selling feature. If there's one company Absolutely man, I'm going to say this, but I'm pretty sure Laser has something like that. We carry Laser. I can't remember, but you've got to check the fine print. Who makes Laser? Laser is the oldest helmet manufacturer in the world.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Aren't they owned by Shimano?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Shimano is their. So this is where it's tricky. Shimano North America is their distributor. I'm not sure if they're their owner. Oh interesting so. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, I could be wrong. Uh, but that is a little cloudy, cause we get them from Shimano North America, but that doesn't always mean that they own them. Got it? So, um, so the uh, okay, so, and then the last thing I say about helmets is the sitting in your car.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So that breakdown in the foam when it gets brittle. You definitely want to replace that. So sitting in your car, so you're saying just the heat of the vehicle, so like in the garages in Arizona that's 140 degrees in my garage.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, garage, I think, is a little safer because you don't have quite that oven effect.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It still gets hot in there, but like if it sits in your car and it gets up to 150 it can really really get do some damage to styrofoam yeah, now I'm guilty of that, but I change my helmet probably every year, if not more often, because I'm trying different product and because you're crashing, yeah, and I don't actually sell my helmets. Uh, that's one thing that I don't do. I don't throw them away, I don't go to the bike swap and sell my helmets.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:That's one thing that I don't do. I don't throw them away. I don't go to the bike swap and sell my helmets. I tend to get rid of them so, and I don't know if it's, it's all. It's mainly because I think it's grody to have somebody else's head in the helmet.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's just me. Yeah, I guess that makes a lot of sense.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I see people buy helmets at the bike swap, used all all the time, and I'm just like ew, so, but that's just me. So, um, but yeah, the, the heat can hurt them. The heat can actually hurt your carbon bike. Uh, uh, when I was in the golf industry, um, we would have customers come in and the golf head on their graphite shaft, which is carbon fiber. Uh, graphite shafts would spin because they had them in their trunk all day at work.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Heat up that resin, yeah, and then they would go to hit the ball and it would spin it. Uh, it would turn to, and that's how we disassembled the clubs, by the way was to heat them up Interesting, so yeah, so you don't. Heat's not good for anything, especially e-bike batteries. You know any batteries?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:stuff like that. I thought cold was worse for batteries and heat. Let's not get into that. That's not part of our question that I don't know.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:But I know that here, regionally, because of where we're at, we're biased and we watch out more for heat. I don't think we ever get to a point where cold is hurting anything. Yeah. Now, if you're in Alaska, that's totally different, different situation.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So, all right, so you consistent, like, I have a bunch of bikes and I love my bikes and I take care of my bikes. I like my bikes to look pretty, oh God. And so I clean my bikes, okay, and you constantly give me shit about cleaning my bikes. You're like and we talked about that in a previous podcast with Justin and you guys explained the reason why but, um, and so I was like, okay, I still want my bike to look pretty, but Dane tells me I shouldn't be cleaning it this much, and so I used a product called by G-Technique that was like a ceramic coating that you could use to coat your bike.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Okay, and that was pretty cool, you're talking about the paint job.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:For the most part, yeah, you're not putting it on your tires, not putting it on the tires, but the stanchions, the whole frame, not not the stanchions, I'm sorry, the lowers, ok, the lowers.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So if you guys didn't know that, as he said, the stanchions made a face like face turned.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:very weird and I realized that I had given them nothing. That's actually moving.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Right and it's part of the bike, not the chain, not not the, you know but the visible parts. Yeah, yeah, and that worked pretty well. Okay, and then you introduced me a couple of weeks ago I don't even know if you remember this to this product that you use. It's like not necessarily made for bikes, but it's called sc1 high gloss coating yeah maxima, so so tell me about that so what is that and what?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:so I don't know. There's all kinds of stuff for cars now ceramic, like you said ceramic and there's all these different treatments and I don't know enough about those.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:They're kind of now starting to permeate into bikes but you like this stuff enough that you carry it in the shop yeah, we carry that and we carry a product called bike lust by Pedro's.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So Maxima makes the SC1 and then Pedro's. They're two different kind of things. The results are really similar. They tend to give the bike a glossy kind of nice, shiny finish.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:But then it also helps to keep dust and dirt off it.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:The big thing and you know it's Carlos, our ride wrap guy, who pointed this out on the SC one. It tends to repel dust and so the bikes don't get as dirty. And so, like one of our riding buddies, nick, I sold him a bike for his son, uh, santa Cruz, that we had in the shop. And he um we you know Carlos prepped the bike for sale. It was one of our used bikes that we sell. We sell in the shop, uh, used. And so Carlos cleaned the bike for sale. It was one of our used bikes that we sell in the shop. So Carlos cleaned the bike with SC1 and did a deep clean.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:He's the anti-Dane when it comes to bikes. He's pretty anal, he's cleaning the crap out of his bikes. So it was super shiny and nice. And then, nick, we went riding a few times and Nick kept commenting on how this bike never gets dirty. He has to go home and clean his bike and his other son's bike. But this Santa Cruz just did not get dirty, and I think it's a little exaggeration. But I think it's also true that the dirt wouldn't stick to this stuff, and so it's a pretty cool product. I've been using it on my bikes and I've noticed the same thing. And then we tend to have consignment bikes in the store that we're selling, so we tend to use it on that. And so now I will caution everybody right now. This is an aerosol, so you want to keep it away from your brake pads and you want to be careful about your brake pads, I tend to spray it on a rag away from the bike and then wipe it on Be really aware.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I'm super glad we had this conversation, because I haven't used it yet. I did buy a bottle from you.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You want to keep it away from your rotors. Um you, I tend to take the wheels off and do it. I don't pull the pads out, but I'm really really careful around the brake pads. Um cause any any of these substances. Uh, same for bike lust. I don't tend to spray it on the bike. I tend to spray it on a rag and then put it on the bike. That's because, to me, buying new brake pads is super annoying.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, replacing them.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Super annoying. Yeah, it sucks, and so I'm. I'm careful with that. I can. I can clean my bike at home with a rag and and this stuff and some water and not have to replace my brake pads. If I do it carefully, but, guaranteed, if you spray that bike down with this stuff, you're going to be putting new brake pads on your bike.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Right on. Well, thank you, Dane, for all the awesome Bike Shop secret knowledge that you shared with us today. It appears that our listeners really like these kind of episodes, and I don't think I'll ever run out of stupid home mechanic questions. None of these are stupid.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They're actually really good ones and I'm I'm glad you come up with them because it's all in my head and I want to. I tell people this daily. You know stuff like this, but you're right, man, I forget, like the dropper post episode where we told people don't lift up your dropper post when it's down and stuff. The amount of people that came up to us afterwards and we're like Jesus Christ.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I didn't know that Exactly.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And you know what's crazy is the emails I got from industry people going thank God you said that because they're they're tired of that issue, you know, and so it was kind of cool, you know. So if anybody else has any tricks or tips and they want to reach out through Instagram or Facebook is, I think, our main ways.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, you can email us. At mountain cog there's a. You can look in the show notes right now. You'll see a send us a text. You can do that. If you do do the send us a text we learned, please put your contact information in there, cause it doesn't tell us who you are. So we've had some people write us and we don't know who they are and we can't get back to them. So if we didn't answer your question question, uh, sorry, send us an email or hit us on Instagram or Facebook or whatever.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's just mountain cock podcast.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, uh, there's, uh, there's a lot of them that I learn every day, like every day. So, uh, it's really awesome.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Well, we got some exciting. I'm trying to think of what would be published. We got some exciting stuff coming. We actually have. We have some episodes that are under embargo, at least one that's under embargo right now which is pretty cool. First time for us, some exciting new product. I'm really excited about the new stuff, yeah, um. So yeah, excited to tell you guys about that when we can and uh, yeah, appreciate y'all. You got any final thoughts man?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:That's it, man. Go ride your bike.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Punk rock Go ride your bike. Thank you.
