Flat Free sent us some samples of the product to test and review for the site.

Here’s some info on the product:

Flat Free is a chemical solution tire sealant that when installed inside a tire, will provide full time protection against air loss for the entire life of a tire!

Flat Free is designed to seal

* tread punctures
* bead leaks
* rim leaks
* porosity
* tube, tire or wheel-related leaks

Flat Free has a revolutionary chemical structure that causes this tire enhancer to continuously remain fluid so that it will immediately fill and seal any hole (up to 1/4″) in the tread area where air can escape from the tire.

Because of this, Flat Free tire life enhancer gives you the benefit of much longer tire life coupled with less downtime and lower maintenance costs. Additionally, you will receive savings from maintaining proper air pressure.

Just to give you some background on the test conducted. We took mountain bike tire, pumped it up to 40lbs of pressure, used a bed of 5 nails to run over. If you watch the video you’ll see what happens.

Though on the end of the last test, the tire seemed to have sealed itself with Flat Free. But the next morning I followed up to see if the tube still had air, and unfortunately it was flat. Based on our tests, I cannot recommend Flat Free to our readers.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Here’s another “service” that Service Managers have come up with. But all it is taking money out of your wallet.

“Chem and lube.” This is a stupid service where they use fancy words like, “degrease, lubricate, moving parts,” and my favorite, “bicycle specific chemicals.” They may charge anywhere from $7.00-$15.00 to get this service done.

But what you don’t know is, once they take your bike to the back where you don’t see what they’re doing….all they really do is spray some degreaser on your cassette, chain, derailleur and chain rings. Wipe it down, drop some lube in the nooks and crannies and then spray some sort of bike wash or polish once they’re done.

Anyone can do this themselves in their own garage or under a tree while sipping some lemonade. Ghost Rider shows you how you can easily do all that jazz yourself…with pictures too!

So rather than paying someone to do this one time “service” for you, just use that money, get some degreaser, lube and bike wash and you can do this through out the whole year. To me it makes more sense to have the capability to do this chem and lube thing when ever you want because in reality, the cost of the chemicals you buy should last you about a year.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Race days comes sooner than you expect. Usually you’ve done quite a bit to get yourself prepared by training, and dieting. You’ve even check out the previous year’s race results to see how close you need to be in order to place or at least not be last. You’ve probably even test rode the course just to make sure you check out the places you can take advantage and places where you need to be careful at.

Some of the things I’d recommend in doing to make sure your bike is dialed in or in other terms, working like a well oiled machine is to check a few things.

1. Make sure your bike is clean. Not only does it look great when it is, but it also works better if there’s not grit or grime in your gears .
2. Clean your drive train thoroughly. Get a chain cleaner, and run it a few times until that chain looks brand new. If you’ve got one of those quick links on your chain, take it off, soak it in some degreaser and get that junk out.
3. Lube your chain. I like to apply lube on my chain at night, then come back to it the next morning and wipe it off. This gives the lube opportunity to get in between the rollers.
4. Tune up your bike. That means make sure the derailleurs are shifting smoothly, your brakes are braking and you’ve got the proper air pressure in your tires.
5. After you’ve done all the stuff previously mentioned. Test ride out on the street and make sure your hitting each gear. Sometimes when you’re working on your bike on the stand, it reacts differently when you’re actually riding it. This happens allot on full suspension bikes more than hard tails.

Once you’re bike is dialed in you can now place on the podium at the race!

Popularity: 6% [?]

It’s ridiculously easy. I did this in about 5 minutes.

1. Unthread the lever pivot set screw by using a 2.5 mm allen wrench and turning counterclockwise. Make sure to keep your hand underneath the brake as the screw may fall down suddenly.

2. Unthread the lever adjuster screw by using a 2.0 mm allen wrench. You will not unthread it entirely. After a few turns, you’re ready to move to the next step. You will hear popping sounds. That’s ok.

3. Gently pop the lever out and you are done.

4. Replace with a new lever by reversing the above steps.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Some people call this a diagonal bunny hop, or a sideways bunny hop. Our friend Scott Tauzin who has shown us how to do a regular bunny hop, is now demonstrating how to do a fancier style of bunny hopping that can be useful to to jump over logs, poop, ruts, sidewalks and old people.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 12% [?]

On this week’s Thursday Tech Tip, I show you how to lube your brake and derailleur cables. But for some weird reason I said in the video “lube your chain”….it was late so I’ll give that one to being tired. Other than that, enjoy!

Popularity: 7% [?]

It’s Valentine’s Day and the Thursday Tech Tip crew will be spending time with their loved ones. We suggest you do the same. If you’re single and alone, well sorry. But go for a ride or work on your bikes! If you need help, just check out our other Tech Tips and have a blast!

Popularity: 6% [?]

This morning I got up around 5:30am just so I can put on the finishing touches on the Sette Reken frame. Magally of Pricepoint.com sent me this frame so we can show our readers that you can easily build a single speed bike for allot less than what people think. First of all this frame only cost $69 from Pricepoint.com…not bad if you ask me! The single speed kit that I have on there was only $12…also from Pricepoint.com. I’ll get into the cost of the other stuff later. But for now I’ve built it so I can ride this weekend. I’ll probably do a test run on it just to make sure nothing snaps.

Those tires are the Rubena Harpie set that I recently reviewed.

Single speed kit from Pricepoint.com includes spacers, a 16t and an 18t cog. They also have tensioners for as low as $20. I happen to have this one laying around, I figure I’d use it.

These are Avid 5 Single Digit V brakes, courtesy of Priscilla’s old bike. I recently converted her over to Avid BB5 (Disc)

Marzocchi Bomber with ETA. I forget the actual model, its either a EXR or MX Pro or something like that.

I really dig how the bike is basically all black. Those are Tektro brake levers, but they’ll soon be replaced with some Avid levers. Uno handle bar and a 90mm WTB stem.

I weighed the Reken…about 24lbs…eh not too bad. But a huge improvement from my full suspension single speed that weighed close to 30lbs. I figure the fork and low end Alex wheels are the culprit of the chunkiness of the bike. But then again I wasn’t trying to build a super light bike. I was building this with a budget conscience mindset.

All in all, I’m happy with the build. I’ll be trying this baby out soon enough and I’ll come back with a full report and the cost breakdown of the build.

Popularity: 19% [?]

I’ve often heard the term of “Heat Treating.” Apparently this is an important step in manufacturing bicycles. Without it, the material used for the frames wouldn’t be as as strong. So I asked our buddy Vince Rodarte of KHS Bicycles if he knew anything about it. The fella did, and check out what he wrote:

In one of my many ‘past lives’ I was production manager for Allied Manufacturers in La Habra (they’ve since relocated to Corona).

I WAS the bike division. I learned A LOT about bicycle production during my time there.

When a metal (chromo, aluminum) frame is welded, the heat associated with the welding process softens the material and makes the molecules scatter and move around.

Aluminum is a soft material in a un-heat treated state. You could grab the rear stays of a frame and crush them in or spread them out with ease.

If you were to leave a freshly welded frame on a shelf for an extended period of time, the molecules of the material would eventually align themselves and the frame would stiffen up (this is usually the normal process for 7000 series alloy, but not for 6000 series). But, in order for the frame to stiffen up enough to ride, it would take a LOOONNNGGGG time. This is where heat treating comes in. Basically, it speeds up the molecule alignment process. And you can monitor the alignment of the frame at the same time.

Welded frames are usually outfitted with spacers (basically false axles set at 130 or 135 wheel spacing to keep the rear end form spreading or collapsing). After that, the frame is aligned on an alignment table. This will check to make sure the frame is straight and the head tube is true in relation to the rest of the frame. (picture an imaginary line, starting at the head tube, cutting through the frame and intersecting the rear axle. The angle of the imaginary line and rear axle intersection should be 90 degrees; or perpendicular to each other. Once that is set, the frame is off to heat treating.

Photo courtesy of Co-Motion

Imagine a HUGE oven or boiling vat of some sort of liquid. Racks of frames are loaded into this oven or vat and heated to a certain temp (= Frickin’ HOT!). The heat allows all of the molecules to relax and spread out, not just the molecules near the weld area. Then the frame is allowed to cool. the molecules align themselves to each other as the material contracts. There is one more session of alignment just to make sure. Then the frames are aged by putting them in varying degrees of heat (above and below the initial heat treatment temp) to get to the proper strength or hardness (this is where the T-# comes from, ie: 6061 T6).

This allows the material to expand and contract. Due to this contraction, the frame becomes stiffer and VOILA. the frame is ready to ride!

It’s actually more complex than this. This is basically what I can remember. I once had my VP at Allied heat treat a prototype swing arm for ROTEC Cycles in his home oven, just to get a sample to ROTEC one time!

Here are a few contacts to get more info:
Alumatherm Heat Treating Co.
15535 Texaco Ave
Paramount, CA 90723-3921
Primary phone
(562) 531-1331

Newton Heat Treating
19235 East Walnut Drive
City of Industry, CA 91748
(626) 964-6528

I hope you all learned something today. I know I did! I do remember hearing about how people stole some GT bikes that were used for Interbike. They (GT) wanted to let the thieves know that the frames were NOT heat treated and that who ever rides those bikes runs the risk of breaking the frames…

Popularity: 8% [?]

Priscilla was running some nice Avid Vbrakes on her bike. She wanted to give disc brakes a try so I installed a set of Avid BB5’s on her bike. This video shows you how to remove the Vbrake system and install disc brakes.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 12% [?]