In a perfect world bicycle tubes would grow on trees. They would be free and have no environmental impact. Maybe they wouldn’t go flat at all and you could use a tube throughout your whole life and even pass it on to generations. But tubes do go flat and aren’t free and they don’t just disappear from the face of the earth. That is why The Pedal Wrench suggests patching tubes. However, I rarely patch tubes on the trail. Having a spare ready to go is fast and courteous to your riding company.

Patching tubes is something I do in my spare time in the comfort of my home. I’ll typically have a few tubes in the rotation and will sit down and patch multiple tubes in a patch session. The lack of debris, time constraint, and stress makes the task much easier to deal with and boosts the success rate.

My life is filled with bicycle tubes. I deal with them all the time. Something I’ve learned to do to save myself time and frustration is to tie a knot in punctured tubes. This is an obvious reminder that the tube does not hold air and it needs to be patched. Trust me, it helps a lot.

While I’m on the subject of patching I’ll run through some helpful pointers on getting a tube patched successfully.

1. Locate the hole. I usually inflate the tube and listen/feel for the hole or holes. Your lips are very sensitive and can feel the slightest leak of air.

2. Deflate the tube completely. Remember to keep an eye on the hole, you can mark it with a marker.

3. Apply glue. A thin coating in a circular motion around the hole. Too much glue is messy and doesn’t help the patch stick any better. Make sure the area of glue is larger than the patch being used. Try and keep the hole in the center of the glue circle. This will help you center the patch.

4. Let the glue dry 60%. This is the step that usually gets skipped. People are in too much of a hurry. If you applied the proper amount of glue it should only take a few minutes.

5. Press the patch on. Place the tube on a hard surface and use a rigid cylinder to roll the patch on. This gets rid of air bubbles and helps the patch bond with the tube.

6. Let it dry more. This shouldn’t take long. If you’re in a hurry you could probably skip this step.

I tend to leave the plastic covers on patches so the outside doesn’t stick to the tube as I fold it for storage. The plastic can also keep the glue from sticking to the inside of the tire. I’ve never experienced any problems from leaving the plastic on, but let me know if you have.

Good luck. Earth day every day.

One more thing. Cut the tubes that can’t be patched into rubber bands. They are great keeping spare tubes wrapped tight and bundling $$. There is probably at least 500 more uses, let me know what you come up with.

There are a few tools I use more than any others, and until just a moment ago I would have listed the 5mm hex wrench and my homemade spoke poker as the top two. As I write this I realize that my repair stand is actually used more than any other tool in the shop. I’m actually using it now and I’m not even working on a bike.

A bike repair stand is the mechanic’s way of having a stable platform to clean, inspect, build, and adjust a bicycle. Most repairs would be possible without the use of a bike stand, but struggle is often the case. The repair stand will stabilize the bike and articulate to give the mechanic the best view of the part of the bicycle needing attention. The ability to bring the ailing part of the bike closer to eye level is a huge advantage. You can also use a bike repair stand as a fancy kickstand when you just need to store a bike.

For someone that’s never used a bike repair stand it’s hard to know what to look for in a stand. There is more than likely going to be some compromise when deciding on a stand to aid in fixing your bicycle. Price is always a consideration, but what else should influence the decision? In my opinion, durability, portability, and stability are the key factors. Most repair stands will hold a bike with no problem, especially if you go for an established brand. How well and how long are where stands start to differentiate from one another.

The Ultimate Support Pro Elite Repair Stand is a top contender in the portable bicycle repair stand world. The 13lb repair stand folds down with the flip of a couple quick release levers and slides right into it’s own little duffel bag. No need to make special arrangements transporting the Pro Elite Repair Stand from place to place, it’ll fit just about anywhere. Folded down, the Pro Elite Stand is as compact as any other stand I’m aware of.

The ease of transport is irrelevant if the stand doesn’t make working on a bike easier. The first thing I noticed when I removed the stand from the box was the newly redesigned clamp. Ultimate improved on the knob that tightens the clamp around the bicycle and added a large release button for easier removal of the bike. The Ultimate claims “industrial strength”, and I definitely had zero problems over the course of weeks of use and hundreds of bikes. It even handles tandems and downhill bikes that weigh upwards of 60lbs with no problem. Besides being burly, the clamp is about the easiest clamp I’ve used to date. Getting it properly adjusted with one hand was no problem. The release button was a nice feature too, the clamp is instantly loosened once you hit the button. You just have to be careful about hitting the button while working on the bike. I fell victim to that once, but once my awareness was raised it wasn’t an issue again.

The set up of the Pro Elite Stand is as easy as th break down….maybe easier. The tripod easily opens every time and secures with a quick release lever. The height adjustment is also secured with a quick release and offers short to as high as I would ever want. The clamp arm is secured with a knob and let you adjust the angle of the clamp and how the bike is positioned. If I had to guess, I would say the total set up takes about 20 seconds. That’s darn quick.

The lightweight aluminum construction does have a bit of flex, especially with the heavier bikes. The amount of flex was certainly acceptable, and compared with other manufacturers designs, is well worth the exceptional weight savings. Besides that, care should be taken in positioning the tripod legs to the bike. One incident with the wind caused a bike and stand to fall over, but again, my raised awareness kept that from being an issue again.

The Ultimate Support Pro Elite Bike Repair Stand receives a 5 of 5 rating from me after a significant amount of use. Portable stands will never be as stable as the 300lb shop stands and they don’t need to be. The price of the Pro Elite stand is makes it a decent value and works at least $100 better than most of it’s competitors. The customer service department at Ultimate Support is easy to deal with should there be an issue with the product.

The Pedal Wrench highly recommends the Ultimate Support Pro Elite Bike Repair Stand and is claiming it’s the best portable or stationary home mechanic’s stand on the market today. Check it out.

The brakes on your bicycle are used to control the speed of your wheels, so you can maintain control of the bicycle. Having brakes that work properly is very, very important. Please do not use this entry as a substitute for a bike mechanic with knowledge of your brakes. That could be dangerous.

So….brakes help you control the speed of your wheels to help you maintain control of your bicycle. In this entry I will discuss the how and why of The Pedal Wrench brake set up. The goal is to achieve efficient and effective brake control over the course of the ride.

Before we go into the brake set up, I feel I should mention braking technique. Brakes are designed to perform best when used certain ways, and remember, control is what it’s all about. Think about when a cyclist may use the brakes on their bicycle. I mean really, really use them, depending on them to work best when the consequences are the highest. For a road cyclist it may be right in the middle of the peleton, or perhaps a rain soaked descent with heavy traffic. The mountain biker may run in to the loose gravel turn with sudden drop just beside it, or the slippery roots of a technical downhill. In these situations, control is key to staying upright and safe.

The more fingers wrapped around the handlebars while braking, the stronger the main connection to the bicycle will be. If you are using 3 or 4 fingers to squeeze the brakes, you are barely holding on to the handlebars. Most modern brake levers are designed around a 2 finger brake technique, but 1 finger braking works as well.

In the case of the road bike with drop handlebars, the rider’s hand position on the bars is crucial.  Riding on top of the brakes, or on the brake hoods, allows access to the brakes but with little control of the brakes or the bike. While riding on the brake hoods is a comfortable way to get around, it is not the position the brakes were designed to be used from. To get the most from road brake levers, a rider must get used to descending in the drop position on the handlebars. I can’t emphasize how important this is for roadies. You’ll understand more shortly.

Brake lever clamps move on 2 axes to the handlebars.  Getting the position correct will help cut down on rider fatigue, making it easier to brake longer into the ride. Archimedes said “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”. We don’t need to move the world, but having a nice mechanical advantage is great. This is the idea behind the first of these adjustments. We want to use the brake lever as it was intended, as a lever, and the longer the better. The other adjustment will make the brake lever less of a strain on joints and muscles.

The bar tape on road bikes makes adjusting the lever position a bit more of a task. Having faith in the mechanic that built the bike is usually acceptable in this case, but I’ll go over some general guidelines for road bike brake lever position. The brake lever hood and handlebar will create a broad area for your hand to rest. The brake hood forms a continuation of the part of the bar that runs parallel to the ground, forward of the 90 degree bend, and just above where the bar drops to towards the ground. As the rider’s hand grasps the bars in the drops, the bottom of the brake lever blade should be in easy reach of the 2 braking fingers. If the rider has to drop their shoulder more than a little to reach up to the lever blade, the lever may be mounted too high, or the angle of the handlebars could be off. Once the height is set, the hoods tend to be more comfortable when they are adjusted just in of straight forward.

Fortunately, mountain bike brake levers are easier to adjust. I say fortunately because most of the time having faith in the bike mechanic doesn’t work out so well in regards to this. Most mountain bikes will come with what I call “showroom brakes”. “Showroom brakes” are made to be aesthetically pleasing, not so functional. In order to get the proper placement on the handlebar, the shifter may have to be moved in towards the center of the bar. A common mistake bike mechanics will make when building a bike is overlapping the shifters and the grips. The creates an unusable part of the grip, unless you have Grip Shift. The shift levers need to be within reach, but should not take up usable space on the grip. Once the shifters are out of the way it’s time to adjust the brake lever. The lever should sit in a way that the 2 brake fingers easily reach the end of the brake lever. Remember, we want to squeeze the lever at the point furthest from the fulcrum or pivot to gain the most mechanical advantage. The next adjustment is one I constantly change. The angle of the lever in relation to the rider’s hand and forearm should be set for the cyclist’s comfortable descending position. Adjusting the lever to be in line with the forearm works well, but riding positions change depending on the terrain. To accommodate the change, leave the brake lever clamp tightened to the point where the clamp spins on the bar when forced. This will allow for adjustment while riding and it also allows the brake lever to move instead of snap off, should the bike hit the ground. If the lever moves under the normal forces of riding, it is too loose.

Now the lever is mounted in the proper place on the handlebars. The next adjustment to consider is the reach of the lever blade. “Reach” is the distance between the bar and the lever blade. Not all brakes have this adjustment, but many will. Road bike levers can sometimes use wedge shims to move the starting point of the lever blade closer to the handlebar. These reach adjustments may affect the tightness of the brakes which is why I’ll discuss that adjustment last. The reach should be set so the braking fingers can quickly and easily contact the lever blade. Obviously cyclists with smaller hands and shorter fingers will have the reach set closer to the bar.

The last part of this bicycle brake set up theory is the hardest to swallow for most. The brake lever is set in position, now we adjust the “throw” of the lever.  “Throw” is used to describe the amount of change from the starting point of the lever blade to the lever blade under “full squeeze”. “Full squeeze” is relative to each specific brake. Flex and compression in a brake can allow the lever to pull beyond the usable brake squeeze. The “full squeeze” would be the point in the lever’s travel at which the wheel would have a tendency to skid.

The closer to the handlebar the lever squeezes, the more brake and bike control is gained. Here’s why, The more a rider’s finger wraps around the brake lever the more muscles are used in the act of squeezing.  If 10 muscle groups are squeezing instead of 3, that would be an advantage. This is also important when thinking about control of the bike. As the lever gets closer to the grip it acts as a handle to grasp. Instead of holding on with 2 fingers, now the rider is able to hold firmly with all 4 fingers. The lever becomes a useful tool in controlling the bike through better grip. A looser brake will also allow the index finger to rest on and wrap around the lever, thereby significantly reducing the reaction time associated with braking.

There is too loose. If the brake pulls to the bar before it stops the bike, that would be too loose. One must also consider pad wear when adjusting the throw. If the pads wear more than lever is able to account for before it hits the grip, that would be too loose. If the brakes don’t stop the bike, they’re not so useful.

These are the brakes we’re talking about here. They are very, very important. Making them anything less than fully functional would be unsafe and irresponsible. Don’t attempt any of my suggestions if you are not fully competent working on your own brakes. I suggest finding a savvy bicycle mechanic to discuss the matter with. Thanks for tuning in.

KC