- Riding in a bike park can be pretty taxing for your bike.
All the rocks, roots, jumps, drops, lumps and bumps
all take their toll on your bike,
whether it's your spokes on your wheels
or simply just a few bolts rattling loose.
At the end of every day, you should make sure
you spend some time giving your bike
a full safety check for the next day of riding.
These are the things you need to look at.
Riding in any park is especially hard on your wheels,
whether that's your tyres, rims, spokes or anything else.
So, to start with, look at both of your wheels
and make sure your tyres are still inflated
at the end of every day.
Systematically work around the whole casing of the tyre,
looking for any slashes and nicks in there.
Anything that might have to be repaired now,
this is the time to do it.
You don't want to be finding out on the trail
that you've got slashed in the tyre
that later leads to a puncture.
Next up, work around the whole rim,
look for damage on the rim sides.
You're looking for anything that's curled in.
If it's excessive, you want to take the tyre off completely
and rebend this out.
If it's minor dings, you can leave this,
just be aware of where they are and monitor them.
Now, obviously, the spokes are the part
that hold the whole wheel together,
so, you just want to work out if you've got any loose spokes
or any that are even snapped.
So, just work your way around,
you're looking for the spokes to feel
roughly the same in tension.
If any are loose, just nip them up tight.
Don't go too far though
because you can actually make the wheel worse.
Finally, the last things you want to look at
is actually making sure that the wheels
are secured to the bike properly.
Check your Maxle, your axle,
whichever sort of system it is that's holding onto the bike.
Make sure it's adjusted correctly
and there's no excessive play.
And lastly but not least involved with the wheels
is check your rotor bolts,
make sure they're all tight and you're not missing any.
And while you're in the same area,
check the calliper bolts that hold the brakes
to the actual frame of the bike and to the fork.
Make sure they're all tight and nothing's missing.
Now, the frame of the bike is obviously crucial
to make sure this is all safe and in one piece.
So, structurally, you want to make sure there are no cracks
or dents that can lead to cracks.
Prime areas to check are around the head tube,
just the underside here,
by the bottom bracket shell,
and anything on the back of the bike,
on the seatstays, chainstays,
and even where they join to the main pivot here.
Systematically work your way around.
Check all of your pivot bolts are tight
and nothing is missing,
and make sure the frame doesn't have
any play that's developed.
If you're unsure about any play that you do find,
take it straight to a bike shop
because you don't want to ride
with knackered bearings or anything loose
that could lead to more expensive problems down the line.
Next up is the cockpit of the bike.
This is where you hold onto the bike, it's the business end,
so make sure that this is all honed,
nothing is loose, nothing is bent or damaged.
Start by checking your grips.
If you're not using a lock-on style grip,
make sure they're both stuck in place properly
and you've also got bar end plugs.
If you haven't got bar end plugs, you have a crash,
there's danger of getting a core sample,
so you don't want to be doing that.
If you're using lock-on grips,
make sure the bolts are tightened sufficiently
and there's no movement in the grip.
You do not want these to come off when you're riding.
Next up, check the bar and stem contact points themselves.
Make sure all the bolts are tight, there's nothing missing,
and make sure they're equally tight,
and if possible, tightened to a recommended torque setting.
Granted, if you're on a riding holiday,
you're unlikely to have one of those,
so use your common sense and don't overtighten the bolts.
When you're tightening your stem bolts,
make sure that your headset isn't overtightened,
and also make sure it's not loose,
because a headset can rattle loose on a severe day's riding
in the Gravity Park.
Finally, you want to make sure your brake levers
are in exactly the right position for you
and they're not gonna be moving around too much.
Make sure they're tightened to the bar sufficiently,
but you do want these to be able to move
in the event of a crash
so it doesn't actually cause the brake lever to snap.
So, as you could see by mine, I can move them if I push them
or pull them very hard, but
they're unlikely to move in actual use.
Check the lever blade bolts themselves
because they're notorious for rattling loose,
and if that happens, your brake lever's coming off midtrail,
that could be pretty horrific,
don't need to spell out what can happen there.
Finally, check the lever travel to the bars,
because a long day of riding a bike park,
you can wear out your brake pads,
your brakes might even need bleeding.
So check the brake system, and they feel just right.
If not, then maybe you need to do
a little bit more to your bike.
Now, a suspension is pretty crucial
when you ride in a bike park,
A, for comfort, B, for safety,
and C, because it's really good to be using
all that expensive suspension on your bike.
When you're doing a frame check,
make sure you check the bolts front and rear of the shock,
they're tight and there's no play in the bushings.
It's not gonna damage your bike too much if there is play,
but it's not ideal.
So, you can get bushings very easily from any bike shop.
In a resort like Whistler,
there's enough of them to pick from,
so get that sorted before it develops into a bigger problem.
Also, take note of how much
suspension travel you've been using.
In the beginning of the day riding,
set your O-ring nearest to the shock
and just monitor it throughout the day.
If you're using all of your travel, that's fine,
but if you notice your bike feels a bit
harsh or you're not using all that travel,
maybe you want to consider using
a little less compression damping
or lowering your air pressure.
Perhaps at home you use 25% sag.
In a bike park, you might want to use a bit more
for comfort and grip.
Make sure your seals are dry, clean
and, if possible, you want to treat them to a bit of lube.
Finally, you want to be looking at the transmission
of your bike and also the cranks.
So starting up front with the cranks.
Check they're not loose, and make sure that
the left hand crank isn't loose.
It's normally the one that does come loose,
and it's attached to the bike,
usually by an eight-millimeter Allen key bolt.
So check that,
and also check your pedals are secure at the same time.
On this particular bike, I don't have chainring bolts,
so the chainring itself mounts directly to the crank.
But if your bike has got chainring bolts,
they are a likely contender for coming loose.
Finally, you want to make sure
your rear derailleur is not damaged
and it's tightened to the bike sufficiently.
Start off by checking the main derailleur hanger bolt.
These often unwind on long, rough descents,
so check that's tight.
Also, the hanger directly to the frame.
Next up is to check the jockey wheel bolts.
If your jockey wheels fall out midride,
you're probably gonna lose your chain
or it'll get tangled up.
So that is your bike safety check done.
It's a good idea to do this at home,
whether you're riding in the bike park or not,
just to make sure your bike is in tip-top condition.
So for a brake bleed service, check down here,
and for checking out how to maintain
your pedals and service those, click down here.
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