Five Ways Triathletes Can Keep Their Bikes Race Ready Ep 1

Welcome to the Find Your Edge podcast. Get ready to dive into all things training, nutrition, recovery, and more. Whether you're a new or experienced endurance athlete, a weekend warrior, or someone who just wants to improve your health and fitness, this podcast is for you. I'm Chris Newport, founder, head coach, registered dietitian, exercise physiologist, and certified personal trainer with the Endurance Edge and the Fueling Edge. With more than 20 years experience in the fitness industry, 18 years in multi-sport, and over 10 years as a sports nutritionist. I'm speaking with athletes and experts about key actionable steps you can take to reach and sustain peak performance and health. Let's do it. Hello and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am your new host, Christina Fiumara Newport. So in your— you might be wondering, well, where did Michael go? Well, in an interesting twist of events, he is now in the hot seat. So what's up, Michael?

Not much. It is, uh, it feels weird to be on the other side of the intro, I gotta tell you. Yeah.

So, so tell us, uh, about your new position and, uh, and then we'll jump into our topic for the day.

Yeah. So for anybody that's on like the Endurance Edge email list, you guys probably saw that I was leaving the Endurance Edge. So I took a new role at Inside Out Sports. So I currently manage the service department. So I oversee all the mechanics and then I am also the buyer purchaser of all bike-related products now. So my job is to make sure the bikes are getting worked on and then make sure we've got all the tools and parts to to sell and to work on bikes and all of that.

So I have a feeling you guys, that you guys are not going to see the last of, or hear the last of Michael. I'm kind of excited to like touch base with you on a regular basis to hear all the like cool new gadgets and gizmos and gear and all the fun stuff for bike-related stuff.

Yeah. It's been, it's been cool so far already. I mean, I've just been doing it a couple of weeks, but it's been cool to see. A lot of the new products coming out, some of the new stuff on the horizon, and just, you know, seeing some of the stuff that's been out there that is cool and would be a good, good fit for our store and stuff like that. Same thing with like bike clothes, you know, I mean, I don't know. I, I am into gear. Like even when I was running, I got real into like running shoes. Like it was just like the technology was really cool to me. Um, and so this is like, I think a very good role for me because I like to nerd out on a lot of the technology and gear and stuff like that. Awesome.

Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm very much looking forward to talking about some other gear. So if you, if you guys want to know about specific gear, reach out to me so that we can set some other stuff up with, with Michael, whether it's, uh, I mean, my, my big nerd out is power meters, but, uh, you know, whatever advice you can give us, I'm excited to tap into that later, but today. We are talking about 5 ways that triathletes can keep their bikes race ready. So over the past 10 months, being in the midst of a pandemic, the majority of races have been canceled. However, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, the bike industry has been doing really well. Like more people are riding bikes, which is amazing. But of course races are, have been few and far between. What, what are some of the ways that we can keep our bikes race ready? So we got 5 of them. And in no particular order, right, Michael?

Yeah.

Let's start with numero uno.

Yeah. So I think this is actually like a really timely subject too, because as we head through the winter, a lot of people tend to ride more inside and there's like this weird perception that if you're riding inside, you don't need to like clean your bike as much or lube it as much or to take care of it as much because it's not out in the elements, but it's like almost worse to be sitting inside on a trainer. And so you need to make sure that you're doing all of this stuff even more frequently throughout the winter. If you're riding outside because the cold, as we get into even colder weather, like as they salt roads and stuff, there's lots of chemicals that go on the bike that you need to make sure you're cleaning off. And then same thing to the inverse. If you're inside a lot, uh, making sure that you're taking care of your bike because when it's just sitting still, all of our sweat pours onto the bike and just sits there and corrodes and does not great things to everything. So my number one tip, keeping that in mind, is to wash your bike. I know it's especially when it's cold, like everybody thinks about like the summer. It's like, yeah, that sounds so good when it's like 95 degrees outside, just go spray the water hose around, but you still need to do it in the winter. Even if it's cold, you know, like bundle up, put your raincoat on, put on your, your boots and wash your bike off.

Nice. Yeah. I just got this vision of you like hanging out in your bathing suit. There's Michael washing his bike.

Well, so it's funny because in the summer, like I mean, well, we do a lot of bike washes in the summer too, here at Inside Out, but I'll like plan them all for the morning before it gets too hot. Cause I don't want to be standing outside in the sun when it's like 100 degrees, like washing all these bikes, getting sunburned.

So how, how exactly like, is this like, do we take our, our bikes and put them in the shower with us? Do we spray them off outside? Do we use a hose? Do we use, I don't know, dish soap?

Yeah. So great questions. So this can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. You know, for the longest time I washed my bikes with just like a dish brush that you get at the grocery store or, you know, Target kind of thing. And you can use dish soap if you want, but typically like a degreaser is going to work a little bit better. So one of my favorite is honestly Simple Green. Um, you can just buy it at any hardware store. A lot of grocery stores have it. You can buy the concentrate and water it down a little bit. But the best thing to do is that, or the dish soap, or like one of the bike washes. So Finish Line makes it, Muc-Off makes one. They tend to be like some bright neon-colored product that you spray on. Anything like that will work really well. So spray it across the frame, let it sit for a couple minutes, and then honestly, your, your regular variety garden hose works wonders. You know, if you don't have access to that, you're in like a dorm room or an apartment, you can put it in the shower with you. I don't know. Some people do that. I think typically most people prefer to just hose it off outside though. So you're not getting grease all in your shower that you're then tracking all over your house.

I have seen that when people like travel to races and they do like a little quick, uh, you know, spin around the block and it's raining or it's mucky out and they're like, oh, what do I do? There they are with their bike in the hotel bath.

So I've seen it. I mean, hey, it's a hotel, you know, it's not Not your bathtub.

So, so is it rinse off, apply soap, and then rinse again kind of deal? Or does it matter what order we go in?

Uh, it doesn't typically matter too, too much. It kind of depends on like how stuck on stuff is. So if it's, uh, like if you've been riding in Olmsted or, you know, just dirty roads, if it's just kind of muck that tends to wash off, I'll do like a pre-wash, a little rinse, and then hit it with the degreaser or the bike wash, um, and let it sit to cut through that more stuck-on stuff. If it's kind of a lighter coating of like grease, um, I'll usually hit it with the degreaser first. So it's just penetrating right into like the grease and stuff. So if it's been dry and you just have that like black grease everywhere, all over your bike from like your brakes and the drivetrain and stuff, typically I won't do a pre-rinse there. I'll just hit it straight with the degreaser. So it cuts straight through.

Does it matter what parts are washed? Can we wash everything, whether we have— no matter like our brake pads or type of brakes or gears or hubs or—

Yes.

Is it all the same?

Fantastic question. So typically the way I think of it is it's nice to have a couple of different brushes or like washing utensils. Um, so plenty of companies, Park Tool, Finish Line, all muck off, make brush sets that have like 3 to 6 different types of brushes for different parts of the bike. Um, because what you really don't want to do is, you know, wipe off your tires with a brush and then take all that grit and scrape it across your frame. You'll scrape off your paint and stuff. So the way I typically think about it is work from the top down, because typically the top of your bike, like the top tube, your seat, your handlebars are going to be less dirty than your tires, your cassette, your chain. So kind of going from the top down to the bike, everything should be washed. So sometimes, uh, depending on how nasty your drivetrain gets, you may need an even stronger degreaser. Um, so something like a Park Tool or Finish Line citrus degreaser works really well for that. So you can just like pour that onto your chain and cassette, and then you can use an old toothbrush or again, one of those like really fancy brush sets will have a firmer bristled brush. That's a little bit more abrasive to help scrape down those like really hardened metal parts to really get in there and scrub those out. So that works really well for those. But yeah, you might need a stronger degreaser for those. Uh, for rim brake bikes, it doesn't really matter too much. You can kind of just wash everything using, uh, again, like a firmer bristled brush on the brake track. Just helps get some of that like brake grit out of there and just helps clean everything off in general. For disc brakes, we really want to avoid applying chemicals to the disc rotors. So That's really like the biggest consideration there is just not getting other chemicals on those. So if you're a little bit more mechanically minded and you have a disc brake bike, you can remove the pads and the rotors before washing everything. If you're not as mechanically minded, you can take a little bag or something and cover those and just be careful not to spray them with, with any of the chemicals, just because any chemicals. So if you think of dish soap degreasers, they tend to be like a little bit oily. So that's going to decrease braking performance. And typically with a disc brake system, it'll also produce a lot of squealing and howling when you brake, which is not a desirable thing for most people. So just avoiding chemicals on those.

Yeah, exactly. Is this, is there something, so what, what I hear you describing is in my mind, at least I'm probably committing like a solid hour to washing everything, maybe a little less, maybe a little more. Is there something that. We can do on a regular basis to keep things just kind of like tidied up so that we're not having to spend a ton of time cleaning?

Yeah, definitely. So the cleaning process, definitely, as you're new to it, you're having to like think through everything, making sure you're getting everything, cleaning everything properly does take a little bit longer, but like with anything, the more you do it, the quicker you get. So often, you know, as long as the bike's not too terribly dirty, if you're staying on top of it, you can get this down to a 30-minute job. Um, so it's something you do on like one weekend a month kind of thing. You just, clean your bike off real quick. But in between cleanings, it's always good to wipe down the frame. So again, that's where Simple Green comes in really handy. It's just a good solid degreaser that's really soft on paint and finishes. Like, it's not going to eat through them, but it cuts through a lot of the grime, uh, road debris. So like those little worms that tend to get kicked up on your bike, helps cut through those pretty well. So I mean, I wish I was getting money to plug Simple Green, but I'm not. Uh, I just, I think it's a great product and it works really well for bikes and stuff. So I like Simple Green a lot. So you can just spray that on a rag and just wipe down your frame regularly and then lubricating regularly. And then the second piece of that, that really honestly has a bigger role in how frequently you can go without cleaning, it's lubing your chain properly. So when we lube our chain, we also want to like, you know, you want to spin the chain backwards a few times to let it work down in between the links of the chain. But then you want to wipe off the excess lube and that's where a lot of people go wrong. So it's funny here at the shop, we tend to see like a lot of the two extremes. We see people over-lube their chain and not wipe the excess off. And what that does is all of that excess lube on there just attracts road dirt and traps it against your chain. So it makes it that nasty black drippy chain that everybody thinks of. It's just like disgusting. Over-lubing your chain does that. And it's also funny because all of that dirt that gets trapped there wears all the components out faster. So people like have this, the people in that camp think that they're doing a good thing by lubing their chain so much, which you do need to lube your chain. But if you over-lube it, you're attracting more dirt, which again, wears things out faster. Then we see a lot of the other camp that don't lube it enough. And that's the squeaky chain club, as I call it. So that's all the people that just have like a bone dry chain. And it's just like, every time they pedal, you just hear it squeaking and like grinding because there's no lubrication. So we want to be in the middle of those two. We want to lube our chain and wipe all the excess off. And that'll actually help keep the drivetrain fairly clean for like a pretty long period of time. So if we're lubing our chain properly, you know, you can clean it once a month and you're really not having to do like deep drivetrain cleanings or anything.

Do you have any like particular product recommendations or something that's easy for people to apply and wipe off?

As far as like an actual lube?

Yeah, sure.

Uh, so from a cleaning perspective, there's a few different like chain cleaners out there, like the little tool that like snaps onto the chain and has these like round brushes and stuff. And all of those work really well. The Park Tool one's like especially easy to use and seems to be well-made. So that's what we use here is a Park Tool one. And that's really great for just easily deep cleaning the chain. Like it gets like, especially gravel bikes or bikes that you're riding in like really crummy conditions. It gets deep in the chain and gets all that grit out. Um, so I really liked that as a cleaner, as a lubricant. There's so many out there. There's so many good ones. A lot of people have like their preferences and stuff. It depends on the kind of conditions you're riding in. Again, for like a gravel bike, you're riding in Umstead, going more with like a wax lube or a wet lube is going to be a little bit more durable, hold up to the dirt a little bit better. If you go ride when it's muddy, it won't get washed off as easily. So it'll just, it's a little bit more durable lube. If it's like your road bike, tri bike, uh, I prefer a dry lube because it's going to be a lot cleaner. You're not going to attract as much of that road dirt and you won't have to clean or relube. Well, you won't have to clean quite as often, but the dry lubes are thinner and wear off a little faster. So you do have to lube quite a bit more frequently. So if you have a dry lube of any sort, not necessarily just the ones we carry, but any dry lube, you're probably looking at having to relube your chain every 3 to 4 rides, which is pretty often. It's a lot more often than a lot of people think. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of dry lubes out there, like all kinds from all the companies, but I prefer something like that because it's going to be a little bit cleaner. So it just doesn't attract as much dirt.

Cool. All right. So we've gotten through our tip number 1, to wash your bike. Tip number 2, to lube. All right. What's number 3?

Replace your bar tape. People forget about this one a lot. Uh, we see a lot of people come in with tri bikes that they bought from us years and years and years ago, and they still have like the original bar tape on there. And A, that's nasty. Like if it's peeling off, like it's not comfortable to ride. Like you just have stuff tickling your hands the whole time and it's like slick. So it's a safety perspective, not great. But the other thing is like, if you're sweating all over it, there's obviously varying degrees here. Some people have like super corrosive sweat. Some people can sweat all day long and their bike will never get rusty. But if you're one of those people that has really corrosive sweat, you really need to change your bar tape pretty frequently. Like during the summer, I'd almost go so far as to say every month. So it's, yeah, I mean, the reason for that is especially if you're running like alloy handlebars, stems and stuff like that, your sweat will like the bar tape traps it against the bar and it'll actually eat through the bar. So there's a good, I mean, this year we replaced probably 4 or 5 handlebars from where people sweat had eaten through and there are actually holes in the handlebar, um, which is disgusting. It obviously poses like a safety concern too, because you don't want to be like riding along and then like your handlebars snap off. Yeah.

If they fail. Yeah.

So, I mean, I would say on average anywhere from like 3 to 5 handlebars that we replaced because people haven't replaced their bar tape frequently enough.

And that is a little bit more pricey, I would imagine, than just replacing your bar tape.

Yes. Yeah. So, I mean, like if you think of like a road bike, the cheapest handlebar we can probably get is around $75 to $100, whereas bar tape's $12 for a pack.

So nice. And it probably takes you how long to change it?

Me, a 10-minute job.

Nice.

So, well, it's, I mean, it's the same way with like tire changes and stuff. I was actually talking to somebody about this last night, but it's hard for me to gauge how long some stuff takes other people because I've changed thousands of tires and taped thousands of handlebars. So it's, it's a quick job for me, but it might be something where if you'd never taped your handlebars before, it's not a particularly complex process. I mean, if you want to save the money, you can like buy the handlebar tape and there's tons of great GCN, the Global Cycling Network, has tons of tons of great tech videos about like how to do different stuff. So I mean, sit in your garage with your computer and watch a few videos and try it out.

It seems to me it's almost like, uh, perhaps this is an okay analogy. I don't know. We'll see. It's almost a little bit like braiding.

Yeah.

You know, when you first, when you first braid, you're like, oh gosh, that looks terrible. But then you do it over and over and over and over again, just because the, The technique of being able to overlap each bar layer and they don't like stick out weird. And yeah, and that's seen it not done so great.

Yeah. And that's one of the things you learn from like doing it, you know, your first couple of times you'll have like very uneven overlap and you'll might have gaps and like, you'll have sections where it's like really thick because you overlap too much and not enough in other places. But then as you do it more, you kind of get the feel for it and you understand like how tight to pull the bar tape and like how much to overlap and all of that and the angles that you need to go at for it to lay flat. So you don't have like bumps under the bar tape and stuff.

So this is why we like having you, the pro who can do it nice and pretty. Um, okay. So we've got wash, lube, replace your bar tape frequently. What's number 4?

Service regularly is probably my, like, one of my biggest things, because if you get your bike serviced regularly, we can catch some of the bigger stuff that you may miss. So if you're super comfortable working on your own bike, you do all your own service. This one's not necessarily as much for you. This is, I mean, I guess it is a reminder for you to also service your bike regularly, but if you're someone who's like, you can wash your bike, you can lube the bike, but you're not going to be doing like major service to it. Get it checked out every once in a while, just to make sure that there's nothing going on like under the hood, so to speak. Because with cabled systems, those cables wear out, they fray, they can break. So we can check that housing, the piece that the cable runs through, wears out over time. Brake pads wear out over time. There's a lot of like high-wear parts, chains, cassettes, chainrings, all wear out over time. All of the bearing systems of the bike, your hubs, your headset, your bottom bracket all wear out over time. So it's good to kind of have those things inspected, make sure everything's adjusted to prolong the life of everything as much as possible and make sure that everything is performing well, but then also to catch stuff early before it gets too bad. Because the other piece of that is when stuff gets really bad, I mean, just from like the consumer perspective, when things get really bad, it typically is a much larger cost to fix. So when stuff's corroded and stuck in place, there's a much larger cost to remove stuck components because it's a much more time-intensive process.

And I would imagine some of this depends on the, on how much you're riding and the type of rider you are. Are you a masher? Are you a spinner? Um, have you noticed any differences like male, female, or like a size of a rider, uh, in terms of like how quickly parts are worn out?

Uh, so typically like your mashers are going to wear out some of the components faster, but even more so than that, people that ride in dirty conditions a lot. So if you're riding in the rain a lot, in Umstead a lot, you'll wear components out faster because the grit gets in there. And then the other piece of that that I see a lot is people who use like, or cross-chain gears. So if you're in. Your big ring and then easier gears in the back, uh, that wears all the components out faster. So it wears out your derailleur faster, the cassette, the chain, the chainrings, all of that gets worn out faster doing that. And then vice versa, if you're in the little ring in the front and your hardest gears in the rear, uh, those extremes again, wear out all the components faster because it's pulling at a tight angle. So it just, it's more stress on the system. So typically the fastest. Wear that I see is like mashers or people who ride hard a lot. Um, so like some of your, like around here, especially some of the like really elite cyclists that are doing like 4 hard group rides a week tend to wear components out really, really fast.

Okay. All right. So number 5, tip number 5, so we can keep our bikes race ready.

Yeah. Number 5 is plan ahead, especially now, like planning ahead has never been more important than it has been right now. So I think this is kind of my chance to provide a little insight from the industry. So ever since the pandemic started, parts have been hard to get. There was kind of this thought across all the manufacturers and suppliers and stuff that when the pandemic hit, everyone was going to kind of hole up at home and not do anything. And so everyone kind of decreased their orders and decreased production to kind of counteract that. So they weren't sitting around with a lot of spare parts. But the opposite happened. Everybody went out buying bikes, wanting to do something because gyms were closed and you couldn't really go anywhere and do anything. And so there was this drop in supply and a surge in demand. And so it's made parts really hard to get, and the industry is still suffering from it. You know, a lot of production happens overseas and a lot of countries where production happens have been going through lockdowns again. So there's interruptions to production. So. I was hoping this year was going to get better, but one of the things you see consistently across the industry from a lot of, you know, like analysts, but also like actual manufacturers and stuff is that 2021 is going to be even worse than last year with availability of parts.

Wow. Really?

Yeah. So, I mean, one of the things I saw was actually that a lot of companies are, you know, typically beginning of the year, a lot of products get released and announced. Um, a lot of companies are probably going to defer that because they don't, they can't get the product to release. So they're just going to wait to release it until they can actually get it later in the year. So even post-pandemic, it's always good to plan ahead. Like when you know your race is coming up 3, 4 weeks in advance, go ahead and get an appointment at your bike shop or get the bike in there so it can get serviced because you want time. Like if any changes need to be made, you want time to test that out. So if you need to change your chain and cassette. You want time to ride that and kind of make sure that everything's working smoothly. You don't want to be going in the day before your race, trying to get that stuff done, but even more so now this year, that's going to be extra important because the availability of parts. So I would say if you have a race on the calendar this year, uh, probably a good month to two out, go ahead and see about getting your bike in. Like if you know that there's parts you're going to need, go ahead and get them on order now. Because from a lot of the companies, uh, there's availabilities into the summer right now. Like we're not able to get stuff until then.

And we're recording at the end of January, right?

Yeah. So, yeah. So I mean, we're at January and there's some stuff projected August right now. That'd be the soonest we can get it. I mean, you see it with some bike manufacturers, especially the big bike manufacturers for some of their lines of bikes. They're projecting end of this year before they can get models to people. So I don't mean that to like, that sounds like really negative and like I'm trying to scare people or whatever, but my point being to provide a little bit of understanding. So from the consumer's perspective, bike shops are doing everything they can, whether you come to us at Inside Out Sports or you go to another bike shop, everyone's doing the best they can to keep inventory in stock and to get the parts you need. But if you need something, go ahead and start planning ahead. Like if you know that there's something you're going to need, whether it's race wheels, new race tires, go ahead and get them and have them in your garage. So when you're ready to put them on, you've got them because you don't want to wait until the week before your race to buy a new chain. And then the shop doesn't have it.

I will say that Michael provides some fantastic customer service. So if you guys are, um, local and you can get into Inside Out and yeah, I feel like you do a really good job of remembering a customer and taking their order and not sort of being, I don't know. I've had experiences in shops of them being a little bit loof or, you know, I mean, I've heard of that too.

Like some shops where they're just kind of, they brush people off and like, aren't willing to work with people. And I don't know, I think of, I think one of the things I always try to do is think about if I was going into a bike shop to get help, what kind of level of help would I want? Would I want them to be understanding? And part of it's easy, you know, like I enjoy cycling and I want people to ride bikes. And so it's really easy to be excited about people riding their bikes. So yeah, I mean, come see us. I'd love, I'd love to have anybody come see us. You can reach out to me in advance too, and we can kind of schedule stuff. I mean, you can give us a call here at the shop or shoot me an email to rainer@insideoutsports.com. And hopefully this doesn't get me in trouble with the boss man, but feel free to mention the podcast to me and I'll, I'll hook you up a little bit.

Ooh, I like that.

I'm not going to put any specific numbers out there, but I'll do my best to hook you up.

That is probably safe. Okay. So let's summarize our 5 ways triathletes can keep their bikes race ready, or you don't have to be a triathlete, just somebody who rides their bike a lot and enjoys it. So number 1 was wash. Be sure to, uh, give that bike a bath. Number 2 was lubricate. Number 3 was replace your bar tape. Uh, so you don't have bigger problems in the future. Number 4, service it regularly. And number 5, be sure to plan ahead. Anything we missed?

Nope. That's it. Awesome.

All right. And again, we, everybody can reach you at Rainer@insideoutsports.com. And of course it's insideoutsports.com, right? Or just the regular website. They are located in Cary, uh, North Cackalacky, North Carolina. So Michael, thanks for being in the hot seat. Uh, I really appreciate you coming back on and I am excited to have you on in future episodes. Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment and, uh, let us know what we can, what we can provide you guys.

Yeah.

Thanks, Michael. Any, any, anything else you want to add?

Yeah. Thanks for having me. And then just one final plug here at Inside Out Sports. Um, I am, I spend a lot of my week, uh, finding and procuring product. So I think we have a pretty good stock of supply right now. Tubes, tires, stuff like that. Um, we are constantly working to get more in. If there's a product that you want but we don't have or you don't see, please shoot me an email. Like, I'm doing my very best to get anything that people want or need. So if you don't see it here, that doesn't mean I can't get it or won't get it. Like, don't, don't be afraid to ask if there's something that you want that we don't have. If there's no way for me to get it, if I don't have a supplier that can get me that part, I will let you know. Or if it's not available right now, I will also let you know. But I will do my very best to get anything that you want or need, so don't hesitate to ask.

Fantastic. Look at that customer service.

I love it.

Awesome.

All right.

So again, one last time, if you want to reach Michael over at Inside Out, it's insideoutsports.com or Mike or Rainer at insideoutsports.com. And if you want to reach us, check us out at theenduranceedge.com and thefuelingedge.com.

Make sure you get some of the athlete's brew. Highly, highly recommend it.

I know I'm drinking my coffee too. Yes. Awesome. And on that note, thank you, Michael, and we will catch you next time.

Thanks.