- no matter what level ofmountain bike rider you are, you're gonna need to do some sort of basic maintenance on your bike. even if it's just cleaningit and running an allen key over it to make sure it's safe. now of course you're gonnaneed some tools to do that and we recommend that youstar with a very basic set up and of course as yourmaintenance skills develop over the years, you're gonnastart adding tools to that.
so with that in mind, here are our five main suggestions for what you should have. (dramatic music) so first up lets talkpumps, and i say pumps because you're gonnaneed some options here. so to start with you'regonna need a single pump. for pumping up your tyres,for repairing punctures all that sort of stuff. now if you're on a budgetand you can only afford
a single pump, what i would recommend is a portable aort of pump that is usable, you can take with you andyou can also use it at home. now there are a lot of minipumps available on the market but some of them are designed purely for getting you back on the trailagain when you're riding and they're not the bestfor pumping up a tyre with. but you can get a lot of halfway houses, like this option herewhich is kind of like
using a mini floorpump, works really well, it's got a pressure gauge on it but it is quite happy to use this at home. so it actually representsreally good value for money and later on you mightwant to consider upgrading and getting yourself asubstantial floor pump which you will have for a long time. so when you're looking for your first pump for the portable option,there's three things
that you need to kind of factor in. now firstly there's thetype of valve that it could be used with, now mostpumps do have some sort of system for changing so you can use them with presta which is high pressure or schrader which is alsoknown as a car valve. now there are moreintelligent options out there that you literally canjust put straight onto any valve, click inplace and they will work.
so just factor that in mindwhen you're looking for them. second thing you need to nearin mind in the ergonomics and the sort of functionality,the size of that pump. the smaller the pump is,the harder work it is to be able to pump your tyres up, the bigger it is, the less portable it is so make sure you factor those things in. now i said to you aminute ago that i really like this and the reasonfor that is the fact
it's got a handle that comes out the side, when you're using a traditional style pump in this sort of fashion, it's actually not the most natural positionto use it as a pump. so this is effectively amini floor standing pump so you use it in the same fashion, you've got a foot stand,literally put your foot on that, the handle comes outjust like on a track pump and use your hand.
bit more of a natural position to be in when you're pumping up the tyre. make sure you factor that in. and of course the finalthing is your budget. now with any tools i wouldsay buy the best tools you can because only a rich man buys cheap tools, because you're going tohave to keep replacing those things in time, if you buys something good that's got good warranty,i'm not talking about
top of the range here, justsomething that's good quality with some aluminium andsome plastic construction, see how flimsy it is, see how tough it is. just make sure you look at those things before you spend your money. so your next option withpumps is a floor standing pump often referred to as a track pump. now these sort of pumpsare substantially bigger than your regular minipumps or compact pumps.
they're very easy to use,very quick to inflate your tyres and if youget a good quality one it will last you a long time. now my first track pump, i actually had it for over 20 years and i only got rid of it a couple of years ago, itwas an ancient sks one, it had a cast iron base and the only thing i ever changed in it wasthe chuck and the hose and everything was good as gold,
finally given up the ghost. and i've got one of these now. now when you're buying a track pump, i would actually recommendyou save up longer and get yourself abetter pump than just get the cheapest one youcan because it's quite a heavy duty item,they're subject to a lot of leverage the way you use them, you're going to pull it apart, break it
if you have a cheap plastic offering. now you can buys some really good value basic track pumps but again i really would save up money a bit longer. something to factor in with track pumps, as other ones is the hose length on them,make sure it suits you, some are really short and a bit of a pain. how well they stand up on the floor,
i can't stand the flimsyones that just topple over all the time, make sure it's got a nice sturdy base on there. all the pumps you get these days will have a valve option that will do both tyres, the car valveand the high pressure valve. and this particular one hasbasically a mini compressor built into it, now that isfor seating tubeless tyres and this has become my new replacement
and i'm hoping this will be going perhaps another 10 years. it's a good solid piece of kit and as i emphasise, it really is worth saving up a bit longer,making do with your mini pump or your compact pump until you can affordto get a high end pump that's gonna last you a long time. now the final type ofpump you're gonna need
to add to your collection willbe some kind of shock pump. that is if your have asuspension fork or shock on your bike that is air sprung. now most shocks and forksthese days do come with a shock in a packet butperhaps you bought your bike secondhand or you justsimply don't have one. if you add one of thesesort of shock pumps to you list of things, it means you can be self sufficient in setting your bike up
and whenever you wantto change those settings you're free to do that. pretty simple affairs,high pressure, very small. so next up is allen keys,also known as hex wrenches. and all the other smalltools that you need on your bike like thetorques, t25 and even just a crosshead screwdriver. so depending on how much budget you have, you're gonna need a set of allen keys
and you're gonna need toconsider whether you wanna just use them at homeor you wanna take them out on the trail with you. so lets just say you're on a budget. your best option in which case is to get yourself adecent, compact multi tool. that's got most of thoseallen keys on there. this particular one haseverything from a two mil up to an eight millimetre allen key.
it's also got a torques, t25 and it's got a chain tool on there,that's a really good bit of kit to have. of course the big allen keyon here, the eight millimetre is not that useful, it'smore in case of emergencies for tightening up theeight mil pedal bolt. so i would definitelyrecommend getting yourself a quality eight millimetreallen key on the side. now the other option is toget some quality allen keys
or a set for home. now i would always recommendgetting those with a ball end. the reason for that isthere are some tucked away bolts on a bike and atsome point you're gonna find them a bit hard to get into and you can slip andyou can damage the head of the bolt very easily. with these you've gottwo options, you've got the regular head and you'vegot the ball ended head.
which allows you to get intothose hard to find angles. now allen keys you can getsome very cheap budget ones and they'll work verywell but just bear in mind the softer keys you get which are often the cheaper materialones, over time the edges do sort of round on them a little bit and they won't be sharpand fit your bolt heads. so they can damage your bolt heads. i'm not suggesting the first allen key set
you buy is a really high end one, just pay attention tothe condition of them when you're using themand replace as necessary. if you'd rather havesomething a bit more compact with home, you can get thesesort of multi tool sets. this one's a torques set but they do these for allen keys as well. very useful to have them all in one place, especially if you'relimited, say if you live
in a flat or a smallhome and you need to sort of make sure you've gota very compact set up. you can also take these out on the trail quite happily, they're nice and small but you're still better off with a smaller specialist tool that'sgot everything on there. so the final thing is just to remind you that when you're buyingyour allen key set, you can also buy these individually
and just get the ones thatyou need for your bike. now the four, five and sixmillimetre are the most common. the eight millimetre,that's predominantly the one that you use these days for crank bolts and also holding the pedalsso you will need that. but also have a lookat your particular bike and look at things likethe break lever clamp bolts and stuff and also like ifyou've got lock on grips, sometimes it's a twoand a half millimetre,
sometimes it's a three. just have a look at whatyou have on your bike and just make sure you've got those. and the other thing i'm putting this in with allen keys is a torques t25. now this the sort ofstarry looking bolt head and you use those predominantlyon your disc rotor bolts. so sometimes you can getfour millimetre allen bolts that fit in there but thecommon industry standard
tends to be the t25. they're also increasing in popularity in other areas of thebike so get one of those and you'll be able to sort that out. part of the nature of mountainbiking is getting dirty, your bike is gonna get coveredin mud, muck, dust and grime. so you need to be able to look after that, clean it, lubricate it and make sure that everything is functioning well.
so to start off with, youdon't need a fancy hose or anything, just a simplebucket and some cleaning brushes. as far as cleaning brushes go, you can get specific bike ones or you can do what i do and just use a generic car cleaning brush. just get it from yoursort of automotive stores. okay for cleaning the bike itself, on top of water, you'regonna want some sort of cleaning solution.
now some people i've seenusing washing up liquid and whilst it does get everything clean, it can be a bit corrosive because it's got salt on it so i probablywouldn't recommend using that anywhere near a bike. car shampoo is verycheap, again i probably wouldn't recommend usingit anywhere near a bike because it has got waxes and stuff in it that can be damaging to your brakes.
so if you do insist on using that, just keep it very clearof your disc brakes because you're gonna regret that. you can't beat a proper cleaner though, they're formulatedspecifically so they won't damage your brakes, they'llcut through all that grease and grime on yourchain and it'll give you a good finish on the bike. now they can be expensivebut it's up to you
to be sparing in how you use it. now the best recommendationwould be clean your bike while it's still wet and muddy because that way youcan get most of it off straight away and you onlyneed to do a little bit of elbow grease with a bitof a spray and a brush. final rinse down and give your bike a lubricate and it'll be good. if you're riding a trail centre,
more than likely they'regonna have a hose pipe there or a jet wash, so as soonas you finish riding, before you go and get all dressed up and go for a cup oftea, get your bike clean while it's still wet because that stuff will come straight off,what you'll need to do then is get a rag with somewater displacer on it, wipe it around the frameto get rid of any smears and stuff, put some throughyour drive chain to make sure
there's no water justheld in there and then you're good to go. now for home you'll needsome sort of water displacer, whether it's wd40 oranother brand it won't, really good stuff tohave just to make sure you drive all that waterout, it's got a lubricant in there so it's gonnahelp resist corrosion. you'll need some sortof generic lubricant, don't need to go over thetop if you're on a budget,
you can have a generic spray lube as you get more detailfor your bike maintenance you might start lookingat things like specific chain lube, that means wetlubes, dry lubes, wax lubes stuff like that but anall round lube is all you actually need. finally the last thing you need is a generic workshop grease. you'll need this for keeping water away
from bearings and other parts of the bike. for assembling thingslike putting new pedals onto your bike, for the seat post junction into the frame, anywhere like that, you need some grease. buy it once, it's verysparing the way you use it so it's well worth having. so you're gonna needsome sort of chain tool for rejoining a chainand splitting a chain.
now i do recommend whenyou buy a multi tool for putting in your ridingpack or if this is your main toolkit, make surethat it has a decent chain tool on it. when i say a decent chaintool what i mean by that is one with two sets ofjaws, you can use that jaw for splitting and joining a chain and a secondary set of jaws can help you remove a stiff link if you'reunlucky enough to have one.
now you might not thinkthat you're gonna need to have a chain splitter at all these days because you get those masterlinks for rejoining chains but at some point you will snap a chain and when you do that you're very likely to damage some links in whichcase you're gonna need to split that bit of the chain, remove it, then rejoin your chain. so if you're gonna havea home set up as well,
i would definitely recommendhaving a dedicated chain tool. they're a lot bigger,they're a lot easier to use, there's more leverage on the handles and it's one of thosetools that you buy once and you'll pretty much have this for life. this particular oneyou've got a replaceable pin driver on it andit actually comes with a couple in the box as well sothis should see you through. and the final two thingsthat you probably wanna
have in your collection aresome kind of master links so these are the linksthat rejoin a chain. they're great to keep in your riding bag but equally as good tokeep at home to get you back on the trail again. now just make sure when you buy these they suit the bike you have whether that's nine speed, 10 speed,11 speed or 12 speed. nice and cheap, get two or three of these
and just keep them. a final think with the chainis checking if it's worn or not and if it's stretched. now you can get a varietyof different chain checkers on the market. this one's a little bit more advanced. but there's a more basicone that just slots straight into the chainand it can tell you how far along in chain stretch it is.
if you replace your chainbefore it's worn out this is gonna be more beneficial to you and save you money in the long run because your cassette and thesprockets on the chain ring they're gonna last a lot longer. so just monitor yourchain wear and it will save you money in the long run. a basic chain tool doesn'tcost a lot of money and once you've got oneit will be compatible
with any chain you're likely to have. and finally is one thingthat you probably think you don't need is a set of cable cutters. so you'll need this ifyou're changing your brake inner cables or your gear inner cables or if you're lucky enoughto have a dropper post on your bike, more thanlikely that will have an inner cable as well operating that. now you can cut these cables with a set
of conventional cuttersbut more than likely you will end up fraying that cable, in which case it's gonnasplit and you'll end up having to replace it sooner than later. buy a set of good cable cutters, you only need to buy theseonce if you look after them. don't be tempted to cutanything else with them, some people i've seencut spokes and all sorts and that just sort ofdamages the end of these.
keep it nice and sharp andyou'll keep these forever. cool so that's the sortof five groups of tools that everyone shouldhave in their tool kit. as i emphasised at thebeginning, as your maintenance becomes a bit morecomfortable and you venture on to more things, you'regonna need to expand your tool kit. and we're gonna look at thethings you need to do that in the next video.
if you wanna see a couple morereally cool helpful videos, click down here for threeways to fix a chain. so that deals with outon the trail, how you rejoin your chain when it'sdamaged and it's snapped. if you wanna see the latest tech show where i answer all yourtech related questions, click down here. as always, click onthe globe to subscribe, we've got brand new content coming for you
every single week now on gmbn tech channel and if you like thisvideo, give us a thumbs up.
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